In joy and sorrow

ch. 10

Liisa's POV

I woke up, looked at the clock and it was 1.30 pm. My eyes widened when I realized my mistake and my body went immediately into a rush. We were supposed to meet up at 12 outside the busses. I threw on some clothes, brushed my hair and teeth and grabbed my bags which I ran with all the way. I must've looked quite funny, cause the guys were laughing at me with I got there. Except Ville and Max. Max just had his usual stern look. But Ville, he had the expression of when you're about to giggle and it was the cutest thing ever.

Timo helped me get my bags into the bus and told me which one was my bunker. This bus was much bigger than the one we had on our last tour, but we were a smaller band back then.

2 hours went by and we had gone to the pub, again. It was Samu's idea, he had a look in his eyes that said I'm ready to get drunk.

***

I had to stop Samu at his 4th bottle of beer. I didn't allow him to get so drunk that he couldn't play at the show. Suddenly, he stood up and cleared his throat. Ville looked like he knew what was about to happen.

"So! Since yesterday was a certain gentleman's birthday, I wanted to bring a toast. Happy fucking birthday, Ville! 35 never looked so good." he exclaimed while swaying his body from side to side and downed the rest of the beverage. Ville covered his tomato red face with his hands and you could clearly hear in his laugh that he was slightly tipsy. I widened my eyes slightly. How did I miss his birthday?

"Thank you Samuuu." he laughed. I couldn't help but to smile, he was so adorable when he was tipsy.

When we headed to the venue for our shows, I walked besides Ville. A bit after the others.

"Soo, how was your birthday yesterday?" I asked him and elbowed his side lightly. He swallowed and looked like he didn't have an answer. Honestly, it made me a little bit concerned.

"It was... uhm, okay?" he finally replied, hesitantly.

Ville's POV

I may be tipsy, but I wasn't tipsy enough to not know what I'm saying. I didn't want Liisa to know my birthday was shit. I didn't want her to know that Indra bought me a cup which she threw to the ground in anger a few hours later. I didn't want her to know that Indra slapped me cause I didn't want to go to bed with her. And I didn't want her to know that Indra destroyed a very dear gift from a very dear friend, even if that happened today.

"Okay." Liisa said and we walked the rest of the way in silence. We didn't say a word to each other the rest of the walk. Samu got help to sober when we got to the venue. We started to fix our gear and tune our instruments, it was an hour left until Ad Astra were going up on stage to be our front band. I was quite excited to see them perform, Samu had told me that the band had a great connection while playing live. I believed him, they all had a great friendship to prove it's true.

***

Cheering from the crowd was heard backstage. Liisa breathed out loudly, nervousness was found in her body language. I had to do something for her.

"Hey." I said in a soft voice and put my hand on her shoulder. He looked at me with her beautiful eyes. I gave her a smile.

"It's gonna be alright. I know you're good." I told her, hoping to give her some kind of boost. She smiled back.

"Thanks, it's just that we haven't played in front of such a big crowd before." she put her hand on mine on her shoulder. I nodded. I understand her being so nervous, I was very nervous on our own first big gig too. She breathed out one more time before taking her bass, nodding towards her bandmates and going out on stage with the guys after her. The crowd went wild and I felt how my smile grew wider. Now was the moment of truth; I finally got to see her perform.

"Hello, everyone! We're Ad Astra and the first song we are playing for tonight is called 'Almost Like You'!"

And then, Lauri and Liisa started playing. The tunes gave me chills until Liisa opened her mouth and that made me drop me jaw.

You're crazy,
just stay away
I don't want you..

Her voice was like an angel's, just like when I heard it the first time in the studio with Samu. And then, I directly thought about one person when I heard the lyrics. I think you can guess who.