Five years later
"Aaaand you are listening to Virgin Radio Officiel! We have four striking, handsome, incredibly talented young men in the studio today with us. Please welcome the band Chasing Lightning," the brown eyes man said with a thick French accent with a side smile, the side of his eyes crinkling. The team hooting and clapping along.
"I am your host today, Léo. Can we go around the table and say your names into the microphone?" Léo said as he adjusted the headphones on his head.
"Hey, I am Axel; singer and guitarist from Chasing Lightning."
"I'm Emre; guitarist for Chasing Lightning."
"Bonjour, I am Russell the drummer."
"And I am Malcolm, the bassist."
Cheers erupted from the team in the radio booth when they finished their introductions.
"Now Emre, you introduced yourself as just a guitarist. But all your fans know that you are more than that," Léo said slyly.
Russell and Axel thumped Emre on his back. "Yes, he definitely is an important part of the band," Malcolm said laughing, "he's just too damn modest."
Emre rolled his eyes at Malcolm, his hand resting on his chin as he scratched the designer beard that he now sported. His chestnut hair tamed, pulled back into a bun resting loosely behind his neck.
"Our man here is also a poet," Axel chuckled next to him.
"I moonlight as a poet," Emre interrupted Axel before he could continue, rubbing his jaw his with his palms.
"Well moonlight or not, you have recently published a book of poetry which has been doing really well, oui. Congratulations on that," Léo said again, his eye crinkling in happiness.
"Thank you. But I honestly have all our fans to thank for making the book the success it is," Emre said lowly.
"Yeah, he refused the first two publishing deals because he was worried that no one would want to read poetry by him," Axel shook his head rolling his eyes.
"So, I have the book here, and there is an epigraph there. I am going to read it for the audience; 'for the girl who recognised the poet in me long before I knew him'. It is such a beautiful sentence, and I am going to translate this to French for our listeners: pour la fille qui a reconnu le poète en moi bien avant que je le connaisse. I think we are all dying to know who this girl is, am I right listeners?" Léo said, quirking an eyebrow at Emre who sifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Oh wow, we are getting right into it huh?" Russell said laughing lightly.
"So, for the first time in history, we will make that declaration on who that mystery girls is...," Malcolm said his voice sounding like a gameshow host.
"It's me people, it's me," Axel said in a high pitched voice, tucking his blonde shoulder length hair daintily fluttering his eyelashes as Emre. All for men broke out in laughter, guffawing as Axel continued blowing kisses at Emre.
"There you have folks, the breaking news for tomorrow," Malcolm continued with this deepened voice, imitating the radio host. Rounds of laughter ringing in the studio.
"Wow," Léo said in awe, "this camaraderie, this friendship, this...this energy is truly enviable. I have interviewed a lot of bands but not everyone has this kind of synergy. Has it always been this easy between the four of you? Axel; you, Malcolm, and Russell were high school friends when you started your band oui?"
"Yeah, that's right. We started a band for fun you know, to impress girls, to go to the coolest parties, to get the free booze...Shhhh...don't tell my sister this," Axel smiled mischievously, "but we realised we were not only having fun, that people seemed to like what we were playing..."
"Yeah we even had a different name then...I swear it's right there at the tip of my tongue but I can't reach it...,"Malcom said, lightly knock his fist against his forehead.
"Rabbithole," Emre said suddenly, and the rest burst out in raucous laughter again.
"Really, 'Rabbithole' was the band name? Beurk..." Léo cringed a little while laughing.
"Yeah, we thought that shit...Oh shit, can I say shit on air? Dammit I said it three times already!" Léo motioned for Malcolm to continue, "but yeah we thought that it was the bee's knee's."
"Obviously it wasn't, and you changed it to 'Chasing Lightning' oui?" Léo prompted them to continue.
"Yeah, it was an organic thing really, we started really loving what we were doing, investing more time and energy in it but we felt that the sound still felt a bit flat. And that is when we advertised for a bassist, we were about to graduate high school and we thought it was time for us to take things more seriously," Axel said, a faraway look in his eyes.
"And in walks in this dude, bright eyes and fresh faced and our initial reaction was no. He's too young, and probably needed more time to really hone his skills...," Russell continues candidly.
"And this was before Emre started playing?" Léo cocked his head intrigued.
"Oh man and then he started playing and it was the sound the band was missing. He gave depth to our music and the lyrics. And now here we are," Malcolm spread his hands with a flourish, wiggling his fingers as he did the jazz hands, a huge smile on his lips.
"And here you are indeed. With millions of fans across the world, albums hitting seven figure sales, venues selling out in minutes...," Léo paused, taking a breath as the men sitting around the table next to him clapped slowly. "You guys are basically modern day rockstars, oui. But let's rewind to the beginning: how did you get your break?"
"Well, we were already utilising Bandcamp and promoting ourselves on social media. But our break basically was having Randy Mui who is also our producer, kinda accidentally watch our gig. And we basically blew his mind. He came up to us after the gig and asked if we would like to open for Green Day when they were going for their summer tour in the states and we lunged at the opportunity," Axel said with a little chuckle.
"When you said he 'accidentally' watched your gig, what does that mean?" Léo asked curious, he didn't notice the surreptitious glances the men shot Emre before Russell spoke up.
"We had a mutual acquaintance who knew Randy's mom. Now we didn't know anything about Randy or his mum Anita Mui...Hey Mrs. Mui, how you doing beautiful?" Russell smirked as he said her name into the microphone while the others shook their heads chuckling at his sad attempt of flirting, "Mrs. Mui came to see us to hand us something, and we had asked her to stay and she did saying her son liked our kind of music. For us...I think what we thought was, hey we got another fan..."
"...we could have never thought in our wildest dreams that it would be the Randy Mui; the guy who also produced for other big bands...," Malcolm continued.
Léo whistled, "whoever this mutual friend is you guys totally owe this person!"
"Yeah, we do...," Emre said gruffly and cleared his throat. "And the timing was just perfect as well. I was almost done with high school and was basically ready to start pursuing music full time," Emre said lightly as he looked around the table at his band mates.
"How was touring with Green Day?" Léo asked, moving the interview along.
"Oh God, it was all kinds of crazy," Russell said with a cheeky laugh. "Things we would never say on radio!"
"But this guy though," Axel patted Emre's shoulder, "he really grounded us. No matter how messed up we were from the partying and...other...stuff...Emre always made sure that we showed up and gave it 100%. He was really the driving force of our success..."
"Yeah, Emre is a full on the mother hen out of all of us. The tenacity, the passion, the loyalty that this dude has...I..I've never seen it in anyone," Russell choked out.
"Stop, Russell. You're going to make me cry," Emre said blandly as he raised his eyebrow at Russell and they all laughed again.
"I mean I can see that you know," Léo said as he studied each member of the band. "Emre is the serious, the sedate on in the group. The rest of you are more colourful, which shows in how you speak, the clothes you wear, the tattoos on your bodies, the hidden and not so hidden romances. Let's start with tattoos; do you have any tattoos Emre, ones that are hidden from the public eye?"
"No. No tattoos," Emre said simply. "My late mother didn't allow it and I continue to obey what she had said."
"How about romances? We all saw that stint something like two years ago, when it was one girl after another but after a couple of months of that happening, it went back to the usual which is you alone. No more romances, or just one romance kept a secret?"
Emre shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. He sniffed and rubbed his nose, adjusting his headset, fingers scratching at the beard again.
"No. No hidden romances...my mom had passed two years ago and unlike regular normal people, I didn't allow myself to grieve instead I looked for coping mechanisms. And it's really something that I am not proud of. You know as much as these guys say I drive the band and all that, if it weren't for them pulling me back on track, I don't think I would even be here today...It was a dark time..." he said, sadness clear in his voice.
"Awww...dude, you're gona make us cry," Malcolm said as he wiped away imaginary tears on his cheek much to the chagrin of Emre, who only rolled his eyes.
"And the girl, from the epigraph? Is she the same girl from the song from your first album 'Living Mine Now'?" Léo pressed.
"That...that was a long time ago...," Emre smiled lightly at Léo. "I'm guessing she's probably married with kids by now."
Kiara stared at what she normally would call a cherubic face with its eerily large eyes, wispy dark eyelashes and pouty lips. But today the baby in her arms resembled more of a demon child than an angel. Aakif had been crying for what felt like hours even though it had really been something closer to an hour. His eyes scrunched up, his mouth opened in a never ending wail, and his face red from all the exertion. She had given him a bottle, changed his nappy a couple of times, held him, shushed him, sang to him, rocked him but nothing changed. She was pretty sure that the sound of his high pitched crying will continue to ring in her ears for days to come.
So not only did her ears sting from the shrillness of his cries, her head throbbed and her wrists were hurting. She desperately needed two minutes where she could put Aakif down so that she could strap on her wrist guards but he screamed even louder the second his bum grazed any flat surface. He sounded like he feared Kiara would abandon him the second she walked away.
"Please baby," Kiara pleaded. "Please just hush...," her throat thick with tears.
She didn't hear the jingle of the lock nor the soft closing of the door. But when she turned, she saw Mila standing in front of her with her eyebrow raised.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked slowly, unmoving.
"Mila, please please please...just take him for 2 seconds...he's been crying nonstop and I need to wear my guards....pleaseeee," Kiara rushed out, her eyes lined with tears.
Mila reached out and peeled away a kicking and crying baby from Kiara and walked out to the balcony closing the French windows behind her. It was the beginning of summer the air still had the faintest lick of a chill and somehow it worked on calming Aakif. The screams softened into whimpers as Mila hugged the small body close to her, swaying side to side. It was a small balcony, enough for there to be a small table and two chairs. For the inhabitants of the apartment to enjoy a simple meal or a glass of wine overlooking the courtyard.
Mila huffed, as she felt the slow breathing of Aakif against her neck. Ahad needs to freaking pay me for this, she thought to herself.
She slid open the French windows slowly, careful not to make any loud noises not wanting to wake up the sleeping baby. Her eyes fell on a despondent Kiara, sitting on the couch with her head in her braced palms.
Kiara looked up at Mila with her tear stained cheeks, who still stood swaying with Aakif, "You are a baby whisperer."
Mila rolled her eyes, her lips tilted up in a small smile, but it dropped the second Aakif squirmed in her arms. Mila shushed Kiara and walked back out to the balcony.
Kiara picked up the TV remote and dazedly clicked through channels. She heard a snippet of an oddly familiar voice, a voice that she hadn't heard in years and paused. The channel on the tele was an infomercial. No, that can't be right, she thought to herself.
With an urgency that she couldn't quite place, she went back a few channels landing on an entertainment channel and her heart stilled. There he was, the boy that she used to know. Still the same; reserved in the way he carried himself and measured when he spoke. The same way his eyes didn't just look but speared through you with the intensity in him.
"Did you know about this?" she whispered her fingers tightened around the remote in a white knuckled grip, her eyes glued to the TV but she knew Mila was inside the apartment.
"About what?" Mila whispered, her eyes and voice guarded.
"He...They..Um...," Kiara swallowed the tears that suddenly clogged her throat. "Chasing Lightning in Paris..."
"Yes," Mila said after a long silence. She adjusted Aakif on her arms before she moved closer to Kiara. "I got tickets from my boss and thought you would want to go," she said lowly, unsure on how Kiara would react to the news. She had wanted to purchase the tickets the moment she knew that they'd be performing in Paris, but tickets had sold out minutes after they were released. It was a good thing that she was confident enough to ask around the office since it was their PR firm that was handling all the marketing for the event, if she could get any tickets. Her boss was kind enough to give her two under the guise of an early birthday present. She was grateful but still she was worried how Kiara would react to it. It was meant to be a surprise, but perhaps judging from the look on her face it was better that Kiara knew beforehand.
Kiara made a sound, a cross between a squeak and a groan. Slumping forward, her hands covering her face. Mila studied Kiara; the clothes stained with rotten milk and possibly Aakif's pee, the greasy straggly hair that was coiled into a bun on her head, the smudges of purple under her eyes, the chapped lips. The living area was a mess of brightly coloured plastic scattered everywhere. For however long that Aakif had kept on crying Kiara had clearly tried everything to get Aakif to stop crying by pulling out all the toys and books that she could think off.
"Ahad better be cleaning this mess up," Mila blurted, and Kiara's head snapped up blinking as she took in the mess around her. Inhaling a deep shuddering breath Kiara shot up from the couch and started picking up the toys, one by one she shoved it the plastics bins frantically trying to do something to take her mind off of the man on TV and the boy that she used to know.
"I don't think I can go," she mumbled lowly, as she continued picking up things off the floor. "I still have to finish composing that piece for the school."
"You could use a break, Kiki," Mila said softly. "From all of this," she said as she shifted the drooling baby on her chest. "Please, I had to jump through hoops to get the tickets. Please Kiki?"
"Okay, okay...fine...," Kiara said testily. Her body tensed at the loud knocks at the front door, "That must be Ahad," she exhaled shakily before walking to unlock the door.
Mila could hear Ahad's voice from the front door as he strolled into the apartment with an air of dominance, "Where's my baby?"
She heard Kiara shushing him, her voice in mumbles probably telling Ahad to keep his big mouth shut lest he wakes Aakif up. There was just something about Ahad that rubbed Mila wrongly and she couldn't really put her finger on it. He was loud, brash, cocky, and she hated it. He was slimy always getting out of one tough situation from another just by the skin of his teeth and Mila didn't trust him at all. There was also the way he was with Kiara that made her skin crawl. She often thought of the things she said to Emre years ago about Ahad and her stomach twisted with shame.
Mila ground her teeth, as Ahad walked into the living room in all his arrogance with Kiara trailing tiredly behind him and smirked at Mila.
Not bothering to say hello or any of those frivolous pleasantries Mila tilted her chin up, "Make sure you already have someone to watch Aakif this Thursday. I am taking Kiara out all day, and no, these plans cannot and will not be changed to suit you."