𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑⁰¹ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ✓

¹²turntables

clementine

"Clem! You're here!" Harish pulls me into an embrace, the electric guitar slung on him pressing against my bottom half. "Thank god, I thought we were going to have to perform without bass," He presses a kiss on each side of my cheeks, the strong scent of his lavender shampoo getting to me.

Mara and I managed to make our way to the backside of the stage, it was where the performers were standing by with their instruments. There were up to ten acts behind, including Harish's band Reonide.

Harish was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band. I've known him since my freshman days and Mara and I have always supported Reonide ever since their first gig. Here and there, they played from different bars to being opening acts of some other, still relatively small, bands.

"How long 'til we go up there?" I ask him, placing the bass's case on a table and putting the instrument on. Its familiar heavy weight was once again on my shoulders but this time, it was a little easier than yesterday. My fingers managed to callouse up pretty quickly to the thick, steel strings, it helped that I already had callouses from playing the guitar.

"After the guys playing right now, Heavy Heart is playing, then after them, we come up," He replies and I try to ask him about how my bass is supposed to be set but he's pulled away by his manager to talk about something else.

I stand by myself, not knowing where to go or what to do. People are running past me, busy with everything else around, the other band members are talking to other acts, Amara is talking to Lucy, Reonide's drummer, and I'm pretty sure Cameron's on an Instagram live.

Instead of joining someone in conversation, I decide to stand by and watch, not knowing what to do with myself. Wouldn't it be rude if someone uninvited suddenly jumped into your conversation?

I pull out my phone from my bag and see where I left my message to Luke. Deleting it, I draw in a brave breath and begin typing. "Hey, what are you up to?" I ask, staring at the screen for a minute before realising he probably wouldn't be replying any time soon.

With a sigh, I throw my phone back in my bag and begin practising the song we were to be playing. I don't hear the instrument clearly, but well enough to know I was pressing and playing the right notes.

A few minutes pass by and I see the band, Heavy Hearts, walk past me before I hear my name being called by an unfamiliar voice.

I turn to where the voice came from and make my way towards a middle-aged man who was gesturing for me to come over. He wore a black shirt who stuck to his sweaty skin. His cheeks were flushed from the heat and he was trying to call the band together.

In a matter of seconds, he had us lined up with Harish at the front and me in the back, ready to walk up the stage and perform. He kept telling us what to do over and over again, as if he was so sure we would forget the second we walked up if he only told us once.

"Lucy, there are drumsticks in the stool we set up," He said, ignoring the fact that Lucy was already holding her own drumsticks. "Harry, August, Katherine, plug in your guitars and bass. The plugs should just be on the floor where Heavy Hearts left them." He says for the nth time.

I ignore that he'd already forgotten mine and Harish's name and just nod until he backs off.

Someone from the stage introduces the band and Harish quickly walks up the steps and onto the stage. August, the lead guitarist, follows, then Lucy, then me.

I keep my eyes on the floor, fully aware of how many people would be in front of the stage. Does Luke feel this way when he performs? Probably not, he's done it for years, the nerves have probably gone.

I feel my hands start to get clammy, my heart shaking under the pressure. My throat dries up and I realise it would be a little too late to have a sip of water.

This is not what I do. I paint, I hide behind a canvas and work behind the scenes, not in front of people who could judge the bead of sweat rolling down my temple.

I reach down to the floor and take the plug in my grasp, plugging it into the bass and quickly checking if it was working while Harish spoke into the microphone.

"Hey," He greeted as he plugged in his guitar. "I'm Harish, we're Reonide, and this song is called 'Tease',"

Lucy hits her drumsticks against each other four times so we'd know when to start.

I drown out the cheers and my impending anxiety with the music, letting the vibrations of the stage move me as I swayed to the beat. It was hard to ignore the fact that I was in front of an ocean of people, eyes ready to catch any mistake I'd commit.

Maybe I should've asked Luke for some advice.

Harish starts to sing and I repeat the lyrics in my head, trying my best to look like I'm having a good time, not that this is my first time performing to a crowd.

After a good minute of hiding away my face, I'd argued with myself that, really, if I looked up and smiled at some audience members, what's the worst that could happen? They might smile back, even, or actually search up the band and give their songs a listen.

I raise my head and finally face the crowd instead of the four strings in front of me and was presented with a sea of different faces. All strangers, bobbing their heads to the song, some phones risen above the other heads to record the show.

Suddenly I spot two girls from afar, faces stuck in their phones, but oddly enough, not recording the band. Their phones were directed somewhere else.

One of the girls recording had her other hand on her mouth, eyes wide in shock as if she couldn't believe who she was seeing.

My brows furrow at their fangirl-like reactions, making me more and more curious about who they were looking at.

I begin searching through the humongous crowd, not really knowing who I was searching for. Maybe somebody in some shiny ensemble, someone eye-catching - someone like him.

My eyes halt at two familiar blue eyes, staring right back at me. I felt like the car lights a deer would be looking into, frozen in the spot and just engulfed in the presence of the other.

My heart jumps inside me and I flinch at the sight of Luke, causing me to play a wrong note. Quickly, I recover by ignoring that I'd even made a mistake.

I look around at the rest of the band and see that only August is looking at me. I shrug and he laughs.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. I nervously turn back to Luke, smiling up at me like I'm the best thing he's seen. He gives me an awkward wave and shrugs, gently swaying to the song.

I watch as he takes his phone out and searches for something before raising it up like the people around him. The screen is facing me and the brightness is turned all the way up, easy for me to see what was in it. I snort when I see the 'how the turntables' memes.

God, this boy is something else.

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thank you guys sm for 9k! yall are truly amazing :'')))
PW second place in the undiscovered awards and i'm so so proud of it.
and since we're approaching 10k, do yall have any suggestions as to how to celebrate it?