ChapterFourteen
Rainier
The guysin the band usually set everything up early in the afternoon and went off and did different things until about an hour before the show. They trusted the employees at Wild Bill’s to leave it alone. I was less inclined to leave my stuff but didn’t want to come across as not trustinganyone.
All of that to say, it was a common occurrence to leave before the show, so I couldn’t understand why Matt looked so frantic when I walked back into the bar after taking a few hours to runerrands.
“Where have you been, man?” he said, walking uptome.
“I went and got an earlydinnerand–”
“Dinner," he interrupted with a forced laugh that had an edge to it. "That's just great. We’re in the middle of a crisis, and you’re off getting freaking food.” He started cussing and ran his fingers through his hair as he began pacing back and forth in frontofme.
“Dude, what the hell isgoingon?”
“Did you know today was Owen’sbirthday?”
What did that have to do with anything? “No,why?”
“Well, apparently he just turned twenty-one and thought he’d celebrate beforetheshow.”
“Celebrate?Meaning…?”
“The guy’strashed.”
“When you saytrashed?”
“Rainier, he can barely form asentence.”
“Oh,sh–”
“Uh,yeah.”
That wasn’t good. We were going on in less than an hour and our lead singer, the guy who had all the personality of the band, was in no condition toperform.
“Maybe someone can go get him coffee?" I suggested. "That’s supposed to sober you up. I'll message my sister and see if she’llbringsome.”
“Coffee. Yeah, that might work,” Matt answered, but he still looked crazy. I knew he loved playing in the band, but I didn’t realize how much it meant to him until I saw how affected he was by our currentsituation.
I messaged Sarah and asked her to grab some coffee and hurry to the bar. Always the dependable one, she responded she was on it. With that taken care of, it was time to see if there was anything else Icoulddo.
Step one:FindOwen.
It wasn’t hard. The place was mostly empty. Once I walked away from Matt, all I needed to do was follow the sound of Owen’s voice. I couldn’t understand a word of what he said from where I was, but he was loud enough I spotted him standing near the smallstage.
“I can’t believe I’m inna band with a buncha twelve-year-olds.” His words were only slightly slurred, but the way he swayed back and forth on his feet told me everything I needed to know. That and the fact he was talking to the equipment onstage.
“Hey, man,” I said slowly as Iwalkedup.
“Ray. Rain.” He stopped and lifted his finger before starting again. “Rainier. Where’veyoubeen?”
“Just getting ready for the show. How are youfeeling?”
“I’m great,” he said with a lazysmile.
“Good. I have some coffee on the way. Do you think you’ll be able to drink some? Maybe try tosoberup?”
“I don’t needta sober up. I’mfiiiiine.”
