Logan

23. Damien

My hands shook as I picked up my guitar, this was the first time in a long while I would be playing with someone besides Logan.

"So what do you wanna hear? I've got a few greats here." Almost instantly, Damien softly sang a few lines from "My Girl" by The Temptations, while gripping his guitar by the neck.

I guess, you'd say,

what can make me feel this way?

My girl, my girl, my girl, talkin' about my girl...

Then a few lines from "Stand By Me" from Ben E. King:

If the sky that we look upon,

Should tumble and fall, or the mountain, should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear,

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin, darlin, stand by me, ooh stand by me, ohh stand now, stand by me.

I joined him in the chorus, meeting his harmony, and the 'oh's we sang felt perfect in some ways. I'd never looked at some of the older songs in that way, but he brought them a new light. When he stopped I noticed he'd looked up at me...

"What did you think?" His shy reply brought me right out of my bubble, the sheer sound quality of his voice still ringing in my ears.

"I-I think it's great. Usually I just follow suit, but your ability to harmonize with me was amazing."

"Oh, I'm sure I'm not that great. Your voice, though, wow. I haven't heard a voice like that in my entire life."

"I still don't know, sorry." I laughed, but I was nervous. I knew my cheeks had to be burning a bright red at this point as well... He put up one finger before digging into his bag again and pulling out a sheet that had random music notes sketched on one side, and a list of songs on the other.

"Actually here are a few songs that I'm pretty good on, and there's a few things I wouldn't mind collaborating on."

Just going down the list he had mostly oldies, and when I saw a few by Ed Sheeran I looked down at him in doubt.

"You landed on 'Photograph' by Ed Sheeran, huh? I am eclectic. If that means knowing the chords to a popular billboard song, that's ok if it lands me a gig. Girls are big on that ginger mate everywhere. Well, if you still can't choose, we can just go down the list and you can sing?" He pushed a strand of hair behind his ear and held up his guitar pick between his index and middle finger.

We went down the rest of the list; Elvis, Ed Sheeran, and when we landed on 'Unchained Melody' I felt a little bit emotional. My breathing became less supported before I stopped, I felt the pang of embarrassment as I realized I was actually crying. I rubbed a few of the tears away, trying to think of a way to apologize. He must have sensed my awkwardness.

"Hey, are you okay?" He extended a handkerchief to me, a black piece of fabric that looked like it had seen much better days, and may have even been emblazoned with a pattern at some point.

"I-I'm sorry." I took the dark cloth, dabbing slightly at my eyes. I turned away for a moment, embarrassed that I'd let my emotions out in front of him so readily. I looked down for a moment before looking up "I'm okay, I just get a little emotional. That song makes me think of my grandfather. He was really close to us kids when we were little, and whenever I think of him it just..."

Damien shyly smiled at the corner of his mouth "I get it. I get a little teary-eyed when I hear 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' it reminds me of something I wish I had in my life."

"We have to sing that." I blurted "Okay, just hear me out. I don't want to make you cry, but I would love to hear the emotion behind your voice. Everything else has been great, but I want something amazing, you know? I haven't performed with anyone else in a while, much less something legendary like Aerosmith?"

"I don't know..." Damien mumbled, running a hand through his jet-black hair. He looked back with a full smirk "For you? Let's do it."
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Rehearsing with him felt unbelievably amazing, he had this amazing ability to accent his emotion through the guitar. The sound quality alone would carry us through the set. Usually when I rehearsed with AB or Alex, and even Logan, I would avoid eye contact to concentrate on the music, but this time it felt weird not to look at him. His eyes were hard to make out behind the eyeliner, but when he held his gaze for longer than a few seconds I had finally noticed the hints of cinnamon brown that glinted in his eyes. He always seemed to notice when I looked too closely, and would almost immediately look away. He probably wasn't used to making eye-contact either.

When we finished rehearsal, he'd packed up his guitar and I saw photos lining his guitar case.

He even thanked me for giving him a chance.

"It feels really great to play, you know?" Damien gave a small chuckle, "I almost didn't show, but when it started pouring down, it kind of led me here. Really, thank you again for taking a chance on me." He put his hand out for me to shake, the opal ring on his index finger grazed softly on my palm when I put my hand in his. He held the handshake for a moment, giving another small smile before letting go. "I'm so psyched to perform tomorrow, uh, if you want, you can follow me on my Instagram 'The Sound of Damien' and you can message me what time you want to rehearse tomorrow."

I nodded, still bumbling from the handshake, "Uh...yeah, I'll-I'll message you." I showed what I felt was a smile and walked him out of the room before he disappeared across the street and out of sight.

"So, what do you think of him?" AB's voice echoed across the hallway, as he flipped through a magazine in the office.

My cheeks warmed with excitement, "This is going to be one kick-ass show."

*major props to LoveBooksandwizards for her help with getting a fire under my ass and helping me get this story going again*