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?”
