Hard Rock Roots Box Set (6 page)

I stand on the right side of the stage and watch Terre Haute finishing up their set. They're good, but not good enough. I bet they won't last out the year. I pull my cigarette from my mouth and toss it into a nearby trash can. Not normally a good idea, but I'm not the only who's done it, so I figure it's alright.

My eyes dart around, searching for Turner with each flick across the room. I've been expecting him to come after me this entire time, but he hasn't set foot off that ostentatious fucking bus of his. I wonder what he's doing there, if he even cares that we're about to play in front of a few thousand people. Maybe that's small fucking beans to him now; I don't know, but what I do know is that if I see him before I go onstage, that I'm going to be wrecked. And I don't want to be. I don't like to get trashed until
after
I've played.

“Oh God, I'm so nervous,” Hayden says, stretching her arms above her head and not looking at all like she's ever been nervous about anything. She says this before every show, no matter the size of the crowd. I think she believes it makes her seem more down to earth. It doesn't. “We are so fucking going to rock this,” she continues, talking just to hear herself speak. The rest of the band sticks to their vices and I'm pretty sure I see Kash and Dax buying acid from a trashy looking dude in a skirt.

I tug my ripped T-shirt down in the front and don't bother to fix it again when it rides up. I've worked hard to have a stomach worth showing off and I didn't get a tattoo below my belly button to keep it hidden. I trace my fingers over the angel wings and mouth the words that rest between them.
Real Ugly.
That's life. Fucking hideous and hateful and bloody. I wish I could see it otherwise.

“Don't let it get to you,” America says from behind me. I jump a bit and almost knock over Terre Haute's front man, Rook Geary. He glares at me, but doesn't say a thing, sliding around me and disappearing into the darkness outside. The roadies rush the stage like fucking Oompa Loompas, dancing around and dragging equipment away, so they can set up for us. I almost feel sorry for them, but then I remember that half of them are here so they can fuck and buy drugs on a daily basis. Fuck them.

“Let what get to me?” I ask, but I already know what she's talking about. That damn video. That damn ass motherfucking video. I cannot even imagine who recorded it or how or why they've waited all this time to scare me with it. The events that took place on that screen happened when I was sixteen years old, and I just cannot figure out the time lapse. Unless, of course it was Hayden. Coulda been Hayden.

I watch her giggling and flirting with Dax, and I still find that pretty hard to believe. She might be a crafty bitch, but she's a crafty bitch without a brain. Still equally as threatening as whoever sent the video, but incapable of subterfuge.

“If you ever need to talk … ”

“Yeah,” I say as I take out another cigarette and find myself left with an empty pack. Fuck. I toss the box in the can and light up. “You're probably the last person I'd come to.”

“Good,” she says without even a hint of a smile. “Because I was going to tell you not to come to me. Talk to Blair.”

“Hah. Thanks, America. Perfect fucking advice.” I take a long, hot drag and let my head hang back, blonde hair teasing the bare skin of my shoulders. I can't imagine spilling my guts to anyone, let alone America. Even the thought of pouring my heart out makes me shiver.

I lift my head up and watch as our equipment is dragged out and positioned just so. Dax's drums in the back. Blair's keyboard on the right, just behind Wren's guitar. Kash's bass goes on the left side of the stage next to my Wolfgang. And Hayden, of course, goes right in the fucking center.

I close my eyes for a moment and tune out everything – the crowd, Hayden, America. When I play, I dive so deep into myself that I come out the other side a different person. So introverted that I'm extroverted, you know what I mean? No. No, of course you don't. Nobody does, and that's always, always, always been my problem. I take a little note from Turner's book and throw some arrogance and swagger into my step before I move out, stepping over duct tape and cords, past the set list that's been stuck to the ground near my feet.

There's a crowd out there somewhere, a big ass fucking one, and in the back of my mind, I know that they're cheering for us, for me maybe, calling out the names of songs, pulsing and throbbing like a heartbeat. I sense them, but I don't see them; I don't hear them. My fingers slide under the guitar strap and lift it over my head. Settling that comforting weight over my shoulders makes me feel like I'm right where I was always meant to be. My hand slides up the neck and my fingers kiss the strings.

This fucking guitar costs more than any car I've ever owned, and I think I'm in love with it. Hell, I have more feelings for my Wolfgang than I've ever had for a living person. Call me cold if you want, but my guitar's never let me down. People have. You do the math on that one.

This baby lets me take my low E string from an E note to a D and back in a flash without having to retune. It can cry like a baby and scream like a devil; it's got angel wings and horns both, and it'll kiss you at the same time it fucks you. Not many dudes can top that, right?

I close my eyes again as Hayden's voice switches gears in an instant – from wannabe rock star to freaking rock goddess. I don't know how she pulls it off, but when she's onstage, I forget to hate her so much. She's got lungs for days and a set of pipes that remind me of an old-timey organ mixed with the screech of eighties hair metal. I don't ask how that's even possible, but I do my best to enjoy it.

I let Hayden's voice in, but I refuse to accept anything else, continuing to block out the crowd while I find myself somewhere deep down and drag her screaming out the other side. By the time my fingers begin to move across the strings, I've got a smirk on my lips and a pair of dark sunglasses on my face. Don't know where those came from, but who cares? I could play in the dark; I could play blind. I don't need to fucking see to know that I'm rocking the crowd's collective face off.

I keep my gaze narrowed to a pinpoint in front of me, locking onto Wren as he swings his head down and smashes the stage with his feet, further riling up the sweaty, heaving mass in front of us. Hayden's already got them in a frenzy, sliding her fingers down her belly and teasing the edge of her pants. She knows how to put on a show; that's for sure. Lucky for us that most people think she's the hottest fucking piece of shit on two legs. In a genre dominated by cock, we've got the one thing that lets us breakthrough the walls of a stubborn crowd – a sexed up leading lady. I'm not proud of exploiting Hayden, but she seems okay with it, and I'm the first to take advantage.

“
Forget
,” Hayden breathes, kissing the microphone, sucking it back with a heavy breath. “
Forget me forever. I've destroyed you one too many fucking times.
” Her chest rises and falls as she moans into the mic, drawing cheers and swirling up a mosh pit below the stage. Arms and legs fly out and flail about, lost in an ecstasy that transcends the physical and pulls the spirit out through your fucking nostrils, a modern day mummification through sound.

“
Bleeding, broken, buried beneath,
” I growl into the mic stand, doing my best to harmonize with Hayden and not overpower her. A part of me wishes I could, that I could take over the stage and stand under that spotlight, woo that crowd, bring them to their knees with my voice. The rest of me knows that'll never happen. I don't know if I've got the strength to spill my guts on stage like that. The guitar is hard e-fucking-nough; it teases the soul and nips at the spirit, but when I'm standing back here, I can at least pretend they don't see me open and bare before them. Ignorance is bliss, right? “
Torn and trembling, take me in your arms, but know that it'll be the last time. The last. The last. The last FUCKING time!
” My scream echoes out and paralyzes the crowd, sliding through the gray matter between their ears, soaking in, tainting them with my poison.

Wren slides across the stage, and I move to meet him. We're just two dancers joining up for a waltz, spinning in circles with our music, stepping into one another and moving back. Our spines line up and we sink into that shit, fucking our guitars and grinding them into their crotches as we bleed pain and suffering and longing into the crowd. It's my music after all, so it's just reflecting what's inside. Hayden might sing it, but it belongs to me. Me. Me. Me.

Through my sunglasses, I see a face just offstage, hiding in the shadows with a smirk.

Turner. Turner fucking Campbell is watching me screw this crowd with my axe, and I can't breathe. For a moment, I'm afraid my fingers are going to slip, and I'm going to blow this whole gig, but the inner me, the one I dragged out, turns up the notch on my smirk and slides my tongue across my lips.
Oh my god! What the hell am I doing?
I flick it out and suck it back in, melding into Wren, sliding against him like we're screwing back to back. And I don't even like the guy. I don't like
either
of these guys, but I can't stop myself. The music's taken over me, and will do what she fucking pleases.

I watch Turner watching me, and see that his brown eyes are glittering dark, like a night sky filled with stars. It's so off-kilter with his personality that it really throws me for a loop. Once again, I find myself having trouble hating him. Seem to be having a lot of trouble with my loathing abilities as of late. Guess when I get onstage, I am just fucked.

Our duet ends and Wren pulls away leaving me cold. And in the middle of an impromptu solo. Shit.

Luckily, Amatory Riot has functioned as a unit long enough for the others to follow me, modifying our song right then and there. The crowd goes fucking wild, and the air escapes my lungs. The lights overhead shift and I find myself bathed in color. My eyes shift to search for Turner again, and I'm glad I'm wearing these shades. If he knew I was looking for him, I'd never live it down.

A gasp goes up on my right and Turner appears out of nowhere, snatching my mic from its stand and grabbing Hayden around the waist. He makes a little
come on
gesture at me and then leans forward and grabs my lips with his.

I don't stop playing; I can't. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop the burst of fucking power that's just taken hold of me. I'm both a victim and a master to it as it draws my hands along the neck and plucks strings with a violent fervor that both scares and amazes me. Hot wet heat takes over my mouth and pulls the rest of the inner me out, and then I'm kissing Turner back hard and fast and furious while the world's most intense riffs are just pulled straight through me, cutting me up and bleeding me over the stage.

When he pulls away, our eyes lock tight, and I know he can see right through my shades, through my head, and straight down into me. It's a trick; it's gotta be. I want to remember the way he spoke to me on the phone, the way he left that poor girl half-naked over the PA speaker, but I can't seem to grab any memories that haven't been made right here, on this stage.
What else is there?
my soul asks me as Turner uses the cord of the mic to spin it in a circle and snatch it back in one tattooed hand.

My solo comes to a natural end, and I fall right back where I left off, taking the band with me, opening my ears up to Turner's voice as it slides into the microphone. It's unbelievable – my words from his lips. I step back and Hayden moves up beside him, doing her best to out sex her colleague.

It doesn't work.

I don't think it's even possible to out sex Turner Campbell.

He grabs the hem of his shirt and slides it up, flashing his taut belly and a sea of tattoos against pale, sweaty flesh. His fingers rub the dark hair above his jeans and then drop the fabric back into place, much to the dismay of the crowd.

“
Tearing me up, shredding me inside; my walls are coming down in flames.
” Hayden's voice slides in alongside Turner's and for a split second there, I'm jealous. Of what and who and why, I have no idea, because I fucking hate them both, and they deserve each other, but … I brush the feeling aside and slam my axe to bits with my pick. “
If you break me, baby, be prepared to pick up the pieces.
”

Three. Two. One. And the song is over, and my pick is flying out across the crowd and landing in greedy hands. Sweat pours down my face in sheets and my body is wracked with violent trembles. Turner spins around and grins at me as the crowd explodes into a riotous fervor that makes the bouncers nervous. And they have every right to be. It is crazy hot up in here, and there's this primal vibe in the air that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I wet my dry lips and watch as Turner slides my mic back into place and snatches up a water bottle from the side of the stage. He takes a swig and then hands it over to me.

My hands drop down and take hold of it, even though I'm not thirsty, even though I can't imagine anything as earthly as hydration. When he reaches out and plucks the shades from my face, I don't stop him.