MOZAIK

2

When I arrived at the studio I was literally dripping from sweat. In order not to be late for our first meeting, I almost ran the last meters from the metro station. I exhaled sharply, before pressing down the button for the doorbell. Shortly after the bell rang, I heard footsteps in the hallway and a more than familiar face opened the door with a big grin. It was Vic, my best friend from childhood days. Our mothers had been best friends, since we moved to Rome, as they were both from Denmark. So I firstly met Vic when we were both around six years old. We then became friends in the blink of an eye. Since we were both half danish, we would always just start talking in danish, so no one could tell what our converstion was about. We also went to the same elementary school and the same secondary school, before I switched to a private school at the age of 16, to dedicate myself to acting. Although she spent a lot of time with playing the bass and later with her band rehearsals, we always found time to do something together. However, when I left school, our contact became less and less, which I found incredibly unfortunate when I thought about it. 

Before I could even open my mouth to greet her, she pulled me into a big hug and squeezed me, until I found it hard to breath.

"Oh my God, you really came. I can not believe you are standing in front of me right now. I would have never expected you to join us on tour.", she shouted joyfully.  She pulled me into another hug, before she guided me inside. 

The studio of Måneskin was located on the very outskirts of the city and I had actually underestimated the driving distance, so I was almost late, since I lived at the other end of town. The building was hidden behind some high hedges and only those, who knew the way could easily find the door. The building itself was rather old-fashioned, but the rehearsal room into which Vic led me shortly thereafter, offered everything one needed for a rehearsal.

As we stepped through the door, I was greeted cheerfully by the other two band members. I really hadn't seen them for years and could hardly hide my delight at seeing them again. The two had also hardly changed since then. Only Damiano had slightly shorter hair, which suited him even  better and a lot more tattoos. Perhaps he had also become a little slimmer and even more scrawny. But Ethan looked almost the same as before. The exhausting years on tour didn't show at all.

Finally we ended up laying in each others arms in a group hug. When I glanced at Vic I saw her whiping away a few tears and all her makeup was smeared from tears of joy. 

"I actually wouldn't mind spending the whole afternoon and evening talking, but unfortunately we are going on tour in a few days, so we should really start practicing", Damiano stated. "Oh, please just give me a minute.", Vic exhaled. "Did you learn the chords and the tabs, Thomas sent you?", Damiano turned to me again. 

"Of course, I did. I'm not an amateure. And it was a pleasure studying all this riffs.", I answered truthfully. I plugged the amplifier cable into my Fender Stratocaster that I had brought along especially. "Oh, you could certainly take one of Thomas' guitars if you wanted," Damiano said and pointed at the wall, on which must have been installed at least a dozen guitars. "That's nice." I said, whilst shaking my head, "but I am used to this baby, here.", I pointed at my guitar. 

"Okay",  he shrugged,  "your wish is my command."

We then started going through Måneskins setlist song by song.

It was already dark outside,  when we decided to take a little break and sat down on the couch. "Okay, I think we have more or less everything in place. The only thing, that's missing now, is the staging.", Damiano claimed. "I think we'd better put that off until tomorrow.", Vic said, yawning demonstratively. I nodded in agreement, since I was extremely knackered from this exhausting day, because it was all so new to me. "Okay, but then we really need to go through some dancemoves for our stage performance, tomorrow. I really want everything to be perfect.", Damiano stated. "And I am very proud of you, guys. That was a great rehearsal today. Even better than I could have hoped.", he said and smiled at us.

When I finally made it into my bed, my alarm clock already showed 3:30. Man, that day has been exhausting. But nevertheless I was happier than I had been for a long time.