Rock Bottom Love

Ch.1 Jean

“You need to get out of this room and get some fresh air if nothing else," Sheila was a better friend than she had been a mother. She was always pushing me to stop studying and get out of the house. This time it felt like she might be right. Of course it wasn't until she put me in front of a mirror that I realized how bad things had gotten. I was so pale I had almost gone translucent.

School had taken over my life. I had always been a bit of a keener, but law school was different. I was still top of the class, but that feat was taking every part of me. I hadn’t gone out or done anything just for fun in a very long time. As I looked into the mirror I remembered my last night out.

It was with my boyfriend Jeremy. We went to a Chili’s and fought about how we never go out. That was the entire conversation, and then we were so mad by the end that we didn’t speak to each other until we said good bye at the door to my dorm. I thought about it for another minute, because I was pretty sure those were the last words we had spoken to each other in person.

“You need to start taking care of yourself,” Sheila said as she wiped spaghetti off my chin with her thumb.

“I am almost at the end,” I protested. “I am so close to graduation and then I already have a position at Mellon, Zedller, & Shiefle. My goals are months away from coming to fruition, I can’t lose focus now.” It was hard for me to understand my mother’s problem today, until she flipped on the bright lights over the bathroom mirror, “Ahhh! Oh god!”

How did I let it get this bad? I looked like an albino raccoon. There was a chunk of my shoulder length brown hair that was shooting up over my head like a tall, skinny Mohawk. I started trying to push it down when Sheila threw me into the shower.

"This is no time for half measures," my mother warned me. "We are about to accomplish something you have always dreamed about." I looked around the corner of the shower door. "We are going to see They Might be Rock Hyenas live!"

I ducked back into the shower with a scowl on my face. Sheila knew about my history with that band. I loved them, but horrible things happened every time I went to go see them. Dogs died, grandmothers fell ill, and friends were lost forever to the disputes that this band had caused. I was too near the end of my law degree to risk anything putting it in jeopardy. The disaster that accompanied their concerts was always different, and I wasn't about to risk failure.

"This is different though," Sheila said as she sat on my bathroom counter. "This is not an official concert. It's a warm up gig for a possible reunion tour."

"They broke up?" I asked spitting the shower water out of my mouth.

"Come on!" Sheila yelled, "You used to be a fan. You used to care about these guys."

"I am a fan," I said as I thought about the group and the deep connection I had to the music. I had loved ‘Banging on the Walls’ since it came out when I was 14 years old. "I am just a very busy fan. I can't believe it though, how long ago did they split?"

"When you started into law school, so I guess about four years ago." Sheila sounded down, my scholarly lifestyle always had this effect on her. She felt like my schooling was my way of rebelling against her. My mother had been the singer in a rock band, and then a song writer. Rock, and pop music were a big part of her life, and when she heard me say that I wanted to be lawyer, it was like a shot to the heart for Sheila.

“Well, I can’t go,” I said as I got out of the shower. “I have papers and studying, and a million things to do that I can’t just drop right now.”

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am,” Sheila said. “I thought that I had raised you better. You won’t go to rock shows, I can never take you out drinking, and you made it through college with your purity intact. Who does that?”

“Dedicated students, mother.” That always got her. She hated a lot of things, but being called mother was worse than a paper cut to the ear. I got dressed in the closet thing I could find. Truthfully, I didn’t even look in the closet. I just pulled out a floral sun dress and threw it on.

“I saw Jeremy out,” Sheila said, looking to get a dig back at me. She was always telling me that Jeremy was going to leave cause he was bored. “He was with his new girlfriend…”

“What?’

“Yeah he has moved on,” Sheila smiled.

“He can’t move on, we’re still going out,” I said, but there was very little emotion in my voice. I knew why he was gone. I hadn’t even noticed him leave, so how attached could I have been.

“He sent you a break up text a few months ago, when I was over.” Sheila seemed delighted to have Jeremy out of the way. “I deleted the message and decided to wait and see if you would even notice.”

“A few months ago?”

“Back in November,” Sheila laughed evilly.

 “It’s March!” I yelled as I looked at the calendar to make sure. “I have been single for five months?”

“You didn’t even really like him,” Sheila said flippantly as she sat down on the bed. “You just thought he was a good match for you. His father was a lawyer, he’s in med school. You were in love with him on paper not in real life.”

“And you think you can just decide these things for me?” I asked. She was right. I knew that she was right, because I wasn’t even upset. Jeremy had been a place holder, and I was being unfair to everyone keeping him around. He was right to leave, and my mother had saved me from months of anguish that I would’ve forced myself to go through, for a guy I didn’t care enough about to notice.

“Yes, dear.” Sheila put her arm around me, “Now, we need to look at this situation a little more closely. We are both single, it’s the beginning of spring break, we have concert tickets. I think it’s clear what needs to be done.” I started to shake my head no, “Oh yes honey, what you need a reverse intervention. It’s time for sex, booze, and drugs, and time for a little whatever.”

That was my mother’s biggest hit as a song writer, ‘Time for a Little Whatever’ it was sort of her catch phrase. It just meant go with the flow, but it with Sheila at the helm it always meant trouble. I sighed and looked down at the ground. She had made her point. I was already starting to give in.

I hadn’t always been this lost in my schooling. I was always driven and dedicated, but I used to make time for family and friends. It was just law school. It was so hard to get in, and then it was hard to even keep up. We were always being ranked and judged. Our grades were always made public throughout the law school. I needed to be the best it was like a sickness.

“All right, I‘ll go,” I relented. Sheila had been staring me in the eyes for the last two minutes without blinking. She was just going to keep staring at me until I gave in. “What do they even look like anymore, I mean they aren’t teenagers anymore.” Sheila didn’t even hear me she was too busy dancing around me jumping up and down.

“We have to get into the car now if we’re going to make it,” My mother said as she ran her fingers through my wet hair. “The concert is in Jacksonville.” I couldn’t believe that my mother. She was always making plans like this. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my coat. “You’re not wearing that are you?” Sheila asked.

I looked over at my mother. She was dressed in a black leather skirt, a bright pink tube top, and a leather jacket. Her long blonde hair was flowing over the back of her jacket. She looked like she was headed to a concert. I looked like I was headed to church, or maybe like I was headed out to go shopping. Either way, I was not dressed for a rock show.

“I am going under duress,” I said as I grabbed my purse and headed for the door. “I will wear what I want to wear.” My mother opened my drawers and grabbed a few random articles of clothing. I wasn’t even looking.

“Just in case you change your mind,” She said and we headed off to start the long drive to Jacksonville.

 

Ch. 2 – Travis

 

“Why are we back here, Tray?” Hank said from behind his massive drum kit. Back in the day he had been famous for his long drum solos, but rehearsal was only five minutes in and he was already sweating.

“We are getting the band back together,” I shouted enthusiastically. I needed to get the others behind me. I could already tell they didn’t want to be here. “This is a reunion tour, but I wanted to get back in the studio and jam. I want to give the people something new.”

“And you think that is going to be a big selling point?” Mikey said. He was still tuning his bass. He hadn’t stopped tuning it since we got started and I was pretty sure he was just stalling. “This is a reunion tour, they want the old hits.”

“I want to give them the old hits and a few new ones,” I said. I knew I had lost them. “Come on guys, this used to be fun.”

“Yeah well, you used to write better songs,” Randy the rhythm guitarist said as he ran through some scales. “I mean ‘Seal of Love’ what is that?”

“I don’t know.” I walked over to Randy’s stand and looked at the music sheets in front of him. “Where did this come from?” I asked, but I was already staring down Gil, the new agent that we had been given specifically for the reunion tour.

“You said you were okay with it when I suggested using the song mill,” Gil was cowering, honestly cowering as I walked over to him. I threw the sheets in his face. It was unfair of me. I wasn’t even really mad at Gil, it was that he represented a step down for the band and for me personally. When I was 16 and on top of the rock world I always dealt with the best agents. Gil was an adjustment.

“So now you’re trying to buy songs?” Hank looked over at me accusingly. I glared back at him. I couldn’t believe what he was saying after living for so long on the strength of songs that I had written.

“I’m sorry, this is my fault,” Gil mumbled from the corner.

“It is your fault Gil!” I yelled, “And it is my fault, because I’m not used to dealing with a second-string manager!”

“I’m standing right here,” Gil whined.

“That’s why he said second string,” Randy laughed. “You wouldn’t’ve been allowed to look at us back in the day.” We all laughed at Gil. It was petty and unnecessary, but I needed something for the guys to unite behind. If it needed to be hating Gil, then so be it.

Gil stormed off and we all doubled over. “What was the deal with this song mill, do they only write songs about aquatic mammals in love?” Hank asked. I grabbed the sheets and started to read. There was one about a seal and one about an otter, and that’s when I remembered the email.

“No, I just thought that Gil would know I was kidding,” I laughed as I told them about the email where I told Gil I would only accept song mill songs that involve puns about animals in love. “Bob would’ve known I was kidding.” I thought about calling the old manager to let him in on the joke, but he was no longer taking my calls. I had trashed my last hotel room as far as he was concerned.

“So, I am going back to my original question, why are we back here?” Hank asked as he lazily twirled a drum stick in his hand. “We are all stinking rich, we are playing a crappy second string tour, I mean where are we even playing tonight?”

“Leviathan Tech,” I mumbled. It was too embarrassing to say out loud. “This is a warm up gig. Most of the tour will be at semi-respectable places…”

“And you aren’t playing tonight anyway,” Gil said as he came back into the room. “Tonight the label wants you to meltdown on stage. You need some drama to really sell this tour to the younger audience.”

I stared at Gil. I was trying to decide whether he was kidding me. It did sound exactly like our new label. Frantic Records was owned by our old label, and they were essentially the retirement home of rock. It was the label that the main label sent you to when you were no longer relevant. They had been putting out stories linking me to a young model for months now in hopes of selling tickets, and now they were upping the ante.

“The story line is that Christy broke up with you and you are too depressed to continue rockin’ on,” Gil said making the ‘rock on’ sign with his hand. It always looked so horrible when a suit tried to be cool. It pushed me right over the edge. I don’t even know how the bottle got into my hand. I cracked Gil on the back of the head. I took him down and hit him five or six times in the face.

I had been the lead guitarist, and lead singer of a hit rock band since the age of 16, it was hard for me to gauge my response to things. I often found myself flying off the handle at managers and agents, really any of the ten percenters were in trouble.

“What are you doing?” Hank said as he pulled me off of the limp manager. “Is he breathing?”

“Yeah, he’s bleeding real bad though,” Randy said as he helped Gil back to his feet.

I had seen the flashes. I barely noticed them, but as they continued to go I started to notice the bursts of light from inside the sound booth. I looked over to see a photographer flashing pictures of the scene.

“You can’t act like this anymore,” Hank said as he held me in place. “We have put up with your shit for long enough. The label let you do whatever you wanted, because you were a star, well guess what, you’re not a star anymore!” Hank’s mouth was only about an inch from my face. I could feel his anger and his spit. “When is the last time that you wrote a hit song?”

It was a low blow, but it was the truth. I hadn’t written any hits in five years, and I hadn’t written anything nearly as good as ‘Banging on the Walls,’ well, since that song was written. It was a song about my parents’ divorce and it was about something real that had happened in my life. I felt the emotions, and the pain helped me to write an amazing song.

I wrote a few other hits, but they were all based on my real feelings, and real things that were happening in my life. Nothing real had happened to me in a long time. I was insulated by the record label, they protected me from consequences and real life, and suddenly I didn’t feel anything. I had started creating my own drama, just to try and feel something, and that is when They Might be Rock Hyenas broke up.

“Why can’t you control yourself?” Mikey asked. He was still tuning his bass. He wasn’t even looking up at me. He was just listening to his bass, while all of this nonsense went on around him.

“It’s not like I am trying to do this,” I said as if that excused me from anything. “I have lived like this forever, what am I supposed to do?”

“You need to grow up,” Hank said. “Stop making these really pathetic excuses and grow up.” Hank led the charge out the door and everyone else followed. “I will do this tour, but only if you cut the crap and control yourself. If you freak out tonight we’re done.”

I sat down on the piano bench as I watched the others walk out of studio. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and I waited for lyrics. I was in pain, I felt betrayed, or something I knew it. My fist hurt, that was for sure. Fist, fist, cease and desist! Nothing… I stared down at the paper and hoped that I would be able to get that magic back.  

“Don’t worry about those guys,” Gil said, still holding a t-shirt firmly on the top of his head to staunch the bleeding. “All we need is a little buzz, and we could sell a reunion tour even without the rest of the band.” I looked at Gil incredulously, mainly because I had forgotten he was even there until he started talking, but also because his idea was so stupid.

“Did you not hear what the guys said?”

“Not really, but my ears are ringing, and I have a weird taste in my mouth,” Gil said as he stood up and took a few uneasy steps over to where I was sitting. “I think the main thing to remember is you’re the star, people will come to hear you no matter who is playing behind you.”

I was so sick of hearing that.

 

Ch. 3 – Jean

 

 "So, did you transfer?" Monica asked as Sheila and I walked to the parking lot. "I haven't seen you since las semester." I smiled weakly and kept walking. It was a weird feeling to be a stranger on campus, and Monica was the third person to say something about not seeing me this semester. I live in the dorms, granted I don't have a roommate, but I still must leave the place sometimes. I was getting scared. I had become some sort of hermit and I didn't like it.

"We need to walk faster I whispered to my mother as more and more people started to stare. It was like I was on display. I could feel the eyes and hear the whispers.

"It's the crazy girl from 2 e," they were saying. I didn't need to hear it to know what they were saying. They all thought that I was a myth. Really this had been a problem throughout my schooling. I wasn’t a party girl, it was kind of like being a vampire. My schedule was just different than everyone else on campus. I definitely accomplished my learning goals in undergrad, but I missed out on a lot of the social elements.

I could see my mother’s car from a mile away. It was a yellow Volkswagen Beetle with brightly colored flowers painted all over it. I had always asked her how she could call herself an original thinker, having such a stereotypical car. “Some things are stereotypes for a reason,” Sheila would always say. We hopped into the car, I could feel the excitement starting to build.

"So when's the last time you saw any of the guys," Mom asked as we pulled out onto the road. They Might be Rock Hyenas may have taken on the world, but they started right in my neighbourhood. Travis Mellnick, was my next door neighbor and he had been my best friend growing up. Sheila was the one who got them an audition with Bob, their agent and one of my mother's best customers.

It was weird to think about that time and the Travis I used to know. I hadn't seen any of them in over a decade, but I knew from the way Sheila was talking that that hiatus was almost over. "You didn't get us backstage did you?" I asked as a sheepish smile danced across my mother's face. She was always getting tickets and passes. She worked for the song mill and they record labels were always trying to keep their writers happy. "You're not going to make this weird are you?"

It was a question that I always needs to ask my mother. She had a habit of getting maternal when she drank and usually ended with stories. Stories about an adorable little girl and they always left me red in the face. I didn't know if I could take hearing the stories in front of Travis.

I could still remember the night Travis left for Hollywood. We had camped out on the roof of the building.   We had been through so much together. Travis had looked out for me through my parent's divorce and my mother’s mood swings. We had always talked about getting our parents together. Travis was raised by his dad, his mom had left before I met him. We had so much in common, and we had been through the same things, it was like we knew each other inside and out. Then he left, I knew on that last night that it was our last night. Even if we met again it would never be the same. Not talking was hard but it made it easier to be apart.

"He asked about you," Sheila teased just to see my face change. She laughed, "I didn't talk to him, but if he knew we were coming he would've asked about you." She was the absolute worst sometimes.

I stared out of the window and waited for her to stop laughing. It was hard to imagine that I was raised by this woman. She loved life in a way that I had trouble understanding. Sheila Wanders was a free spirit who loved the entire human experience.

The longest car trip that I had ever been on was the first time that I had ever tried to go see Travis live. It was an eight hour trip to Atlanta. TMRH was playing a stadium and we got tickets sent to us by their manager. We got to Atlanta a day early and went out to dinner. I had the clams. I was sick for three days and ended up costing my mother two extra nights on the hotel. I missed the concert and that was my favorite memory of trying to go see Travis.

When we got to the concert hall I was a bit surprised. "It's a warm up show," my mom laughed. "They are always in crappy little holes like this." Sheila seemed absolutely giddy about walking into this armpit of a club.

"These are always the best shows. Nobody has to be perfect, the band is free to be creative." Sheila was dragging me through the crowd with a giddy laugh to her step. I was busy apologizing to the people that we were craning through to get to the front of the line.

"We are with the band," Sheila said as she flashed the pass and got past the security guards. Our tickets didn’t say anything about getting into the show early, but my mother always did things like this. She always told me, “Look confident, don’t ask for directions, and most importantly don’t slow down, just walk and flip a piece of paper and no security guard will stop you.” It had worked again.

“This is a dive bar,” I said as I felt the wood shavings crunched under my feet. Sheila grabbed me with both hands and shook me.

“Eeeee!” She squealed. “This is going to be a great show! Like the one they did in Reno,” my mother was about to remind me about the show when it hit her. “Oh yeah, your friend died, or something, right?”

“Grandma, yes,” I shook my head incredulously. My mother would do anything for rock and roll. I had almost forgotten that I was the one who set up grandma’s funeral. She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the bar.

“We need five waters to bring back for the band,” Sheila told the bartender in her most official sounding voice. The bartender looked sceptical. “Gil asked me to bring them back,” Sheila always had an ace up her sleeve. The waters came over the bar and we walked back behind the stage.

“Do you even know where to go?” I asked as we got behind the curtain.

“I have a sixth sense about these things,” Sheila was dipping and dodging through the roadies and backstage personnel.  Finally she came to a door. She put her ear to the door and knocked. “Randy!” Mom yelled as she threw her arms around Randy Steinman.

“You made it!” Randy said as he threw his arms around me too. He pulled us both into the room. “This is so awesome, you never come,” Randy marvelled as the others came over to say hi to us. Hank and Mikey, and a bunch of people who I didn’t know, but no sign of Travis. “He is moping,” Randy said as he noticed me looking around.

 “What’s wrong?” I asked. I tried to pretend that it wasn’t the world’s biggest disappointment that he wasn’t here.

“The reunion, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Randy laughed. “We have all moved on, Travis is kind of stuck. He wanted to call for a reunion and have us all go back to kissing his ass all the time. It didn’t go very well.”

“What are you giving an interview here?” Hank was all over Randy as he got between us. “You know there are people we don’t know in this dressing room right now. They would love to talk to some magazine about discord in the band.” Hank looked over at me. “This has nothing to do with you Jean. I trust you and Sheila, but there are at least four people in this dressing room that I don’t even know.”

Sheila and I found a place to sit in the back of the room. There was still a lot of time before the show started and I knew that I would never get my mother out of the dressing room before it was absolutely necessary. We watched as the guys went through some of their pre-show rituals. Mikey was burning incense and smudging himself with a sage pouch. Randy was drinking green tea and sitting on a yoga mat. Hank was doing chin ups, although I could tell that he was not doing as many as he wanted to.

“That was a ritual from when he was in better shape,” Mom said as she watched Hank struggle. All of the guys had aged in the decade since I saw them. They were all little punk kids and now they were fully grown men. I wasn’t sure I was ready to see Travis that way. I was worried it would ruin the image that I had of him.

 

Ch. 4 – Travis

 

I had been sitting in the studio for hours when Gil came to get me. "It's time to go," he said. I didn't really respond to him. I stood up, but I didn't start moving. I was just standing in place. "Come on, let's have a drink," Gil urged as he moved me over to a table with drinks already poured. I started to wonder how long he had been standing there. I mean these drinks hadn't gotten on the table by themselves.

"What are we drinking to?" I asked as I took the shot and then took the other shot. Gil didn't seem to mind, although he didn't seem to mind anything. I was pretty sure I could've asked to kick him in the nuts every day and he would've gone along with it. He was such a snivelling suit that it disgusted me.

"Shall we drink to tonight's concert?" He asked as I drank the drink he had just poured for himself.

"I don't know, hmmm, maybe we shall," I was mocking him and the spineless wimp only smiled. Earlier I had busted his head wide open and he didn't even fight back. I had been around people like this my whole adult life. Was it any wonder that I didn't know how to live my life properly? I glared at Gil as I took the next drink from him too. Then I took the bottle out of his hand and led the way out of the studio.

We were only an hour from show time and I was already feeling kind of all over the place.
"You need to get some water," Randy said as I walked into the dressing room. Randy only drank after the show. He had always been a professional. I had always told him the difference between a good guitarist and a great guitarist was how drunk the great one could be and still play on stage.

I tried to push past him and Randy grabbed my arm. “You are going to want to grab some water.” I looked over and saw two women with bottles of water.

“Sheila!” I yelled as I ran over to the older woman. The one in the floral dress hadn’t turned around yet, but it seemed to happen in slow motion as she did. It was like a blast from the past. As soon as I saw her I travelled through time. I was 16 again heading out on the road ready to take on LA and New York. “Jean! Man! I…I…ah, hi? Is that what I say?”

“Yeah, I think that wooorrks!” Jean said as I pulled her into my arms way harder than I had intended. It was just too amazing to see her again all grown up. At the same time I felt like a shit for not talking to her in a decade. There were only so many excuses you could make for being that kind of douche to someone you cared so much for, for so many years.

“Are you a lawyer now?” I always asked about Jean when I could. I had kept tabs on her from a far. We had only ever been friends, but she was the only woman in my life that I could really say that about. I was not good at doing, ‘plutonic.’

“Almost, I am about to graduate in April,” Jean said as she handed me a water. “My mother had us sneak in here as water girls.” I took the water and tried to drink it. I could feel it pouring all over me. I was starting to feel really out of it. I was regretting taking all of Gil’s drinks. I probably shouldn’t have done that. Even though it was fun to screw with him.

“Aren’t you going on soon?” Jean asked.

“Yeah, I‘ll be fine,” I said as she started to dry me with a towel that was draped over a nearby chair. I looked at her, she looked up at me, it should’ve been weird, but we were right back here. We had never had boundaries. We were always touching, but all of a sudden the contact was loaded with a completely different vibe.

Jean had done a lot of growing up. She was a woman now, and even though I was pretty out of it, I had still picked up on that. She was gorgeous, with her shoulder length, brown hair and those iceberg, blue eyes that seemed to glow. It had always felt like those eyes had seen right through me. She was the only one who knew me. Maybe that was why I had stayed away.

“You are sweating,” Jean said as she felt my arms.

“Whoa, hands on the merchandise,” I couldn’t even believe what I had just said. It was a joke I hadn’t used since the last time that we were together. I had always pretend it was a joke, but I had always liked it when she touched me. “I haven’t said that in forever,” I admitted.

“Oh sure, I bet you have said it to every groupie that you have had towel you off,” Jean teased. I shook my head. “Liar,” she laughed.

“That line is just for my Jean,” I said. “So why are you here after all this time? I mean, I am so happy that you are, but why now?”

“My mother is trying to save me from myself and force me to have a little fun.” Jean shrugged. “It is spring break after all.”

“So you’re going wild?” I nodded my approval. “I like it, let me know if I can help with the going wild.”

“Hi, Tray,” this woman came up to me and totally threw me off. I stared at her in disbelief. Only the guys got to call me Tray. I was Travis to the rest of the world. “You said that we would hang out before the concert.”

“I said that?” I asked as I pulled a crazy face and motioned for the girl to run along.

“You don’t have to do that,” Jean said as she watched the girl run away in tears. Truthfully, I had no idea who that woman was, and I was not about to miss this opportunity to hang out with Jean.

“That woman looks vaguely familiar,” I said, “But I actually know who you are, and it may be another decade before I see you again.” We both laughed, and then I stumbled. Jean helped me get into the chair. I looked in the mirror. I didn’t like the reflection staring back at me.

“Alright, everyone needs to clear the room,” Gil started shouting. I could feel the energy in the room shift as the people began to groan and leave. I grabbed for Jean.

“I need to see you again,” I tried to say, but she looked at me with an odd expression. I knew that she didn’t understand what I was trying to say. I tried again, but then I saw her lips move and nothing was coming out. Gil grabbed her shoulders and moved her out of the room.

“Plenty of time for that later,” Gil said as he looked down at me. I charged right at him. I couldn’t believe that he had said that about Jean. She was not some groupie. My anger pulled me back into reality for a minute. Gil easily moved out of my way and Rand grabbed me.

“Are you ready to do this?” Randy asked as he strapped the guitar around me. I started going through the cords. My fingers always knew their way around the strings. It was like they were a part of the guitar as soon as they touched the neck. “All right, look at me, we are doing this, we are playing this show, but no fake drama crap.”

“I will totally leave,” Hank said as he spun a drum stick in each of his hands. “We are going to do this for real, we need to get a whole show in if we are going to be ready for the tour.” Hank led the charge out of the room. Gil put his hand on my shoulder and held me back.

“You remember the contract right?” Gil asked. I did remember the contract. I had signed it in a drunken stupor, but it basically said that I owed the studio one successful solo tour or I would have to pay their fees. They had gone through and itemized my possessions. The studio was going to take me for everything if I didn’t sell this solo tour. Gil was going to get my house.

“I don’t want to piss off the guys,” I said trying to reason with Gil. “There has to be another way to go. Wouldn’t a successful reunion tour be a good promotion for the solo tour?”

“Freak out, or there is no chance of starting up your solo career,” Gil patted my cheek and I almost killed him. Instead I nodded and walked out to the stage.

 

Ch. 5 – Jean

 

“So!” Sheila was jumping up and down as she ran up to me. We had gotten separated in the dressing room, but she waited for me just outside the gates to the backstage area. “What did you guys talk about?”

“Nothing, everything, I don’t know,” it was the best answer I could give. I was still trying to process the whole thing. I was so nervous and then so comfortable, and then it was over. It was like we didn’t miss a beat. The years hadn’t changed us, even though individually we were different people, together we were still us.

“Gil was so mad that he pushed away that model that they are trying to link him to,” Mom said as she walked me over to the bar. “They have a whole year’s worth of tabloid stories to run, they just have to get the pictures.”

We got our drinks and headed into the fray. It was already starting to get wild as people waited for the show to start. There was no opening act and people were chanting for Travis. A guy with six nose rings pushed past me and almost spilled my drink. “Watch where you’re going tubby!” My mother screamed at the large biker. The man was 250 lbs of solid muscle.

“Mom, it’s okay,” I said.

“Mom?” Sheila asked, “You never call me that.” Sheila hugged me tight and we walked further into the crowd. Sheila pushed the biker on our way past just to piss him off. Then she flashed him her flirtatious smile. That was how she got away with all of her crap. I had told her that there was going to come a day when that stopped working.

“I just need to hear ‘Banging on the Walls,’ and that will be enough for me,” I said as the roadies did the sound check. “I can die happy then.”

“They always close with that song,” Sheila said as she showed me a picture she had snapped of the set list. She was so good at being a concert goer it was almost insane. I wouldn’t have even thought of that. I read through the songs. They were covering all their hits and ending on the biggest. I couldn’t wait.

I had been reluctant to come, but now I couldn’t even remember why. I was shaking with excitement. After all of this time I was going to see They Might be Rock Hyenas live. I started chanting along with the crowd. It was the only thing that the band was lacking. Their name was way too long to chant.

“I see them behind the curtain!” Sheila screamed and pointed and everyone around us went nuts. I couldn’t believe how excited I was getting. I got on the shoulders of a man in front of me. Sheila set it up of course, only using her hands, she asked the man to lift me. I just needed to be as close as possible to the action.

“Are you ready?!” It was Gil. He had run out on stage as the roadies cleared out. “I can’t hear you!” We were all screaming wildly. Nobody even cared how cliché Gil was being. It just didn’t matter. No one was here to see that guy, and as long as he got off the stage quickly we were all ready to indulge his cheese ball routine. “These guys need no introduction…”

“Then get off the stage!” The man holding me in the air shouted. I pet his head. I was hoping he realized that I was just approving of his comment and not making a sexual advance. I thought about that for a second before Gil started talking again and I was right back into the show.

“Hank Strider on the drums, Mikey Sawn on the bass guitar, Randy Steinman playing rhythm guitar, and lead singer, and lead guitarist, lyricist, and the…the…hey!” Gil yelled as Randy tossed him off the stage and into the crowd. I waved to the very stressed out agent as he glided past. Travis took the stage almost doubled over laughing. He ran up to Randy and hugged him, but he was having trouble standing again.

I had thought that I saw him moving around again. Mom had always told me about Travis’ tolerance levels when playing shows. It was the stuff of rock legend. However, tonight he looked way too far gone. He was laughing and having trouble getting back into a standing position. The audience was picking up on it as the band spent the first few minutes trying to get Travis back upright. Finally Randy let him sit down and went into the opening to ‘Standing at the Door.’

This was another song that Travis had played for me. I had heard the song before any of the guys in the band. It was one of my all-time favorites, although it couldn’t hold a candle to ‘Banging on the Walls.’  Travis started playing his part from the floor of the stage. He laid right out flat and waved a roadie over to hold his microphone over his mouth.

It was amazing. He couldn’t even stand, and yet he was playing the song flawlessly. I could see him well from my shoulder top perch. My legs were going numb, but it was worth it to see him sing again. I just loved it so much. His voice sent chills down my spine. My eyes followed his fingers as they danced across the strings. It was always so amazing to see how he handled his guitar.

“I’m knocking in the darkened hallway,” Travis sang and I could see the hallway in our old building. I always felt special listening to this song. I had actually been in the hallway that he was talking about. Most people thought this song was supposed to be romantic. They had no idea it was about sneaking into my room late at night when his father fought with whatever girlfriend was living with them at the time.

“You come to me in pi…eehww,” Travis sounded like he was choking on his words. He sat up and threw up all over the stage. He threw his guitar strap off and rolled onto his knees as he continued to heave. It was disgusting. I tapped the man I was sitting on and he let me down.

“You just don’t know!” Sheila shouted. “I told you these are the best shows!” I watched Travis for a minute, and I thought for a second that he might have seen me, but I couldn’t take seeing him like this. I grabbed mom’s hand and we moved towards the back of the bar.

“The shows over!” Hank screamed into the microphones. “Everybody go the fuck home, I sure as hell am,” Hank led the others off the stage. There were millions of phones in the air. Everyone was recording the scene on stage. People seemed excited to see the whole thing fall apart. I was the only person who seemed upset at all.

“I think they’ll be back out,” a woman was saying as she live blogged the event right into her phone. Everyone in the world was going to know about this break down in a few minutes. Sheila found Gil and grabbed him.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

“They are all getting ready to go, my assistant is back there trying to get the band back on, but it doesn’t look good.” Gil shrugged and walked off. We watched for another minute as Travis struggled to get back to his feet. The roadies came out and started to disconnect everything, but it wasn’t until the curtains started to close that everyone started to boo.

“I paid good money for these tickets!” A man was yelling. There was another screaming while standing on the bar. People were getting upset and the crowd was getting ugly.

“Time to go!” Sheila said as she pulled me through the crowd and out the door. “You always need to know when to run away. The cops were already pulling into the parking lot as we ran to the brightly colored Beetle. “That is going to be ugly.”

“Is this how it usually goes at these shows?” I asked as I waited for Mom to unlock the car. She was struggling to find her keys.

“Essentially, but they normally play more songs,” Sheila laughed. “I think something is really wrong though. The guys wouldn’t just walk away like that unless there was something wrong. I have seen Travis act way worse than that on stage. Although that is the most I have ever seen him puke.”

We drove to find something to eat. We were already in Jacksonville. We decided we had to make a night of it. I was disappointed, but at the same time, I had gotten closer than ever before to seeing the guys play. It was pretty amazing really.

 

Ch. 6 – Travis

 

I staggered to my feet. It wasn’t the first time I had let the band down like that, but I had a feeling it was the last time. I didn’t feel like I was ever going to get the guys back again after that. I was scared when I realized that they had all left.

“They got into a cab and headed back to the hotel,” Gil’s assistant Stevie was actually kind of cool. I preferred talking to him than to Gil, and I just loved that Gil hadn’t even found his way back to the dressing room yet. I was going to lose my mind on him about that later.

“Do you want me to get you a police escort?” Stevie asked. I looked up into his pierced eyebrows and wondered when I laid down. It took me a minute to remember where I was, I must have closed my eyes for a second. I had gotten down on the couch.

“No, I’m not going anywhere for a bit.” I laid still and tried to get the spinning to stop as I listened to the people rushing around me. I could hear the chaos in the main room coming through the walls. It sounded like there was a riot going on outside. Suddenly I was worried about Jean. I knew that Sheila would take care of her, but if they got separated or couldn’t get out in time. I decided I would have to kill myself if anything happened to them.

I remembered seeing the disappointment in her eyes as I embarrassed myself all over the stage. I never wanted to see that look in her eyes again. It had absolutely crushed me, but then I just continued to throw up. I was excited to know what the bill was going to be for that incident.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Gil said as he came into the room. I had heard that tone in his voice before. He had poisoned me. I could tell just looking at that smug face. He had poisoned me to make sure that I ruined the show. It was the shots. I tried to be mad, but I actually respected Gil more than I had ever in my life.

“I feel like it wasn’t all that unexpected,” I said as I rolled off the couch and up onto my feet. I grabbed an energy bar and then ate a bit from the snack table that had been set up before the show. I was already starting to feel better. The poisons were wearing off. I couldn’t believe that Gil had the balls. “I’m impressed.”

I ate another carrot and then I laid back on the couch to wait for the crowds to die down and leave. I could still hear the police running about. I closed my eyes for a minute and she was on top of me. It was the woman I vaguely remembered from before. She was laying on top of me and kissing me. I could see Gil snapping pictures out of the corner of my eye.

“What is this?” I asked as I threw the poor woman to the ground. She seemed to be fine with it.

“I’m your girlfriend, don’t you read the tabloids?” She said this as if it was a normal thing to say to a human being. I couldn’t believe the insanity that was being spouted at me. She was stunning, but in a plastic way. Everything about her looked like it had been designed by an engineer. She was standard model girl. I had been with enough to know the type.

I pulled Gil aside, and shrugged at him waiting for an explanation. “You need young and hot, she is both. She is up-and-coming, and your old news butt needs that.”

“First of all, say ass, you’re a grown man,” I said as I grabbed Gil by the collar. “Second, could you run this shit by me? I don’t want to be surprised anymore.” I let go of Gil and he was about to walk away. “And I know what you did,” I said to Gil, but I left it at that.

He walked away and took his model. I was done with the politics of launching my solo career for the night. I grabbed the guitar closest to me and I started playing. It wasn’t anything. It was a song that had been stuck in my head for a while. I had the cords and the general feel of the song worked out, but I couldn’t come up with lyrics.

It had been a long time since I wrote anything good. I had written some hits that were trendy, but writing something really good seemed beyond my scope any more. I tried to think of some lyrics. “I need a song to…to. I need a love that can…” I started to laugh as I thought about writing a love song. I had never written a song about romance in my life. All of the songs people thought were romantic were about Jean and our friendship or my parents’ divorce. Neither of those topics were particularly romantic, but it seemed to be good enough for people.

“Did you do that on purpose?” Randy was standing over me.

“Gil poisoned me,” I said as he glared down. “Are you guys out?” Randy nodded.

“I just wanted to let you know how much we all hate you right now,” Randy said as calmly as he could. “We were all trying to be excited. We thought that you had finally pulled your head out of your ass. Don’t call ever again.” Randy said as he walked away. I almost wished that he had raised his voice. It was all way too calm and reasonable. He was being adult about it, and I didn’t know what to do.   

“Are you ready to go?” Stevie said as he threw my arm over his shoulder and started walking. I was no longer feeling sick or drunk, I was feeling awful, but in an entirely different way. I knew that it was my fault. I had shit on those guys for way too long, and now I had gone too far. They were only going to hate me more when they realized why I had done it.

We got out to the bus and Gil was talking to the model whose name was still not coming to me. They were snuggled all cozy on a little bench. They went to move when I got on the bus, but I waved at them. I didn’t care what they did. I got back into my private room on the bus, and Stevie had brought two girls in ahead of me.

“Just like you asked,” he said as I looked up and saw them on the bed. I was about to say no when Gil pushed me onto the bed and snapped a bunch of pictures. I was trying to stand up, but they were all over me. I was pretty sure one even cut off a piece of my hair.

“I am fine really,” I said as I tried to push them away, but suddenly my pants were gone. It wasn’t the girls either, I was pretty sure it was Stevie who pulled them off. “What is going on?” I said as Gil used his fingers to indicate that I should smile. I threw a pillow into his face as I felt a mouth go over my cock. I stood up, “Teeth, teeth, teeth,” I yelled as I danced around in pain. I got my pants back on. “Drive!” I yelled as I got out of the room.

“How dare you?!” The model shouted. She started to slap me, and the bus driver started moving forward at the same time. Her hand came flying at me with the force of the bus behind it. I went staggering back to hit the ground and see that Gil was filming the whole thing. I looked over at the model who was rubbing her hand. I could feel her palm still burning on my cheek.

“That’s enough for right now,” Gil said as he helped me to my feet and put his phone away. “I just wanted to get this stuff out of the way. Now we can focus on making music.” I nodded as I tried to collect my thoughts. “You asked for this right?”

I grabbed a seat. Gil was right. I didn’t even argue with him. I was the one who wanted to make a comeback as a solo artist. I was the one who had missed the fame and fortune and all the nonsense. I had wanted this and now I had it. Throwing up on stage, causing a riot, posed pictures for the tabloids, and a tour bus full of women. I was right back where I left off. It just didn’t feel the same.

 

Ch. 7 – Jean

 

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to hear the song,” Sheila said as she bumped me with her shoulder. I guess I must have looked down, but I wasn’t sad about that. I wanted to know that Travis was okay. It had been so amazing to connect with him again. Even though the concert was a bust, I had actually had an amazing night.

“Oh great a lounge act,” I groaned as a crooner came out onto the tiny stage in the back corner of the bar. We had decided to find a hotel before going to eat, and by the time we found a hotel that we could both agree on we were too hungry to eat anywhere else. The food was great, but after we went up to the room for a minute to freshen up, we just came back down and started drinking in the bar.

“I feel like we are being lame, but I can’t drive anywhere right now,” Sheila apologized. “I mean it’s spring break, you shouldn’t be around all of these old people.” Everyone in the bar looked about my mother’s age, she thought of age as a state of mind though. Sheila was not old, just every other forty year old.

“I’m just glad to be out of my dorm and living again,” I said as I heard some commotion starting in the barroom behind me. It sounded like a special guest was joining the lounge singer. I could hear the people moving around, but I was too busy trying to pep up my mother to care. Sheila was tired from the drive, but mainly she was upset by the amount of work she had done to get us to a two minute long rock concert.

“I wrote this song quite a while ago, and I have played it a million times, but never on the piano,” It was a familiar voice. “I know you wanted to hear it, Jean,” I turned to see Travis speaking into the microphone. He looked right at me as he started into a lounge act version of ‘Banging on the Walls.’ His piano playing had improved. I grabbed my drink and moved closer to the stage.

“Muffled phrases, muted screams,

Haunting chatter, violent dreams,

I wake to crashing pots, broken glass in the halls,

Fear inside starts banging on the walls.”

 

Travis looked over and nodded his head down to the piano bench. Everyone in the room watched me walk over to the bench, but I was only looking at Travis. I sat down beside him and he looked deep into my eyes as he sang.

I tried to stay in control as he sang to me. I knew that people were watching us, I wasn’t used to being on stage under a spot light. However, soon that all melted away. I couldn’t hear the people chattering. I didn’t notice the lighting. Travis and I were just there together on the stage.

“Well, you recovered nicely,” I said to Travis when the song finished. “I thought you’d still be in bed.”

“Puking is never the end of the night,” He laughed. “You just brush your teeth and move on.” Travis waved to the people in the audience who were cheering for another song. “No guys, I gotta, well okay one more,” Travis broke into a rousing rendition of ‘My Way.’

“You could be a lounge singer,” I said as we finally got to a quiet booth in the back. My mother had left to raid the tour bus for booze. Travis shrugged at the thought. “Seriously, it doesn’t look like the band is getting back together.”

“You wanna know a secret?” Travis asked. I tried to control my excitement. I hadn’t heard a secret from Travis in so long. “We were never getting back together. The whole thing was a publicity stunt that Gil cooked up. I feel like an ass ‘cause I didn’t even tell the guys about it. I just completely abused their friendship to try and launch my solo career.”

“Why didn’t you just write a great new song,” I asked naively, “Isn’t that how you start a solo career, with music?”

“I haven’t written a decent song in years,” Travis said as he took another drink of his beer. “I keep trying to write something halfway decent, but nothing happens. So the label dumped me off onto this ‘has been’ manager.”

“Gil is a ‘has been?’”

“No Gil manages rock stars with nothing left but fading fame, and tries to squeeze the last bits of money out of their residual fame.” Travis sighed. “I’m washed up at 26, and Gil is the guy who’s taking me out to pasture.”

“You’re not washed up,” I said as I tried to get Travis to look me in the eyes. It was just like when we were kids. This full grown man was pouting. I moved over on the bench and got right beside him. I lifted his face in both of my hands so that he would have to look me in the eyes. “You’re not washed up. You’re talented and handsome,” I let my right hand fall onto his shoulder. “Oh, and you have great muscle tone,” I said as I ran my hand down his well-defined arm. He wasn’t the skinny kid that I remembered.

“You aren’t a kid anymore either,” Travis said as he put his arm around me. “It feels the same though doesn’t it? I mean it’s like we’re the same as we were.” Travis said as he looked into my eyes, and there was a sudden pause. He licked his lips, and I moved my face closer. His hand went to the back of my neck and he brought my face closer.

I could see the flashes through my eye lids as we kissed. For a minute I thought they were a symptom of the sparks that I could feel going off all over my body. Travis pulled me closer and we continued to kiss in the booth. I got right into his lap. He was much taller than he had been the last time that I saw him, and I had only grown maybe an inch or two since I was 14.

I could feel his hard body pressing against me through his tight t-shirt. “These people are all taking pictures,” Sheila said as she pulled on me and motioned for the both of us to come out of the booth. “Sorry, Gil wanted me to get you out of there, something about controlling the message. I am tired, though, I’m heading to bed.” Mom kissed both of our foreheads.

“Good night Sheila,” Travis said as he opened the door to his tour bus.

“I guess I should go with her,” I said as I tried to move away. Travis lifted me off my feet. “Or whatever, we could hang out I guess.” I could barely think with all of the redness in my cheeks.

“The universe finally brought us back together and I am not giving you back just yet.” Travis said as he grabbed my hand and led out the door of the lounge bar and into the parking lot. As he climbed the steps into the tour bus. “To the airport!” Travis said to the bus driver who was sleeping on the couch. The man got himself together and rubbed his eyes. I heard what Travis had said, but I didn’t exactly process it. There wasn’t enough time to gather my thoughts amidst all the sensations running through my body. I watched the man get behind the driver’s seat as Travis carried me to the back of the bus. “This is my private room.” He swung the door open.

“Oh, God!” We said at the same time as we saw the girls laying on the bed.

“Gil paid for the whole night?” The blonde said as she sat up seductively. She wasn’t wearing a top, so it may just been that, and not her actually trying to give us a come hither look. Travis gave the girls a little wave and closed the door.

“It’s not like anyone else is on the bus,” Travis said as we sat down on a different couch closer to the back of the bus. I draped my feet across Travis as we talked about life and everything that we had missed. “You didn’t even realize he was gone?” Travis said as he made a weird face. “That’s cold.”

“I know right, it’s almost like forgetting about the two hookers you got, and trying to bring a girl home to them,” I shot right back. We were laughing and joking until we reached the airport. It felt so good, but then we reached the airport.

“Yes, I need the plane ready, and I have one passenger,” Travis said into his phone.

“Which one are you taking, the blonde or the brunette?” I asked flippantly, “Because I liked the blonde’s tits, buhhh…mmm.”

 Travis kissed me and took my breath away. It was electric. He took my hand and led me off the plane. We went through the private planes gates at the airport and we were on his private plane, before I even started to think about what I was doing again. What the hell was I doing?

 

Ch. 8 – Travis

“Kidnapping!” I laughed as the plane took off. “You walked under your own power.”

“But you dazzled me with your rock star ways,” Jean said as she tried to hide her smile.

I poured her a glass of champagne. “I thought you said it was spring break?” I asked as I filled her glass again. She gave me a little smile. “Just come and spend the break with me and then I can take you back when school starts.” I put my hand to my heart.

“What was that, the kidnappers’ pledge?”

“Yes, and as a kidnapper, who specializes in 24 year old law students, I have to honor this pledge.”  Jean snuggled into my chest as I threw an arm out around her. I took her glass and I turned a bit so that she could be comfortable. It felt so perfect.

I knew that I couldn’t have this feeling with another girl. She knew me, knew everything about me, and it didn’t matter how long we were apart. As soon as she looked at me the real Travis came trickling out. I was about to ask Jean if she was comfortable, when I heard her breathing change. She was asleep.

I looked at my watch. It was 1 am, but I was wide awake. I held her tight and watched her sleep. She was an angel. Her face looked so sweet and angelic. I laid myself out on the couch so she could stretch out. I opened the cupboard underneath the couch and pulled out a blanket. Wrapping it around us.

I was looking right into her sleeping face. I wanted so badly to keep talking with her, but she was out. I wondered for a moment what Gil would do with this. Would he snap a picture of the two of us snuggling fully clothed. Nothing it seemed, could possibly be dirty about this situation. It was too pure, it was too perfect. She was beautiful, and yet, I wanted more than anything just to be with her. I hadn’t felt like this in so long.

I could hear the song playing in my head again. As I stared into Jean’s closed eyes. The lyrics started to come to me as we laid there. I didn’t want to move, but Jean almost decked me with her elbow as she tried to get comfortable on the plane. I moved away slowly and I got my piece of paper.

“Hair falls softly across her face,

My heart is beating out of pace,

She sees through the veil of stars,

I see the future, it is ours,” The pen flew across the page as I tried to keep up with my racing thoughts. I could hear the chorus playing in my head as I wrote the verses. I kept writing as I finished the song and moved on to another.

It was like the words were coming straight out of my heart. I leaned against the couch that she slept on to try and be as close as possible to my muse. Every little murmur that she made became a line in a song.

“Can you be true?” I said as I finished writing a third song and named it. It was like a challenge to myself. I had never been faithful, however, I had also never been in a real relationship. I was in a bunch of fake relationships set up to leverage fame into album sales. In my entire adult life though, I had never been in a real relationship.

I sat down at the keyboard and started to work out the music. I was not about to start playing all my songs on piano, but I worked out the music and it felt amazing. “Bob, I didn’t think you’d answer.”

“I wouldn’t normally, but you piqued my curiosity.” Bob sounded like he was a little tipsy. The grainy Skype connection just made him look old. I wanted to be mad at him for what he said, Bob was nothing before my band put his agency on the map. He had made millions off of me and then as soon as we started to have trouble he was gone.

“I just wrote a few songs, and I wanted to know what you thought of them.” I played the songs for Bob. It was agonizing. He stayed silent through the whole thing. He never did talk when I played new music for him. I felt horrible on display. It was worse than being naked. Bob and I had once signed a contract while tag-teaming a groupie in the back of the old tour bus. There were at least fifteen people on the bus with us. I felt more exposed now than I had then.

“Who’s the girl behind you on the couch?” Bob asked when I finished the last song.

“Jean, she…”

“The famous Jean,” Bob sounded excited. “I had never met her before.”

“Famous?” I asked. I didn’t realize that Bob would even know Jean. He knew Sheila through the industry, so I assumed that was the connection.

“The one you talk about every time you get out of your head drunk,” Bob laughed. “So she fixed you.” I gave him an odd look in the video screen, but Bob seemed pretty sure of his answer. “I will buy those songs, but I want someone else to sing them.”

I was shocked and hurt. “I still have star power, I can be the face of these songs.”

“I wouldn’t argue against you,” Bob smiled. It wasn’t the smile of crazy Bob. He didn’t look like the manager that had taken They Might be Rock Hyenas to the top. He had genuine concern in his eyes. “I don’t want you going back on the road. I feel awful about all the crap I put you kids through. You need to make a clean break.” I didn’t have the words. “You go back on the road, and you will mess this all up. You have Jean, you have your inspiration back, and do you really want to risk that?”

I looked away. I looked over to Jean. I didn’t want to lose her, but I was a rock star. It was all that I knew. I didn’t need Bob, I had made him, and now he was too soft to help me. I started to feel the anger well up inside of me. I think Bob could see my answer.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Bob disconnected.

“We are landing in LA,” the pilot said over the loud speaker. I lifted Jean’s head and wrapped my arms around her. She started to wake up, but I held her tight. “It’s okay,” I said as I ran my fingers through her hair. “I just wanted you to be ready for landing.”

I managed to get her into the limo asleep, and I carried her from there into my mansion. I always called it my mansion. It was too big to be a house, it was too cold and foreign feeling to be a home. “What’s going down yo?” Philly C came running up to me. “I’ll go get the adrenaline.” He turned to go to the bathroom.

“She didn’t OD,” I laughed. “She’s just sleeping.”

“Oh thank God,” my personal DJ said as he went back to the living room. I looked into the room on my way upstairs. It was crowded with people I didn’t recognize. I just shook my head. It was 7 am, who were these people, why were they in my house?

“Close the door,” a man yelled as I opened the door to my own bedroom. I could hear several bodies scrambling around the room.

“Who is in my damn room?” I whisper yelled as I came in the door. It was my butler Manse. His real name was Jeffrey, but he started going by Manse a few years ago, and I just went along with it. He did a great job keeping the house clean, and he was a great cook, but he was a party animal.

“I am so sorry sir, I wasn’t expecting you today,” He said as the angry tone completely left his voice. He bowed his head low and let the girls he was with leave before he bowed to me and left. I had never asked him to bow to me, but I had never stopped him from doing it either.

I took a minute to inspect the bed for fluids and other nonsense, but the sheets looked very clean considering. I laid Jean down on the bed and crawled in beside her. With her head on my arm I closed my eyes. I could hear the music stop and the people all filing out of my mansion. I almost felt bad spoiling the party like this, but I needed to sleep.

 

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