Page 17 of A Little Christmas! 4: Song
“Not my fault folks don’t know how to behave.”
Song snickered at that, recalling the rowdiness of the place the few times he’d been in there. “Congratulations on the promotion. Now you can get someone else to clean up any blood and broken teeth that wind up decorating the floor.”
“How about we just pass on all that and worry about the beer and pretzels bits and wing bones that wind up covering it at the end of the night?” Solo replied. “I swear some of these people are absolute slobs. I pity whoever has to clean up after them at home.”
“Probably their mamas if they’re still living in their parents’ basements,” Suede declared. “Otherwise, I can see how they’ve got significant others. Bet you their vehicles look just as bad.”
“Ugh,” Song groaned, “there is nothing worse than getting in the car with someone and sitting in mustard and day-old onion bits from their last cheeseburger.”
“Told you to stop getting rides from Mark.”
“Wasn’t him this time,” Song explained. “He’s actually getting better about picking up the trash in his truck, after me and Decon covered it in biohazard stickers and caution tape.”
Soda shot out Suede’s nose when he snorted and doubled over, laughing as he fumbled to reach the napkin dispenser.Song took pity on him the same way he’d come to Song’s rescue earlier and passed him a couple so he could wipe his face and the tabletop in front of him.
“Why have I not seen pictures of that yet?” Solo asked, so Song pulled out his phone, scrolled through until he found them, and passed the phone over.
“Oh, holy shit,” Solo said, laughing as she thumbed through the selfies of Solo and Decon in the process of covering Mark’s truck. “Please tell me you got one of the look on his face when he saw it.”
“Keep looking; it’s there.”
“Kiddo, you never fail to make my night,” Suede said as he stood and disposed of the napkins and his sandwich wrapper. “Shit, sorry, I need to stop calling you that.”
“No, you don’t. I still like it, and you never do that in public, so it’s all good.”
Suede nodded and accepted the phone when Solo passed it to him.
“Just wait until you see his expression; that is a priceless moment right there.”
“Now I know what a bull looks like right before he goes on a rampage,” Suede said after he’d looked at them all. “I can’t believe you guys made a biohazard sign big enough to cover his hood.”
“It took effort and taping two poster boards together, but Decon and I were laughing our asses off the whole time we worked on it.”
“I bet.”
“Oh hey, you weren’t here for the announcement earlier,” Song said, turning in his chair to face Solo, who was chowing down on the meatball sub she’d thrown together. “We hired Ajay to be our new singer.”
“Sweet!” Solo replied. “He’ll bring a whole new dynamic to the band. Just remember that his Daddy Walker is very protective, so you guys had better make sure Ajay doesn’t go home looking the way you did the other night.”
“I don’t think that will be an issue. We started vibing right off the bat. We sent him home with copies of all the lyrics as well as the recordings we’d done so he can start to work on memorizing them. Decon told him to bring his guitar next time too. Said there was no reason we couldn’t have three guitarists and a bass player in the band. Mark agreed with him, since Ajay wouldn’t be playing guitar on every song.”
“I’m glad the auditions went well.”
“Some pretty good guys showed up, but Ajay was by far the best fit, not only with the vocals but also with how laid-back and chill he is. We set up a practice session for tomorrow afternoon, and Zachy invited me back over on Sunday for another playdate, so all in all it was an awesome day and far less stressful without having to deal with Carson’s drunk ass.”
“Good, you guys need to be able to focus on the music, not whatever bullshit issues he’s got going on,” Solo said. “If Decon can take anger management classes to start dialing down his temper, then Carson could have taken the steps to find an AA meeting or something to start getting his life in order too. I’m glad you guys fired him before he could really mess things up for you.”
“Me too,” Song replied. “Gage’s friend Max was there at the club scouting bands that night; he saw everything that happened and commented on how impressed he’d been by the band as a whole, despite Carson’s drunken caterwauling. When I told him we’d fired him, he said that was the best thing we could do and gave me his card. He said he’d come check us out again once we’d found a replacement and had the chance to gel with him.”
“Good. I’m glad he didn’t hold Carson’s behavior against the rest of you, and I owe Gage yet anotherthank youfor making sure you got ice and looking out for you for the rest of the night.”
“He’s awesome,” Song said. “I don’t know if I’d have had the guts to demand the band fire Carson if he hadn’t been standing there beside me. Something about his presence, I don’t know; it was like I’d popped a confidence builder. Maybe it was the way he brought all the chaos backstage to a halt with how loudly he whistled, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t going to let me brush it off and accept another of Carson’s apologies.”
“Because he wouldn’t have,” Solo replied. “A real Daddy doesn’t allow his little to put themselves in situations that can get them hurt, emotionally or physically.”
“He’s not my Daddy.”
“Not yet,” Solo said. “Just give it time, and I’m sure you guys will get there.”