This chapter is lovingly dedicated to Leanne <3

My eyes felt heavy as lead when I woke up the next morning. We had stayed up late after our bittersweet intimacy, chewing the fat about random topics, drinking beer and listening to our favourite music. We had fallen asleep with the music still on, so Around the Fur by Deftones was still playing on a loop.

First cute thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Chris's closed eyes. He was still sleeping, his breathing was slow and gentle. He was holding me with one arm, the other was under the pillow where his head rested. I had a very close sight of the super tiny group of freckles on the bridge of his nose. He used to have more freckles when he was younger, now they were hardly visible on his impossible soft skin.

I remained still for a while, watching him sleep and thinking about how everything changed so much and so fast during the last couple of days. The night I spent with Ben on the cinema watching Alien seemed so far away now. A twinge of pain hurted me someplace inside. What was I doing? I felt like an iron pill falling through a cotton case. If I couldn't figure out my actions soon enough, everything I had worked so hard to achieve was going to crumble away.

My mind raised so many questions at once: Was I with Chris cause I couldn't be with Ben? Was I still hooked up when Ben or was I having feelings for Chris now? What if I had feelings for both of them? How could I make up my mind about it, if there was a way to actually make a decision?

I traced my fingers down Chris's cheek. Somehow, the touch of my skin against his knocked me out from my tortured thinking and made me feel sheltered. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me smiling shyly.

"G'day sleeping beauty" I said to him, giggling at the sight of his beautiful sleepy face.

"Shut up" he said, amused. He took his time stretching as a cat, yawning.

"Well, come on, rise and shine, mate. We got lots of things to do today, like rehearsing for tomorrow for instance" I said to him, remembering we had a gig the very next day and we haven't been rehearsing enough.

"Chill out, mate. I still need my brekkie. I can't function without my food, ya know".

*Next day*

"Nice turn up, huh?"

Benny was spying the public behind the curtain of the stage. We were about to start our last show in Atlanta.

"Aye, look at that. Nice girls, mate" he said to me, waving his hand. I approached his spot behind the stage curtain and peeped at a group of young girls standing at the front, waiting for the show to start. They seemed awfully excited.

One of them immediately caught my attention. She was holding an enlarged pic of my face in which I had a frightened expression, like a what the fuck look in my eyes. I recognized the shot being from an interview we did like a week ago, before a show in Melbourne. The interviewer asked if I ever had an encounter with a freaky or scary fan, and that was my face in response of how I felt when someone scary approached us.

It made my laugh out loud, and Benny looked up at me.

"Oh, I see it. Look at your face there, mate. That's ripper" he said, laughing along with me.

I could see in Benny's face he was also looking with interest at the beautiful girl holding the pic. I slapped his arm.

"Hey, whatcha doing Benny? What about Katie?" I said, raising my brows.

My question had two sides: If things came to happen, I wanted that gorgeous girl for myself. And I knew Benny and his charms so well as to warn him before hand. Second matter, I was clearly sussing out how things were between him and Katie.

"Well, you know how things are, Dan. She already cheated on me once. It's getting hard to work up some confidence."

Ben looked disappointed on her. Seemed like things between him and Katie weren't the romance I had been imagining. Some kind of warm flame appeared on my chest, making me feel more confident all of a sudden.

"Hey, don't worry Gillies. Things will be ok. Remember you deserve the best, mate."

He smiled and took my hand in his. I felt goosebumps at the touch of his skin again. His eyes found mine, and we looked at each other smiling for a couple of seconds. Some seconds spent in paradise.

Our show was amazing. I didn't feel like shit so I could sing and play well. Apparently Benny was fine, cause he disarmed his drum set being the soul of the band as usual. Chris was specially shining that night, and I caught him looking enamored at me a couple of times during the gig.

In the middle of Abuse Me, Chris approached me and softly whispered in my ear "I love the way you ask for it". He definitely made me smile, and I couldn't sing an entire line of the song because of my blushing and giggling. There was something on his silky tone when he spoke to me, his lips slightly touching my ear, that made me blast off and enjoy the song more than ever.

One can always feel a special atmosphere in the after shows. There was always too much energy still floating in the air, bringing joy to everyone. That night my levels of dopamine were cheerfully overflowing, so I decided to join Ben and Chris into spending some time with the fans who were waiting for us outside of the venue.

It was always a hard thing for me to do, I usually end up exhausted from all the social overload. But that night it didn't matter. I was feeling strong enough to put up with a heavy social interaction. I wanted to have fun for once.

The second we stepped outside, a sea of people flooded the three of us. Fans were screaming, squaling, taking a million photos in a macrosecond and throwing gifts at us, mostly bras and undies. I picked up a sexy red bra from the floor and put it on, asking Ben to help me fasten in on my back.

After signing a large number of posters and CDs, a well known pic of my surprised face got into my hands. I looked up to see the girl Ben and I spotted on the crowd earlier. A smile widened on my face. She was very pretty and cuddly, and my heart started beating faster. I sensed her strong aura coming off in awesome waves, crashing against my black tangled heart, opening a little rainbow door of sweetness.

"Aye, girlie. What's up?" I said to her. She looked a little bit freaked out from the direct confrontation with us three.

She seemed speechless for about five seconds, but then she spoke with a sweet voice: "Oh, Danny...it's you, is really you", she said to me covering his mouth with one hand.

"Well, don't be so sure. I could be a hologram, ya know?" I replied smiling to her. She giggled and observed me intensely while I stamped my signature on the pic she handed to me. "What's your name?"

"I'm Leanne" she shouted to make her voice heard through all the shouting and yelling.

I wrote some words along with a couple of hearts on the middle of my printed forehead: You're beautiful, Leanne. Daniel.

The second I handed the pic back to her, she looked like she was going to faint. I recognized the signs immediately: she was kinda dizzy and sweating, probably hearing a ringing in her ears since she seemed unstable.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, and held her with one arm around her shoulders. She slightly shivered. "You're coming with me, Leanne. I don't wanna you to be stomped by all these people".

With the help of a security guy who carved out an opening through the crazed fans, Leanne and I disappeared from the crowd back to the venue. I led her to the backstage and sat down on an armchair. I gave her a water bottle before I sat next to her. "You drink that, it will help you big time. Sometimes I get seriously dehydrated after shows".

"Thank you, Daniel" she shyly muttered. I looked carefully at her while she drank the water. I was mesmerised by her looks. My heart skipped a beat and my hands started to sweat.

"Hey, you can have this. This is the ultimate cure for everything, it never fails" I said with my biggest smile while I teared the wrapping and offered her my favourite Hershey's milk chocolate bar. I always have one in the after-shows. She giggled and looked at me. I loved the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed.

"That's what I always say" she said with a warm smile, biting the chocolate bar.

"So, now that you're back to life and radiating with beauty, I wanted to ask you...if you wanted to come with us back to the hotel. We are having a little get together with the boys and some other people. I would really love you to be there" I said a little nervous, smiling like a maniac.

I always got edgy as fuck when I spoke with beautiful girls. And she was very beautiful, and amazingly cute as well, a winning combination for my heart.

"Sure Danny, I would love to!" she said happier than ever. She was both delighted and surprised. I couldn't help but think about how much I wanted to kiss her.

Just when I was about to misbehave myself and look like an idiot, Ben and Chris appeared on the room. They were excited.

"Hey mate, we were looking for ya. Let's go back to the hotel, party is about to start" Ben said with her face brightened by a big smile. He immediately looked at Leanne, whose eyes were about to jump off.

"Hi there lady, I'm Ben" he jumped straight to her side and extended his hand. Leanne laughed and shook Benny's hand introducing herself and blushing a bit. I looked at them squinting my eyes.

"Shut up, Gillies. Let's go" I said, taking Leanne by the hand. Chris was looking the scene with his classic poker face, and muttered a shy "Hi" when Leanne passed by him.

We all went out to the velvety warm night and headed back to the hotel, where the party had already started without us.