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Joel’s jaw dropped when Niko walked into the practice room.
“Dude,” he gasped. “You look awful.”
“Gee, thanks,” Niko replied, rolling his eyes. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already looked in the mirror, and seen the black eye on his face. The skin had been bruised purple since that morning.
“What happened to you?” Joel asked. The others would be arriving for rehearsal soon, and he was sure they were going to have as many questions as he did.
“Walked into a door,” Niko shrugged.
“No, you didn’t,” Joel shook his head. “It was Leevi, wasn’t it?”
“….How did you know?” Niko’s eyes widened.
“He and his buddies have cornered me after school a few times,” Joel confessed. “What did he want? Your lunch money?”
“No,” Niko sighed. “Nothing like that.”
“Then, why did they attack you?” Joel demanded. “They’ve never bothered you before.”
“Well, before, I would always walk home from school with my rap posse,” Niko explained. “They would look out for me, and make sure I got home safe.”
“But now,” Joel realized, “instead of going straight home, you’ve been going to rehearsal after school every day.”
“Right,” Niko nodded. “Last night, I painted my nails black. Leevi and I have Swedish class together. When he borrowed my pen this morning, he saw my nails.”
“And that was enough to make him harass you?” Joel guessed.
“I guess,” Niko frowned. “He asked me if I was gay.”
“Why would he think that?” Joel raised an eyebrow.
“Because I started dressing like a fag, and hanging out with the other fags ,” Niko scowled. “Sorry. His words, not mine.”
“So, he's saying that I’m gay,” Joel realized miserably. “And because you’ve been hanging out with me since that house party, he thinks you’re what…my boyfriend?”
“I don’t know,” Niko replied.
“I do know!,” Joel cried, racked with sudden guilt. He wanted to cry. “He never bothered you until you joined my band, and became my friend. If you had stuck to making rap beats, you wouldn’t have gotten beaten up.”
“I didn’t want to keep making rap beats,” Niko argued. “The truth is, I’ve wanted to be in a band since I was a little kid. But, I never had any friends that I could jam with. I got into rap because that’s the kind of music you can make alone .”
“Seriously?” Joel’s blue eyes widened.
“Yeah, seriously,” Niko said passionately. “Joel, I…I always loved this kind of thing. I’ve been listening to emo bands since I was eleven years old. Not just Linkin Park. I’m a My Chemical Romance fanboy, too. But, I never had the courage to wear nail polish and eyeliner and stuff, because nobody else that I knew was doing it.”
“…But I do it,” Joel blinked.
“Yeah,” Niko nodded. “You and Joonas show up to school wearing that stuff all the time. I’m sorry that I never stood up for you, when other people made fun of you for it. That was wrong. The whole time, I thought it looked cool. I was just too scared to say so.”
“You were right to be scared,” Joel mumbled, eyes swimming. He couldn’t even look at his friend. “You just made yourself a target. Maybe you should go back to wearing gold chains and backwards baseball caps. That kind of American-looking, hip-hop fashion is way more socially acceptable than what you’re doing now.”
“Then why don’t you dress like that?” Niko asked.
“Because that’s not who I am,” Joel replied. “That’s not who I want to be.”
“It’s not who I want to be, either,” Niko shook his head. “You and me - we have the same dream. We want to be rock stars. So, we have to look the part.”
“Do you think it will ever happen?” Joel asked sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think that we’ll ever make it outside of Oulu?” Joel asked. “Will we ever be real rock stars - or this whole look just a stupid costume?”
“Joel, look at me,” Niko insisted, reaching up, and grabbing onto Joel’s shirt collar. “If I did not 100% believe that Blind Channel had a chance of making it big, I would never have joined at all. It’s going to happen, because we’re going to make it happen.”
“That’s right,” Joel smiled, wiping his eyes. “Someday, we’re going to be playing headline shows in London and Los Angeles. And Leevi is going to regret messing with us.”
“He’ll come knocking on our door when he’s thirty,” Niko grinned. “ Oh please, Joel, can I borrow some of your millions ?”
“Nope,” Joel snickered. “Sorry, Leevi. If you wanted to borrow my money or my Lamborghini, you shouldn’t have beaten up my boyfriend.”
“I’m not your boyfriend,” Niko laughed.
“Not yet,” Joel winked.
“….Huh?” Niko blushed, backing up.
“Leevi’s right about one thing,” Joel said quietly, grateful that their bandmates had yet to appear. “I
am
kind of gay.”