Dojo
ten
Dexter
The smaller amps and speakers were stacked in the pool shed from the last party. We moved them back and forth from the garage when we practiced because it was cheaper than buying a new set just to play music.
As soon as all of the cords were plugged in and the space was clear, a small bark sounded from the front of the house.
“Dojo!” Marlowe yelled.
Seconds later, the Boston Terrier came sprinting around the side of the house and into the garage. “Hi, Dojo!” The dog jumped up at me as soon as I squatted to greet him.
“Dojo, no! Down. Dexter, please. Don’t let him jump on you,” Marlowe whined, stomping into the garage. She held Dojo’s leash loosely in her hand. “I swear this dog knows when we’re coming here. I opened the door, and he just ran back here.”
“Well, that’s because he knows who his favorite person is.
Right, Dojo?” As we continued to play, Dojo started barking at me.
Marlowe rolled her eyes and sat down on the old, worn-out couch, lighting a cigarette.
The garage was full of old mismatched furniture that had made its way out here from the house.
Outdated things that my Aunt Sylvie had replaced over the years before she moved out.
We had sold most of it but decided using the decent stuff in here was a better idea for now.
Once Dojo had enough, he ran over to Marlowe and jumped up to lie on the couch with her.
“Want something to drink?” The fridge in the garage was stocked with drinks and popsicles.
“Diet Coke is good, thanks.”
After I handed Marlowe her drink, I walked back over to finish setting up the equipment for practice.
Having Marlowe at practice was both incredibly helpful and also a severe form of torture.
She was effortlessly sexy all of the time.
Today she wore baggy low-rise jeans and a black tube top.
Beat-up pink Converse barely peeked out under the bottom of her pants.
Her hair was up in little buns on top of her head.
She sat sideways on the couch with Dojo, squeezing his face, talking to him like a baby.
Footsteps sounded from the entrance to the garage, and Dojo let out a soft bark.
Bunny stretched his arms above his head as he wandered in the garage.
He wore loose cargo shorts and Vans, no shirt.
Calvin Klein boxer briefs peeked over the top of his shorts.
When my gaze shifted to his face, he was staring directly at me.
I quickly looked at Marlowe. She kept looking back and forth between the two of us, then quickly focused her attention back to Dojo.
Bunny looked over to the couch. When Bunny spoke, he sounded agitated, “Didn’t realize you were coming today. Stay out of the way, both of you.”
Marlowe shot a confused look at Bunny. “What?”
Bunny looked at her, his words laced with even more annoyance, “Just stay the fuck over there and don’t get in the way.”
When I looked at Marlowe, she looked as if she was about to cry. Rushing to him, I grabbed Bunny by the arm. Immediately, he yanked out of my grasp. “Dude, what the hell?”
“Let’s just get this over with. Where are the idiot twins?” Bunny pulled his cords out and started wrapping things together the way he preferred.
“They’ll be here soon.” When I turned back around, Marlowe was walking with Dojo out into the yard.
Why was Bunny being such an ass to her?
When it was obvious Marlowe was out of earshot, I shoved Bunny. “Dude, what is your problem lately?”
“Nothing. Just don’t see why we need extra people here for practice.” His response was clipped as he continued to yank cords.
“Well, first of all, she’s our friend. And second, she’s been coming to practices for like a year, Bunny. We have to get ready for these shows, and Mar is going to help us like usual. Since when is that an issue?”
“It’s not a fucking issue. Who said it was an issue?
” Bunny abruptly turned to face me. “Fuck,” he sighed.
“Nicki is picking me up later, and I don’t want her to start shit.
I wouldn’t have told her to come if I had known they were going to be here.
” He pointed out into the yard, indicating the ‘they’ that he meant was Marlowe and Dojo.
“Screw Nicki, dude. I’m sorry. I know you’re friends with her or whatever, but she’s a bitch.
Let her try to start shit because I won’t let it happen and you shouldn’t either.
” I didn’t wait for a response. I set the bass down that I was tuning and walked outside to play with Dojo before Rich and Chris got there.
Marlowe had brought a ball for him to fetch. She and I began throwing it back and forth while the dog ran between the two of us, jumping, trying to catch it mid-air. We laughed lightly watching Dojo until he got tired and just lay down in the grass.
About that time, Rich and Chris pulled up for practice. When we all entered the garage, Bunny sat on the couch with his head in his hands. Dojo jumped up on the couch next to him and laid his head on his lap. Bunny didn’t even acknowledge the pup before he stood and walked over to our setup.
“Let’s get this done.” He gripped the microphone and wrapped the cord around his forearm.
Rich and Chris tossed questioning glances my way. I shrugged in response and made my way to grab a bass and lifted the strap over my head.
We ran through practice as usual. Playing through a few covers, then moving on to our original songs. After today, we really needed to nail down what we wanted to play for the Battle of the Bands shows so we could work on getting those songs perfect.
Marlowe sat and watched from the couch, taking notes and doodling as she always did in one of the notebooks we kept in the garage.
We had a stack of Solace notebooks we had kept since Bunny and I started the band.
Every time we worked on a new idea or something, we wrote it down in a notebook.
Marlowe started using them too when she would come.
Everyone was killing it. Chris hit guitar solos with no issue that he had been practicing for months.
Even Bunny, despite his mood earlier, was doing great.
That was until Marlowe moved down to the floor.
She took her usual spot on the rug in front of Bunny.
Sitting with her legs spread wide and Dojo curled in front of her.
As soon as Bunny realized she had moved and planned on staying there, he tripped over his cords.
He started kicking the speakers when he would trip and got pissed off when nothing would happen.
Rich, Chris, and I exchanged glances at each other but continued playing. Marlowe just continued taking notes.
Once we had finished running through the songs once, we all set our equipment down.
Our routine for practice was to run through, then relax and talk about how it went.
Then get ready to go again. The second time around, we could try and fine-tune the things that stood out to us as needing improvement.
We all took our usual spots in the garage, Dojo running over to me when I sat down on the floor opposite Marlowe. She looked up at me and shook her head as the dog curled up in my lap.
“That was really fucking good, guys,” Chris said as he sat in the old floral fabric chair.
Rich nodded in agreement, tossing a drumstick in the air.
When Bunny joined Rich on the couch, he let out a long sigh. “You good, man?” I asked. Everyone turned their attention to Bunny when he looked around the room.
He looked directly at me when he spoke, “Fine. Why?”
“No reason. You just seem out of it, I guess.” My hand gently stroked Dojo’s back while he lay comfortably breathing deeply.
Bunny stood and pushed his sweaty blonde hair from his forehead. “Let’s just keep going.”
Marlowe shifted awkwardly on the rug and grabbed the notebook.
“There were a couple things I thought about while you played.” Bunny fell backward, slumping down on the couch while Marlowe spoke, throwing his arms behind his head.
“Everything sounds so good. The new songs are killer. I can’t believe how different it is.
I’m not sure if you’ve thought about what to play for the Battle of the Bands yet, but showing versatility is going to blow them away!
Thrash Fest always has so much variety.”
“That’s a good point,” I agreed with Marlowe. “We need to decide if we do any covers or not. We are definitely strongest at them.”
Chris leaned forward. “We’re the strongest at them, yes, and we put our own spin on them. They never sound exactly the same. Might not hurt playing something familiar.”
“Something to think about.” Marlowe shrugged and closed the notebook.
“Let’s get back to it. Up, Dojo.” Gently pushing the pup, he got up and went back to Marlowe, lying beside her.
As soon as we played through a few songs, Dojo started barking and ran toward the garage door. Mid-song, Bunny stopped. “Are you fucking kidding me, Marlowe?”
“Dojo, hush!” Marlowe scrambled back and ran after the dog.
“This is what I’m talking about, Dex.” Bunny gestured to the door where Marlowe and Dojo had run out. When I looked up, Marlowe was carrying Dojo back into the garage. Nicki trailed right behind them.
Nicki pushed past Marlowe and stormed toward Bunny. “I thought you said practices were closed!” Nicki shouted, tossing a disgusted look at Dojo.
“They are closed, Nicki. What are you doing here already?” Bunny approached the newcomer, placing his hand on her shoulder.
“I was around. Didn’t want to go home then drive all the way back out here, so I just came early. Let’s go.” She grabbed Bunny’s arm and pulled him away.
“Nicki, we’re in the middle of band practice…” Bunny started to say.
“Yeah, but you said they’re closed, and she’s here.
” Nicki pointed to Marlowe. Marlowe was on the couch now, smoking a cigarette and sipping a Diet Coke, doing her best to ignore Nicki.
Nicki walked over and looked down at Marlowe, cocking her head to the side.
“Looks like your practice is over anyway.”
Marlowe’s next exhale of smoke was directed right into Nicki’s face. Nicki stumbled away coughing.
“Don’t be so fucking dramatic,” Marlowe said as she took another drag on her cigarette. “We’re out of here. Come on, Dojo.”
Bunny reached an arm out. He didn’t reach Marlowe, but he was close enough to get her attention and stop her in her tracks.
“No, we are leaving.” Grabbing Nicki’s arm, Bunny yanked her out of the garage and into the front yard.
Car doors slammed, and moments later, dust from the dirt road floated off on the wind.
“So, practice is over, I guess?” Chris asked from the other side of the garage.
Marlowe walked out and around back, Dojo right on her heels.
“Yeah, man. Feel free to hang out though. We can all do dinner and a movie or something.” The twins nodded in understanding and began cleaning up their equipment. Deciding to take care of mine later, I followed where Marlowe had gone.
Marlowe sat in Bunny’s chair out by the fire pit, throwing the ball for Dojo. Taking my usual spot in the blue and white chair, I grabbed the ball from Dojo when he brought it back. When I tossed it out into the yard, I tried my best to make it bounce so he could jump as he enjoyed.
“You okay?” I asked, leaning toward Marlowe so that I didn’t have to speak too loud.
She turned to me. Her light blue eyes were swirling.
It didn’t take long to realize there were tears in them.
“Want me to be honest with you?” No words left my mouth.
I just nodded in response. “I don’t think I am, Dex.
I don’t like this shit. We all pretend like things are normal, but they aren’t, and they haven’t been.
I feel like a fucking kid that can’t just let sex be sex, but come on.
Tell me I’m not crazy. Things are different, right?
” A single tear fell down her face when she looked up at me.
I reached down and cupped her face, brushing the tear away with my thumb.
I couldn’t lie to her. Of course things were different. It was so fucking obvious, especially with Bunny. “Yeah, they’re different.” My voice was quiet when I replied.
“It’s all ruined, isn’t it? I screwed up the band. Yours and Bunny’s friendship. I’m horrible.” More tears began to fall, and her face fell into her hands.
“Hey, whoa. Stop.” I lifted her head with both hands and brushed more tears away.
The pitiful frown on her face was precious.
She looked so cute, but I needed her to understand that she didn’t ruin anything.
Leaning down, I gently pressed my lips to hers.
She tensed for a split second before kissing me back.
I slid the tip of my tongue on the seam of her lips, and she opened her mouth just slightly.
Marlowe wrapped her hands around my wrists as I guided her head with my hands while we kissed.
Reluctantly breaking the kiss, I placed my forehead against hers. “You didn’t ruin anything. You’re not horrible.”
“What about Bunny though? You’ve seen how he’s been since that night.”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly, pulling back from her a bit. “We’ve got to figure it out though. He’s starting to scare me, and he’s pissing me off. I know the guys are annoyed too. They just won’t say anything. They're scared to set him off or something.”
Marlowe nodded and kissed my cheek.
“Want to go pick up food for everyone?” She asked, smiling.
“Wings?”
Frantically, she nodded and stood from the chair, calling Dojo over to us. We told the guys the plan, and they agreed to stay with Dojo while we went to pick up wings and beer.