I turned away from the bus window to face my bandmates. “I agree about the keyboard. It should be a little louder next show.”
“Ah hah!” Violet got up into Milo’s face and stuck her tongue out. He responded with a middle finger jabbed at her face like a dagger.
“I thought you were on my side,” Milo complained to me.
“I’m on the side of the best performance possible. And upping the keyboard sound will make the live performance better.”
“Butnotthe recorded version,” Milo clarified.
“And I think we should swap out the songs you mentioned,” I added. “RemovePlatinum Redheadand replace it withJoint Custody.”
“I’m not eveninthat song!” Violet complained.
“Sorry, Vi,” I replied. “Platinum Redheadisn’t hitting the way we expected.”
She slumped back into her seat. “Dana’s gonna be pissed.”
“We’ll add it to the next show she comes to,” Milo said. “Hey! Isn’t it fuckingsickthat we get to make these decisions?”
“As opposed to being forced to do whatever Rainknife wants?” Violet asked. “Hell yeah.”
Milo raised his voice to a mocking tone. “You can’t turn the volume up to the max! You only get seven songs on your setlist, with no encore! Blah blah blah.”
“It pays to be in charge,” I said with a small smile. “Did you see Pete’s email?”
Pete was our band agent. He was on tour with another group that he represented, rather than touring with us, which none of us minded.
“About the ticket sales?” Violet asked.
I nodded. “We’re not selling out every show, but we’re close. And there’s still lots of time to build momentum.”
“Better than we expected!” Violet said cheerfully. “We should end the tour with a nice war chest…”
“Nuh uh,” I scolded. “Don’t think about the pay until the tour’s over. But yeah. We should make out pretty well.”
We’d been scraping together a living as a band up to this point. We made almost nothing from streaming services and album sales. That’s how most bands were. Touring was where the real money was.
“Where the hell’s Roxie?” Milo wondered out loud. After a heartbeat he added, “And Riot.”
“Banging,” Violet replied.
Milo’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Banging. Fucking. Bumping uglies.” She made a circle with her thumb and index finger, then stuck her other finger in and out.
“You really think so?” Milo asked.
Violet glanced up at me. Her expression said:can you believe how oblivious Milo is?
Milo looked at me, then at Violet, then back to me. “You two don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Violet took a slow drink from her beer. “They’ve been eye-fucking each other since Houston. It’s about time they started body-fucking.”
“Body-fucking?”
“It’s a new thing people are saying.”
“Since when?” Milo asked.
