Page 46 of Revived

“No one knows who I am, promise.”

“Mel,” he started again, concern edging his voice.

“Okay, well you take care of yourself, I love you.”

“Love you too,” I heard just before I clicked off the line. My heart hurt a bit more, thinking about what might happen to my relationship with Chevy if I no longer had any at all with his father. Would he write me off in support of his dad?

“Ugh,” I moaned as I stood and moved back toward the next store that might have something I’d be comfortable wearing. There seemed to be no middle ground in this shopping mall. Either there wasn’t enough material on the clothing offered to cover all my bits, or I’d drown in far too much material. There was never an option for the in-between women. The ones who wanted their clothes to fit while not revealing more of their bodies than a bathing suit was supposed to. I was about to chalk the shopping trip up as another slice of my shit-pie day, and then I saw the perfect outfit being worn by a mannequin in the window of a store I’d never heard of.

~*~

Later that evening, I dressed on the bus in my new outfit. It was a fresh pair of dark blue jeans that hugged my body, an off the shoulder, cream-colored shirt made of the softest damn cotton material I had ever felt, and the topper was the gorgeous ankle boots I found to match. I didn’t bother glamming up beyond the outfit. Instead, I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail, swiped on some waterproof mascara and dabbed a little tinted lip balm on my lips before I headed inside the venue to get my ass back to work. Honestly, while I didn’t wish anything bad on anyone, there was a nagging worry in the back of my mind that I’d have to sit backstage and listen to him croon those same songs I’d come to love, only now, they were tainted with a bit of heartbreak for me. This was going to suck, unless I had something to keep me busy.

As I moved through the backstage area, the opening band was already behind the scenes making the best of their time, as were some of the crew members for the tour. I just worked on perfecting my tunnel vision so I didn’t have to see what they were doing in the dark recesses of the hallway, or behind any of the doors. There was almost always an emergency area in the back set aside for first responders to work on people while waiting on a bus to the hospital – just in case. That was where I usually stationed myself if I wasn’t watching the concert side-stage. Once I got back there, I started flipping through the emergency kit the crew left in there for me, to make sure I had everything I needed and if I didn’t, to add the supplies missing from the kit to a list of things that should get reordered.

I’d been back there through most of Dusty Rose’s set when a man’s desperate yowling from out in the hallway caught my attention. “What’s going on?” I asked as I cleared the doorway and saw one of the crew members – Lonny – holding his junk with blood dripping from his fingers. “Oh my God, Lonny, what happened?”

“That bitch,” he pointed with his other hand at a smug-looking brunette who had a little trace of blood around the edge of her mouth. “That psycho whore bit my dick,” he yelled. The woman laughed as she walked away.

I couldn’t believe it. “What the hell possessed her to bite you… there?”

“She thought I was in the band, and some asshole informed her that I wasn’t. So, she bit down.”

“Did you lie to her and tell her you were with the band?”

“Nah. I never lie. I don’t correct their assumptions either though.” I waved away his response and tried to get him to sit, but there wasn’t enough light in the seat that faced the door.

“Well, just so you know, even if you had lied, that’s not a good enough reason to ever do this to man.”

“Don’t I fucking know it,” he hissed.

“Lonny, I can’t see well enough right here. Do you think you could stand and move over to the backside of the couch? Maybe, use the back edge to lean against while I take a look and see if we need to get you to the hospital.”

“I don’t want to go to the hospital. They’ll make fun of me.”

“I hate to tell you, but you know how news travels on these tours, everyone of the crew is going to make fun of your dick getting bit.”

He tried to laugh and ended up groaning in pain instead. “Come on, Mel, don’t do that. It pulls the wrong muscles.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Sorry,” I told him as I gloved up while we moved.

“Just so you know, I don’t care if these fuckwits on tour with us know. It’s just more street cred with them.” I raised my eyebrows in question so he went on talking while I forced him to let go of the hold he had on his very sore, flaccid penis. “You know, they’ll be talking about this for ages, but the assholes out there, who don’t travel, would never understand.”

“I see, the joke stays among family,” I managed to clarify as I grabbed a simple saline wound wash to gently spray on the area so that I could wash the blood away.

“Fuck!” Lonny hissed. “That was chilly, Mel.”

“Lonny, I don’t have anywhere to warm it up. This isn’t a doctor’s office, and you don’t have time anyway.”

“What’s that mean? Am I gonna lose it? Shit! I knew there was too much blood. Someone needs to kill that rabid bitch.”

I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. “Lonny, you’re not going to lose your dick,” I told him. Judging from what I could see the top was less damaged, hosting just a small scrape. It was the bottom of his penis that had taken the brunt of damage from her teeth. “I need to get closer,” I told him. “Can you hand me a pillow?” The moment he handed it to me, I dropped down it on the floor in front Lonny and immediately sunk to my knees there so I could see the wound better, and figure out if I needed to sew anything up, send him on to the hospital, or what.

Lonny let out an uncomfortable laugh. “Seems this is the position that got me into all that trouble to begin with,” he grinned down at me as I gave him a shitty look in response.

“I’m going to have sharp objects down here with me, and I’m not talking about my teeth, so maybe now isn’t the time for uncomfortable jokes, huh?”

“You’re right. Sorry, Mel. I’m just… fuck… look at all that blood.” He told me as I watched his eyes start to roll after he examined his blood drenched hands.

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