Chapter Twenty-SevenChaos…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chaos…
The next two days flew by. The crowds in Virginia were amazing and seeing over twenty-five thousand screaming fans is a fucking rush like you can’t believe. We’d put the last night in Philly behind us and come back even stronger and it showed in our performances.
Sweets and Candy were a little quieter but it was better with Sweets than it had been in a while. Joe had made a few calls for us and was working on trying to get in touch with Preston.
Jack and Sally were working on things from their end and I was just about done with the song.
I needed a few more pieces for everything to fall into place, with any luck I’d be done by the time we got to Georgia.
I’d spent time talking to Sally too, and told her all about Cynda.
She tried to be encouraging and I really freakin’ hoped she was right.
As she reminded me often while we were growing up—she was always right.
Hearing a knock on my door I yelled come in.
It was Wrath. We hadn’t had a lot of time to talk lately, not since Sapphire.
I didn’t get it, she didn’t seem like his type but she’d been staying with him on the bus since Philly.
There was something about her I didn’t trust, but after how fuckin’ wrong I was with Cynda I wasn’t going to say anything.
“Hey, what’s up, bro?”
“I figured I’d check on you. How are things going? Have you heard from Cynda?”
“No not yet, I keep calling but she hasn’t answered any of my fucking calls. I hope I’ll be able to fix this.”
“Me too. She was good for you.”
“Right, you’re probably just glad to get me off your fuckin’ back about shit.”
“No seriously, dude. When you finally stopped arguing it was cool. You looked happy, really happy.”
He was right, I had been happy and stupid, stubborn and a fuckin’ asshole. I was working on changing but it was going to be a slow process.
“How’re things with Sapphire?”
“Great, she’s fanfuckingtastic.”
I laughed, oh yeah he had it bad. I wondered what she was like in real life and if she planned to hang around for long.
Most groupies held on for a while but eventually they had to go back to their real lives.
After Georgia, we were heading to the Midwest. If she was from the Philadelphia area she’d be far from home.
“I have one question, is her hair really blue or is it a wig?”
“It’s her hair, dude, I couldn’t believe it either. I’ve never seen color stick that good.”
“No fuckin’ shit. Maybe we should have a bet on what color her roots are?”
Wrath laughed. “Hell yeah, why not.”
“I know I’ve kind of been keeping to myself. I’m sorry.”
“It’s cool, we know what’s going on. It’s all good. I am glad we have a day off before the next show. It’ll be good to just relax for a night.”
“Fuck yeah. I love it though. Wait until we’ve been doing this a year, and in Europe too. We’ll be lucky if we remember where we are.”
“No shit. Oh yeah, have you heard anything from the lawyer yet?”
“Nothing yet, but Joe’s spoken to him a couple of times. I’m just hoping Rod doesn’t show up. He called to tell me Symmetry still has Cynda writing our songs. So at least she didn’t get fired.”
“That’s good, although I hate they won’t be our songs.”
“I’m not sure they won’t. I’m still hoping it’ll all work out.”
“Well, I’m gonna get back to Sapphire now, before Fury starts hitting on her again and I have to take him out.”
“Oh fuck no. No more fights while we’re on tour.”
Laughing, Wrath closed the door saying, ‘no problem’.
I wanted to talk to Joe but I also needed to find Flame.
Flame, Fury, and Rage were all playing poker at the table.
Pulling out a chair I joined them, it’d been a long time since I just hung with the guys.
Too fucking long. No wonder things had gotten so out of control, everything had changed too fast.
“Deal me in will ya?”
“Fuck no. You’re lowering yourself to play with us?”
“Don’t give me no shit, Rage, or I’ll kick your ass.”
“Right. Sure you will. You’re getting soft, bro, that’s what girls do to you.”
Laughing, I had to agree. Cyn had definitely found the part of me I’d kept hidden since I was a little kid. It still fuckin’ surprised me it didn’t hurt as much to let it show as I thought it would.
“Maybe, but I’ll still take all your money.” After a few hands I’d kept my word and won three of the five hands we’d played. “What no smartass remarks now?”
“Nope, I’m out.”
“Me too,” Fury said. “I forgot how fucking lucky you are all the time.”
“Not luck I can just fucking bluff really well. I know your tells.”
“You don’t know mine,” Flame said.
“Like hell I don’t.”
“What is it then?”
“Nice try, I’m not fuckin’ falling for that. Trust me, I know them all even Wrath’s.”
“You know my what?”
“Your tell.”
“Bullshit.”
“Well if you weren’t in there fuckin’ around I’d show you.”
“Go to hell, asshole. You’re just jealous,” he said as he grabbed a couple of bottles of water and went back to his cubby.
Flame shook his head. “I don’t know how he can spend so much time in there, it’s too fuckin’ small.”
Fury and Rage agreed. Sometimes I felt bad about having the room but they’d said since I wrote most of the songs I needed the space. I was hoping soon I’d have someone sharing it with me, and that reminded me why I’d sat down to begin with.
“Hey, Flame. Have you talked to Michelle lately?”
Fury laughed. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me right? He’s on the phone with her for hours every day.”
Flame’s face actually got red. I definitely needed to spend more time with them. “Really? Do you have any plans to see her?”
“We’re trying to work it out for her to come down this weekend while we’re in Georgia, but she wasn’t sure she could leave Cynda.”
“Can you ask her to do me a favor?”
“I can ask but I’m not sure she will. She’s pretty pissed at you.”
“I’m not surprised, but I really need this.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Great. See if you can get her to send you the lyrics Cynda wrote for my new song. I want to do it while we’re here, then she has to get Cynda down here for the show.”
“Fuck, dude, you don’t want much do you?”
“Hey, dream big or give up, right?”
They all nodded, it’s been our saying since we’d first decided to start the band.
Next I went to talk to Joe. He was driving and I kept it short, but he’d gotten a hold of Preston who’d agreed to do what I asked. Everything was falling into place, now we just had to make sure Cynda was here on Saturday night.