Page 35 of Behind the Lights

“Guys, don’t start this shit again,” Diamond said, rubbing the scruffy beard on his face.

Without breaking our stare, I replied directly to Stoli, “Yeah man, I can. What’s your problem with him anyways?”

“My problem with that little blond is that when he shakes his ass you drop everything for him. It’s like you don’t even have a mind of your own anymore. Whatever Lucas wants, Lucas gets and it’s fucking ridiculous.” He stood with his fists clenched at his sides.

“What’s up with this?” I gestured to the stance he’d taken. “Are you wanting to throw down or something?” I stood, matching his confrontational stance. Mickey and Diamond were at our sides in the blink of an eye ready to deescalate once again.

“No, I’m not going to fight my best friend – ever. For someone who’s as smart as you are, you sure can be fucking stupid when it comes to him. But I’ll just go on record as saying Lucas isn’t who you think he is. That’s your battle to fight, but don’t ask me to accept him into our group because that will never happen.” He relaxed, and Mickey and Diamond backed off.

“Now, back to band business. We don’t have the time or the money to buy a professionally done backdrop. So we need to be creative. Mickey that’s your area of expertise. Do you think you could paint our logo on a couple of white bed sheets to use in the meantime?” Stoli slid comfortably back into his unofficial role as our leader.

“You know it.” Mickey pumped his fist in the air.

“I’ll get Brett to cancel the few gigs we had scheduled. I’ll call the promoter back and let them know we’re on board and get the low down. We’ll probably need a few ice chests to store food in because we won’t be able to afford eating out all the time. All right guys, got any questions before I make the call?” He scanned the room, we looked at each other not sure what to ask.

“We probably will after you get the rest of the info,” I added.

“Fair enough.” He pulled out his phone and started dialing.

“Hopefully we can still do the Vancouver gigs this coming weekend. That way we can leave with a little cash in our pocket.”

I looked over at Stoli who smiled back at me. This smile was actually a real smile that reached all the way to his eyes and he gave me the thumbs up, so he must have heard our conversation.Fuck, I’m so torn up inside over him and Lucas.

“All right, guys,” he came up behind me, clapping his hand on my back, “we’ll meet the promoter tomorrow at the rehearsal studio at one o’clock. He’s gonna give us the packet with the dates, times and venues listed in it and the contract we need to sign. Basically, we caravan out of here on Monday morning and follow the other trucks out. We need to make sure all our equipment trunks and cases are marked with our band name. It’ll get loaded into one of the semi-trailers for the roadies to offload and set up at each venue.”

“Hell,” Diamond said. “Is this real?”

“Yup, this is real. It’s not glamorous but it’s a start, our start. And we’ll be on the road for eight weeks. It’s a west coast tour with a shit load of shows scheduled and now Social Sinners will be added to the docket,” Stoli happily added. “But we’ll still be able to do the two gigs in Vancouver this weekend. Brett’s cancelling the others, he actually said his old band might take them if the bar owners will let them.”

“Song list. I say we stick to what’s on the demo since no one outside of the Pacific Northwest is familiar with us.” I tossed that out for them to mull over. “What do you guys think?”

“It’s the best way for them to get to know us. I’ll go home and start working on burning more cd’s for the trip. Later,” Mickey said heading for the door.

“Don’t forget the backdrops,” Stoli hollered.

“No worries, I’m sure my mom won’t miss a couple of sheets.” He laughed on his way out.

“Let me throw some clothes on and the three of us can get to work on the van. We need to have my dad change the oil and check everything out.” I went up to my room and changed before locating my dad out in the garage.

“Hey Dad, whatcha doing?” I asked, walking in with Stoli and Diamond.

“Just finished checking out some stuff on the truck. What’s up, guys?” He turned, facing us. “If I didn’t know better I’d think it was an ambush.”

“Oh ha, nah. Stoli got us an eight-week road gig and we were hoping you could help us get the van ready for the miles it’s about to take on.” I was hopeful he’d help us out.

“Wow, that’s great. When do you guys head out?” he asked, putting the socket wrench away.

“A week from tomorrow,” Stoli told him. “We should probably learn some basic maintenance in case the beast breaks down on us.”

“The beast?” I asked, laughing.

“That would be a wise idea. Alright, today you boys are gonna learn how to change oil, top it off, add coolant to the radiator, check your brake fluid and brake pads and possibly replace them and lastly – what to look for when checking your belts. Is everyone wearing clothes they don’t care about ruining?” he asked us.

We nodded, letting him know we were good to go and car mechanics one-oh-one was underway. Four hours later, we’d changed the oil, replaced the brake pads, and topped off all the fluids. Diamond opted to buy pizza for us which was consumed so fast it never had a chance to cool down. Afterwards, we cleaned up and called it a night. When I plopped down in bed after a scalding, hot shower I decided to text Lucas the good news.

Hey babe

What’s up?

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