Soul Speaker

Chapter 2

You reach a long hallway and come to a stop in front of a door that has a red paper sign and the name 'Spooky' written on it. "See?" you say, pointing up at the sign, "You have a pretty cool nickname too."

He grins down at you, "Yeah, I guess I do."

He opens the door and there's a little bit of a walkway before a set of black metal stairs... metal stairs that lead to the stage. The stage! Holy shit! He walks in front of you towards the stairs, turning around before he climbs and says, "You ready?" He's smiling widely, clearly excited to show you. He climbs up and you follow, stopping to take in a deep breath before you take the final step that will put you onto the stage. How in the world did this happen? Is today even real? You don't have time to think about that. He's standing in the middle of the stage with his arms out. "Well, what do you think?" You take the last step up and are speechless.

You walk to the very front, center of the stage, all the way to the edge and look out into the empty arena. It's huge! It may not look like much when you're in the crowd looking at the stage, but when you're on the stage looking out, it's immense and very intimidating. You hold your arms out to your sides and tip your head back, closing your eyes, imagining the deafening roar of a crowd. It's definitely a rush, but still frightening. Josh moves over by a mic stand, watching you take it all in.

You lower your arms and turn, walking the short distance over to him. "This is crazy! How do you keep from just throwing up all over the place?"

"Well, sometimes it's a struggle, believe me. But luckily I have my drums," he holds out his arm, gesturing to his kit. "I can just get behind there and bang out the nervousness."

You gasp, suddenly very excited. "Oh man, your drums! Do you mind if I..." you pause and point with your thumb over your shoulder, "can I go see them?"

"Heck yeah you can. I love to show off my drums!"

You both walk together over near the front of his set. It sits up on a raised platform, microphones placed strategically around it with red mic cables running to and from it, some wrapped around cymbal stands. You're within touching distance when you stop and say, "Oh man, I can't believe I'm actually about to meet your wife." You turn to the drums and curtsey, bowing your head and saying 'Ma'am' to his set. He raises his eyebrows in surprise before bursting out laughing. "Hey, gotta pay respect to the missus," you say, joining in on the laughter.

"Hey, do you mind taking my picture in front of her? Would that be okay?"

"Oh heck yeah," he replies and you double press the button on your phone to pull up the camera and hand it to him. You walk over and sit on the edge of the platform, situating yourself for a pose when he comes and sits next to you. He squeezes in, right side completely pressed to your left, hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder before turning to you, saying, "Selfie?"

"Even better," you reply.

He takes one of you both smiling and facing the camera, drums in the background, and then he says, "One more for safety?" holding the phone back out at arm's length. This time instead of facing the camera, he drops his forehead to your shoulder and places his free hand on your knee. It's all you can do to keep your cool for the picture. You feel the buzzing in your shoulder intensify as he grins. Your heart is racing, and you have about half a second to decide what to do with your face before it's forever captured in a photo. You quickly decide on turning your head outward and looking up and off to the side would not only make a cute picture but would be the perfect cover up for the mix of emotions you're feeling. And if when he hands you your phone back, the picture doesn't turn out to be the cutest thing you've ever seen, well then you're lying to yourself.