13. Kay #2
He shook his head and took a sip of his coffee. “I gave it up before high school anyway.”
“And Pierce?”
“Stopped paying attention to him. He left me behind since I wasn’t cool enough for him. We went to different high schools, and we didn’t really see each other again much until after graduation. Saw him in some of the same party circles, then he started singing with that band.”
“What band? You mean Surf Sons?”
“Yep.” He popped his P and grinned. “Then his big head got bigger. If you can believe that. Ha. But we hung out more. I was working for a little online website that followed music in the LA scene.”
I nodded. “Did you come and see Teaserfreak? I was heading that band when I met Miami.”
He shook his head. “I…I kind of got caught up in Surf Sons. Maybe too much. And then by the time Pierce left them, I got fired.” He chuckled sardonically. “Probably should have gone to see your band. They wanted more variety.”
“That makes sense.”
“Right, but I was stupid.”
“If you say so. Then what?”
“Pierce helped me out some, and I had a gig as a tech for Black Tide.”
“I’ve heard of them. They’re decent.”
Rowan’s fruit showed up, and the server said mine would be right out. “Have some.” Rowan scooted the plate toward me a bit.
“No thanks. Mine’s coming. So…Black Tide?”
“Learned more than I contributed. But I was getting the hang of it when Pierce called me for this.”
“So you weren’t like close, like bosom buddies and all that?”
“No. And I didn’t fuck him either.” Rowan snickered, since that was the exact moment my food came. The server smiled wanly and left fast.
I laughed, but Rowan glared at me. “Aww…come on, that was funny.”
He broke into a little smile. “A little.”
“I figured there was something else going on here. You two aren’t connected all the time like Donny and me. So…”
“We’re not in any kind of relationship like that, no. He wanted me to work with him. Someone he trusted, but honestly, someone from the Midnight Hunt camp called Black Tide and got a recommendation before they agreed.”
I nodded. “That sounds more like the professionalism I expect from Midnight Hunt.”
“They’re managing Bramble Punk now, right?”
“Yep.” I dug into my food. I liked eating while the food was hot. Cold eggs sucked dick, and not in a good way.
Before I finished, Harper showed up at the table. “There you are. We got a last-minute interview scheduled, and we need you there.” She turned to Rowan with a sweet smile. “Hi, Rowan.”
“Harper.” He nodded. Harper probably knew more about his reference check than anyone.
Might have been the one to make the call.
She was handling a lot more of the business stuff.
Technically, she worked for Harrison, but she’d been leaning more and more into the whole project for MH Management.
I hoped that meant she’d be nice to Rowan.
“Where at?”
“One of the meeting rooms. Come on, I’ll show you.”
I finished eating and put my room number on the ticket for both our food. “It’s on me.” I gave Rowan the finger gun and followed Harper.
In the room, tables were set up side-by-side with a microphone at each seat. Six of them. And the guys of the band were mingling off to the side, where I joined them. Everyone except Pierce.
Harper came over and held up the piece sign. “Two minutes.”
“Where’s Pierce?” I asked anyone who knew.
Matty shook his head. “He’s not coming. He took off, not sure where he went, but he said he wasn’t doing this dog and pony show .”
“Is that a direct quote?” Donny asked, coming up behind me.
“Yeah. Think so.”
“As long as he didn’t ditch security.” I huffed but sat in the center where I was directed.
Probably where Pierce was supposed to sit.
And then the interview began, and I had to field the majority of the questions.
I did not appreciate being shoved in front of the mic at this thing, but thanks to Pierce pulling this little disappearing act, that’s exactly what happened. Fucker.
We really needed to have a talk. It wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t here, but that he didn’t tell anyone ahead of time. And this thing was so last-minute, I had no time to prepare. I also needed to talk to Jinx about this.
Thankfully, none of the questions were too difficult, and we wrapped up quickly, but I was shaking a bit by the end of it. Donny rushed me up to our room. “Breathe, Kay. You’ve got this.”
“It was sprung on me. Pierce is supposed to be the buffer.”
“This was probably revenge for the platinum record thing.”
“Fucker. I think we’re going to have it out.”
“Probably, but not right now.” He handed me a bottle of water. “Did you take your pills this morning?”
I hadn’t. Fuck. No wonder. “I meant to at breakfast, then Harper showed up.” I held my hand in the air. Donny darted away but was back in a second, handing me my pills. “Thanks, Donny.”
“I’ve got you.” He rubbed my back as I took long, deep breaths. “You’ll get through this.”
“I know. I know.”
“I texted Jinx during the interviews. He needs to hear what happened.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
The rest of the afternoon was quiet, and I didn’t leave for the venue until the last possible moment. I didn’t want to hang around the dressing room and be tempted to kill our singer, if he was even there. But of course, I didn’t cut it so close that I didn’t have to stop there anyway.
Donny ushered me into the room. But Pierce wasn’t there. “What the fuck?”
Matty looked up. “He just texted. He’s on his way over.”
I wanted to tear into him, into anyone, but I didn’t.
I dropped into a chair and covered my face with my hands.
Thankfully, the pills had kicked in, and I didn’t feel completely out of sorts, but the worry of what I’d do if Pierce changed his mind and didn’t show up flitted through the back of my head.
“Oh, you decided to show…that’s nice.” I looked up at Joe’s snarky comment to see Pierce walk in and flip him off.
I was over it. “Whatever’s going on with you…
” The conversation with Rowan replayed in my mind.
The look on Pierce’s face said he was gearing up to protect himself from whatever I threw at him, and suddenly everything was different, forcing me to shift gears.
Fighting wasn’t going to get us anywhere.
“But if you ever need to talk, I’m willing to listen. ”
Pierce looked confused for a second and then contrite. “Uh…thanks.” He exhaled loudly. “Maybe later. Let’s get hyped up for the show.” That proved it. His diva act was a cover-up. Something else was going on and it had nothing to do with the fucking record award.
I glared at Donny, who scowled back. He rolled his finger, saying we’d talk later without actually saying anything. I nodded.
It was time to go on.
We’d changed the show a little bit, since the world now knew for sure Pierce was the singer.
There was no longer a need to go through that little play-acting bullshit that had started feeling very fake.
None of us liked it. So now, we all ran out, but when Pierce sauntered on after us, he simply took the mic.
He was fantastic at connecting with the crowd and getting them excited.
He said some spiel or another, always changing bits and pieces of it.
Then we started playing House and Home without any other introductions, and that melted into another song.
Then Pierce did the introductions, with Randy last, to do his big solo, which evolved into Pine Box .
Finally, we let the audience scream themselves to death until they were chanting for Alcohol and Cars , which was our big hit.
We only played the four songs with no encore; we were the opener after all.
When I hit the riff for Alcohol and Cars , it zipped through my body like lightning.
When the crowd sang along, it was like nothing else in this world.
Joe and I were in sync, stomping up to the edge of the stage and wailing together, the sound mixing and dancing until Pierce screamed out the next line.
“Crash and burn. Don’t blame me. Lost in my mind, drinking Beam.
Ow!” He kicked his leg in the air, turned around, then held the mic out toward the crowd, encouraging them to scream or sing or something.
Joe and I had extended solos a little later in the song, to make it last longer, but eventually, we played the last notes.
Randy came out from behind the kit and tossed his sticks into the crowd.
Joe and I threw our pics at the same time.
Dave and Matty came up behind us and threw other merchandise into the crowd that they’d grabbed from the box kept beside the drums. It looked like can coolers and patches with our logo on them.
Randy got the big items, tossing out a couple of T-shirts as far into the crowd as possible.
We wanted people farther back to have a shot at merch, which made me think we needed one of those T-shirt guns.
I made a mental note to talk to Kai. He handled all the marketing and merchandising, making him the guy to talk to about it.
Then we held hands and raised them over our heads, taking a group bow.
The crowd was still screaming for us when we exited the stage.
We were all hot and sweaty, so I bee-lined it for the cars, wanting to get back to my room fast. I wasn’t the only one.
But Pierce stayed. He had to. He was going to play Dip and Grind with Midnight Hunt.
That was another big advantage of having him aboard.
That song was a fan favorite, and it probably helped us get on the map as fast as we did. I wasn’t arguing with that.