Different Colours // Luke Hemmings

Chapter 2

          She followed me upstairs, guitar case in hand, and as I sat on my bed, she followed suit. I restarted She Looks So Perfect for Lorane, this time, paying no attention to the video but to Lorane's widening smile. She and I had the exact same music taste so I knew she would love it as much as I had.

          As the song ended she looked at me, still beaming. "Rae. This is great. And the drummer is hot."

          "Really? I have a thing for the guitarist. This is going to sound mental, but have you ever caught just a glimpse of a celebrity you've never seen before and thought to yourself 'Yep, he's the one, the lucky boy I'm going to marry'? I am so sorry for the Beauty and The Beast reference, but I mean it. And it's not because he's particularly stunning or because he's good at what he does or because you now know what his favourite sweet is now that you've seen a few seconds of an interview. But because you just feel it. Something in your heart just clicks and you know that if only you had the chance, you'd fall head over heels for each other."

          "Not really, but I can imagine it. It doesn't sound too mental."

          "Good. But get your guitar out! We need to learn one of their songs because this is fantastic."

          "You're only saying that because your future husband is in this band. But you're still right." She casually pulled her guitar case, which she had laid further away on the bed, towards her and started getting it out as I got my bass in a comfortable playing position. "Is there another song you'd rather play?" she asked as she adjusted the capo on her guitar.

          "Um, I've only heard the one because I found it not too long ago. I say we look at the suggested videos and listen to a few before we make this decision." She nodded, tucked her pierced lips between her teeth and leans toward the laptop for a better view of the screen.

          "Okay, we've got 18, Voodoo Doll, Unpredictable, Disconnected, Heartache On The Big Screen, Amnesia, annndd... another Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life video..."

          I laughed at the last one. "Um, I say we listen to Voodoo Doll-"

          "Shocker" she smiled.

          "Shut up," I laughed, "Amnesia and 18?"

          "Sounds good" she said clicking on Amnesia.

          We barely got to the chorus before Lorane started laughing in a pitiful kind of way. She paused the video and looked at me. I frowned, knowing exactly what she was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing.

          "Poor James" she said.

          "Yesss, I know. I'm a terrible person."

          "No hun, that's what you needed. You were right to do what you did."

          "I mean, I know it was the right decision, but I feel bad for doing it and I feel like I could have handled it better. I dunno. I just don't like hurting people like that and there was no winning there. Let's not do this one okay?"

          "Understandable." she says as she finds 18 and clicks it.

          We get through the whole song this time and grin the whole way through. It has that punk sound we love and lyrics we relate to. We simultaneously see the goofy grins on our faces and laugh.

          "Dude." I said "That was friggin great! I still want to hear Voodoo Doll, but this is probably the one."

          "I agree! Did you hear those drums!? And the guitar! And those LYRICS!"

          "They're amazing! Wai-wai-wait. Pause." I think for a second. "How old are these guys? If they're singing about not being 18 yet... Are they our age?" Normally the people in the bands we liked were in their mid to late-twenties, making them too old for us even if were were to meet them. The fact that these people were into making our kind of music and were our age was some of the best news I had heard in a while. "Google!" I angled the computer so I could type easily and opened a new tab.

'5 Seconds of Summer ages'

Luke Hemmings: 17 Years (July 16th, 1996)

Calum Hood: 18 years (January 12, 1996)

Michael Clifford: 18 years (November 20, 1995)

Ashton Irwin: 20 years (July 7, 1994)

"Lorane, they're pretty much our age. The oldest turned 20 this year, and from the picture, he looks like your drummer boy. The youngest turns 18... tomorrow. And it looks like he's the guitarist I like. This is great."

"Sorry to burst your bubble love, but I don't think it'll matter. Even if we could get them to care about us or even acknowledge our existence for that matter, they're famous and BUSY, they don't have time for relationships."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm allowed to hope though right?" I exit the Google tab and return to YouTube. Conveniently, the first suggested video was just the one I was looking for. '5 Seconds of Summer - Voodoo Doll (One mic, One take)'

I clicked the video and immediately smiled at the boys who now had names to their beautiful, beautiful faces. The one who I learned was Michael 'Wooooo!'-ed into the mic and the rest of the guys started playing their instruments. I then crinkled my nose once I saw Luke's Nirvana shirt. Lorane must have seen this as she looked at me and laughed.

"You finally saw the shirt didn't you?"

I nodded, a look of disgust still on my face as I continued staring at the shirt. When I said earlier that Lorane and I had the exact same music taste, I was, for the most part, telling you the truth, except for one tiny hitch, Nirvana. I've never liked them which hasn't gotten me far in life and had automatically lost me brownie points with EVERYONE I had even a remote interest in. Not liking Nirvana is unheard of if you like any genre of music with 'punk' in it. I've had countless people try to get me to like them and it never worked. They were always too whiny and hard to understand for me and I just wasn't into that.

"I thought so. You'll get over it."

"I know... Do you think that people like Nirvana just because it's socially required? Because I honestly don't think that people would like them as much if it wasn't."

"Probably not" Lorane and I got along so well because we have both learned to be honest with ourselves, even if it was hard to admit.

"Okay. But hell, if you like Nirvana, cool. Just don't make me listen to it." the song ended "I did not pay as much attention to that as I wanted to."

"It's really, really, REALLY awesome. But I want to get to learning 18. Can we listen to it later?"

"That's fine. I assume you're going guitar on this one because you're here and therefore drum-less?" I ask over my shoulder, once again pulling up the song we needed on YouTube.

"Um, yeah I guess." she said making sure everything sounded right on her purple Gibson Les Paul.

"Awesome, okay" I thought about what I could do now that I was single and had only my own feelings to worry about. "Hey Lorane?" I said absentmindedly picking at my bass strings.

"Yes Rae?"

"Let's start a band"