Page 20 of Dark Room Junkie

“I took them from a concert,” said the blond guitarist with a mischievous smile.

The door opened, and Marco entered the room. “... yeah, and that’s why he’s coming here today to take some photos,” Marco said.

I put the camera down and got up from the sofa—apparently, he was talking about me.

“Here he is already!” Marco exclaimed, and a smile spread across his face. He leaned his bass against the chair and greeted his bandmates first, then held out his hand to me. “Hello! Long time no see, huh?”

“Yeah, definitely ... two years,” I replied, remembering his birthday party at the forest hut, which I had left early.

“Noé!” Marco called out and turned to the new singer who suddenly appeared behind him. “This is Alex. Our photographer. He’s taking some photos of us today.”

My facial features shifted as I saw Noé in front of me. Secretly, I had hoped to see him again, but not like this. What the hell was he doing here? Was he the new singer? But I thought he played bass.

“Hi ...” I managed to say.

Noé seemed frozen for a moment. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Only the brief twitch of his lower eyelids told me that he was processing something. Meanwhile, I stared into the deepest dark blue eyes I had ever seen. Just before the silence became uncomfortable, he said, “I hate coincidences.”

“What? You two know each other?” Chris asked, laughing.

I breathed a sigh of relief that Noé acknowledged the coincidence and didn’t think of me as a stalker—although I couldn’t discern how he took my presence. But fortunately, suspicion fell away from him like a cloak.

“We’ve met before,” he replied curtly and went to the other side of the sofa where he dropped off his backpack and leather jacket.

“Oh, really?” Marco asked somewhat condescendingly. “And where? Sex or somewhere else?”

My jaw dropped.

“Is that important?” Chris asked.

“Oh, come on. We all know about his reputation,” Marco said.

“We...” I began, but I lost the thought again.

His reputation?

“We met at Hyde,” Noé replied casually, shrugging.

Obviously, I felt uncomfortable with the situation, and I was so grateful that he misled Marco. Okay, he didn’t directly lie, but at least he kept what this was all about to himself.

“I didn’t know you were also a singer,” I finally managed to say. Just looking at him calmed me down. “You play bass for the Lighteners, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” he replied, flashing me a charming smile. “We share the rehearsal space here, so we all know each other.”

Damn, does it have to be like this?

And yet, I was as excited as a little kid about it. Fate had it that I would photograph Noé. Nightrain himself had invited me to it. However, I couldn’t help but notice the way Noé suspiciously eyed the cameras.

“Isn’t three a bit too much?” Ramon asked.

“Yeah, maybe,” I replied, my voice drowned out by a rolling drumbeat. Maybe wearing earplugs wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“You can use these,” Marco said to Noé, handing him a pair of in-ear monitors. “They work wirelessly. Just strap the device to your belt.”

I stuffed the foam into my ears and grabbed the first camera. It would take a while to get into the groove, but I felt confident and very motivated.

The band took the stage, plugged in their instruments, and Noé stepped up to the microphone with a few sheets of paper. He tied his hair back, as he always did during a Lighteners concert, but that probably had more to do with not wanting to flaunt the metalhead side of himself in the jazz band. He struggled a bit with the in-ears, talked into the microphone with Marco, who was at the mixing desk, and finally gave him a thumbs-up, prompting Marco to sling the bass over his shoulder and take his place.

Soon after, the band thundered into action. I was not at all prepared for this intensity and felt like I was hit by a shockwave. They played fast, hard, merged into one unit, and captivated me from the first note. The wave subsided slightly, and Noé stepped up to the microphone. He adjusted the stand one last time, nodded his head, and began to sing. Once again, my jaw dropped, and a cold shiver ran through my body, leaving me breathless.

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