Chapter 1
Berlin, June 2021. More precisely, June 17th and 18th.
A big step took place in Maneskin’s career, they had won the biggest and longest music competition in Europe. Now their main motto was “Forever on road”.
After a day full of interviews and traveling, Damiano, Victoria, Ethan, and Thomas decided to meet in Ethan’s room, to have a little distraction.
“Well, can we play truth or dare?” Thomas asked, excitedly.
“I think we have no longer 15 years, but yes...” said Damiano, trying to be serious.
“Spin the bottle, Ethan,” Victoria proceeded.
The first round went for Thomas.
“Truth or dare?” she inquired, trying to look innocent.
“Uhh... true.”
“Well, what’s the most unusual place you’ve ever done... sex?” she asked, making a sexy voice.
“Maybe... at the dressing rooms.”
“I can’t deny that it isn’t good.“, Damiano adds, staying slightly red.
“Shhh, your adventures with your girlfriend don’t need to be told here, right?” Thomas said.
“Not your adventures with Lavinia either, right?” he protested, in self-defense.
“Well, can we stop talking about me and Lavinia? Let’s spin the bottle again,” the younger one said, sighing.
The second round went for Damiano.
“No need to ask, I choose dare,” he said, very foolish.
“Well... this one is classic. I challenge Damiano blindfolded to try to take Victoria’s bra off in less than 10 seconds. I mean, if she’s using one, right?“, asked Thomas, feeling radical.
He accepted the challenge, not least because he’s done it other times in group play. But when he put the blindfold on and tried to reach for the bra, he felt Vic feel very intimidated by that touch, which made him feel a little bad.
“Sorry Vic, what’s going on?” he whispered, a little worried.
“No, it was just a little... shiver. You can continue, at your leisure.”
In the end, he managed to get her bra off, but he still had one question in his mind: why had she been so intimidated by that touch? This had never happened before.
When they all supposedly went to sleep, Damiano was in his bed awake, still thinking about it. After a while, he got up, went to the bedroom balcony, and lit a cigarette, sometimes that attitude left him with the clearest ideas. Amidst huge, confused thoughts, he had smoked more than 5 cigarettes in a very short space of time, without realizing it.
While smoking the sixth cigarette, he started to hear something weird, and it looked like it was coming from Vic’s room. It sounded like a crying sound mixed with anger, a more feminine voice. But that didn’t mean anything, Thomas also got a thinner voice when he is sad. So, it could be any one of that 3.
Whoever it was, he wanted to help. Therefore, he decided to leave his room very slowly so as not to wake up Leo, the band assistant, and his best friend who was sleeping in the same room. Then he headed down the hallway, tried to follow the direction of the noise, and reached Vic’s room, which had the door unlocked, which he thought was a little strange. After all, they were in a hotel, not at home.
When he went inside, it was dark and he thought ”Wow Damiano, it’s not Vic. She must be sleeping“. But something was weird, the bathroom light was on, and Dam knew Vic well, she would be awake by that moment too.
“Vic?” he said, knocking on the door.
After knocking on the door 5 times with no response, he started to get extremely worried about her, or whoever was inside. A few moments later, he realized the door was locked, which was not a good sign.
He just had one sentence running through his head “Dami, don’t do this, it’s an invasion of privacy”. But another phrase was also in his head, one that his best friend from high school used to say: ” If it’s something important and you don’t see what it is, you’ll live forever plagued with that remorse. That’s why it’s better to go see and be nothing, than not go see it and be something.”. That girl, Martina, learned that after her Nona’s death. And she was right.
And suddenly, he felt the door unlock, after minutes that felt like hours, and he opened it immediately. Little did he know that moment could change his life forever.
