I remember the first day I met him. I had answered an ad for a drummer for this new singer that was supposed to be the next hot thing. I had heard his first hit on the radio, and had pictured him as some heartsick emo boy playing sensitive to get the girls swooning. But I was broke and a job's a job.
I was shown into a practise room and given a number. I recognised some of the other guys there including a past lover or two. I had known from the time I was around 12 that I was gay. I think it was just as obvious to my friends and family as years later when I did the dramatic coming out thing, the overall reaction was, yeah we know.
When it was my turn to show my stuff I sat down at a spare kit, there was a bass player, a keyboard player and I guessed the manager all waiting for our boy to arrive.
Then he came into the room. My first impression was how small he was, he looked like a little boy and so skinny like a stiff wind could blow him to Bermuda. Then he looked at me. I was not prepared for those eyes.
My heart skipped a beat as he smiled at me and his eyes seemed to look into my very soul like deep blue lasers cutting through me. I faked a coughing fit to get time to recover, which turned into a real coughing fit. Someone handed me a glass of water.
With a soft, heavily accented British voice he asked me if I was OK. I nodded and he strapped on his guitar and we played a few songs.
Then I was thanked for coming by the manager and asked to give contact information. Which I did expecting to not hear a damn thing back.
Right after I left the audition, I bought his CD. Normally I'm more of a heavy metal or hard rock type, but there was something in his songs that grabbed me where I was most vulnerable and before it was done I was in tears from the raw and honest emotions. No doubt about it, the boy is talented.
A week went by and I had been trying unsuccessfully to get him out of my mind. In my obsession I read up on him, disappointed to find he was by all accounts straight. Not that I imagined I had a shot at him.
Then I got the call, it was him. He told me I had the job if I wanted it. He went on to explain that there would be only two weeks of rehearsal, starting the very next day, before we would be out on tour, first of Europe, then the UK and then the US. I hadn't said anything past "hello" and I think he must have wondered if I had hung up on him.
He paused, 'Paul? Are you still with me?"
You don't know how much I want to be with you, is what I wanted to say. After all just hearing him say my name made me hard, but instead I said I would be at the rehearsal the following day.
I made extra effort the next morning to make sure nothing would "come up" during rehearsals. I jacked off twice, and took a cold shower as extra insurance. I arrived at the rehearsal hall just as the rest of the band came in. Introductions were made all around and they seemed like good blokes. My gaydar didn't pick up on any of them, so I decided to not go into that aspect of my life just yet.
Then he joined us. He stopped to talk to a leggy brunette who was sitting near the back of the room. She smiled at him and rose to give him a kiss. I tried not to imagine those full lips of his on mine; instead I fumbled with the drum kit a bit pretending to be tightening the already tight screws on the hi-hat.
You would think the intimacy of being out on the road with someone would give you the opportunity to get to know them, but our boy was pretty reserved. He had this funny way of coming off as really friendly and warm while keeping you at arm's length. Don't get me wrong, he'd talk to me, but he would shy away from talking about himself. He had a disarming habit of almost interviewing the people around him but he did it in such a natural way you didn't realise it until you had a quiet moment to yourself.
His girlfriend was with him the entire European leg of the tour; she was much taller than him and very beautiful. It was pretty obvious she adored him. One awkward trip, he was in the window seat she was next to him and I was on the aisle seat. She couldn't keep her hands off of him, and I had to pretend to not see her rubbing his crotch and nibbling his neck. I had to put my jacket in my lap to prevent anyone from seeing how this was raising my interest, at one point I glanced up and he looked at me, flashed an embarrassed grin and shrugged his shoulders.
We had a couple of weeks off between the tours; once we got back together I could see something had changed. First off his girlfriend was not around as much. I also caught him looking at me a lot more with those penetrating eyes, like he was trying to figure out something important and I was the key to solving it.
He also took to drinking a great deal. Not to say he was a tee-totaler before, but one or two beers was usually it, but after the first show in London, he managed to down four beers before I had my first one opened.
The band and I talked about it one night after he had taken off for the hotel. Some guessed lady troubles, others the burden of sudden fame, I couldn't put my finger on it but I knew there was more to it.
One night he came on to me, at first I thought he was joking, but I could see by the little-boy-lost look he had that he meant it. He further confounded me by freaking out when I tried to take him up on it later that evening, and then the next morning he wouldn't look me in the eye.