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I start chugging my third beer.

The music right now is blaring and I have to fold my ears to avoid going deaf. Some band I don't know is playing some song I don't like about some guy I don't care about. Super!

"This idea of yours was amazing. No, really, the best!" I yelled to Mike, the fox sitting right next to me and the one who invited me into this musical hell.

"It's not my fault. The guys said this place was awesome. How was I supposed to know that the bands were terrible?" He yelled right back. Despite saying that, he didn't seem to mind it one bit. He was lightly shaking his body to the rhythm of the music and, unlike me, wasn't about to shove a plug in his ears.

Okay, so, going back a bit. Us med school guys had just finished an all night study session. I know, I know, not the most exciting thing to say. If someone asks you what you did during your Saturday night and you say you pulled an all-nighter, they are probably going to look at you like you're out of this planet.

Anyway. We'd just finished our session and, at 7AM, when we were all getting ready to go home and get some shut eye, Mike tells us about this crazy joint that opened a few months ago. It's supposed to be a musical bar, you know, those places where they have a huge stage and play live music but, at the same time, have people serving you drinks. Basically, a Live House with waiters. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're the same thing.

Then, Josh, Mike and I decide that, after a night in "literal" hell, we should go spend a night in musical hell. Fun, fun, fun!

After the band I don't care about finished, I think they're called something something Hell something, some people start clapping. There are even a few whistles. Heck, I'm pretty sure I saw a guy with tears in his eyes. They exit the stage, thank God, and the MC comes on to tell us about the last band that will be performing tonight. I instantly pay attention to their name, because it's the only band I've seen this whole night that didn't have the words "Hell", "Death" or "Blood" in their name. Earthmind.

The band comes on stage. They all seem like regular people, which is a relief. All of the bands I saw today had the guys look like they were trying to be goth or something of the sorts. The guitarist is a weasel, the drummer is a vixen, the bassist is an ox and the vocalist is a cat. Of all the people in the band, the cat stands out the most. He's wearing torn jeans, blue sneakers and a black vest without any sort of shirt under it.

The vocalist starts walking slowly towards the mic. I hear peoples mumbling. I overhear one guy talking about how they're a new band and this is their first performance. I get ready to shove those plugs onto my years. Luckily, since I have sensitive ears, I carry them everywhere. The cat mumbles something and lifts his hand. Then, it hits me.

The full force of the sound hits me before I even notice it. The band is completely in sync. I'm left stunned while they start weaving a very pleasant melody. Their vocalist starts humming, but, even then, his voice completely fills the room. Some people get up from their seats and start cheering. This is by far the best reaction I've seen all night.

Then, the cat starts singing and the crowd loses it. Somehow, somewhere, I feel his voice filling me, urging me to get up. His voice isn't really all that special. Of course, he is talented, but talent isn't everything. He knows how to use his voice and that's all that matters. Suddenly, before I notice it myself, I'm on my feet, cheering and singing along.

Then comes the chorus and their song comes like a truck. I hold my breath for a while. I feel their song, his voice, enveloping me. My body starts feeling tingly, and I feel tempted to count that as a side effect from the beers I drank. My throat starts feeling coarse from all the shouting, but even that doesn't stop me. I'm pumping my fist, rocking back and forth, swaying to the rhythm.

Then, as suddenly as they started, the song stops with a last sustained high note. At the last moment, I fear that the singers' voice might break, then he somehow manages to climb an octave and it all ends beautifully. People start clapping, cheering, whistling. It seems to go on for and eternity before it finally dies down. Everyone starts shouting in tandem, asking for an encore.

"Everyone, thank you very much!" The cat shouts. Since I'm pretty close to the stage, I can see him well, and, after that show, I make sure to engrave his image in my head. He's smaller than me, maybe 5'6 or 5'7. His fur is white and glistening with sweat, he has a big, toothy grin that says "I'm so happy right now!" but the thing that immediately calls to my attention are his eyes. His left eye is a very light blue, while his right eye is green. It's a bit embarrassing to say, but I'm instantly enamored.

Yes, I'm gonna go with that word. Enamored.

"We're really glad you guys liked our song. Thank you very much for listening to our music!" He screams on the mic. Somehow, his voice seems really pleasant even when he's screaming.

Crap, focus!

He bows to the audience and everyone starts clapping and cheering again. The little guy sure knows how to work an audience. "Unfortunately, we can't play for you guys anymore. This is our first and only original song so far."

The people in the audience start mumbling, some sad, some upset, but most people are understanding, which I'm glad for. I don't know why but I'm pretty sure I'd flip if someone complained right now. I've probably had one too many and completely lost reason. Figures.

After two more minutes of "thank you" and having each band member introduce themselves to the audience, not that I paid attention to anyone but the cat, Harry, the band members start getting off the stage. The place gets real quiet for a while and the MC shows up to tell people that it's almost closing time. I check my phone and it's 5AM. Crap!

I hear a whistling right next to my ear. "Well. Tell me if that wasn't worth coming here for." Mike says.

I just nod. For some reason, I feel pretty spent right now.

"You know. This "Earthmind" band is pretty interesting. Not to mention how hot their drummer is!" says Josh, who, until now, hadn't spoken all night. Actually, I'm pretty sure he spent the night playing on his phone instead of watching the bands. When I'm trying to gather the strength to ask him about that, Mike beats me to the punch.

"Hey, Josh. I can't believe you actually put down your phone. I'm, like, totally shocked!" He says in a pretty annoying tone he only uses when he is joking. For some reason, it is only when he's joking that I feel like strangling him with a shoe-lace. I know, oddly specific.

Josh picks up his gPhone and waves it a bit. "Ran out of battery just before they started. Pretty lucky, I guess. From the looks of it, they're the best band that showed up tonight."

"Try "The only good band to show tonight."" Mike says, half laughing.

After about forty-five minutes of service, the bar starts closing down. I then see one of the bands start to leave. Then I'm reminded that the bands have a room in the back to prepare before the show and to rest after it. I get the crazy idea to go there and steal a look at the cat vocalist from before, but I just wave it away. I'm halfway there before I notice I didn't actually wave it away. I finally reach the door, which comes as a horrible realization because I was pretty sure I turned back after noticing I was going somewhere I shouldn't.

As I'm standing in front of the door, a fox comes out with a weasel. Then he bumps into me and I realize it's the vixen that was drumming for Earthmind. She looks up at me and starts working her way to an apology before she realizes that maybe, just maybe, I don't belong here. "I'm sorry, but, are you from one of the bands?"

"Uhm... no, not really." I say, desperately trying to come up with something better, but my mind has gone blank. They're both just staring at me for a while and I just mumble an "I'm sorry..." and turn back, ready to just run away.

Good job, Jason, you're amazing... Not!

"Wait." She says, a little louder than she has to, and that hurts my ears. "You didn't come here to meet Harry, did you?"

"E-Excuse me?" I manage to stutter.

"Our vocalist. People have been coming here to meet him for the past half hour. There's been, like, twenty girls and a couple of guys." She says, calmly, a small smile on her face, like she's enjoying this. "Harry sure is popular, huh."

Of course I knew who Harry was. I was paying attention to his introduction, at the very least. I was just too caught up in surprise to actually say anything.

I looked at her for a while, and it seems that my mind decided to play and audio that is probably called "Meditation Chants" because all that I can say is "Uhm." for nearly a minute. I turn to the weasel and he's sort of laughing, though he's trying to hide it, covering his mouth with his hand.

While I'm not paying attention, the Vixen grabs me by my wrist and drags me inside. I try to protest but she pays me no mind. I see a feel groups of people gathered around in various circles and assume that it's the bands. It seems that they're not really interested in interacting as most of them don't even bother with a sideways glance to something that, I would expect, is unusual.

"Hey, Harry!" she calls out. "This guy wanted to meet you." She says. She pulls me until I'm right in front of a guy that has his back turned to me, let's go of my wrist, pats me on the back and says "Bye bye!", before bolting out of the room.

Great. Just great.

From his back, I can faintly see some caramel fur and immediately think she took me to the wrong person. I also notice he smells of sweat, then I nearly kick myself for trying to sniff him. When he turns around, though, I see the same white fur as before. The same eyes as before.

And he has the biggest "I'm bored out of my mind." face I've ever seen. He looks at me from top to bottom and sighs.

"Please tell me you're not here to hit on me too." He says, rubbing his forehead with his left paw. Somehow that simple movement looks pretty alluring.

Then I realize that he's asked me a question. And that I didn't answer it. And that he's staring at me.

Brain, overheat. Malfunction, malfunction. All systems, shut down!

"Uhhmm... Actually, I didn't even plan on coming in. I don't even know why I came here." Great, I actually sounded like a normal person... I think.

He examines me for a while, with the biggest face of disinterest I've ever seen. "Okay. Then this must be Lyz's doing."

Then he just turns around and starts fiddling with a broken microphone, completely ignoring me.

"Actually, excuse me..." I somehow mumble. He makes a weird sound with his throat and I take it as a sign that he's listening.

"I really liked your show!" I say, a little more excited than I should be.

He barely acknowledges my presence, let alone my compliment. He makes a curt "Uhum" and continues on fiddling with his mic.

"Well, you see. I was actually thinking of leaving the bar before you guys came on because all the other bands suck..."

The guy turned around immediately and put a finger on my lips. My brain nearly stopped functioning before he put a finger to his own lip and made a "Shh" sound. Then he pointed to the side and, when I looked, I saw a bunch of angry "rockers" glaring at me.

"We should probably go outside." He says. He grabs my paw and walks out of the room with me. I'm way too panicky at this moment to mind.

After we get out, he lets' go of my paw, turns around and glares at me. "Are you stupid or something?"

I make a "huh?" sound because I'm too surprised to come up with words.

Man, words are hard.

"You're in a room full of musicians and you decide that the best thing to do is insult their music? Either you're really dumb our you really want to get lynched."

"I honestly wasn't paying that much attention. I'm pretty nervous right now." I realize that I'm being too honest but I've already made such a fool of myself that it doesn't really matter anymore.

The cat, Harry, studies me quietly. He has a curved eyebrow and he seems to be trying to decide what to do with me. "At least you admit that you're stupid. Next time, try paying a little more attention to your surroundings."

He starts walking back inside the musicians' room but he stops halfway and turns around.

"You said you liked our show. What exactly did you like?" He asks me. It's a strange question and it's too sudden, but he doesn't even blink before asking it.

"Well... the melody was really good and the vocals were excellent but... uhm... I think I liked the lyrics the most." I stuttered, relieved that I could actually come up with a response. For some reason I was a lot more focused on the residual heat on my paw.

He looked at me, his eyebrows arched. He seemed a bit puzzled. Curious even. "Really? How so?"

"W-Well. During the chorus, it read something like "not matter how far you go, in fields of sadness and in skies that lie below". The last part, "skies that lie below" sounded like that line from that Avici poem, "Skies from so long ago"."

I was a bit nervous after saying something so silly, but he just stared at me for a bit. He didn't seem mad, happy, perplexed or anything. His expression was just blank.

Then he started laughing.

"Uhm... I'm sorry?" I stuttered... again. Somehow, I'm sure I sound pretty pathetic, and I didn't even drink that much.

"What are you apologizing for?" he asked after he was done laughing, surely he was having fun, laughing at the idiot that was trying to talk to him. "I'm surprised someone caught that. I gave up hope when not even my bandmates noticed."

Now it was my turn to stare blankly, and I can kind of understand why he looked like that before. I could almost physically feel the wheels spinning in my head, trying to make sense of what I heard, because it was kind of unbelievable that someone would actually now of poetry. I mean, most people here can't even read a burger shop menu, let alone 18thcentury poetry.

"Wait. It wasn't just me? That actually was a reference to Avici?"

He nodded. He had a little smile on his lips, which was a relief, because it was a lot less scary than the face of total boredom he had before. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your name." he said, extending his arm towards me.

"That's because I didn't say it." I answered, and for the first time my brain actually worked to capacity. And by "to capacity" I mean that it didn't make me look like a cave dog. I gripped his extended paw into a handshake. "It's Jason. Pleasure to meet you."

"Harry. It's a pleasure." He answered. For some reason, the phrase "It's a pleasure" echoed in my mind for a long time after.