So just pull the trigger.

17. Gods and monsters

Joni gazed at himself in the mirror, music played in the background, and people around him moved around looking busy. Jami was nervous, Cosme was annoying and Susa was... excited. 

Cosme had arranged most of the other models, both men and women, all of them tall and slender, the kind who would fit perfectly into his clothes. 

Originally Sonja was supposed to be one of the models as well, but because of Cosme she had stayed out of it; he had told her she was the wrong size. Ivo, who had also at first agreed to model to help Jami out, had decided after this incident not to include himself. He didn't like Cosme's attitude. Misha also immediately informed him that he wouldn't participate either.

Most of all Joni felt bad for Sonja. She had already gotten excited over the idea of playing a model. Jami felt bad as well, but it was understandable that he wasn't keen on making a huge number out of it, so that there would remain some sort of agreement between him and Susa. 

Joni believed that it would have been better if they had pushed Cosme out of the whole thing. Because now what was supposed to be an event to promote Jami's and Susa's new salon was about to turn into Cosme's show. He didn't want to voice his opinion though, because at that point it would have been too late. Because Jami had begged him, Joni had agreed to stay as his model.

Jami walked over to finish his hair; Cosme strode soon after him and opened the few buttons so that the shirt would reveal his chest more. "We need to show off a little bit of skin. It's what the crowd is expecting," the man said and winked. "Soon it's your turn." Joni sighed. He couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over.

Misha sat next to his brothers at the club, waiting for the show to start. Sonja was with them. The place was quite full, both genders. Most seemed to be male, though. A group who sat at the table next to them seemed to be in the party mood; they had already drowned a drink or two, perhaps more. Misha couldn't help but to wonder how many of the people present had come over to watch the show for hairstyles and fashion. The people next to them seemed to have come there to drink and perhaps look at the models. This realization made Misha glad that he hadn't agreed to go on the stage. He would have only felt uncomfortable.

Misha glanced at Sonja, who was sucking a colorful drink from a straw and gazed at the empty stage almost longingly. She would have wanted to perform so badly and Misha felt sad for her. The whole thing had been handled poorly, but one couldn't point this out to Jami. Misha simply hoped that everything would go smoothly and that the crowd would behave and wouldn't shout out obscenities during the show. 

Misha felt somewhat worried when he heard Joni's name being mentioned a couple of times around him. There were some people present who had gotten to their knowledge that Joni was performing from that fan page made for him. Since they still had no clue who had created the page, it worried him to some extent. He couldn't help but worry Chris might have something to do with it. Chris' release made him paranoid.

"Have you ever seen Joni on the runway before?" Ivo asked through the noise, interrupting his thoughts. Misha shook his head and took a sip of his beer.

"No, I don't think I have. It's quite interesting," he replied and allowed his gaze to wander among the crowd. That morning Joni had told him about his nightmare that had woken him, where Chris was in the audience. Now the thought of it returned to him, even though it was impossible. They would know if Chris hadn't left the country or if he would have returned. Chris was nowhere to be seen, but he found a familiar face among the strangers and this person looked straight back at him. 

The man smiled and waved as he was waiting in line to get a drink from the bar. Misha lazily waved back at him and smiled. He hadn't seen Mikael for a couple of years, although Helsinki wasn't that big nor its gay circles.