Something

      "This can't be real...our first festival!" exclaimed Lip, his widened eyes filled with joy and his big smile made him look like a cartoon version of himself, but honestly he always looked like one with his colored hair and T-shirts with slogans or prints.

 Mac, Chester, Tate, and Lip stood outside an elegant office building, their black outfits and messy hair contrasted the exclusive neighborhood where they had the meeting with the S.U.N Festival's managers. Everything was arranged but still, none of them could fathom this was actually happening.

"Did you see who is also playing at the festival?" said Chester looking at the program the managers gave out, Wolf Machine, Airhead 27, Criminal Project...pointing and following the words with the paper as close to his eyes as possible he added, "here we are! Within Inferno playing in the main stage at Geradinne Park, 7 P.M."

"Unbelievable!" cheered Tate, genuinely happy as he grabbed the program from Chester. The band had only performed a few songs at small gigs so this was a big opportunity for all four of them. He couldn't wait to feel the rush of being on a stage playing songs he wrote with his friends, the adrenaline of singing his lungs out, and his heart beating along with the loud bold bass.

 He smiled and looked at his band mates, Chester and Lip where both expecting Tate to say something. Mac had a grin on his face, he seemed happy but his reddened eyes and dark circles showed otherwise. Tate thought that maybe he was up all night texting, but actually Mac had spent most of those late hours gathering information about Icarus' myth.

 He was distant and cold, almost showing a certain kind of sad anger...if that unusual emotion even existed.

"Everything alright?" Tate asked Mac with the sincerest of intentions.

"Yes," he replied, his eyes pierced Tate as if he was trying to see right through him. Mac shook his head and smiled, he looked at Philip and Chester "Uncle Jon sent me a message," he said shaking his cell phone in the air, "he says we should go to his office to check out the video, he has a big screen there and a projector" He directed his view at Tate again. "You can invite Cassie, of course."

"With what phone?"

"Oh right...text her with mine." Mac offered his cell phone but Tate just frowned and put his hands on his jeans' pockets.

"Don't worry, I'll just pick her up."

 Tate noticed that Mac's smile vanished, just like he vanished the night before without telling anyone.

"We'll wait for you there," Chester agreed.

"Thanks," Tate replied stepping backwards. "See you there." He turned around and walked heading Cassie's house.

"What do you want?" Cassie yawned. The smeared black make-up under her eyes strangely seemed beautiful and each strand of her tangled hair became somehow fascinating beyond any rational reason for him to feel that way.

"You look good...," Tate couldn't help but say, smiling that unmistakable I-want-you smile.

"Shut up." She pushed him gently but he didn't mind, he was too lost in Cassie's soft sleepy voice that he couldn't care less about anything else. He wondered if it was possible to be so attracted to someone's a sultry voice.

 Trying to get his thoughts together, Tate explained, "Listen to me, Uncle Jon is going to show us the video in his office. Come with me."

"Sure, when?"

"In ten minutes."

"Right now?!" Frustrated and groggy, Cassie opened her eyes wide and moved her neck forward.

"Yes."

"Tate!"

"What?" he said, sensing how she felt.

"I'll never be ready in ten minutes!"

"Then get going...each second counts!"

"I hate you!" she said, slamming the door in his face and running back inside.

"Hate you right back...!" he shouted with both hands around either side of his mouth so as to project his voice as through a megaphone. "You are just going to leave me here waiting?" Tate complained while knowing she wouldn't hear him.

➳

Cassie and Tate walked together side by side. They were close to Uncle Jon's office, -the same place they shot the video. Cassie adjusted her shorts and T-shirt while they walked, making sure she was looking at least presentable.

"So, have you talked with Mac? You looked pretty worried when you realized he left"

"I haven't, but he's alright...then again, he is acting a little weird."

"Weird?"

"Yes...I don't know...too good...suspiciously upbeat."

"Isn't he normally that way?"

"Yes but...I feel like he has a monster locked up inside his passive attitude. He's just not the same as he was before."

"A+ for that description."

Looking at the sky Cassie thought, why would someone change so much in just one night?

"Maybe...maybe I'm just over-thinking."

"Maybe you are, maybe you're not. There is a possibility that he does have a reason to act like that. You'll have to talk to him."

"Should I?"

"Of course...like a married couple...theraphy!"

"We are not a couple," Tate said biting down on his teeth with indecision.

"But he was your best friend," said Cassie, her smile seeping through every word she said. "You are like brothers, bros...a bro-couple."

"Don't even think like that."

"You two are a brouple!"

Cassie laughed as if she'd made the best joke of all time. Her contagious chuckle was the alternative medicine he needed to feel better. He smiled, bashfully looking to the floor while trying to take in all the good energy coming from Cassie.

"The important question here is, what are we?"

Cassie's face changed. After thinking a moment she finally said, "Something."

"Something?"

"Yes, a little something."

"I like it. A little something sounds good."

When they got to Uncle Jon's office, Tate opened the door for Cassie, "After you, my something."

Cassie smiled and entered the building. Mac, Lip and Chester were already there. Uncle Jon stood up from a vintage velour couch, hugged her lifting Cassie up off the ground for a few seconds.

"Cassandra! Our ballet star."

"Hi!" She didn't correct her name. Jon looked too happy and she didn't want to spoil the nice moment. "Everything good?"

"Fantastic! The video looks wonderful, but you just have to see it for yourself."

A ginger mane appeared behind Jon's back. It was Lauren, who waved at her like a cheerleader on steroids.

"Heeey!" she said in her high-pitched voice. Tate's band mates greeted Cassie too, just not as enthusiastically as Lauren, who looked like she'd just downed twenty cups of coffee.

"Follow me to my private cinema," said Jon.

Everyone went with the old man through a dark narrow passage. Jon opened a black door. Tate didn't think the room could get any darker but it did. The projector reflected a white image, the only source of light of the room.

"Lauren, could you set it up?" Jon asked his niece, "This technology is not my forte," he explained.

"No problem." Lauren opened up a laptop and started connecting cabled and wires from the projector to it.

Tate grabbed Cassie's hand and guided her to the seats. Even when they sat down, Tate still didn't let go of Cassie's hand, and he even grabbed it with both of his hands and placed it on his knee.

"Ready?" asked Uncle Jon.

"Yes! Yes!" he heard Lip's voice.

Then, the video started playing. An old countdown showed on screen, Cassie recognized the first few notes of the rock song she recalled from shooting day.

The music video started with Cassie dancing delicately, like a ballerina performing Swan Lake. It was weird to see herself for the first time. Piero never came to her shows and so she never had a recording of the performances from the ballet school.

When the chorus started, the camera moved in on Tate singing, he was grabbing the microphone with both hands like he was doing now with hers. His lips touched the mic softly as he sung, while his feet moved to the rhythm of the drums.

She had never seen him so passionate, so into something. Cassie didn't know if it was the whole bad-boy vibe, the messy hair, the way he was holding the mic or the way he looked at the camera but she loved it. How could she feel so drawn to somebody she was supposed to not only hate but kill.

The music video showed a few more clips of Mac, Lip and Chester playing their instruments and head-banging. Such rock stars. And then more clips of Cassie dancing, Tate looking at her...everybody looking at her, but Tate was the only one she was focused on for that matter...and the final shot: Cassie standing alone where the band had been playing.

The video ended and Cassie could hear everybody's clapping. It wasn't like the applause she heard after a ballet performance. It was quieter since it was coming from fewer people but it felt more meaningful. Tate held her hand tightly, but kissed it gently. The touch of his lips and her skin sent a shiver down her spine and she began to both wonder and want to know what it would feel like to kiss him.

She was glad the room was dark because she knew her face turned red at that instant. His touch lit a fire in her veins hot enough to melt her heart. In that second she realized it was Tate who stirred her passions, a flame that was causing her to burn down every wall she ever put up to protect herself from him.

She pushed aside those troubling thoughts and forced a smile.

Even in the shadows she knew Tate was smiling too.