Protective Shadows (The Protective Series, Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Three

For the final song on our setlist, I asked one of the roadies for my green Gibson acoustic guitar. Low whispers were exchanged amongst members of the audience as I lowered myself to my knees, planting one hand against the wood behind me, and swung my legs over the edge of the stage, drawing the guitar across my thighs.

"This song was actually written by Janne," I murmured, struggling to find my voice within the shattered pieces of my heart inside my chest. "It holds very special meaning to me, and I only hope that you will all enjoy it, as much as I do."

I slid my fingers over the neck in the shape of Am, then C, and F, strumming these chords twice for the intro and throughout the rest of Janne's song, changing to G in some parts during the second verse. By the end of it, I was wiping salty tears from my eyes, and so was the crowd.

I stood and took my bow with Asko, Jarmo and Dominik, gazing out across the vast sea of people cheering and chanting our name. Slowly, we all turned away and headed through the darkened backstage area into the illuminated hallway. Two white stone walls lined either side, and up ahead a set of heavyset red doors led outside, I assumed. We all made a left into our dressing room, waving briefly to Michael Clifford as he walked by wearing a black and white pleated sleeveless shirt and a pair of blue jeans. For this occasion, his eccentric, ever changing hair colour was dyed pink, contrasting his soft-featured pale face. He gave each of us a smile and high five, before he disappeared through the dressing room door and out into the hallway.

Manchester Arena had over seventeen dressing rooms, so each band got their own without fail. Our space was immense, and already Jarmo had thrown his clothes across the white tiled floor, pulling on a pair of black baggy pants.

"What do you guys wanna do after we finish up here?" Asko asked as he slid his leather jacket halfway down his arms, shrugging out of it. "I thought we could hit a bar or something, if you three feel like it."

"I was actually thinking that you and I could have some private time," I admitted, pulling my damp, sweaty grey top off and hanging it up on the hook in front of me, slipping a clean, dry top over my frame.

"Oooowh," Jarmo smirked, turning his head towards us. "Jed and Asko sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S -

Asko threw his t-shirt at him, muffling out the rest as it fell over Jarmo's face. Shaking his head, he averted his gaze back to me. "Alone time for what?"

I groaned, face palming. "You know," I hinted, adding a wink in there. Honestly, Asko could be quite dense when it came to picking up things in conversation. "It's been a while since we've had time to ourselves. Besides, I could use the relaxation."

"Ooh," Asko's mouth dropped as my words registered in his mind. "Well, okay, but we're not going outside this time, not after what happened the last time we started making out."

"Agreed," I replied bluntly, dragging him out of the dressing room and back down the hallway towards the red doors.

A large living room type of area was set up in this part of the stadium. Two black leather couches sat facing each other in the middle of the space, just on top of a black rug, and in the top left corner a miniature kitchen was set up. Five or six ceramic cups had been left beside the sink, filled to the top with water and a teaspoon. It pissed me off so much when people were too lazy to lift a finger and wash a single dish. Just leaving it there filled with water wasn't classified as doing the dishes, and half of the people that came in here, being musicians like ourselves, had the time to do some if they chose to.

Asko dropped down onto one of the couch, exhaling a tired sigh as he folded his arms behind his head on the armrest. I sauntered over to him and straddled his hips, trailing random, invisible patterns over the front of his t-shirt with my fingertips. We still had half an hour before we were due back at the hotel we were staying at, to pack up our things for the following morning when we would be flying over to London prior to our next gig. During that half an hour, I wanted to spend my free time wrapped up in Asko's embrace.