Page 52 of More Than Scars
“Half the set,” Kit replied.
I saw Claude try and fail to smile as he nodded at him.
“Gonna introduce us to your band?” Ozzy asked. “This is your band, right? I mean, you’re back here instead of on the other side of the gate, so I’m assuming you’re playing this weekend.”
“Today, actually, we’re, um, the opening band on the main stage, Imminent Danger,” Claude explained. “This is Tony, our singer, Tibby, our bassist, Bowie, our guitarist, and Pressley, our manager. I doubt these guys need any introduction.”
“Hell no,” I said, shaking hands and fist-bumping with some of my idols.
“Good deal,” Ozzy replied, “I’ll make sure to catch it. I’m glad you landed somewhere that clearly seems to fit.”
“T-thanks,” Claude stammered.
We stood around for a moment, just shooting the shit about all there was to see, then Jagger’s eyes went wide. “They’ve got cotton candy.”
He bolted, Johnny and Kayden hot on his heels, as Draven pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
“I’ll catch them,” Robbie declared, shooting a pointed look at Draven. “But it’s up to you to pin your boyfriend to the bed. I’m gonna have my hands full enough with Jagger and Kayden on sugar overload.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Mickey said, looking amused as he and the dogs trailed off behind him.
As the rest of their bandmates followed, Ozzy crooked his finger at Claude and pulled him off to the side. Their conversation was short and mostly seemed to consist of Claude nodding as Ozzy spoke, but there was a small smile on his face when he joined us, which helped ease the tension we’d all felt as we’d waited, shoulder to shoulder, to see if everything was okay.
“Okay, spill,” Pressley said before any of us could, and yeah, he used his no-nonsense voice too. “What was that all about?”
“You know I said moving to Seattle was the best choice I’d ever made when you guys signed me to the band.”
“Yes, and?” Pressley replied.
“They were the reason I moved,” Claude explained. “Ozzy, um, he and I are from the same city. He was looking for a relief drummer, and, well, he’d been mentoring me for years, and that was kind of why I was so leery of Diamond and Shadow, ‘cause after I tried out to be Ozzy’s relief drummer, he chose Kit. He told me I was the better player but that Kit had the better personality. Figured that was the last chance I’d get on the East Coast, so I took off to nurse my wounded ego and do my best to get even better so that maybe it wouldn’t matter next time that most people think I’m a dick. They’d just care that I was too damned good to pass on.”
“So, was that him apologizing?”I asked.
“No, that was him warning me not to let my ego fuck it up for me, like I almost did the day I auditioned,” Claude replied. “He said he’d never doubted for a moment that I was good enough, just wasn’t sure if I could get along with anyone long enough to prove it. I told him I was trying, and he said he looked forward to hearing us. That was pretty much it.”
His words reminded me of the look on his face when he hadn’t received the praise he’d been expecting after his audition. It made a lot more sense now, as did his reaction to Diamond’s threat that he had Slade on speed dial. It all clicked into place why he tried to rein it in, though it did leave me somewhat worried about how long that would last.
“I can’t believe we just met several of our idols in one rather crazy, bubble-filled moment of chaos,” Tony muttered, shaking his head at the absolute insanity going on at the cotton candy vendor.
“No shit,” I said, wondering what my folks would have thought about the bubble shower if they hadn’t decided to do a bit of wandering on their own today with Uncle Ray. Knowing my dad and uncle, they were probably bounding around as exuberantly as Jagger and Johnny, and my mom was loving every minute of it.
We wandered some more, going mostly unnoticed in the swirling mass of bodies that were roving around, but the longer we were out there the more my nerves were starting to kick into hyperdrive. Pressley said that we were the first band and damn if that countdown clock wasn’t ticking closer and closer to the time we were supposed to get up there.
“You better be ready for this!”
“Huh?”
“You heard me.”
A glance to my left revealed where the voice had come from. Stoli, who motioned me away from the rest of the band. How the hell had he’d known I needed to see him, like, right fuckin’ now to get my head straight before I got up there was beyond me.
“I was, until just a few minutes ago when I realized that it was almost time to get ready,” I admitted sheepishly.
“And now you’ve got a belly full of nerves.”
“Pretty much.”
“If you weren’t nervous, I’d be concerned,” Stoli said. “This is huge for you guys, but more than that, those nerves, that’s what’s going to fuel you to do everything in your power to win the crowd over right from the jump. If you weren’t scared, I’d think you were getting cocky on me.”