“Uh . . . NOAH!” Suddenly Noah’s head popped over Klaw’s shoulder. He had slid in between Noah and me, partially blocking Noah from my sight.
“Hey, dude.” Klaw threw a very half-hearted non-committal mumble at Noah and then oozed even closer to me.
“Interesting name,” Noah said, his head bobbing up and down. “How do you spell that?”
“With a ‘K.’ ” Klaw angled his body to completely block Noah now, and he slithered even closer to me. “It’s really sick to meet a fan like you.”
“A fan?”
“Yeah, someone who knows all the lyrics to our songs.”
“Wait!” I stifled a laugh-gasp. “Those were the lyrics? The actual ones? I got them right?”
“Yeah, man, the lyrics are whatever the lyrics are. And you sang them so passionately. I’ve never met such a passionate fan before.”
“Aaaah,” I mumbled. If only he knew the truth. And then he reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I looked down at it and then back up to him.
“It means such a lot to me and my band.” His dark eyes zoned in on mine now and, when he found them, he held onto them tightly in an intense, dark stare that made me shiver. “I love your style.” Klaw removed his hand from my shoulder and ran his fingers over one of the tie-dye tassels hanging from my shirt. “So unbelievably retro and cool.” He slithered closer to me and I admit, for the first time since his arrival, I was finding him startingly, oddly, alluring. That dark black eyeliner really brought out the coffin shape of his eyes.
“Thanks,” I muttered, feeling a little flutter inside. Noah’s head popped up and he rolled his eyes before it disappeared behind Klaw’s shoulder again.
“You’re so beautiful,” the slippery singer continued.
“Th-thanks,” and now I giggled. It felt very undignified, but it happened anyway, and I heard a chorus of breathy sighs coming from the girls standing close by. I looked over at them and the girl with the white eyes caught my attention.
“Kiss him!” she mouthed to me, and I immediately felt my cheeks go red. I shook my head at her, but she countered my shake with a very vigorous nod. And then the girl next to her nodded, and soon they were all nodding. I looked back at Klaw. He was definitely increasing his lean. A long, languid lean, like a thick liquid slowly dripping down the side of a wall.
“Sooooo,” the word oozed from his lips, “you want to like, hang out or . . . something?” He made that “something” sound like a loaded gun.
“Um, I mean, sure,” I replied.
“Well, actually.” Noah’s head was back again. “We were just leaving.”
“I’m sure she can stay a little longer, can’t she?” Klaw came closer to me, his body almost touching mine now. I looked over at the group of girls, and White Eyes caught my attention. She stuck her tongue out and flicked it about in the air. Oh my God, she had a tongue like a snake! Everyone around her laughed and I quickly looked away.
“We were actually about to leave,” I said.
“Noooooo.” He pushed his lower lip out into a pout, revealing a tattoo on the inside of his lip that looked like a finger engaged in a zap sign. “Such a pity, but here.” Klaw took my arm and pulled a Sharpie out of the front of his pants. He raised the lid to his mouth and then, with this sexy casualness, he pulled the lid off with his teeth and spat it to the floor. He lowered the Sharpie to my arm, still making this uncomfortably intense eye contact, and then scribbled his number all the way down it. When he was done, he tossed the Sharpie over his shoulder nonchalantly. Noah protested and swatted it as it connected with his forehead, and I think I heard him mutter something that sounded like “douchebag.”
Klaw pointed to my arm. “My number. Like, call me. Anytime. We can hang out. Commune. Whenever.”
“We live in Joburg!” Noah piped up, rubbing his forehead.
“Cool. I’m often there for gigs. With my band.” He ran his eyes up and down me and I shivered a little. “Cool meeting you.” And then he leaned forward and planted a very unexpected kiss on my cheek. I looked over at the girls again. One of them seemed to have picked up the Sharpie lid and was smelling it. White Eyes threw