Mama, I'm sorry, reality's boring

I cut it up, wash it all down with a forty

I probably won't snort it

My head is discarded

I try to ignore it, I try to ignore it

"Why didn't we fly here?" I ask as we get inside Art's car and drive to where the club is.

"Because we can't really fly with our equipment. And we like using our own shit. Those are in the boot of our cars." Arthur says and I raise an eyebrow.

"Just equipment?" I ask and she nods.

"Just equipment." She says and I smile.

"So if I were to open the boot of your car that's all I would find?" I ask and she smiles.

"You're one sneaky bitch." She mutters and I laugh.

Soon enough we pull up to a club named 'Saints'. The irony. Before we could enter our license plates were scanned. We parked in the space marked down as 'reserved'.

So much security. For a club?

"Stick with me." Art says as she grabs a coat and hooks it on her arm. She gets out and walks to my side of the door and I get out holding her hand. Adjusting my dress as she places the coat over me.

"Just until we get there." She smiles and I nod as we are escorted somewhere by a guy dressed in formal attire.

He speaks to Art in Italian but I am too busy as Ronan pulls me to him and a guy standing beside him smiles at me. Art turns around worried but she soon calms down as she sees me with Ro.

"Sole, this is Dain. Dain this is Marnie." He introduces me to the guy who might be around 6'2. His monolid eyes were adorned with pretty grey iris and his skin was porcelain. His hair was tied into a bun as he nodded and shook my hand.

"Great to meet you," Dain says and I smile. He had a thick accent and I couldn't quite place my finger on where it was from.

"Let's have some drinks before we get to playing and shit," Ronan says sighing slinging his arm around my shoulder and I nod.

We step in front of a door but as we are entering Art gestures to me, I nod leaving Ronan's side and joining her again.

The club is lit with blue lights, a feverish mix of all genres playing but we don't even graze past the dance floor. We make our way to the stairs and up to the VIP lounge.

The VIP lounge wasn't quiet nor was it loud. It was filled with more people than you could've imagined and it was more like a second floor to the club rather than a VIP lounge. That is how big it was.

"You can start with putting up your equipment." The man tells us, as we step inside. My coat is taken away from me and hung by a lady.

I grab Art's hand in nervousness as we make our way to a leather couch with many people already sitting on it.

"Oh hello!" A guy with many tattoos even on his face greets us, hugging Art.

"Hello, Karl. It's great to see you." She says as another redheaded girl stands up and hugs Art.

"I see you have someone here." She says as Art and her part, all whilst looking at me.

"This is Marina." Art says and I give her a quick look before they are shaking my hand.

Marina?

"Hey, I'm Madeline." She introduces herself and shakes my hand. I smile kind of confused before Ronan sweeps in and gives her a tight hug.

"Marina?" I whisper to Art. And she nods slowly shooting a smile to someone in the room.

"Marina Tak." She whispers to me and I am confused but I nod regardless. I'll ask questions later.

"Where is he?" Seren asks and Karl shrugs.

"He'll be here soon. You guys should go meet the others until then." Karl says standing next to me.

"Yeah." Art says grabbing my wrist but he grabs my other one quickly holding me back.

"I'll watch her. You know how they are with new people right?" He says and Art looks at him and then at me.

"We recruited her a couple of months ago, she's our manager. No threat Karl." Art says and the whole band goes silent. Just watching us.

"Still, it's a precaution. Like I said I'll watch her. I'm a good guy after all." He laughs putting his hands up in mock surrender.

Art's hand tightened and she nods after a couple of seconds. Taking a step towards me she pulls me in an embrace.

"Just lie." She whispers in my ear and it's safe today I'm shitting my pants.

"I'll be back." She says loudly smiling as we part and I pull on a fake smile which almost feels like a wince as she and the others walk away.

"Would you like a drink?" Karl says as Madeline walks over to greet someone else.

"I don't drink," I say and he nods pulling me to the bar.

"What about something non-alcoholic?" He asks waving to the bartender and before I can say 'no' again the bartender is right in front of us.

Karl grins at me and I sigh ordering a diet coke. He gestures for me to take a seat at the bar and I do so, him sitting right beside me.

"So tell me, Marina, how has Sicily been treating you so far?" He asks as the bartender, his tag reading a really complicated name that I would rather not butcher, brings over my drink. I smile at him as thanks and take a sip to give me some time to think.

"Uh, it's been good." I nod slowly holding onto my drink tightly for dear life.

"When I called about today's show, was it you that picked up?" He asks and I gulp down another sip of my drink giving myself more time.

What call?

"No, I think it was an intern. They did tell me someone called though." I say, using 'they' because he didn't tell me the gender and I did not want to assume one, he grins at my response and his drink is brought to him but he doesn't take a sip.

"I am assuming you're still in college." He says and I nod slowly.

"That is correct," I say softly and he smiles again.

"So did you take this job, as a manager ofcourse, for the money or something else?" He asks and I smile again.

"I and the band became friends first. I loved their drive, I can't sing for shit though. But I decided that I would like to be involved in one way or another." I reply taking a large sip of my soda. I felt as if the bubbles were floating up to my brain and making me go haywire.

"That sounds great. What happened to our shipment to Paris though?" He asks and I smile raising an eyebrow.

"I was told to not handle that one. Arthur did." I reply and he nods again.

The large doors to the lounge open and who walks in horrifies me.

Well shit, we're busted.