If Ever | Damiano David Story

Chapter 9 | Electrical energy

22 May 2021

We are back in the living room, and we are sitting, watching the show, commenting and laughing. After I threw that small tantrum, I managed to calm down and now I feel better. Of course, my mind is still all over the place, but I try to concentrate my energy on watching the show and force myself to stop thinking about it and it seems like it's working.

Greece's performance just ended and it's almost our duty to comment on it.

"That was so tacky." Marsia stared deadly at the TV.

"I think it's decent." I argue knowing what kind of competition Eurovision is and what kind of songs our country has chosen in the past.

"Did you see that green screen effect?" She points at the TV. "I can do it better than that."

"If you can sing better than that too, I'm voting you to represent us next year." Vana teased her.

"I sing wonderfully." Marsia turns at me. "Leda, tell her."

"Wonderfully." I say in a sarcastic tone, and I can't help but laugh thinking the last time I remember her singing. It was, once again, last summer. It feels like as much as I try to not think about it, everything reminds me of those days tonight.

22 August 2020

We were all sitting around the fire Stefanos built. It was chilly that night so the warmth coming from it felt nice. We had walked away from the tents so we wouldn't bother anyone trying to sleep because we had planned a night playing guitars and singing. With four musicians in our group, it felt kind of essential to spend a night like that. Moreover, Orestes knew how to play the guitar and I had a decent voice.

We had two guitars, Thomas's and Oreste's, and Ethan had a small drum. It was more than enough for just hanging around the fire playing some music. We had just started playing and we were all pretty hesitant. It's hard to play music for fun when you're in front of people that actually know how to play well. Orestes seemed to be a little more confident and was the one that sang all the songs that we had played so far, with the help of Victoria. Sometimes they were joined by Marsia who If I'm being honest is terrible at singing, so bad that Stefanos couldn't help but laugh at her false notes. Sometimes I joined them in a very low volume. Usually, having somewhat of decent voice -I had done vocal lessons in the past when I was learning how to play the piano- I would be the one singing louder but I wasn't ready for that.

That's funny if you think that we had a person that could actually sing -that person being Damiano- but he hadn't sung at all. Thomas and Victoria were trying to get him to sing but he refused. He was sitting there, smoking, watching the others and joking about Victoria's voice. Must admit that I found it weird and I really wanted to hear him singing. Of course, we had chosen only English songs so that they'd been known to all of us.

Marsia was the one that actually asked for the obvious "Hey. What don't you play a song of yours?"

They looked at each other for a moment, almost us if they could communicate through that. Eventually, Damiano was the one to speak.

"I don't know about that."

"Oh, come on. Why not?"

"I don't know." He ran his fingers through his hair. "We don't want to monopolize the night."

Marsia looked at him confused. "Are you bad at singing and trying to hide it? Are you lying to us?"

"What?" Damiano chuckled at her nonsense comment. "Where did that come from?"

"She tends to jump to conclusions." I paused and looked at her. "Or try to manipulate someone through it."

She shrugged her shoulders. "It works most of the time."

I shook my head at her.

Victoria turned to Damiano. "We can play one song."

Damiano shrugged his shoulders "Okay, I guess."

They decided to play an Italian song, although, as they said, they had some English ones, because it'd better with the instruments they had. Personally, I preferred it because I knew how much I liked listening to Damiano talking in Italian. Orestes gave his guitar to Victoria, she was the bassist of the band, but she also knew how to play the guitar, and they started playing. And, oh my goodness, could that man get any hotter? Everyday I felt even more attracted to him than the day before. His voice was very identifiable, it was tuneful and had great power. It was captivating, just like him. And the way he was singing, he had this electrical energy. I could not take my eyes of him even if I wanted to. The song had a good melody, it was fun. I couldn't understand the lyrics, except some words but they didn't help a lot. After they finished, I wished I could hear more of them playing. They had great energy together.

During the night they played one more song for us, a ballad, and Damiano started singing more. I realized that the reason he didn't want to sing at the first place was because he didn't want to be the center of attention and end up being the only one singing, something that happened sometimes. I spent the most night not being able to take my eyes off him, and he was looking at me too. I knew that we would end up spending that night at their tent too and I had no problem with that. To be honest, I couldn't wait for time to pass so that we would. Our days on the island were almost over, which bumped me a little. I was having so much fun in general, but especially with him, that I wished there was more time. Sadly, there wasn't, so I was going to enjoy every minute of it left to the fullest.

And so it happened, when everyone went to sleep, Damiano and I, ended up together in their tent. I was laying on my stomach leaned on my elbows. He was laying next to me, running his fingers up and down my back.

"I was thinking." He said and placed a kiss on my shoulder. "We could do something together tomorrow."

I looked at him confused. "We do something together everyday."

He looked at me with fake contempt. "You know what I mean."

"Not really." I chuckled awkwardly because I was still confused. We were together almost all the time. And even when we weren't hanging out altogether, we still spent much of this time with each other.

He kept running his fingers up and down on my back "I mean just the two of us. Go for a walk on the island, maybe grab a bite, go for a drink, I don't know."

I looked at him surprised at what he suggested. Don't get me wrong. I like spending time with him a lot, I enjoyed talking with him and I'd love to spend more time, but I never though that was an option. I was thinking that hanging alone somewhere more secluded but still close to everyone was all we'd get. It felt casual and going out with only just him was going to feel, well, not so casual. The concern on my face was obvious and I didn't need to say a word for him to know what was on my mind.

"I know it may sound weird. You're leaving in three days and the whole thing between us is supposed to be and it is something occasional, but I really like you and I'd love to spend an evening with just you before we go."

The way he was talking to me was very sweet. He wasn't even looking me in the eyes. It was like he was ashamed of what he was suggesting to me. I could tell that he had the same concerns as me. That's by far the last confident I'd seen him, and it was weirdly sexy too. What the hell? What harm could an evening do? We're on vacations and we were supposed to live everything to the fullest, as long as they last.

"Okay." I whispered at him before climbing on topof him.