“So,
there’s nothing else you’ve ever wanted to do.”
“Professionally,
not really.”
“That’s
not exactly a yes or no.”
“It’s
more like an apathetic indifference to just about everything else I’ve ever
attempted. I mean, I guess if someone came along and said I could never play
music again or have anything to do with the music industry, now go out and make
a living, I’d try my hand at carpentry. At least then I’d still be creating
something. What about you, what would you be doing?”
“Professional
alcohol taster, ‘cause if I had to walk away from music the only way to survive
it would be drunk off my ass and oblivious to every moment of it.”
Like
he wasn’t oblivious enough as it was, at least, to most everything around him
that wasn’t Dez. He felt the impact of his body hitting another body a second
before Dez reached out to steady him.
“Why
don’t you watch where the fuck you’re going,” the other guy snarled, his voice
jarring Riley straight out of the pleasant mood he’d been in.
“Joy.”
“I
heard you guys were going to try and play this, but I was hoping you’d come to
your senses and back out before you embarrassed yourselves more.”
“Piss
off Wade,” Riley snarled, moving to sidestep him.
“You
never could handle me speaking truth to you, could you?”
“Truth
I can deal with just fine. It’s you being an ass I can do without.”
“One
would think you’d want to know how you weren’t cutting it so you could work on
making improvements instead of excuses.”
“What
I would like to work on is a portion of my lifespan in which I never have to
talk to you again.”
“I’d
expect that out of Damien, even Zakk to some extent, but I thought you’d
understand. Too bad it turns out you’re as blind as the rest of them.”
“And
what is it that I’m supposedly blind to.”
“How
much I put into the band. How many proposals I made and set designs I came up
with. Who thought up the pyro and video package for that last tour? Who worked
with the artist to revamp the logo and work out the designs for the last batch
of t-shirts. Who…”
“We
all poured our hearts into the band, Wade, the difference was, the rest of us
were willing to continue sharing in our success equally, while you suddenly got
it in your head to demand more than what you were entitled to.”
“I
was entitled to be compensated for all the time, effort and creative energy I
was putting into creating something unique and different for us, even if the
rest of you refused to acknowledge it for what it was. Brilliant.”
“You
had your opinion, we had ours. In your mind it was brilliant, in ours it was
disjoined shit.”
“Not
my fault you have no vision.”
“Whatever.
You’re on your own now, so create what the hell ever you want to, no one has a
single fuck left to give you. You got what you wanted, so what’s the point in
standing around harping about how we didn’t let you have your way.”
Eyes
narrowing, Wade turned his attention from Riley to Dez, eyeing their big man up
and down with that smirking scowl of his. “Be careful you don’t step too far
out of the box they wanna pigeonhole you into. It gets impossibly constricting
really fucking quick, trust me on that.”
“There’s
a big difference between you and me, Wade.” Dez shot back, taking enough of a
step to put himself directly between Wade and Riley. “I actually enjoy the
style of music that we play. In fact, I excel at performing it. Writing new pieces
of it too. It’s not their fault you struggled to do that. In fact, it
seems to me like you might have done them a favor in quitting. That way they
could find someone who enjoys the creative high of a team project, unlike some
people, who only seem to get pleasure out of jerking off.”
Without
another word, Dez shouldered past Wade, his fingers entangling with Riley’s as
he did, which meant Riley was tugged along too, a swirl of emotions running
through his mind making it difficult to focus so maybe it was a good thing he
had Dez to guide him through the crowd.
“Don’t
waste your time thinking about anything he just said.”
“Hard
not to.”
Dez
stopped so abruptly that when Riley kept walking he ended up feeling a sharp
tug on his arm before being yanked back against Dez’s chest. His much bigger
bandmate crowded him against a nearby light post and kissed him breathless.
“Look
at me.”
Apparently,
Riley didn’t lift his head fast enough because Dez slipped a hand beneath his
chin and raised it that way.
“You
wanna get lost thinking about something, get lost thinking about me. Get lost
thinking about this band and what we’re going to do tomorrow. Get lost thinking
about the album we’re going to record in a few months and the tour Damien has
been drawing up. Get lost imagining all the places we’re going to see. The
downtime when you and I can slip away and explore each other and anything else
we want to see. Focus on the coming winter and some pickup games of
hockey. Think about Christmas and snowboarding. You promised me a tour of your
cabin in the mountains and I have been looking forward to seeing all those
evergreens and the fireplace you claim even I can stand upright in. Don’t waste
a millisecond more of your time on that piece of shit. Anyone who’d treat
someone the way he’s treated you guys was never a friend in the first place.”
Read the first chapter here!
Available on Amazon and KU!
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