Shut Up & Make Music

Chapter Three~ Dakota

A.N: Song for this chapter is "Cupid Shuffle" by Cupid (i think...) for reasons

Dakota's PoV:

               Don’t look back was my silent chant as I weaved through the stands and out the back door of the set, trying to use enough self restraint to keep from looking back over my shoulder at the tall, black haired boy I had just met.

               We hadn't even exchanged names, just sarcasm, mockery and stand-offishness, And yet the combination of the dark war paint and blue eyes, matching the slim build and the long hair so perfectly had my head reeling. It had been a while since a guy had evoked that sort of reaction from me and it honestly scared me shitless. As I made my way back to where we had been shifting our gear about and getting ready for our own sound check, I heard the whoops and shout of my own band getting ready to play our first of two shows.

              I entered the room to see them doing some strange, ritualistic dance to "Cupid Shuffle."  I immediately joined in, shoving between Clayton's muscular build and our guitarist, Linc's petite one. Bouncing on my toes and moving to the words I put a lot of effort into making it look as ridiculous as possible, my hair flying everywhere and limbs flailing about at random.

               I could see Jack, our long haired, hippie-looking merch guy videotaping so I boldly flipped off the camera, singing as loudly and as badly as I could. Kyle, our drummer, shoved his way to the front, picked me up and put me on his shoulders, his large frame easily supporting mine, dancing to the music as I played an air guitar from my perch atop his shoulders. There wasn't a lot of guitar use in the song but I made it work anyway.

               Before the song had ended, the Gods Of War guys came into the room, looking a bit worn out from their warm up, but after watching us for a moment one of them joined in. Before long the eight of us were all moving back and forth across the room. Somehow I got passed from Kyle's shoulders into Clayton's arms and then onto somebody I didn't know.

               "You can put me down you know!" I told him, speaking loudly over the music. He smiled and shook his head then dumped me into the surprised arms of the blue-eyed boy I had spoken with earlier. He stumbled for a moment, unprepared for the weight transfer, then managed to support me as the song came to an end. Everybody was laughing, myself and the guy holding me included. "Will you put me down then?" I questioned him adding, "that other guy refused."

               He chuckled and set me down on my feet, the black paint on his face highlighting his stupidly angular cheeks. I blushed and was considering walking off as he bent down a bit to look at me at eye level.

               "You're short.” I narrowed my vision and replied "actually, 5'11 is tall for a girl, you're just uncomfortably tall." Instead of rebutting, he laughed "it wasn't an insult, just a comment. I don't even know your name yet, I'm not going to go around handing out insults." I frowned at him for a moment, trying to stay angry then rolling my eyes and cracking a grin.  

              "I'm Dakota," I informed him, doing my best to seem as casual about it as possible.

               "Shane. It's great to meet you. I feel like maybe we got off to a rocky start. I'm not usually so rude to people I've just met."

               "Oooh I must be a special case then!" I joked, simultaneously wishing I could melt into the floor and make the conversation last longer.  

              "I guess you must be!" He joked back, cracking another grin. "So, introduce me to your band, I'll introduce you to mine?"

               "Sounds like I plan. That's Clayton," I told him, pointing to my brother’s messy brown hair, matching my own, "he's our bassist, and also my little brother... he’s twenty, the youngest of all of us. There's also Linc, who has the straightened black hair and the hand tatts. He's our guitarist, age twenty-two and helps me a lot with quite a bit of the song writing when I need advice. Then the one who's nearly as tall as you with the blonde hair is Kyle. He's our drummer, age twenty- four. He's a little quieter than most of us but once you get to know him he's an amazing friend. You guys will like him, he gets along with everyone." I trailed off before realizing that I missed someone.                "And then there's me I suppose. Twenty-one, vocalist and typically the noisiest of our band. But I feel like that kind of comes with the lead singer aspect." He nodded, seeming to agree with me.

               "Your turn!" I informed him, trying to turn the conversation away from myself.

               He put his arm on one of my shoulders and leaned casually against it as if he was just casually leaning on a counter or something.  He pretended to consider for a moment. If I slid to the side, there was a good chance he'd fall, and I was sorely tempted to test this theory out, but I wanted to figure out who I would be touring with so I let him be, bracing myself to support the extra weight then looking to him as he picked absently at a stray fleck of war paint on his fingers.