LOVE AFFAIR [h.s]

01 - Let's give these boys a show.

SIX MONTHS EARLIER

Valerie-

"You got this baby, knock 'em dead." Fate reassures me while rubbing my shoulders as she does before every audition.

I inhale a breath through my nose and exhale out my mouth 'smell the flowers, and blow out the candles' my head echoes in my late, mother's voice.

This is my first time playing publicly without her, so all my bandmates have been treating me like I'm made of glass and that anything going wrong will break me.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I need to get this gig. 10 months around the world, playing the opening act for the biggest band... I'd be stupid to not even try.

"LOVE AFFAIR, you're up." a tall man appears behind the curtains backstage, handing my bandmates and me our microphones. I see Fate slip out of the door in the corner of my eye, knowing she likes to watch from the seats.

Josh turns to all of us, as the band huddles into a tight circle. "Let's have the time of our lives okay!" he shouts, bouncing up and down, I can just feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. "Now lyric, only let V talk, you like to ramble when you see hot guys..."

Lyric slaps Josh in the side, "Hey! It was one time! Will I ever live that down?"

"No, no you won't." Hanna chuckles, her blue eyes glistening in the dimmed lighting.

I let myself take this in. Everyone bouncing, and hyping themselves up is such a fun sight to see. Josh is dressed head to toe in leather and glitter, his makeup done to a T. Black eyeliner, glitter highlighter, Oh and his nails even are black and glittery too.

Looking over to Hanna, her blond hair is curled with tinsel and pink highlights. minable makeup, but josh always convinces everyone to put glitter on. and a band tee, with the sleeves, cut and the bottom cropped, and some ripped black jeans.

Lyric bounces into my point of view. she has her black hair up in a tight bun, with her black and blue liner winged. A black jean jacket, with a little pin with the trans flag in a heart. a red corset, and black jeans, similar to Hannas.

Lastly, Me. I have a short flowy white dress, paired with a black leather jacket, black boots, and a black headband in my curly hair. my makeup is subtle with a small black cat wing and glitter, of course. My style has always differed from the rest of the band, but that's what I love about us, were all so different.

"Put your hands in!" I shout, "3.. 2.. 1.. We push!" we all bounce high, and our arms fly through the air while we walk onto the stage.

"Well, heeeelllooo" the guy I recall his name being Louis, waves.

"Hey, we're Love affair" I smile, standing on the purple mark on the ground.

It's hard to see the band that we're auditioning for — Ecstacy, due to the lighting, but Josh was right, they are hot.

They're all dressed pretty normally, we can only see their tops but they're all wearing some type of band tee, I see The Beatles, Green day, Pink Floyd, etc. They all smile at our arrival, shuffling the papers in front of them.

"Hey! Before you start singing how about you all introduce yourselves, and your instrument" the blond one, Niall, smiles through his thick Irish accent.

"Of course", I shift my feet back and forth, trying to get the nerves away. "I'm Valerie, but you can call me Val, and I am the lead singer."

Josh does a small wave, "I'm Joshua, I play lead guitar, and backing vocals"

"I'm lyric, I'm on drums, I sing, and I'm veeeerrry single" she winks, looking directly at Niall.

"Oh, here we go" Josh mumbles, rubbing his ring-coated hand across his face.

"Sorry about that —" Hanna cringes, "I'm Hanna, and I play keys and backing vocals, but you'll see me with a guitar in my hands from time to time"

"Cool," the raven-haired one nods.

"Yeah, we're excited to hear guys," Louis adds.

"We're Ecstacy, I'm Axel. That's Louis, Niall, and Zayn" they point, "and the quiet one is Harry, on the end."

Harry picks up his head and locks eyes with me, the green and yellow glint in his eyes is bright even with the dim lighting.

Chills run through my body at his attentive stare, he does a small smile, but nothing else.

"Um," I clear my throat, "it's nice to meet all of you, we have a few songs ready."

"Have you guys ever released anything?" Zayn asks, really watching our every move.

"Well, no. But we have an EP coming out on the 6th, so that's about 9 days." I chuckle, embarrassing myself already.

Axel leans forward in their seat, "Oooh, and what's it called?"

"Unloveable!" Hanna chimes in.

"Hmmph." Harry sighs, readjusting in his seat.

"And what exactly are you sighing about?" my words come out before I could even think.

All four of the men in front of us, and my band member's eyes pop out of their sculls at my comment.

"Hm," Harry mumbles under his breath.

"Let's just get this over with," I mumble back, already wanting to get done and go home.

Of course, the biggest band will at least have one asshole, you just wouldn't think he'd be so pretty.

"'Kay, whenever you're ready." Axel smiles, calming me almost immediately.

My eyes scan the rest of the theater. squinting slightly trying to find Fate in the seats, but alas, she's nowhere to be seen. At every audition, I can remember, Fate was always in my line of vision, always there for me to stay grounded. I look back to josh, knowing he's the member I'm closest with, he sends me a confused look with my concerned one, and mouths 'you okay?'. I just close my eyes and nod my head slightly, turning back towards Ecstasy.

"Sorry- This song is called, Unloveable."

*play Unloveable by Beach Weather* - the rest of LOVE AFFAIR's EP is on my Spotify, link in the intros -

The guitar kicks, and now my mind is at ease. I rock my head to the beat, really wanting to give a performance and get this gig.

Let's give these boys a show.