Last week you met Vander, today I'll introduce you to Cordell.
They said show him the ropes, but I look at him and nothing sits right about him doing this job.
I knew from the first time I saw him play that he was born to be on the stage. His fall from grace shouldn't have ended that. Other men had come back from worse than a prank gone wrong. The remorse was written all over his face even all these years later, yet not one outlet had stepped forward to offer him the chance to express it.
If it wasn't for Logan, he'd have stepped from behind those prison gates with nowhere to go and only the clothes he'd been wearing the night he was arrested.
The clothes he burned in the first bonfire we had after he joined us.
That eyepatch of his doesn't detract from his beauty, he'll always be rockstar handsome to me, but I know there is a story behind it, some horror he experienced while locked up in that prison. I can't help but feel like his fame, money or management company could have gotten him placed at a safer location, but when I asked Logan about it, all he'd say was that Vander didn't ask.
That he didn't say or do anything to protect himself, he'd just admitted the truth and owned up to his mistake...
...only talking to Logan and hearing the story the media didn't portray has left me thinking it wasn't a sober one.
That's not an excuse and I'd never try and make it sound like one...but it is a factor and I know better than anyone how that factor can fuck up a life.
According to Logan, that particular bit of truth never came up, since there wasn't a trial.
No need for one when Vander pled guilty before the DA could finished explaining the charges.
Logan's words, not Vander.
Vander never talks about it.
Hell, he barely talks at all.
The music world wouldn't touch him in any capacity, hell, Puma was still skeptical about having him as a part of our crew. It's a good thing it wasn't his decision. Vander not only works his ass off but he's always willing to jump in and help with a task, even when it wasn't assigned to him.
He barely interacts, even in the down times when we're joking around, and he's cautious, super cautious, like he's afraid that any little mistake will get him kicked down the road. He's wrong. Not a single member of our crew is flawless, we all fuck up from time to time, but we're family, which means that we don't give up on someone just because they get something wrong.
Sometimes I wonder if that's what Logan brought him here to see, or if there is more that's gone unsaid about their dynamic.
When I watch them together, it's the only time a ghost of a smile crosses Vander's face. I know we're supposed to call him Evan, I do when I say his name out loud, but he'll never be Evan Morris to me. He'll always be Evander Morrison.
And it sucks to see his talent go to waste.
Taking the fall for a shared mistake ended his once promising career, now he's a roadie traveling with one of the few people who knows who he used to be. It's a secret he clings to even when an unexpected second chance to take the stage presents itself. If jail taught him anything, it was how to keep his head down and stay off everyone's radar. When the truth is unexpectedly revealed, his first instinct is to run as fast and far from that tour bus as he can get. Unfortunately, the past has a way of finding even those determined to cling to the shadows, if only to prove that a broken chorus can still be made whole again.
Broken Chorus is part of the multi-author Road to Rocktoberfest 2024 series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but why not read them all and see what antics our bands get into next? Hot rockstars and the men who love them, what more could you ask for. Kick back, load up your kindle and enjoy the men of Rocktoberfest!
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