“I just hope I don’t kill my career with this show,” I muttered. “And if I do, please let me crash in your guest room when the bank takes my houses.”
He chuckled. “You won’t.” He held me out at arms’ length and looked me in the eye. “Something tells me… that this is going to be the best show of your career so far, son.”
And the very next second… the power went out.
* * *
What the fuck.
No.
The room had gone black, but the emergency exit light came up. I stared at my dad in the dull glow. “Shit.”
“Oh, son,” he said.
“Hang on. I’ll figure this out.” I got on my phone, calling Yash. When he didn’t pick up, I called Lamar. I heard his phone ringing as the door opened and Shane sauntered into the room, Lamar helping light his way with the flashlight app on his phone. I hung up.
“Do you want the bad news first?” Shane asked me, no preamble. “Or the other bad news.”
“Give me all of it.”
“Well, the power doesn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon, but the party is rocking. Yash says the turnout is fantastic. I saw, like, every member of Dirty and the Players out there. And Brody Mason, Trey Jones, Cary Clarke… everyone you want to see tonight. And I’m pretty sure if you bail on this you’ll never forgive yourself. So there’s that.”
“Fuck.”
The door opened again, and Lex and Dane walked in.
“Hey. You tell him?” Lex asked Shane.
“Tell me what?”
“The power went out,” Lex quipped, always the fucking joker. “And no, you’re not bailing on this show.”
“Fuck,” I repeated and sat down. I put my head in my hands.
Lex sat down next to me, slapped me on the back. “Remember in high school? We’d go into the guys’ empty showers and you’d play your guitar because you liked the acoustics, the sound of the music bouncing off the tile walls? No electricity?”
“Yeah, fuck electricity,” Shane said. “Who needs it?”
My hands dropped and I looked up at my friends, and my dad, all staring down at me. “Uh, let’s see. I do. And my band does. The drums will destroy everything else. No one will hear anything, least of all my voice or the songs.”
“Not to mention that the bar probably can’t pour.”
We all looked at Dane.
He shrugged. “Their whole computer system is down, right? So they’ve got no way to input orders and take payment.”
The door opened again and my band piled in. “Johnny,” Noah said. “What are we doing?”
“I don’t know.” I got to my feet to greet my bandmates, hugging Noah, Raf and Coop.
“You can still play the show,” Noah said. “The songs work without us.”
“There’s no need to call off the show,” Coop agreed. “Raf can still join you on some songs. Guitars and vocals, that’s all you need.”
Raf nodded. “Whatever you need, brother.”
“That’s how this all started,” Noah said. “You had us into your home studio and played us the songs, acoustic.”
