Page 25 of Behind the Lights

“Thanks, Dad. I was scared at first, but then, I don’t know, I guess I just let the music take me and it took off from there.” I’d barely been released by my dad before I was surrounded by Mary’s tiny arms.

“I’m so proud of you guys. You were fantastic!” she cheered, hugging Mickey and Diamond.

Stoli walked up, draping his arm loosely over my shoulder. “Dude, we did it. You were awesome.” He fist bumped me as he pulled away. Somehow, hearing those words from my best friend almost meant as much as hearing them from my dad had.

“I was so nervous,” I whispered to him.

“Couldn’t tell from where I was standing. Man, you wailed, you’d give Freddy Mercury a run for his money,” Brett said.

I thought my voice was low enough so only Stoli could hear me, guess I was wrong. Again.

Mickey and Diamond came over, more high fives and congrats were tossed between the four of us before we loaded up and headed out. Diamond’s parents didn’t come, which we didn’t really expect them to, so my dad and I dropped him off on our way home.

Chapter

Seven

Senior year, 2007-2008

We got a few gigs here and there, but with us still under the age of eighteen, they were few and far between because the local bars didn’t want to risk losing their liquor licenses. We promised not to drink, but that didn’t fly. Most of the places we played ended up being at ones Brett hooked us up with. Farmers markets, we played at the mall in the center court, random stuff like parties’ people were having, but we considered it good practice and it gave us a little extra cash and our band gained more followers with each event.

The four of us had part-time jobs and juggled work, practice and gigs as best we could around them, except for my boyfriend, Lucas Shane. He and I had started dating over the summer between our junior and senior year. Lucas was in attendance for our gig at the mall and stayed for the entire show. Afterwards, we got to talking during which, I finally got up the nerve to ask him out.

“Joey, you ready to go?” Stoli hollered over to me.

Lucas and I were standing next to the water feature. I’d zoned out, debating on asking him out while mindlessly staring at some kids throwing coins in the fountain, making wishes they hoped would come true.

“Joey?” Lucas questioned, drawing me from my self-doubting thoughts.

“Oh um, sorry.”

“Are you alright?” the sincerity in his question made me feel even more foolish.

Here I was, internally berating myself for being a ball-less dumb ass and he was worried something was wrong. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just—”ugh, why is this so damn hard?“I was wondering if you wanted to go out and do something sometime?” My cheeks heated. I glanced down at my Converse, pretending to scrape something off the floor with the toe while waiting for my embarrassment to subside.

“Do something? Like as in a date?” The playful grin on his face told me he knew the answer to that question.

“Yeah like a date.”

“I’d love to. What’s your number?” I rattled off the house line, watching him click away on his phone adding it to his contacts. “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can set something up. By the way, you guys were great tonight.”

“Thanks. Maybe we could do something next weekend?” I could tell he was ready to leave, but I wasn’t quite ready to part ways. Selfishly, I hoped there was a way to go out tonight, but I knew it was getting too late for that.

“Maybe,” he flirted, “we’ll talk tomorrow.” He squeezed my forearm and spun on his heels before disappearing into the crowded mall.

For me, it was love at first sight. Lucas was going to college in the fall, but none of us had any plans to do so. It wasn’t for us. We put all our money back into the band and were even saving up for a van, so we could start taking out of town gigs after graduation.

Lucas and Stoli never bonded and it was growing increasingly difficult to even have them in the same room. Stoli called him a spoiled queen and in return he called Stoli a jealous bitch. Not sure what he meant by that because he had nothing to be jealous of so that comment never made sense to me. Lucas was the flamboyant one in the group and I’m not sure if that was what irked Stoli or not. We preferred jeans, mostly tattered due to age and wear, vintage concert shirts and dark shades to hide our sleep deprived eyes behind. We weren’t even on the same playing field as he was. But the two of them together in any setting never boded well for those around them. I loved them both, but damn, they were fucking mean to each other.

Lucas was beautiful, at least in my eyes and he never hid who he was. Always dressed in the latest fashions, of course his father could afford them. His nails were immaculately manicured and at times painted to match his outfits. Hell, his make-up alone would rival that of theProject Runwaymodels. Not sure how he learned to do it, the furthest I ever got was wearing black eyeliner and black nail polish, but for him it was perfect.

Stoli and I got cell phones for our birthdays, making it much easier to get ahold of the other guys when something came up. None of us had any plans to move out of our parents’ houses yet except for Diamond. It seemed the more engrossed he became with the band, the harder his father came down on him. He mentioned a few times moving out right after graduation, but none of us were ready to. My dad told him he could stay at our place and he offered to pay rent or help with groceries and stuff. I decided to leave that between them to sort that out.

The longer Lucas and I dated, the more distant Stoli became. Which was seriously sucking because Lucas hung out with the band almost as much as I did. He went to every gig, and almost every practice over the summer months. Once his college classes started in the fall, he’d hardly be around and Stoli’s mood changed drastically.

“Hey guys,” Stoli said when we walked into his garage for practice one Saturday afternoon.

“Sup?” I said, shooting him a wave.

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