GREY

1

"What else can you ask from life other than money, fame, luxury and expensive trips ?" this is the main question everybody asks at my age. I don't ask myself this because I am the type of person who lives a luxurious life. Instead, I have other kinds of requests from my life. Color and a small break from all this exhausting trips and concerts.

Maybe you ask yourself, why do I wish for a color? Why color and not women ? Or an expensive car, or a successful life. Life today is different. Maybe you wish for all of those things, but what people mostly wish for now is color. Color is the significant ingredient that is missing from our lives. We were born this way. Colorblind to be more specific and a life without color is pretty miserable. Actually there is a chance for anyone to get their color sight, but only the lucky ones succeed. Some just die without seeing the color of the sky or the sunset, like I will probably end up at the end of my successful life.

Anyway I think I miss a small detail. But what can it be ? Ohh... yes! Let me introduce myself. My name is Leon... Well actually it's Leonard Paynn . But I think Leon sounds better. I'm part of the wonderful band named Slash, which I can say , is pretty much my family now. Even though the other four are spoiled children( around their 20s ). One year ago, from a silly bet we got together in the band we are today. We were pretty lame at the beginning but here we are , performing on live stages, in front of thousands of fans watching us. A pleasant feeling I would say.

The magnificent band Slash has 5 members including myself . I'm the guy with the voice , they say. Ashton , or for short Ash, is the one playing the piano, Peeter , or Peete is our guitarist , Jake took the drums and Aaron, the bass guitar. Every single one of us has a completely different personality and when we are together we just clash into a massive party in which we end up drinking till the sunrise.

And here we are now. L.A.. Forth concert this month. And I am already tired of this. I can say I miss the old times when we used to sing in clubs or for small private parties. But right now my mind is busy with something else. Sitting on the sill of the VIP room and staring out the window. Watching the city in its rush is one of my favorites parts of being here. L.A. was just my dream. While the guys where getting ready, talking and probably drinking in the back stage I chose to sit in this tiny room and enjoy the silence and the music of the rain. The monochrome view was pleasant now, too. You just get used to this life.

A sudden loud knock on the door made me jump in my place and turn to the door which opened and the four boys stormed inside loudly, falling on the couch. They seemed pretty energetic for some reason. That made me smile and return my gaze back out the window. The time flew by really fast. I never realized sun had already set and it was time for us to get out. Aaron grabbed my shoulder shaking me gently and grinning widely in a dumb way towards me. With no other word he ran out after the other three boys. I checked my clock. 8 pm. Stretching and rubbing my head I got up and checked my appearance in the mirror on the wall. A bodyguard was standing near the door waiting to lead me to the backstage, since it was filled with the media reporters.

It took me around two minutes to stare at my reflection and grin to myself. i turned around on my heels and with my hands in my pockets I walked out of the room. The brute started to follow me calmly. He wore really dark colored clothes. They were so dark that my hurt whenever I looked at him. What color was that anyway? It was annoying. Maybe color sight wasn't as pleasant as I thought. Surprisingly no reporter was in the backstage. Good, because they were annoying as hell. Always trying to sneak up and take weird pictures and ask mean questions.

Reaching to the stairs which connected the backstage with the stage, I leaned against the wall slowly and stared at the four busy guys getting the last things ready together along with the staff members. It was comforting to see others doing your job. Lazy and bored I took a sit on the stairs and moved my gaze to the brute guarding me. He was wearing shades and didn't seem to be the kind of a talkative person, but I was way too bored to shut up.

" I guess you're the guy whose daughter sneaked up in our hotel room last night right? " I asked in a pretty mean tone. As expected he didn't answer my silly question.

" She is pretty you know? How old is she? 15? 16? Maybe younger?" I continued asking but he still did not answer.

Sighing, bored and puffing my cheeks I sat up and turned again to face the stage. The concert was about to start in less than 30 minutes. The first persons were allowed to enter the stadium. They seemed really excited. A group of girls who ran exactly to the front lines. Seeing that made my lips curl into a silly smile. Since I still had time, I turned around and started walking around, checking the staff and annoying almost every person I encountered.

After some more minutes I got back to the stairs and leaned against the wall again. The stadium was filled with people yelling our name and waving banners with our names or silly messages. The four boys took their positions. The lights were still on. Danna, one of our staff members brought me my microphone and walked away fast. I turned my gaze to the stage again. Outside it was dark, only the lights of the stage kept the view. The crowd was losing its patience.

And that was the moment when all the lights went out. The crowd turned completely silent till the solo guitar and the piano broke the silence. The crowd went wild at the sound of the introduction. Soon the drums and the bass could be heard too. Around the stage, twenty persons, dressed in black , using smaller drums were keeping to the rhythm . The lights were dim, till at one point, everything turned silent again and the lights went off for a second before they turned back on and the rhythm changed completely. That's my time. I jumped on the stage while the fans got wild again.

" L.A." grinning widely I got closer to the edge of the stage, but not too close. I have that irrational fear of falling off the stage. Silly right? All the boredom faded away as I heard my own voice in the background, all the energy from the fans and the lights. The members' energy filled my body and took away all the boredom from earlier. Being on stage was just more than perfect sometimes.

While singing I had this habit, where I would just stare at the crowd and watch the people sing with me. Most of the time, my eyes would fall on the back lines and slowly come to the ones in front. For an entire hour I did nothing else than jumping around the stage and playing around like a hyper puppy. Then I paused, almost out of breath. A speech could help now.

While the instruments were still playing in the background, I got closer to the edge of the stage again and smiled looking around, gasping for air but smiling widely and exposing my pearly white teeth.

" Beautiful people, beautiful atmosphere. Good evening L.A. I .. no .. WE are more than happy to..." that's when my breath was taken away. For a second my eyes met someone else's as the light fell on that person and my head started to hurt. I dropped the microphone. Everything started to turn ... colors? Blue, green, red, yellow ... I took a small step forward and everything went black completely. I could hear screaming people and someone trying to talk to me while shaking me. But I couldn't react. The next moment everything faded away, except for the powerful headache, which remained, torturing me.