Cecilia

‘So class, I want you all to check your project instructions which I have given you. There is written the submission date, with whom you will be in a group, the topic for the project and et cetera.’ The teacher says as the bell rings. ‘Ivan, which group are you in?’ Mizi asks, unfolding her paper. ‘Oh, I'm in….Group A’ ‘No way, me too!’ Mizi smiles as she looks around. ‘Do you think I should ask who all are in Group A?’ ‘Yeah sure, Mi.’

Mizi gets up from her seat and goes in front of the class and asks,’Raise your hand if you are in Group A!!’ Three students raise their hands—Till, Sua, and Luka, the school band's members. Mizi goes to them and asks to meet up at the cafe near the school to discuss the project.

‘Are you sure they won't ditch us? I mean just take a look at them, they look like those F students. I don't even know their names’ ‘Ivan, don't worry! They are good students, just because they are in a band doesn't mean they don't care about their studies, this is the final year of high-school—everyone, EVERYONE, will be working their ass off to get good grades and graduate with honor.’ ‘Alright, Alright.’

Ivan sighs as they get in the cafe. ‘You go sit at a table, I'll order us all coffees and a few snacks.’ Ivan sets up his laptop and books on the table and starts researching about the topic.

The cafe's bells ring as three good looking people walk in—Till, Sua, and Luka. ‘Oh hey!’ Till greets Ivan with a smile. ‘Hi, you're all late.’ ‘Oh, we are really sorry, we just had band practice and time went so fast we didn't realise.’ Sua apologies with a smile.

‘Hey everyone.’ Mizi sits as Ivan shifts to make some room for her. ‘I ordered us all coffee and some snacks, is that alright?’ ‘Yeah’ the band trio says in unison.

——

Hours flew by as they got lost in doing the project, dividing sections and parts. In a blink of an eye it’s suddenly night. ‘Hey, sorry to disturb you all but we are about to close the cafe.’ The waiter says as he collects all the cups and plates from the table. ‘Oh shit, what time is it?’ Tills packs his bag hurriedly. ‘Oh, it's 7:30 pm, you all can still be till like, 10-15 mins as we close at near 8.’ ‘Oh fuck, we had a concert tonight at 8. We gotta go.’ Luka panics. ‘Luka calm down, we still have half an hour. Excuse me!’ Sua calls for the waiter and asks for a glass of warm water.

‘Why do you need warm water, Sua?’ ‘It's not for me, Mizi. It's for Luka as he has to sing.’ ‘You two can come if you want, it's not an original song but we're doing a cover.’ Till smirks looking at Ivan. ‘Oh, what song?’ Mizi glances at Till then Ivan. ‘Brooklyn Baby by LDR and 3-4 more songs.’ Sua replies with a smile.

‘Cool, we can come….right Ivan?’ ‘Yeah sure, we have nothing to do anyway.’

——

The night was gloomy and cold as Ivan stood in the crowd waiting for the band to come onto the stage. ‘It's my first time in a concert, I mean this is not the “actual” actual concert but it's not any less.’ Mizi gives her mobile to Ivan to click pictures of her. Ivan suddenly is squatting and styling Mizi's hair and giving her pose ideas so that photos turn out good.

Suddenly the dark and gloomy night turns into a colourful night with lights going in a circle around the park. The band comes onto the stage, Sua and Luka with a mic in their hands and Till with an electric guitar. Ivan had never seen Till look so….cool? What was he even thinking?

I mean yeah, a guitarist can be cool as fuck but Ivan's heart was racing as Till kept looking at him the whole night whilst playing the guitar. Till's fingers going up and down the guitar’s neck slowly. Ivan got so flustered he couldn't bear it anymore.

‘Mizi….I'm gonna be back in a minute, okay?’ ‘Alright but don't take too long. Sua looks so good on the stage, I just wanna go up there and kiss her right then and there.’ ‘Yeah yeah.’ Ivan then runs away from the crowd and sits and starts smoking on the nearest bench near the park's footpath.

Time flies fast, he could still hear the sounds from the stage as he smokes. ‘Hey….Ivan?’ Someone creeps up from the dark, a medium height man with a punk aesthetic outfit and as he comes out of the dark he sees the man has cyan coloured hair and piercings on his face. ‘Till….why are you here? You got a whole concert going on!’ ‘Relax, my part is done, and so is Luka's. I'm here for…..some air.’

Till smiles as he sits next to Ivan, taking the cigarette from his hand and smoking the same cigarette that Ivan was smoking a second ago. ‘Till….’ Till cups Ivan's face as he returns the cigarette—placing it in between Ivan’s soft lips. ‘Why did you run away?’ ‘I…..I don't know….’ ‘Did you run away because of me?’ Ivan looks at him with his black puppy eyes. ‘N-no….it's just, I….’ Till—still cupping his face running his other hand through Ivan's soft hair which was cut into a mullet and was dyed black like his eyes. ‘I, what?’ ‘Well…..yeah, it is because of you but not like in a bad way….’ ‘In what way then? Ivan.’ Ivan liked how Till said his name, in his deep and raspy voice. ‘It's just I got……flustered.’

Till starts laughing—hard. ‘Oh my god, Ivan, you're hilarious.’ Ivan blushes but tries to hide it by looking away which obviously Till caught on already. ‘Now, come on, do I make you….feel something?’ Ivan looks at him with shocked eyes, his cheeks red. Till starts getting close to him—slowly, putting his hand onto Ivan's. ‘A-are we about to….’ Before he could finish his sentence, Till wraps him around in a passionate kiss, wrapping his arms around him. Ivan doesn't fight back and kisses Till back even harder. Suddenly Till now on top of Ivan—still kissing.

‘I-ivan…’ Till breaks the kiss, their lips connected with a string of their mixed saliva. ‘What…?’ Ivan replies, his eyes watering and arms numb from the pleasure he felt with just kissing.

‘Let's go somewhere else….the park is an inappropriate place for….things.’ Till gets up from Ivan's lap. Ivan exhales for a whole second and licks his lips. ‘W-wait….my body is…’ ‘Is?’ Ivan scratches his neck shyly. ‘Is numb….’ Till laughs and sits next to Ivan on the bench again. ‘It's okay, I can wait for you.’

Ivan pushes his greenish-navy blue hair back and tries to sit straight when he spots two people behind the tree. ‘Is that….’ ‘Holy shit, that's Mizi and Sua.’ Till says as his attention went to the tree too. ‘We gotta go otherwise she'll be so embarrassed.’ ‘Yeah, let's go.’ Till helps Ivan stand up as they get out of the park.

‘My place or yours?’ ‘Mine…’ Ivan answers.

The night was young and love was made.

Fin.