Rock Starz

3| Lead Singer

"Uh, yeah, that's me." Nathan muttered awkwardly as he looked at the neatly dressed man in surprise. The man didn't move a mussel in his face after hearing Nathan talk.
"Follow me." He grabbed half of the gate and walked a quarter of a circle with it until it was open. Nathan walked through the gate with his stuff and the man closed the gate again.
"I'm uh, here for James." Nathan said to break the silence. The man walked with his back straight and his hands close to his body. Nathan was surprised for a moment.
"That was already passed on to me." Nathan nodded and they walked into the enormous house. Nathan's eyes widened.
"Give me your coat." The man was referring to Nathan's leather jacket and Nathan put his stuff down for a moment to take off his jacket.
"I can hang it up myself, you know-" But the coat was already gone. Nathan looked at the man who ran off with his jacket. He felt misplaced, there was no way that he belonged in a place where he couldn't hang up his own jacket. Nathan felt wrong by even handing it to the good man.
"Nathan?" Another man dressed in exactly the same clothes as the previous one had already packed Nathan's things before he could say yes.
"This way. Then I'll show you to James' room." Nathan walked up the enormous, white, shiny stairs behind the man with his things. He was debating whether he would or wouldn't tell the man that there was nothing wrong with his own hands.
"Um. Sorry, I didn't know James was so rich. Otherwise I would have dressed differently." Nathan was starting to feel sloppy because of his sudden visit to James. How could he know?
"Ha." The man with his things even smiled dignified.
"James is almost broke. But, if he succeeds in his father's footsteps, then he can be rich, yes." Nathan frowned.
"Succeed?" He mumbled. He looked down the hall and then saw a huge painting hanging on the wall. It was a family portrait, Nathan's mouth fell open when he vaguely recognised James's face. His black curls were in a short, neat haircut and instead of his hair being black, it was blond. James looked straight ahead with a serious look on his face and he seemed a bit younger. Behind him stood an older man and woman, both wearing crowns. James stood between an older looking boy and a younger looking girl.
"Yes, if he becomes king, yes. But we don't assume that, since that thing with his father." The man opened a door and walked in, Nathan walked behind him and there he saw James sitting, in front of the mirror, with an eyeliner pencil in his hand.
"James, your guest is here." James looked up from the mirror and grinned when he saw Nathan.
"Why thank you sir Ferdinand." Nathan looked at him, bewildered. Ferdinand put Nathan's things down and smoothed out his uniform before nodding, smiling and walking out of the room.
"You're the fucking prince of England?!" Nathan shouted as soon as he could no longer hear the man walking. James rolled his eyes.
"Hey, no one recognises me like this. So I can join your band." Nathan just stood there, a little frozen by the situation.
"No, that's not what I mean. I don't know what to do, should I bow down? Kiss your feet? What... WHAT THE FUCK?!' James turned around and put down his eyeliner.
"Nathan, breathe. The world isn't going to end." Nathan walked further into James's room and looked around at the neat furniture and the rock posters plastered across the fancy wallpaper.
"I came here to reject you, and now your dad is the fucking king of this country?! If I reject you, then I will be banished or something worse, like executed!" James grabbed Nathan by the shoulders and sat him down on the bed."You just sit there." James placed a stool a few feet away from Nathan and sat down with his electric guitar on his lap. He plugged in a cord and started fiddling with the knobs. He played a note to see if it all sounded right.
"Okay, this is Spin Like a Record." Nathan looked up.
"You're going to do a song of ours?" James looked at him silently.
"Yeah, but I changed a few chords and the melody, so it sounds more slow rock, you know?" Nathan looked ahead with interest.
"I'm listening.' James started playing the intro of the song, which Nathan could recognise, but it was new and different, maybe even better.
"Everything's a blur right now. I can hear your voice break through. You look at me and ask me how, how I do the things I always do." James's voice sounded a lot different than yesterday. It sounded softer and smoother. Nathan was surprised and he looked at James's face in particular. Nathan thought the certain expressions on it were perfect. He thought they fit the song perfectly.
"My vision is spinning, spinning like record. You're dancing, dancing, dancing like a record. You're going round, round, round, round, round. Everything's a blur right now." James started the guitar solo and Nathan hung on his every word, although he would never admit it. He felt too good for that. The way James had his eyes closed most of the time made Nathan want more. It was so easy to watch, Nathan felt like he was watching an improved version of his own band. And it was just one person. James strummed the last chord and Nathan swallowed before he answered.
"Yeah er nice. Did you change the Dm chord to a D there?" James nodded with a smile. Nathan cleared his throat and nodded a few more times.
"Yeah, that's what I thought." There was a silence between the two.
"I like the lyrics of the song. Just like Bright So Bright. Did you write that?" Nathan shook his head.
"They're both works by Isaiah, the bass player." James nodded.
"It really has a deep meaning to me. What's the story behind it?" Nathan bit his lip. Was he actually going to share the meaning with him? Then they would seem even more pathetic than they already were.
"Uh, Bright So Bright is about a girl he liked, and that he thought was so beautiful even though she didn't do anything special, she still seemed to eh, shine. And the lyrics describe the dilemma of whether he should approach her or whether he should keep watching her." James nodded.
"That's exactly what I thought! Wow, I really have a feeling for this.' Nathan nodded uncomfortably. James thought he was bonding with him about a song from their band, but Nathan was just blatantly lying.
"And Spin Like a Record?" Nathan quickly went through the lyrics in his head.
"It's about seeing your first love dance." Nathan said curtly. James nodded.
"So Isaiah observes a lot." James concluded. Nathan thought back to the record player and the lava lamp, he cleared his throat.
"A lot." Nathan mumbled. After Nathan was silent for too long, he stood up and grabbed his own guitar.
"Can you play this?" Nathan handed James an A4 sheet of paper. James laughed uncomfortably.
"I, uh, I can't read sheet music. I play by ear. So if you show me how to do it, I can do it after one or three times." Nathan looked at him with open eyes.
"You want to play guitar in a band, but you can't read sheet music?!" James sighed.
"That just sounded good, right?" Nathan nodded slowly, he had to hire him and he knew it. If he didn't hire James, someone else would and James was too good for someone else.
"All right, you're right. Do you write lyrics or music yourself?" James shook his head.
"I don't write anything myself, but with the knowledge I have, I can take it over in a better way." Nathan bit his lip in annoyance. Why did he want to be in their band? Nathan thought. There were much bigger artists who would dream of someone like James.
"Okay, I can't get around it. I have to hire you, or my band will end me." James grinned proudly.
"I knew I could convince you. But one thing." Nathan looked up.
"You can't tell anyone who I really am. The only ones who know I'm doing this is you, and knowing my parents they will figure it out as well but you and they are the only one that can know. No one else." Nathan nodded.
"Okay." He said, not quite understanding, but respecting.
"Welcome to The Funkey Monkeyz!" He tried to shout enthusiastically, but as soon as his band name slipped from his lips, he put his face in his hands in shame.
"Oh, that sounded awful." He muttered to himself.