My Name on Your Lips (Dan Smith Fanfiction)

I Think We Have a Winner

NARRATIVE

Alice stared at her reflection blankly, her wild curly hair sticking up in all sorts of directions, the red dye only making it look wilder. She pulled her black demin wastecoat tight and buttoned it as best she could, tugged at her tights; which were black with punk smiley faces on them; and tucked in the pockets of her shorts. Her boots were literally her pride and joy, even although the leather was worn and the buckles were scratched, she pulled them on and couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. She was trying her best to forget that today was perhaps the biggest and most crucial of her entire career.

She found the number that the man has scribbled hurriedly on a recipt he had pulled from his pocket, she could make out the numbers and decided that she would call ahead. As she dialed her hands shook, she was massively nervous. "Hello?" answered a man's voice. His name was Mark, he had heard her band perform at Nambucca earlier that week and, to her surprise, had offered her a slot supporting some band he produced. "Hi, it's Alice.... from Nambucca? I was just... I just wanted to make sure I had the right time, you said 2.00pm?" The man on the other end of the phone laughed. "Yes", he said, "you have the time absolutely right. The guys are really looking forward to meeting you". She hesitated for a moment before replying. "Really? I'm looking forward to meeting them too...what's the name of the band again?" Fuck, she thought, real smooth. "Bastille", he said seriously, before finishing, "We'll see you at 2.00pm, your band are okay with this right?". This wasn't a question she was prepared for, "I hope so", she said before hanging up and collapsing onto the bed.

An hour later, she was standing in the reception area of Hideout Studios.

DAN

When the girl walked in she looked nervous, her hands were clasped infront of her and she was fiddling with a ring on her middle finger. She looked around as is if she wanted to avoid meeting any of our eyes. "Hi", I said, "I'm Dan, you must be Alice?". She looked at me then, her intense green eyes almost causing me to look away. "Yeah", she said confidently, "It's nice to meet you, you'll have to forgive me but I'm fucking useless at remembering names". We all laughed politely. She really was nervous. "Well", I kind of mused to myself, "We've had a couple other bands and stuff ask for the slot, but Mark hasn't stopped barking on about you, would you be able to play us a song?". Shit, I hoped I didn't sound too arrogant. "Sure, but I might need someone to help me out.... limited instrumental capabilities, no band...you know?" I stood and reached to inspect one of the many pieces of sheet music she had pulled out of her bag and dumped, quite unceremoniously, onto the coffee table infront of the sofa the guys and I were sitting on. "Robbie, our bassist, wrote all these up. We've gotten so used to just playing that we never actually thought go write any of it down!". She made a quick gesture to three of the sheets, "This one's fairly simple, there's not as many insrumental parts anyway ,and when we play it acoustically we only need a guitar." Will looked delighted and stood, she must have picked up on my disappointment because she quickly added, "A piano would work just as well.". At this, Will sat down. I scanned the paper, familiarising myself with the notes before setting up the keyboard. "Thanks", she said apologetically, "You can just start whenever.". I played and listened to her sing. Her voice had a gravelly tone to it but was easily smoothed. The song, I gathered, was probably quite heavy live. The genre of music she and her band belonged to was unmistakably rock, the resonance in her voice gave me goosebumps and the notes were sliding and powerful. When the song came to an end we all looked at eachother and it was agreed, " I think we have a winner.".