I hopped around
on one leg, falling onto my bed. These
pants weren't this tight last time.
Loralie came in with a wire hanger in hand.
“Lie back.”
She said. Laughing as she
straddled my chest, her ass practically smothering me. She hooked the end of the hanger into the
metal zipper and pulled. I heard the
zipper closing, thank God. “Got
it!” She shouted in triumph. “Can you breathe?”
“Not with you on
top of me.” I groaned. She wiggled her ass in my face a few more
times before jumping off and running out my bedroom door. I heard her feet stomp through the hall a
short distance before heading into her own room. One of these days, one of us will fall
through the crappy flooring.
We met in the
kitchen, both dressed and ready. “Give
me the rules again,” Loralie demanded. I
grumbled, resulting in a stinging slap on the ass. “Harper!
Just do it.”
“Fine!” I acquiesced.
“I won’t talk to, look at, or otherwise engage with anyone with any
musical talent. I will not find myself
alone with any band members. If I do
find myself attracted to anyone in the musical realm, I will NOT employ them
emotionally or otherwise.”
“Good girl. Are you ready?”
It took us 30
minutes to find a parking place downtown.
Then we had to walk six blocks to get to the venue. The concert had 3 bands playing tonight. I only wanted to see the headliner, so we
ducked into a bar around the corner to waste a little time before going into
the chaos.
An hour later,
Loralie’d worked up a good buzz. We made
our way across the street to the old warehouse.
The building had been refurbished.
If I remembered right, they used to manufacture tires.
From the looks
of it, the front room had previously been an office. It smelled like new rubber and the only sound
came from our heels clacking across the concrete floor. The old owners, no doubt, had sound-proofed
walls to keep the warehouse noise to a minimum.
Now, it kept the music contained.
We handed our tickets
to a pimple-faced kid. His mouth stayed
slightly ajar the entire time he ripped our tickets in half. Loralie leaned in toward him; placing her
finger under his chin and helping him close his gaping hole.
The music met my
ears the moment I opened the door.
Loralie and I pushed past groups of people in the aisles to get to our
seats in the front.
A pretty girl
wearing bright colored clothing caught my eye amongst all the writhing men in
their dark colors. We girls were few and
far between tonight. The auditorium
wasn’t necessarily a bad place for a concert but whoever was running the thing
stacked the place almost full of seating. The mosh pit bled over and pushed into the
front row of chairs.
The bright eyed
beauty stood two rows ahead of Loralie and me, in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Some asshole launched himself from
the first row into the other chairs, using the girl to break his fall. She twisted away with the impact, the damage
done. His flailing elbow caught her in
the face and she fell back into the row of seats that earlier in the evening
seemed like prime real estate for the show.
The blood didn’t
affect me but when she pulled her hand away and a stream of the stuff shot out
of her nose she panicked. A scream shot
from her mouth that rivaled that of the death growl coming from the stage. I hopped over the row in front of me, a feat
considering my four inch spike boot heels.
Fat tears coated her cheeks, making them shiny in the dancing lights
coming from the stage.
“Come with me,
sweety. Can you do that?” She hesitated, glancing around for whoever
she’d come with. Her pain was palpable
but she nodded when she realized that no one else cared to help. I pulled her over the back of her chair, away
from the edge of the pit. I got us to
the girls’ bathroom using my sharp elbows as weapons against any other asshole
that had to prove their metalness by taking out innocent bystanders.
It took longer than
I thought to get the girls nose to stop bleeding, probably a result of her
blood pressure. I got her cleaned up as
well as I could, the blood staining the bright yellow cardigan.
“Are you here with
someone?” I asked.
“My
boyfriend.” She sucked in a gasp of air,
trying to halt the sobbing.
“Do you want me to
get security to find him for you?”
“No.” She hiccupped. “I’m going to call my mom for a ride
home.” I felt relief. The last thing I wanted to do was babysit
tonight.
“It’s not my
business, honey, but you should find a boyfriend that gives a shit about your
well being. That was pretty stupid of
him to leave you that close to the pit.
You’re lucky that prick didn’t send you into the crowd.”
Her smile was
forced, “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure he
won’t want anything to do with me once I send him the bill for this broken
nose.”
“Good for you, sweety.” I nodded toward the door, letting her know
I’d done everything I could.
Loralie came
crashing through the bathroom door, pushing the defeated girl out of the way to
get in. The double bass drum pedals
reverberated through the open door, keeping the hearing to a minimum until it
shut again. My best friend laughed at
me, a blood covered paper towel still in my hand. She directed her attention to the mirror
behind me and reached into her shirt, pulling her tits back into place after
all the jiggling she’d been doing. She
called it dancing but I liked to negate that.
You don’t dance at a heavy metal concert, you mosh. Maybe get lost in the music at the most, not
that bullshit she liked to do.
I stared at the
space between the “Ramones” on the t-shirt where she’d slashed it down the
middle, exposing as much cleavage as possible without being arrested and thrown
in jail for exposure. I lost myself in
thought. I’d kept her away from this for
too long. This was her element and I
hadn’t been the only one using this outlet to get rid of my shitty past. She needed this. It made her feel like she had control. I considered the time that she’d let us back
off from the metal scene a gift and tonight I was repaying the favor.
“Hey. My eyes are up here.” She flashed a cocky smile at me. The last few months had been hard on
her. I’d been taking the time to adjust
my priorities, letting go of a hell of a lot of sour feelings that had driven
me for far too long. Loralie had been
spending the time struggling with demons from her past, some of which I had
brought on, and this was her opportunity to get back into our fucked up little
game.
“Ready?” I asked, giving her a wink.
“So ready.”
I gave myself a
last look in the mirror before walking out behind her. The same eyes stared back at me but I wasn’t
the same girl. I left Harper at home,
donning the blonde wig that proved that Joey had taken her place again. While Harper remained small and weak, Joey
stood tall and confident, able to take on the world, or rock stars rather. That is, if I hadn’t made a pact with myself
and my alter ego to let those habits lie in the past.
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