Chapter 14 Iggy
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Iggy
José wedged his phone between his ear and shoulder. “Hello?”
“Hey! It’s me,” Andrej said from the other end of the line.
Meanwhile, Iggy, his younger brother, turned down the volume, and “White Light” disappeared amidst engine noise and street sounds.
“So, you heard it too?” Andrej said.
“Yep,” José replied, turning on his blinker.
“If Clint finds out Leaf’s back on it, this could end badly,” Andrej said, sounding genuinely concerned. But José would never turn against his oldest and best friend.
“He nailed it today,” José reassured.
“Completely wasted.”
“Without a hitch.”
Upon hearing this, Andrej growled in annoyance. “Okay, call me paranoid, but we’re totally screwed.”
Iggy pressed some buttons on the radio and searched for another station—indeed, several of their songs were playing on different channels. “Do they only play Nightstalker now? This is insane.”
“Are you in the car with Iggy?” Andrej inquired.
“Yeah.”
“Where are you guys?”
“On Alvarado heading home.”
“Is that Andrej?” Iggy asked, turning up the air conditioning and letting the cool air hit his face.
“Put it on speaker!” Andrej exclaimed excitedly. “What I have to say affects him too.”
“Put it on speaker,” José requested, prompting his brother to take the phone, switch it to speaker mode, and balance it on his knee. As they stopped at a red light, José lifted his sweaty shirt to cool off. “So, what’s up?”
“Hey, Iggy!” Andrej said. “How’s it going? Everything alright?”
Iggy glanced at José with a puzzled expression. “What does he want?” he whispered.
José shrugged.
“Hola, Andrejos.”
“Listen …” Andrej continued. “I would have suggested we meet up, but I’m here in Santa Monica, and this can’t wait.”
“What’s up?”
“I … uh … Carol called me and asked if we should get ourselves a backup.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, what happened is bad enough. But Leaf is a huge risk for us to let this tour fail.”
José became suspicious and snuck a glance at his brother. As the light turned green, he continued driving with an uneasy feeling because he somehow sensed where this conversation was heading.
“And why should that concern me?” Iggy asked, appearing bored as he tucked a strand of his black hair behind his ear. Despite the air conditioning, he was drenched in sweat.
“Carol asked me if I knew anyone who could replace Leaf. You’re the only one who came to mind. You’d be perfect for it.”
There was a moment of silence on all sides. José glanced at his brother and changed lanes. Shortly after, he pulled up at a liquor store; the first available parking spot he could find. He didn’t want to have this conversation while driving.
“Are you still there?” Andrej asked.
“Cono! You can’t just drop a bomb like that!” José exclaimed. “We’re talking about Leaf here!”
“Iggy! What do you say?”
José paused, irritated that Andrej was ignoring him, and glimpsed at his brother. Iggy seemed quite at a loss.
“Well, uh … I have a lot of work for university,” he hesitated, nervously tapping his right foot. “I have to write a paper.”
“Aren’t you on break already? And those last forever! You could skip a semester, no problem, right?” Andrej interjected.
“You seem to have thought this through pretty well,” José said, giving his little brother a warning look.
“I’m not saying it has to be immediate,” Andrej defended on the other end. “But come on, you’ve seen how Leaf is doing.”
“Tristan is back. He’ll handle it.”
“Tristan, yeah. With Leaf, I’m honestly not so sure.”
“I can’t just go on tour,” Iggy said. “I have to write a paper.”
“You study art!” Andrej exclaimed.
“What the fuck?” Iggy snapped, taking the phone and speaking into it as if it were a microphone. “I study art history, pendejo! You know that! What’s your problem, man?”
José snatched the phone from him, turned off the speaker, and put it back to his ear. “Got it, I'll think about your suggestion.”
“The clock is ticking, Martinez. And I’ll be honest. I don’t want to play in a band with a junkie that’s being hyped up from all sides. The higher you fly, the harder you crash. And Leaf is definitely a big risk that could destroy us all.”
José sighed. “Listen, I understand your concerns. I really do, but …”
“I joined this band because I believe in it. But I’ve got bills piling up too. Not to mention, I’m still paying off student loans. If this tour has to be canceled because of Leaf, then …”
“Nothing’s getting canceled,” José interjected. “Let’s not rush into anything. Let me talk to Leaf.”
“Do that,” Andrej remarked, not sounding thrilled.
“And you, chill out,” José warned. “Give Tristan at least a few days to get back on track.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. José knew Andrej was rolling his eyes. “I've been saying all along that things between them are bound to fail. But no, they didn’t want to listen to me.”
“They’ve made their choice, and they love each other.”
“But what I saw today at the Gaucho looked more like estrangement to me.”
José had to admit that Andrej had a point.
“Bro!” Iggy impatiently chimed in. “If this takes much longer, let me drive.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” José said, switching the phone to his other ear. “I think we should support them as much as possible for now.” There was a suspicious silence on the other end of the line. “What do you think?”
Andrej beat around the bush, which was unlike him. “Listen, dude. Supporting is more your thing, and we both know that. I’m too pragmatic for that.”
“Then be pragmatic. The interview is tomorrow.”
“Yeah, why aren’t you there, anyway?”
“Bro!” Iggy whined. “I’m melting here!”
José gestured to his brother to be quiet. “It’s a radio interview. Looks like three people are one too many.”
“Huh?”
“Please, do me the favor and keep an eye on Tris. Okay? Clint can be really sneaky.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Andrej asked. “He even found out what I wanted to write my master’s thesis about. I wouldn’t be surprised if he already knows every detail of the past three weeks. We need to find out who his sources are.”
The car door slammed all of a sudden, and Iggy marched into the liquor store.
“Okay, then …” José wiped the sweat trickling down his temple and longed for a shower. “I’ll be at the Gaucho tomorrow. Maybe you guys can come by after the interview.”
“Yeah, we will. You make sure our guitarist gets back on his feet.”
“Hmm … Alright then. See you.”
“Yeah, see you.”
Not entirely convinced this would be easy, José hung up. He’d known Leaf since he was eight and had even met his mother. But he also knew him well enough to know that hope wasn’t lost yet.
Over the years, he had dealt with two relapses with Leaf, supporting him to get back on his feet each time. It had never been easy, a constant struggle that José mostly won with the help of music, because it meant everything to Leaf.
José had learned that every addict had a drug of choice. Among all the substances Leaf consumed, playing the guitar still ranked high on his list. As long as that remained the case, their chances were good.
Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different this time. It wasn’t just Leaf and the drugs. Something else made José feel like everything was hanging by a thread.
The way Leaf and Tristan had interacted had been stiff and marked by uncertainty—which was unlike them at all.
They were a well-oiled team, communicated without words, and could hardly keep their hands off each other.
Yes, somehow they seemed estranged, and José was sure it wasn’t Tristan’s fault.
He would have stayed in the clinic if he didn’t want to go back to his old life.
He was stubborn like that. As difficult as it might have been for Tristan, his return alone showed that the band was important to him.
What scared him was Leaf, who seemed to be carrying something around that was bothering him more than it should.
Unfortunately, he also knew his friend well in this regard and knew that he solved such things in his own way.
As long as Leaf didn’t disappear or vanish from the scene, their chances of surviving these turbulences were good.
Otherwise, they would have no choice but to mobilize Iggy.
“Here!” his brother said, who had just returned to the car and handed him a cold bottle of water.
“Thanks.”
“Everything sorted? Can we go now?”
After José greedily drank half the bottle, he started driving.
“Ig? You know all our songs, right?”
Iggy was silent, and when José glanced at him, his little brother just stared back.
“Come on, Ig. You know Leaf too well. When push comes to shove …”
“When push comes to shove, he’ll pull himself out of it. That’s always been the case.”
“No,” José disagreed, stopping at the next red light. “That hasn’t always been the case. The last two times, I had to call an ambulance.”
“What? Really?”
José appeared worried. To Iggy, Leaf was like a hero. It wasn’t until Iggy moved to Los Angeles for university that he discovered this other side of Leaf. Fortunately, Iggy was so grounded that he didn’t get the idea to emulate him in this regard, as he had already done with playing the guitar.
“Yeah, I know the songs,” Iggy reluctantly admitted. “Every single one. You can hardly escape Nightstalker these days. Everyone knows your songs!”
“Please, don’t let us down if things get tough.”
“Okay.” Iggy sighed and finished the bottle.
“Thanks.”