Straight from the Heart (8 page)

The guys helped us stock everything up into
what cupboard space we had left, and we took off for our next
venue, which wasn’t that far.

I’d learned that listening to 80’s music
pumped me up the most before shows, and also calmed my nerves.
Dr. Feelgood
by Motley Crue was blaring from Cale’s iPod in
our dressing room as he was pouring all of us shots. We had some of
the members from The Nemesis partying with us.  If I thought
my guys were crazy, these people were pure incarnate. Only a couple
of shots in and they were hammered. Raptor had to kick them out so
they wouldn’t miss their set.

“Shit, judging by the bags under their eyes,
they’ll be playing like hell tonight.” Raptor snickered. He came
over to sit by me, sandwiching me between him and Vince, who was
trying to stay away from drinking tonight. Raptor offered me a shot
and I reluctantly took it, hoping I wouldn’t fall over on stage
from having one more. I’d only had about five.

“We better get ready and like practice or
something.” I tried to wiggle out of the man sandwich I was in, but
the guys squished me even more as a joke.  “You’re going to
crush me!” I pushed and punched them and then to top it off, Cale
and Luke decide to sit on top of us. Then I was really feeling
suffocated.

I could feel the breath leaving my lungs.
Having a 170 pound man sitting on top of little old me would do
that

“Cale Pelton, get off of me before I grab my
guitar and knock you in the head with it.
I warned, knowing I wouldn’t actually hurt him, but the idea of it
made me happy inside. He shook his head so his hair was whipping my
face so I gave one final push and he landed on flat on his ass,
sending the room into an uproar.

“You’re going to regret that, B.” Cale
huffed, insinuating he was challenging me. Challenge accepted.

He made it apparently clear that he wanted
to start his challenge on stage. Before we went on he whispered
“Ready to do those vocals?” We had been working in spare time on me
finally singing backup vocals and he must’ve thought I was suddenly
ready.

“Better late than never,” I replied with a
wink, hitting the first note on my guitar, which sent the crowd
into a frenzy. This was one of the larger crowds on the tour,
easily over 4,000 more people than our past shows, and according to
Raptor, one of the founders of RockOut Records was going to be
front row tonight. I had heard of the label before, some of my
favorite Alternative bands were signed to that label. According to
the guys, if we played like tonight was our last show the label
might sign us.

I played the shit out of my guitar. I sang
my heart out when I needed to. When all of us joined in harmony, it
lit the venue on freaking fire. Harmonies always gave me the
chills. I loved them. After one of our last songs, we played
“Playing with Fire,” a newer song Luke and Cale wrote before we
left for tour. It was by far the hardest song I’d ever played. I
felt like this was the challenge Cale wanted to give me. Every time
he let out a scream, he would make eye contact and hold my gaze,
and I would repeat the notes he just sang. Now
this
was a
battle. I let my voice go, soaring to higher notes than I’d ever
sang before. The song was over and everyone was on their feet,
chanting they wanted more.

For a quick moment, I felt like we were the
headliners. Taking my final bow before leaving the stage, I was on
such a high that I decided to do something I’ve never done before:
trash my guitar. I’d seen YouTube videos of musicians slam their
guitars on stage, breaking it into pieces, and I thought why the
hell not? It felt liberating. We had backup guitars back stage
anyways, so why couldn’t I have a little fun?

I finished my terrorizing and threw some of
the pieces out to the audience before heading off stage. The guys
high fived me, while Cale sat like a grump with his arms crossed.
“What? Were you afraid I was going to lose the challenge?” I
smirked. His face looked surprised, like I wasn’t capable of doing
anything remotely rebellious.

“I never said that, did I? I just hope that
little stunt doesn’t blow our chances with that record label exec.”
He reminded me of the Grinch right now. I threw a piece of wood
from the guitar neck and snickered.

“Relaxxx Cale. I have to be completely
serious on stage?”

After a couple of more minutes of bickering
I heard someone fake cough behind me. I turned around and there was
Damon. I had tried to avoid him ever since the incidence on the
Everlasting bus, but right now there was no avoiding him. His grey
eyes were especially darker right now and his blond hair a lot
shorter than the last time I actually laid eyes on him. “I’ll be
back in a sec,” I told the guys. I walked with Damon a few feet
away.

“Hey, I never got a chance to apologize
about what happened a couple of weeks ago…” Damon started to say,
but I waved it off.

“Don’t be. We were both drinking, you may
have deserved your ass kicked, but I still think you’re a good
guy.” I chuckled, and he smirked, showing off one gold tooth on the
bottom row of teeth. “Is that from…?”

“No, I fell down the stairs a couple of
months ago at my parents’ house and lost the tooth. Dentist put
this thing in instead; I thought it looked pretty cool at the time.
Ladies love it.” Damon explained, and I laughed. He definitely knew
how to put on the charm that’s for sure.

“Well it suits you pretty nicely,” I
replied.

He put his hands in his pockets, shifting
his feet up and down like he was waiting for me to say something.
“So I was going to ask you, I don’t know if I should after what I
did to you, but what the Hell. I was wondering if you would like to
go out to dinner sometime coming up?”

 “I’d really like that, Damon.” I told
him shyly, and his face lit up.

“You really just said you would?”

“Don’t make me change my mind, mister,” I
warned him, and he reached for my hand.

“Alright, alright! We’re in Chicago for a
break and then a show the next day, why don’t we plan on going
somewhere nice tomorrow?” Damon suggested. Chicago? I had never
been there before. I knew my parents had rich friends that would
visit from Chicago, but I assumed they were famous for pizza and
being the “Windy City.”

“Sounds amazing, I can’t wait.” I couldn’t
contain my smile now. I felt like I was on Cloud Nine. Seeing the
rest of the members of Ignite the Flames getting ready to go on
stage, I waved to Lucy, who was dressed in a simple ripped up Guns
N’ Roses T-shirt and black jeggings. Gesturing towards them I said
“You should probably go,” I paused. “You know, sing your set and
everything.”

Damon ran a hand through his newly cut hair
and sighed. “I should.” Wrapping his arms around me, he kissed me
on the forehead. “I’ll see you probably tomorrow, okay?”

“Kay. Good luck out there!” I shouted, as
his band ran out on stage to dozens of bras and panties already
lying in front of them. Shaking my head in amusement, I went back
to the bus, where everyone was pretty much asleep. Asleep before
midnight? These guys? It was shocking and surprising, but yet now I
had a reason to call them old men. Not literally. Climbing into my
bunk, I prepared to change into a pair of shorts and camisole, but
not before I was interrupted.

“Got good news, Schaefler, the label exec
liked your little stunt.” Cale peeked up at me, sounding groggy.
His hair was disheveled and wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“HA! So what does this mean, we’re signed to
the label now?” I asked curiously. I never understood the whole
getting signed to a record label and how the details get worked
out.

“Not just yet, eager beaver. That was just
one person that liked us. He has to go back to the label, and they
have to come up with a contract. They’ll present it to us. We like
the deal, we sign.” Looking at him dumbfounded, he cleared his
throat and replied, “Don’t worry; you’ll learn all about the
business in time, B. You’re still new at this, but that’s okay,
you’re doing fine.” He patted my leg and crawled back into his
bunk.

“No goodnight?” I whispered quietly, trying
not to wake the other guys.

He stuck his head out again and smiled,
“Good night, Bryn.”

I giggled and sighed. “Good night,
Cale.”

From the moment we rolled into Chicago, I
fell in love. From the way the high towers rose into the clouds and
the crazy amount of people on the streets, I loved it all. Luckily
it was closer to the end of summer and still sunny out so I
wouldn’t have to worry about bundling up for my “date” tonight.
Damon told me to meet me outside of the Hard Rock Hotel later on
tonight, where we all decided to stay in lieu of the buses. I was
invited to go out to a club with Cale, Raptor, Luke and Vince, but
I told them I was meeting up with Damon. Almost immediately they
were hooting and hollering, telling me it was a bad mistake. I knew
they were joking, but Cale was a whole other story. He thought I
was joking.

With him, I realized it was always another
story.

I stopped at one of the nicer stores I could
find close to the hotel and bought a little black dress. It wasn’t
too tight on my skin or skimpy by any means, but completely
covering my chest with a halter top neck, and the hem stopping at
my knees. I found a perfect pair of black and silver stilettos to
match and a silver chain to top it off. Not doing much with my
hair, I straightened it until it was straight; I lightly coated my
eyes with mascara and eyeliner. I took a final look in the bathroom
mirror, spraying down stray pieces of hair and grabbed my black
clutch, ready to go. I passed the guys suite and I heard booming
music, so I tried to run past as fast as I could without them
ridiculing me about my outfit and teasing me some more.

I could hear the click of the high heels as
I took a step into the warm breeze that followed me and my eyes
were darting to all of the city lights on the buildings around me.
It was just around night time, but I saw women by the dozens
wearing their fancy attire and men wearing suits holding hands,
swaying like they’ve had too much to drink.

“Wow, you look breathtaking.” I heard
Damon’s gruff voice coming from the sidewalk behind me. I smiled as
he handed me a dozen assorted roses, green paper covering the
stems, and kissed me on the cheek.

“Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself,”
I gestured to his baby blue button up shirt that was tucked into
black slacks with a solid black belt. His sleeves were slightly
rolled, so I could see a long tattoo ending at his wrist when I was
pretty sure it started at his shoulder blade. His hair was slicked
back with gel, and he had a whole different presence about him
tonight. I couldn’t point my finger on it, but I had a feeling it
would be a good night.

“I may wear band shirts on a daily basis and
have a shit ton of tattoos, but I can clean up nicely when I want.
Especially when I’m taking a beautiful girl out to dinner after
acting like a complete moron.”

“So where are we going exactly?” I
asked.

“I figured we’d go to this amazing
restaurant called ‘State and Lake.’ It’s just a little ways down
the street, but it’s got a great view upstairs and the drinks are
the best in town,” Damon explained, taking my hand with his. “Band
and I ate here last time we were on tour.”

“Anything with a view of this city is okay
in my book,” I joked, as his fingers tightened around mine. “I
could live here forever and deal with the harsh winter.”

Damon looked in my eyes and nodded in
agreement. “Are you from the same area as Cale and the rest of the
guys?”

“Yeah, I never knew that until I met them
though. I grew up my whole life on the rich side of town, going to
one of the fancy private schools where you had to be a millionaire
to get in.” That wasn’t 100% true. The school had offered
scholarships to those who couldn’t pay the hefty tuition. There
were those rich girls that would know in a split second whether you
were rich or just an ‘imposter.’ I hated those people.

“Ahh… yeah they’re all good guys. Cale and I
have been in enough fights over the past couple of years, but he’s
just like a brother to me. Talented as hell,” Damon told me as he
opened the door for me to the restaurant. “He’s still an idiot when
he wants to be with that temper of his.”

The waiter seated us at a table and we
started studying the menu.

“Would either of you care for an appetizer
to split before you place your dinner order?” The waiter asked,
keeping his eyes only on me the whole entire time he spoke.

There were so many choices; I turned to
Damon for help. “You can choose.” I told him. “I’ll eat
anything.”

“Hmmm…” He took another second, glancing
over everything one more time. “We’ll split the wood grilled
chicken wings. Can we get a side of ranch too please?”

“Not a problem sir, I’ll be right back with
those.” The waiter replied with a cheesy smile, finally pulling his
eyes from me, before heading towards the kitchen.

After he was away from our earshot, we both
burst out laughing. Damon said “Holy shit, that guy was checking
you out, Bryn. He made it way too obvious for his own good.”

“You think so?”

“I’m a guy. I can tell when someone is
blatantly trying to get a girls attention. It’s cute, I’ll give him
that.”

“But you have nothing to worry about,” I
assured him with one of my pearly white smiles. Before I knew it,
lover boy was back with our appetizer. It was a hot heaping plate
of chicken wings, and I couldn’t wait to burry myself in them. “Is
it bad if I told you I’ve never had chicken wings before?”

Damon’s mouth dropped. “No way. You really
grew up sheltered didn’t you?”