Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Bowie
Rocktoberfest
“Claude? Holy shit, guys, it’s Claude!
“Dude! What the hell are you doing here?”
Twin waves of exuberance swarmed us, right along with a wave of bubbles that poured over our heads and made seeing who the hell we were talking to extremely difficult.
“Jagger! Johnny! Chill with the fuckin’ bubbles for a minute so we can talk to Claude!”
A bubble landed on my nose, and I sneezed and batted at the cloud around my head, blinking as they cleared enough for me to see purple hair beside long, blue tresses framing a face I’d have known anywhere.
Holy shit, Johnny Amaral.
I was about to have a serious fanboy moment. How the hell did Claude know them? Before I could turn and ask, another wave of bubbles covered us. Someone seriously had to be wielding a bubble cannon for the bubbles to be swarming us like this.
“Kayden! Telling them to quit was not a damned invitation for you to retaliate!” A gruff voice cut in, only slightly muffled by the bubbles swirling around my ears. “You are all going to wind up on leashes, I swear to fucking dog!”
Dog?
Had I heard that right?
“Give me that dog – damned thing.”
Okay, I definitely hadn’t misheard.
Brushing the bubbles out of my eyes again, I cleared them just in time to see Robbie fuckin’ Marsh yanking a bubble cannon out of Kayden’s hands.
The crew that comprised Damaged Saints and Blissfully Immune stood in front of us, some looking a bit sheepish as their manager, who also happened to be the former lead singer of Damaged Saints, shot them all scathing looks.
I did not ever want to see Pressley look at any of us like that.
“Please excuse our miscreants,” Robbie said, rubbing the back of his neck. “They seem to have left their home training back in Maine.”
The only one who didn’t seem amped up and out of control was their bassist, Mickey, who I only knew from the articles I’d read about the band.
He was not as outgoing as the rest of his bandmates, if the interviews with them were to be believed.
Sitting obediently by his feet were two of the most adorable St. Bernards I’d ever seen, tongues lolling out of their mouths as their tails kicked up a cloud of dust as they wagged them on the ground.
“Hey Claude,” Ozius ‘Ozzy’ Wilson said as he stepped closer, a flyswatter in one hand, a bubble still clinging to the flat surface. “Why didn’t you say anything about being here?”
One look at Claude’s face and I saw that our usually overconfident drummer suddenly looked like a kicked puppy.
“Just, uh, didn’t want to say anything until I was sure it was really gonna happen.” Claude replied, though I sensed there was more to it, especially when he didn’t make eye contact with Ozzy. “How’s it going?”
“We had an…entertaining ride out,” Ozzy replied, shaking his head as he glanced at the men around him, all of whom I recognized, save for one.
“Hey Kit,” Claude said.
“Hey man, good to see you,” the guy replied.
Him I didn’t know from any of the articles I’d read or podcasts I’d listened to, but it was clear Claude did.
“You playing?” Claude asked.
“Half the set,” Kit replied.
I saw Claude try and fail to smile as he nodded at him.
“Gonna introduce us to your band?” Ozzy asked. “This is your band, right? I mean, you’re back here instead of on the other side of the gate, so I’m assuming you’re playing this weekend.”
“Today, actually, we’re, um, the opening band on the main stage, Imminent Danger,” Claude explained. “This is Tony, our singer, Tibby, our bassist, Bowie, our guitarist, and Pressley, our manager. I doubt these guys need any introduction.”
“Hell no,” I said, shaking hands and fist-bumping with some of my idols.
“Good deal,” Ozzy replied, “I’ll make sure to catch it. I’m glad you landed somewhere that clearly seems to fit.”
“T-thanks,” Claude stammered.
We stood around for a moment, just shooting the shit about all there was to see, then Jagger’s eyes went wide. “They’ve got cotton candy.”
He bolted, Johnny and Kayden hot on his heels, as Draven pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
“I’ll catch them,” Robbie declared, shooting a pointed look at Draven. “But it’s up to you to pin your boyfriend to the bed. I’m gonna have my hands full enough with Jagger and Kayden on sugar overload.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Mickey said, looking amused as he and the dogs trailed off behind him.
As the rest of their bandmates followed, Ozzy crooked his finger at Claude and pulled him off to the side.
Their conversation was short and mostly seemed to consist of Claude nodding as Ozzy spoke, but there was a small smile on his face when he joined us, which helped ease the tension we’d all felt as we’d waited, shoulder to shoulder, to see if everything was okay.
“Okay, spill,” Pressley said before any of us could, and yeah, he used his no-nonsense voice too. “What was that all about?”
“You know I said moving to Seattle was the best choice I’d ever made when you guys signed me to the band.”
“Yes, and?” Pressley replied.
“They were the reason I moved,” Claude explained.
“Ozzy, um, he and I are from the same city. He was looking for a relief drummer, and, well, he’d been mentoring me for years, and that was kind of why I was so leery of Diamond and Shadow, ‘cause after I tried out to be Ozzy’s relief drummer, he chose Kit.
He told me I was the better player but that Kit had the better personality.
Figured that was the last chance I’d get on the East Coast, so I took off to nurse my wounded ego and do my best to get even better so that maybe it wouldn’t matter next time that most people think I’m a dick.
They’d just care that I was too damned good to pass on. ”
“So, was that him apologizing?” I asked.
“No, that was him warning me not to let my ego fuck it up for me, like I almost did the day I auditioned,” Claude replied.
“He said he’d never doubted for a moment that I was good enough, just wasn’t sure if I could get along with anyone long enough to prove it.
I told him I was trying, and he said he looked forward to hearing us. That was pretty much it.”
His words reminded me of the look on his face when he hadn’t received the praise he’d been expecting after his audition.
It made a lot more sense now, as did his reaction to Diamond’s threat that he had Slade on speed dial.
It all clicked into place why he tried to rein it in, though it did leave me somewhat worried about how long that would last.
“I can’t believe we just met several of our idols in one rather crazy, bubble-filled moment of chaos,” Tony muttered, shaking his head at the absolute insanity going on at the cotton candy vendor.
“No shit,” I said, wondering what my folks would have thought about the bubble shower if they hadn’t decided to do a bit of wandering on their own today with Uncle Ray.
Knowing my dad and uncle, they were probably bounding around as exuberantly as Jagger and Johnny, and my mom was loving every minute of it.
We wandered some more, going mostly unnoticed in the swirling mass of bodies that were roving around, but the longer we were out there the more my nerves were starting to kick into hyperdrive.
Pressley said that we were the first band and damn if that countdown clock wasn’t ticking closer and closer to the time we were supposed to get up there.
“You better be ready for this!”
“Huh?”
“You heard me.”
A glance to my left revealed where the voice had come from. Stoli, who motioned me away from the rest of the band. How the hell had he’d known I needed to see him, like, right fuckin’ now to get my head straight before I got up there was beyond me.
“I was, until just a few minutes ago when I realized that it was almost time to get ready,” I admitted sheepishly.
“And now you’ve got a belly full of nerves.”
“Pretty much.”
“If you weren’t nervous, I’d be concerned,” Stoli said. “This is huge for you guys, but more than that, those nerves, that’s what’s going to fuel you to do everything in your power to win the crowd over right from the jump. If you weren’t scared, I’d think you were getting cocky on me.”
“Been there, done that, regret it immensely.”
“Exactly, you know what happens when you walk around thinking nothing can touch you.”
“Yeah, it smacks you with a car and sends you thought a window,” I replied, chuckling a little.
He grinned at that, and for the first time, I realized that I could toss a joke around like that and not even flinch. Progress, that’s what my therapist would say.
“You wouldn’t have the slot if you weren’t ready,” he said.
“That’s all you need to think about it. That you’ve got a whole team behind you that knows you guys are gonna nail this.
When you walk out there, your focus needs to be on the music, not those scars.
I don’t wanna see you fuck with your hair, I don’t wanna see you duck your head, and I sure as fuck don’t wanna see you try and hide behind Tony when things get intense.
He needs you beside him, and Claude needs you in front of him if he starts racing, ‘cause we both know the temptation is gonna be there for him and you need to shut that shit down when it happens so that you guys perform the way you’ve been doing. Can you do that?”
I nodded, but this was clearly not a time for non-verbal responses, because his eyes just narrowed into a scowl.
“Yeah, I can,” I replied, and as if to emphasize that, I took the elastic off my wrist and tied my hair back, ‘cause it was damn near time to get ready and I wanted him to see that I didn’t plan to hide.
“Good, now go get your ass ready for Imminent’s Rocktoberfest debut. All the Masterson bands will be watching, so…”
“Don’t fuck it up,” I finished for him, earning a grin and a quick hug before I took off to find the bus.
“Bowie!”
I turned, shocked to see Pressley looking a little less than put together as he chased after me. Unable to put on the brakes, he crashed into me, which was perfectly fine. My fingers tangled in his hair, and I kissed him until I couldn’t breathe. His hands found my ass as he grinded against me.
“Inside, now!” He barked, sending a shiver down my spine that got me moving.
Whether he knew it or not, he’d just hit the level of command voice I positively loved and tripped my already high libido into overdrive.
Kissing, groping, wrestling with clothes that went flying in every which direction as we shucked them, we bounced off every surface on the way to the bedroom, where there was barely time for prep before he entered me and sent my thoughts whirling.
“Please,” I begged, unable to put words to what I needed.
He knew, though, and pinned me to the bed as he thrust into me, hard, fast, and rough, until I was right there on the edge.
“I love you!” He growled with a snap of his hips and one hand heavy on my shoulder, controlling and guiding me as I fell apart beneath him.
It was like everything froze, then shook and shattered, leaving me wrung out as I lay gasping on the bed, the chaos in my mind silent and still.
“Love you too,” I groaned as I draped an arm over him as he collapsed beside me.
“You’re not gonna love me in five minutes when I tell you that you absolutely have to get a quick shower and get dressed.”
Chuckling and knowing he was right, the one thing that helped motivate me was knowing that none of my band brothers would be beating on the door claiming I’d exceeded my water limit. Three coin toss wins had already rewarded me with more than my fair share of shower usage.
“Get moving,” he growled, slapping me on the ass. “I have got to find my clothes before someone comes looking for me.”
The thought of him being seen by everyone as anything less than put together left me smiling as I rolled, kissed him, grabbed the kilt, and the shredded Imminent Danger t-shirt I intended to wear when I took to the stage. Gotta love the free merch the talent got.
An hour later, that’s where I stood, with Claude beating out the intro to Fuck You! While I joined in on my guitar.
Hard, heavy, and everything we’d wanted it to be, we gave the crowd the anthem we wanted to be known by, at least for now, and I couldn’t have been prouder to do it, especially with my mom, dad, and uncle front and center in the VIP section, cheering us on.
I could see on my mom’s face through the song that she understood how much of it was Tony laying aside his demons, letting his old man know that he hadn’t been able to stop him from living his dream.
I was proud of my best friend, proud of all of us.
We’d earned this, and we were gonna lay ourselves bare.
Fuck you for always saying no to me
Fuck you for being my first bully
Fuck you for siding with my enemies
Fuck you for turning your back on me
Fuck you for never supporting me
Fuck you for never believing in me
Fuck you and your fake ass authority
Fuck you for trying to control me
Fuck you for thinking you owned me
Fuck you for constantly mocking me
Fuck you for accidentally wrecking me
Fuck you for laughing at my pain
Fuck you for believing their lies
Fuck you, someday you’ll all fail too
Fuck you
Fuck you
Fuck you
You’re in Imminent Danger now!
Imminent Danger now!