Page 37 of Verses

“Ignore him, Hayley. He’s just a grumpy old man.”

“Yeah, that’s all I am.”

It made me wonder what had happened in Marv’s life to make him so bitter and twisted. Was it a fate we’d all face?

“Prove you’re not,” Wolf said, making his way behind the bar.

Marv simply grumbled before picking up the television remote and turning on the TV beside the bar, tuning us out. With a shrug, Wolf looked at me and winked.

I wanted to ask Marv if he’d rather we play somewhere else, but now definitely wasn’t the time. If he kicked us out, where the hell would we practice, much less play? The little apartments the guys and I lived in couldn’t be used, but for all I knew, Wolf lived in similar conditions. This was a decent gig, so—much as Marv’s grumpiness got to me—I wanted to stay on his good side. Until Wolf had joined our band, I hadn’t dealt much with the man.

I got the feeling he didn’t care for our music, so that didn’t help.

As if he could read my mind, Wolf said, “We gotta talk about changing the time of our practices. Marv’ll be a little happier if he can get the hell out of here early enough to get his beauty sleep.”

In response, Marv made a scoffing noise—and then turned up the volume on the television.

Although I was turned to Wolf, I knew the moment when Pedro and Adrian entered the bar—not because the light shoneinside for a moment, but because Pedro let out a loudwhoopthat woke up the drunk dozing in the one booth in my eyesight.

“I can’t wait to see what the hell we do today!”

Turning in the stool once again, I smiled at my bandmates. For the first time in a long time, I felt bouyant…almost happy, if I could even define what the hell that was. I was eager to work hard with these guys to create art and get our music heard by millions of fans.

I’d settle for thousands, but my dream was much bigger.

“Wolf was just saying we need to figure out practices.”

“I thought we did, dude.”

Wolf said, “Not really. It would be better if I could tend bar on my old schedule.”

“Nights…when we usually practice.”

“Yeah. When do you guys work?”

Pedro spoke for both himself and his roommate. “We work graveyards at the Walmart in Silver City.”

“I haven’t heard that term in a while.”

“Graveyards?Yeah…nobody else there calls it that. They call themovernights.”

“Cleaning?”

“Stocking,” Pedro said. “So anytime before ten at night or after six in the morning’ll work for us.”

“When do you guys sleep?”

“Sometime after we get home—but we can rearrange if that’s what it takes.”

“Hayley?”

“My shift is usually five-thirty to two—but sometimes I have to be there earlier or stay a little later. It just depends on what’s going on.”

Wolf frowned. “What are your days off?”

“Usually Sunday and Monday.”

“Guys?”

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