Grinning, he rubbed his arm. “Don’t hurt me, bro, I need that arm for later.”
Shaking my head I walked over to Sweets. She’d been avoiding me since last night. “You got it together?”
“Yeah, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m a big girl.”
“Fuck. C’mon that’s not what I meant and you know it. Why are you making this so hard all of a sudden?”
“I’m not, you’re the one who’s changing.”
I didn’t want to have an argument with her but it looked like she was heading downthat road. I was about to ask her what she meant when there was a knock at the door.
Pulling it open I figured it’d be Rod, but instead there was a scrawny guy with glasses and long hair. “I think you might have the wrong room.”
“Nope, sorry.” He held out his hand and I grabbed it without thinking. “I’m Mike Daily from WXRQ Radio. I wanted to go over how we’ll introduce you tonight.”
“Oh shit, yeah, sorry c’mon in, man. Hey, guys, this is Mike Daily. He’s going to intro us tonight.”
Mike stepped into the room with a smile on his face to a chorus of ‘hey, hi and shit yeahs’. I’m sure he was used to this but it was new to us.
“Hey. So how does it feel to make the big time?”
Wrath came over and shook his hand answering for all of us when he said, “Fuckin’ sweet.”
“Cool. Okay, I won’t take up a lot of your time but I wanted to go over the introduction we’ll do tonight. Is there anything specialyou want us to say or just go with the standard shit the record company provided?”
“What do you think,” I said looking around the room. “Anyone want to add anything to our stand intro?”
I got a lot of nopes for answers so it pretty much sealed it. “I guess we’re good. I can’t think of anything else either. They have it covered.”
“Okay, great. The doors will open at seven, and there’s a warm up act—a local band will come on at seven thirty. I’ll introduce you at eight and you’ll have an hour. Sound good?”
“Yup, great. Thanks, man, we appreciate the heads up.”
“No problem. Break a leg tonight, although with your talent you don’t need any help. I’m looking forward to your next album.”
“Wow, man, thanks.” It was still thrilling to hear that shit from people. I followed him to the door and shook his hand again. He pulled it open to reveal the nextsurprise—Cynda, and she had another woman with her.
“Oh excuse me,” Mike said as he navigated through the door and passed the two women.
“Oh sorry,” Cynda said as she backed up. She looked different. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but then it hit me. She’d added blue streaks in her hair and was wearing tight jeans, a t-shirt and leather vest, much cooler than the shit she’d worn yesterday.
“Hey, glad to see you made it.”
“A deal is a deal. This is my friend, Michelle, I checked with Rod and he said it was okay for her to come with me today.”
“Sure, no problem. Hi, Michelle, I’m Chaos.”
Michelle smiled and reached out to shake my hand. Definitely not shy like Cynda. I bet the guys were going to be all over her. She had long black hair with bright red streaks, lots of make-up on her eyes. I could see why Cynda was wearing different clothes after checking out Michelle. Her black leather pants could have been painted on, and her tits looked like they were goingto bust through her tight blue t-shirt. Yeah, they were really going to love her.
“Cynda’s here and she brought a friend.” I backed up so the two women could get into the room. “Michelle, the guys…guys, Michelle.” I winked at her then I leaned in to whisper, “Be careful of Flame, he’s gonna be all fuckin’ over you.”
“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sure you can, but don’t say I didn’t fuckin’ warn you.” I watched her walk into the lion’s den and hid a grin behind my hand. Maybe this was the distraction they all needed. It’s not like she was one of the skanky groupies that’d been coming around lately. Hopefully on this tour they’d be a little less like hoes.
Cynda stood barely inside the room and looked lost. She wasn’t happy now and I’m sure she’d be fuckin’ thrilled with the living arrangements on the bus, but I needed to do this for the band. We needed to make sure we stayed true to what we believe in, and not just sell out for money.
“You ready for your two week vacation?”
