The flashing lights and the heat emanating from them were becoming unbearable. The band had been standing on stage for over an hour performing for one of the largest crowds they had ever seen. Thankfully they were finishing up the last song. As soon as she heard Jay go silent she wanted to drop the guitar in her hands and bolt off the stage in a mad dash towards the lounge area that had been set up for the club's staff. Rayne knew better than to pull a stupid stunt like that though.
Once Jay had given his usual ending speech to the crowd the four band members walked off stage together. At this point Rayne had begun to feel a bit lightheaded, but she still tried her best not to show it to the others. She was the type that didn't like anyone to worry about her and she was too stubborn to let herself be taken down easily by a little exhaustion.
Once they were settled down again, Jay looked around at the others with a strong look of satisfaction on his face. "We are so killing it now," he said eagerly.
Rayne smiled and shrugged. She was glad that the first thing that came out of his mouth was something positive for once. Ever since she had joined the band, all she usually got from him was criticism. When she started out with them she wasn't really all that bad, but she was still very inexperienced and coupled with her own nervousness it often led her to make some mistakes. Jay always made too much of a big deal about it though since he wanted everything to be perfect and quite honestly wasn't fond of the idea of Rayne being the choice to replace the guitarist that had suddenly quit on them.
Sitting beside Rayne was Violet, the drummer of the band. She glanced up at Jay briefly as she had quickly gotten comfortable and had started messing with her phone. She only shrugged before turning her attention back to the dimly lit screen. Violetwasn't really the talkative type. She was outgoing when she needed to be, but mostly she just kept to herself. It was one thing Jay liked about her since when she occasionally would try to "express herself" and show her true colors they didn't really get along all that well. More grateful than Jay though was Tobi. He was the oldest of the group and the one with the most experience. The bassist wasn't as outgoing as Jay, but he certainly was far more charismatic. He and Violet never really saw eye to eye.
Tobi by no means was a bad guy. He could seem a bit cold sometimes but that was mostly due to his rough look and tendency to act a bit indifferent towards most things. The only real reason Violet didn't like him was because of his habits with women. His habit of sleeping with several women was by no means appealing to the self-proclaimed feminist. To her, he was only using and taking advantage of poor, innocent, naïve girls. In reality, his multiple one night stands with fans were a distraction from his boredom and since really those girls threw themselves at him he didn't feel like he was doing anything wrong.
This had been how he had earned the title of "sex god" among the band's female fans. It wasn't something he bragged about or really cared much about for that matter. That alone made Violet almost resent him. Things with him had been different lately though. He seemed less interested in paying any mind to any of the girls who practically begged him for attention. It was a bit too obvious why.
Tobi had been the one who most insisted on having Rayne become the new guitarist in the band. It didn't take the others too long to guess why he insisted so much on it. Rayne was an attractive girl who had just barely turned twenty one when she auditioned to join them. She had sleek scarlet hair which she often had freely draped over her face and shoulders and sparkling light green eyes which gave her a mystifying look. For the shows, she would pull her hair up into two pony tails which coupled with her Lolita attire made her look irresistibly cute and innocent. She was Tobi's type without a doubt. The man, who was in his early thirties, had a big thing for younger women. What seemed to have really sealed the deal for him though was the fact that the girl sported amazingly large breasts; roughly 38DD.
All these things that he found so appealing about her, she was never too fond of. It wasn't like Rayne had always had a perfect body. In high school she had gained a bit of weight, not to any point where she was considered overweight, which was probably part of what attributed to her naturally large bust. Of course even without that she convinced herself it was inevitable since every woman in her family had that similar quality. As for her hair and eyes, well she was often teased about the rare coloring of her eyes and by no means was she born with natural dark red hair. The once blond haired girl began to dye her hair when she developed her almost gothic style.
It had been all these things, coupled with her personality and wit that had captivated the older male. At first, Tobi attempted to go about things as he did with most any woman. He figured that the young nymph would fall for him easily like all others did. He was sadly mistaken however. Rayne made it clear to him that she was not like the other girls during her first week with the band. His failed first attempts at capturing her heart only led Rayne to side with Violet a bit and believe some of the exaggerated stories she told of the man.
Secretly though, Rayne could not deny to herself that she did have some attraction to him. There was something about him that she always liked. Of course she would never admit that to anyone. Before joining the band, she had been a fan of theirs and admittedly had chosen him as her favorite. She managed to convince herself and her friends that she merely looked up to the older male as a musician and nothing more. In a way it was believable too. Tobi did indeed have a great deal of natural talent and the added experience didn't hurt either.
A bit of time had passed before Rayne noticed a stream of messages on her phone. Two of her friends from high school who went to most of the local shows the band performed in had been trying to get a hold of her for what seemed like an immense amount of time. They apparently wanted to meet for drinks since this was the last time the band would be in the area for a while. It didn't much seem like the others were going to need her so she bid them farewell for the night and caught a taxi over to the bar where the other girls had specified in the texts.
Once there, it didn't taken the three girls long to get settled at a booth in the back and order a few drinks. It also didn't take long for the three lightweights to get drunk. They had sat at the table talking about random things that had happened to them since they last hung out, however after an hour or so the two girls who had practically been badgering for their now celebrity friend to join them set off to mingle and flirt with other bar goers and left Rayne sitting alone.
Being as drunk as she was, Rayne didn't think much of the abandonment. She left the table shortly after and went to go sit at the bar and ordered a few more drinks. Things didn't seem to be going too bad until a man approached her from behind.
"Hey there babe," the drunken man said as he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Why's a pretty thing like you sitting all alone? You need some company don't ya"
Rayne turned and examined the man for a brief moment. She shook her head as she clearly wasn't liking what she was seeing. "No thanks. I'm fine by myself, thank you."
The man wasn't going to give up so easily however. "Yeah right. You don't mean that sweetheart. A pretty little thing like you needs a man with her all the time." He made it clear that he had no intention of backing down and seemed to be getting bolder as he moved in closer to her to the point where he was only inches from her face.
