Open Your Arms

Chapter 17

May 23, 2003

I've never traveled as much as I have in my whole life, than this past month. I've been to Finland, Progue, and now I'm in Switzerland. Bam and I are here to watch HIM perform. 

Bam says that they're really good performers and they sound identical to their albums. I don't really go to concerts, so this is something that I'm really excited for. Bam also told me that Ville has a tendency to exaggerate his vocals. 

What Ville does is he'll sing higher notes live than the actual notes that were recorded. This is astounding to me because it just shows how talented he really is. It's surprising how he's still able to do that, despite all the cigarettes that he smokes. 

"Are you nervous?" I ask Ville as a makeup artist puts on his eyeliner and eyeshadow. 

His eyes are shut, so he gives me a thumbs-up. "Yes."

"Are you normally nervous before concerts?"

"Yes."

I have so many questions that I want to ask him about his band. We've been dating for a very long time, yet I feel like I don't know anything about him. The most that we've talked about it is when he gave me the setlist for the concert so that I could listen to all those songs and know them so that I wouldn't be bored at the concert. 

It's no surprise that I liked all of them. They're all very romantic and they're so melodic and they just flow so well together. The fact that Ville wrote these songs is so spectacular to me. He's a genius. 

"What's the most amount of people that you've played in front of?" I ask him. 

The makeup artist sighs and groans, then turns towards me. "Can you talk to him a different time? I'm trying to do something right now nad you're being distracting." She flips back around and continues to do Ville's makeup. 

"Holy fuck!" I exclaim and fight the urge to shove her. But I give her the benefit of the doubt because she might just be super stressed out. 

"Larissa, come here," Bam walks into the room at the perfect time and waves me over.

"Ville, I'll be right back," I tell him, although he probably doesn't even care that I left or not. As I walk up to Bam, he grips my hand and guides me through the backstage. 

The backstage is like a maze. I could never be able to find my way through it--that's why I've been staying by Ville the whole time, because at least he knows where he's going. But Bam looks like a pro just knowing where he's going. 

We approach the curtains of the stage and then he stops walking. He pokes his head and and then looks back at me with a shocked look on his face. "Larissa, look at how many people there are."

I poke my head out in front of him and gasp at the sight. The whole venue is filled with people who all look different from the person next to them. I never knew that they had such a diverse range of fans. 

The fact that this many people paid to see the band perform enlightens me. I can see why Ville would be nervous with all of these people just watching him. 

"Hey!" Someome barks at us and suddenly I'm yanked backwards. I'm finally able to get a look and see that a man is gripping my arm as tightly as he can, then glaring back and forth between Bam and I. "You guys are not allowed to be back here!"

"Can you let go of me?" I ask him as my arms feels as if it's about to fall off due to how hard he's gripping it. He lets go and I exhale, then gasp at the sight. There's a ring around my arm and you can clearly see his handprint. It's almost purple.