#me and my flatmate decided to deep clean the house and i fell down the stairs carrying both vacuum cleaners

[fingertipsmp3]

Sometimes when life is not going well for me I think about worse days and that puts it into perspective

[find-the-eyes]

I’ll Try Anything Once: Chapter 27

Written by: Sol Edited by: ss, Allegra

Finally, it was the night of the gig. As the band approached the building that supposedly encased the flat, Paul immediately recognized it.

“This is…” Paul hesitated, “...never mind.” He clutched his bag nervously, obviously knowing something that the others didn’t.

The others looked at him curiously, still waiting for the front door to be unlocked. As the front door of the building opened, the boys realized it wasn’t a flat complex at all. It looked more like a movie set than anything, just a completely open space with various rooms of a home spread out throughout it. Nick spotted something small and furry scurrying across the floor.

“Rats?” Nick asked himself quietly as he saw a few more running around.

Paul stayed silent, but the expression on his face said it all. He knew what this place was. As a familiar figure emerged from the darkness, Alex and Bob exchanged a knowing glance.

“Welcome!” Dino exclaimed with open arms.

Alex groaned loudly. Bob and Paul were silent, the latter suddenly looking pale. Meanwhile Nick was his usual wide-eyed, quiet self. A vice-like grip on Alex's shoulder made him turn his head. It was Bob.

“Why didn’t you tell us it was his flat?” he hissed.

“I didn’t know, I swear! I thought we’d be at...never mind.” Alex shook his head. No use in arguing now, they had a show to start.

“Come in, I’ll show you the stage,” Dino said as he welcomed the boys to the ‘flat.’ He had even more rats on himself than usual, including one perched on his shoulder and one nesting in his hair. As they made their way backstage, a few more rats crossed their path. Nick was entranced by the rats, but Alex made sure to hold him back from chasing them around the building. Alex’s mind was racing with questions, from ‘how many rats live here?’ to ‘how do you get the rats to sleep in your pockets?’. After dropping off their instruments backstage, Alex couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Wait, so you just live in a fuckin’ warehouse?”

“You could call it that,” Dino smirked. Alex clenched his fist behind his back, fighting the urge to punch Dino right in his stupid nose. “Let me show you around.”

Dino led the boys through the building, occasionally stopping to introduce them to various rats. “This is Peanut, my right hand rat.” Dino pulled a tan-colored rat out of his pocket. “Or, I should say, right pocket rat.”

Nick reached out to pat Peanut, but Alex forced his arm back down.

“He can pet her, Alex. She’s friendly.”

Alex sighed and let go of Nick’s arm. Nick gently patted Peanut. “So soft…”

“Yep! I take care of my rats. They’re all rescues, mostly special needs rats. They’ve all earned the luxurious life they now live.” Dino smiled smugly and let Peanut climb to his shoulder. Nick noticed that the rat only had one ear and giggled. Peanut’s nose twitched as she brushed her face with her paw.

A few places behind the others, Bob nudged Paul, curious about his thoughts. “You hooked up with this guy?”

Paul only managed an embarrassed nod and kept walking, following Dino on his tour of the warehouse. Bob noted that for someone who had been to Dino’s weird place before, Paul sure was as surprised as the rest of the group.

“Please tell me the rats weren’t there when you…” Bob tried to look for the right word but decided to drop the question instead. “Never mind. Forget I said that.”

“I can’t tell you they weren’t there,” Paul said with a sigh, though his eyes were roaming from one point of the room to the other. “They’re everywhere. And they were everywhere.” Bob winced.

Just then, both Bob and Paul spotted a statue near a loveseat that didn’t match the rest of the interior in that room.

“What’s that?” Bob asked Paul, trying to steer the conversation away from Paul and Dino hooking up. Paul only shrugged at Bob’s question. “What do you mean you don’t know, you’ve been here before?”

“No. I mean yes. But no, not like… this.” Paul waved his arms around. “When I came here, I swear the flat wasn’t even as big as ours!”

Bob, while confused, noted how Paul had referred to their shared flat as ours out loud. He smiled to himself despite how nervous he felt inside. Doing their first gig was nerve-wracking enough, but the fact that it was in Dino’s flat, gross-but-hot Dino’s flat, wasn’t helping at all.

“What isn’t big?” Dino sauntered into the conversation, hands in his pockets, petting the two rats within. Bob had to admit that the second appearance of his magenta skinny jeans was something he was quite pleased to see, but he quickly reminded himself that not even Dino’s slender and lean legs could excuse his creepy behavior.

“Your flat,” Paul answered. “The fuck is all this?”

“Well, Paul, let me demonstrate.” Dino walked over to the makeshift bar area. He knocked on the wall and started sliding it around, before eventually setting it back in place. “Kind of like the Sims, when you make the house, y’know?”

“Oh...you know, that’s actually impressive.” Paul nodded and nudged Bob, trying to suppress a flustered laugh.

“Thanks. When you came over, my friend had just thrown a wild party...” Dino gave Paul a wink before continuing, “...and we hadn’t cleaned up yet, so I just covered the rest of the area except the bedroom.”

“Okay...” Paul’s initial amused manner quickly dropped. Dino, being Dino, didn’t seem to take the hint.

“So, how about after the gig I’ll show you something else that’s big...” Dino leaned in closer to Paul, his eyebrows wiggling. This time Paul didn’t react positively to Dino’s advances. Before he could reject the offer Bob stepped in, to all of their surprise.

“I don’t think he wants that,” Bob said, his voice trembling partly from annoyance and partly from his nerves. “You can keep the rats to yourself.”

Dino raised an eyebrow and looked at Bob and Paul back to back. “Ah...Alright, alright. I see. Yes, I get it now...” the curly haired man muttered to himself. Bob and Paul glanced at each other at the man’s weird reaction, but decided not to bother with it. Fortunately for them, they were the band that was performing tonight. So Dino, being the host, quickly ushered them back to the stage area. After the band returned from sound check, Dino busied himself introducing Nick to the various rats around the warehouse.

“This one’s named Hydrox!” Dino scooped up a black and white rat that was scurrying near his feet. Nick patted the rat’s head. Upon looking closer, Nick noticed that the rat only had three paws. They moved onto the next rat that passed by, with Nick patting along and genuinely enjoying Dino’s very extended introduction to his furry friends.

“I really hope Nick doesn’t start hoarding rats after this,” Alex sighed, watching the proceedings while perched on the edge of the stage, “but at least he’s talking to someone.”

“Maybe we should tell him to come back soon,” Bob replied as he practiced a bass tab. If there was someone who was going to mess up on that stage, Bob wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be him.

“They’ll come back eventually,” Alex shrugged.

After a few minutes, Nick came back, thankfully rat-free. Dino’s supposed flatmate from painting class was still nowhere to be seen. Luckily, after one final warm-up, people started arriving. It was a real concert, after all. Backstage, Alex was helping Bob review his bass tabs again. “Not too fast on this one,” he reassured Bob as he played. Nick and Paul were practicing elsewhere.

Finally, the moment arrived. The boys walked onto the stage and took their places at their instruments. The hum of chatter from the small crowd died down and a hush fell over the room.

“Ehm...hello,” Alex said into the microphone, voice wavering slightly. “We’re Franz Ferdinand and this is a song called ‘Darts of Pleasure’.” Alex peered over his shoulder at Paul, who took a deep breath and launched into the disco beat, and they were off.

As soon as they went onstage, Alex saw something change in Nick. There was energy in his body and finally, life in his deep blue eyes. Unlike the rest of the band, Nick didn’t look at the crowd, but rather, through it. He didn’t care how many people were watching him in the crowded room in the warehouse. He just knew that he wanted to play music and make people happy.

Alex occasionally snuck a glance at Nick, watching how he played with such energy that he was nearly vibrating. He then would look over at Bob and see that he wasn’t forgetting any of his bass tabs. He gave him reassuring smiles throughout the set, although Bob rarely expressed any emotion and Alex had no idea how he was feeling. Alex just hoped that Paul wasn’t doing anything stupid behind him.

After their final song, the boys gathered offstage. Alex felt energized and alive, his entire body buzzing. Paul and Bob packed up quietly, though both were smiling. Nick was immediately back to being quiet. He packed up his guitar and stood next to Alex, wanting to nudge his shoulder and ask to go home, as if he hadn’t just done something extremely out of character. Or... maybe it was in character. Alex glanced over at Nick. "Ready to go?" Nick nodded blankly. The band loaded their instruments back into Alex’s car and set off toward Bob and Paul’s flat. After dropping off Paul and Bob and their instruments, Nick and Alex headed home.

“You alright?” Nick nodded blankly again. Alex frowned and glanced over at him. “You looked great up there, you know.”

The corners of Nick’s mouth turned up slightly at this. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

What was Nick’s deal? Nick had looked so alive on that stage. So...normal. More animated than Alex had ever seen him. But the way he was acting know was as if nothing had happened. Why couldn’t Nick always be like that? Alex pulled into a parking spot and turned the car off, looking over at Nick again. He had closed his eyes and was resting his head against the window, lips parted. Alex smiled at the sight. He wanted answers, but right now, this was all he needed.