THREAD: ESTELLE & ZEKE
WHO: Estella & Zeke WHEN: Saturday, December 12th; around 11pm WHERE: Open Mic Night @ Angels & Kings: Basement bar/stage WHAT: Zeke runs into an old friend in an unlikely place. RATING: Who actually knows?
Whenever she could, Estelle tried to make it out to the Open Mic Night that Maddie ran at Angel's & Kings, for the practice and of course the crowd reaction. Not everything an artist wrote ws gold and sometimes you thought something was amazing and it wasn't actually as good as you thought. And the audiences at Angel's & Kings was honest, but also very encouraging. Because Maddox Lennon was a musician, the main house act as it was, he attracted a good balance of artistic types to the basement Open Mic Night he ran once a month on Saturday nights. And often other musicians and artists would come to share and they would end up talking til 3am, smoking and drinking as they worked out whatever it was that needed ironing out. Estelle's older brother was a famous musician, so she already felt the pressure to live up to the musical genius that was Torsten. Her music was much different then her brother's, but that wouldn't matter.
Maddox had challenged her to do a cover of a classic song as one of her two songs and she had chosen a Johnny Cash song, "I Walk The Line." She'd prerecorded the instrumentals back at school. After Maddie's introduction, she smiled at him and the audience, full of familiar faces and strangers. "I'm going to be starting with a cover," she said into the microphone. "Everyone should know this song." The music started and she began to sing, her voice matching the slowed down, haunted version of Cash's song she'd reinterpreted. Her eyes were closed as she began to sing, both hands on the microphone. The fae nephilim didn't move much as she sang, but everyone's attention was on her. Estelle didn't notice the familiar face she had been kinda avoiding since his return to school this year, as he came down the stairs, to investigate the unique cover of one of his favorite songs. Estelle wouldn't admit to anyone that her choice of songs were meant to be therapeutic, to get the long time crush on Ezekiel Barak out of her head. As she finished her cover, she opened her eyes to the audience's applause and some whistles. She smiled and laughed softly as she ran a hand through her long rainbow locks. "You're all too kind," she chided the audience. "Thank you." She adjusted the pale faux fur shag jacket she wore over the simple black crop top which revealed her slender midriff. For as cold as it was, she should probably have dressed more for the occasion, but instead, her ripped sequin jeans showed her pale toned legs.
"The next song I'm going to play for you is something I wrote to try to work through some lingering emotions about a thing that happened years ago, I thought I was over, until I recently saw him again." Her blue eyes moved over the crowd in the dimly lit room as she talked, until they settled on that familiar face. For a moment they widened in surprise and she felt a moment of panic she quickly pushed down. Zeke was here? Of all the places for him to be on a Saturday night! Looking away she ran a hand through her hair, a tell of her nerves. FUCK! What was she supposed to do now? Remembering that he didn't even remember their night of passion years ago, eased that panic and she smiled again at the audience. "So this song is called 'Strange Love.'" A nod at Maddie who pressed play on the instrumental and she began.
"Everybody wants to know if we fucked on the bathroom sink. How your hands felt in my hair, if we were high on amphetamines." Blue eyes flashed as she sang the provocative lyrics, unable to stop her eyes from flicking in Zeke's direction, before quickly dropping back to the stage.
"And everybody wants to hear, how we chain smoked until three. And how you laughed when you said my name and how you gripped my hips so mean." As she sang, flashes of that night came back to her mind unbidden, his hands in her hair, the way he breathed her name, this strong hands on her hips, which left bruises she wore like a trophy in the morning. The way he made her fae skin glow, as no one else ever had.
Again her eyes drifted to his and she moved into the bridge of the chorus. "We wrote a story in the fog on the windows that night, but the ending is the same every damn time, no, no, no." She looked away again, trying hard not to look at him, because it was going to give her away, if her damn hair didn't.
It wasn't until the second verse that again she glanced at him, unable to look away now that he was in the same room with her, something she'd been trying to avoid.
"Everybody's waiting up, to hear if I dare speak your name, put it deep beneath the track, like the hole you left in me." She closed her eyes then, to force herself to stop looking at him.
"And everybody wants to know, 'bout how it felt to hear you scream, they know you walk like you're a God, they can't believe I made you weak." Her own words were a double edged sword, bringing that night back in vivid detail, of the first time in the bathroom at the party, before going back to his room, where she had been more bold and hearing him scream her name had been one of the most powerful moment in her life thus far.
Her heart was beating in her chest like a caged bird as she sang, finishing up her song. Breathless she thanked the audience, almost tuning out the applause, as her whole head felt floaty. She glanced at Zeke who was staring at her and she turned away, grabbing the disc from Maddie as he stepped back up, calling up the next act. Grabbing her fringed bag, she pushed through the crowd and out a back door, fishing in her bag for her vintage cigarette case, which had both her cigarettes and rolled joints. Leaning against the brick wall of the back alley, she took a perfectly rolled joint and put it between her lips as she used a gold lighter to light it. Taking a deep drag of the high grade marijuana, she let it fill her lungs before she let it out, calming her racing heart. It wasn't like Zeke would know it was about him, she reasoned with herself. He probably thought she was only looking at him because she was surprised to see him or self conscious or something. Estelle had the joint to her lips as the door to the alleyway swung open and she was face to face with Zeke. For the second time that evening, her blue eyes were wide in surprise, but only for a moment.
As she let out the fragrant smoke, she schooled her face into looking cool and not at all panicked. "Hey solider," she teased, trying for normal. "Going my way?"