~*~
DAY SIX
Fred was brusquely woken up the next morning by Lex. She had waited until Daniel had left the tent to go brush his teeth, and then she had been shaking Fred violently until he began to stir. ”Whattamatter,” Fred mumbled groggily, trying to get his eyes to focus so he could see her. Once again, he thought he was dreaming when Lex was sitting on her knees right next to him.
”Fred, I need to tell you something,” she said hurriedly. ”Do you wanna go to breakfast with me?”
There was nothing he wanted more than to go with her. ”I’m sorry,” he said gloomily. ”I promised Kate I’d go eat waffles with her, and she loves waffles, it’s her favorite hang over food-” Fred had planned to make a longer rambling excuse, but Lex put her hand over his mouth.
”It’s really important,” she told him urgently. ”I have to talk to you before Daniel does.”
Fred sat up, looking around the tent. ”He’s not even here,” he pointed out stupidly.
”That’s why I need to talk to you now,” Lex exclaimed desperately, hoping Fred was awake enough to understand her explanation. ”Last year – are you listening? – Daniel and I was at this party and-”
Out of nowhere, Kate suddenly leapt in through the tent opening. ”Woo-hoo, waffles!” she hollered, giving Lex a hug before throwing her arms around Fred, making him fall backwards with a thud. There was no point trying to steal Fred away for even a moment because Kate refused to let him go before she had her waffles. For begin hung over, Kate really didn’t show much trace of it.
Everyone else was dead, though. If anyone spoke louder than a whisper, they all twitched and groaned. Keeping Kate around was almost like having a cannon shooting cannon balls right next to their ears at regular intervals.
”How are you people going to be able to perform tonight if you’re feeling like this?” Jeff argued with them while they were slumped around the camp lot, looking dead.
”You were drinking too!” Sammie complained, holding an ice-cold soda can to her head.
”But I wasn’t doing tequila shots like my life depended on it,” he pointed out. ”If it turns out that you can’t play tonight-”
”We can play!” they all yelled at the same time.
Lex was unsuccessfully trying to get Fred’s attention so they could talk, but Kate was skipping around him and whenever she left him alone, Daniel was immediately there talking to him. Lex started to feel like she was on the losing end of a conspiracy. The more time that went by, the more nervous she got that Daniel would tell Fred his own version of the event. Daniel was glancing in her direction every so often, as if he wanted her to think that he was spending that exact moment discussing with Fred.
To be completely truthful, Lex had forgotten all about that party and that night until Daniel had brought it back up the previous night. The worst thing was that she couldn’t quite remember what had really happen, and she definitely couldn’t figure out how Daniel could have known about it. She was absolutely, one hundred percent sure though that she had never hooked up with Daniel at any time or at any place.
Or maybe not one hundred, but at least to the extent of seventy-eight percent. At any rate, she had to tell Fred about this before he found out some other, less fitting, way. Daniel would twist Fred's head with all kinds of lies and knowing Fred, it was of the utmost importance to be the first one to tell him as he wouldn’t know who to trust if he was presented with two different kinds of views on the situation at hand.
The more Lex worried over this, the more she realized what was on the line. It wasn’t just about beating Daniel to the punch anymore. It was about winning back Fred. Lex wasn’t going to let Daniel ruin their friendship just because he had some weird personal vendetta with everyone.
To have time to set everything up, Jeff forced them all to head over to the festival area right after lunch. Lex had tried to eat something more than half a carrot stick, but found it difficult to force down other food considering her appetite was on an all time low. She worried about Daniel too much, and combined with the aftertaste of tequila, it was impossible to even look at a hamburger.
Inside the festival area they all helped out to carry the equipment from the storage room up to the main stage. Kate was carrying the bag with note sheets, as they figured it would be the most difficult thing for her to accidentally break. She handled her job with extreme cautious, snarling at everyone who tried to come close so the bag wouldn’t get stolen.
Fred was put on duty to sort out the mess that was the extension cords and Daniel had appointed himself technical manager, which meant that he could boss Fred and Kate around all he wanted as long as he was carrying a clipboard at the same time. This kept them out of the way so the band could get some real work done. Kate abandoned her post as note sheet watcher as soon as she found out that other bands were playing as well and dashed off to introduce herself to them.
When she wasn’t back in the next two hours, Jeff offered to go look for her. He was exhausted from being the only one in relative good condition to be running back and forth to resolve all problems before their performance. He had just managed to meddle in a dispute between Fred and Daniel, where Fred had tired of Daniel bossing him around and Daniel using his clipboard to slap him back to obedience.
Not being able to count on his two hands how many times Kate had disappeared over the past week, Jeff was starting to get annoyed with her. Fred was at least trying to help and came in handy when they had to move heavy things, and Daniel was at least present for most of the time, but Kate just skipped off as soon as she got bored to find something funnier to occupy herself with.
He found her in the dressing room at the end of the hallway as she was chattering happily with a group of rappers. Jeff had to interrupt their profound discussion about bling-bling so he could drag Kate away from there. ”What is it with you and your urge to get into trouble wherever you go?” Jeff hissed as he lead her through the hallway.
”What do you mean, ‘trouble’?” Kate asked confusedly. ”They were from Sherman Oaks, just like me!”
Jeff glared at her. ”Did they forgot to mention that detail when they signed up for rappers at the unemployment office?”
”Well, I promised not to tell anyone,” Kate shrugged, making a detour up the stairs to their right.
”Where are you going now?” Jeff asked with frustration as he hadn’t noticed her leaving right away.
”They have a coffee shop on the second floor. I gotta have a sandwich.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. ”You’re supposed to help us out, you know. That’s why you’re here.”
”I’m helping! I’m making contacts for you that could be valuable in a distant future!” Kate declared loudly. ”I’m your publicist now.”
”We were doing fine before you started discussing music with other weird musicians,” Jeff muttered.
Kate stopped in the middle of the stairway, blocking it for everyone who was trying to get by. ”You’re jealous,” she stated, pleased. ”You’re totally jealous about me spending time and talking to other guys.” A long line formed behind her while she was gesticulating wildly.
Jeff snorted at the absurdity. ”Me? Jealous of you?”
”No, not of me, of them!” Kate laughed excitedly. ”You like me!”
Jeff was losing his patience, especially since Kate had an audience behind her of at least twenty people. ”Could you move out of the way?” he growled. ”I don’t like you, and besides, you and Matt are having some freakish kind of relationship going on right now, and I can’t go between the two of you even if I wanted to.”
Kate waited until all the people she had been holding up walked down and disappeared to their original destinations, then she resumed her bouncing towards the coffee shop. ”We’re not having a relationship,” she explained calmly as Jeff followed her. ”I like Matt, but I know he could never be seriously interested in me. He likes Sammie. I would just be the runner-up in his eyes and Kate McKinley is no runner-up! She’s a winner!” She screamed the last part, scaring the life out of everyone on the second floor.
”It was serious for a while,” Jeff pointed out, well aware that everyone was staring at them. Kate waved randomly to people, even though she had never seen them before.
”Of course it wasn’t serious,” Kate babbled on as she got in line to get her sandwich. ”Don’t you think I know whether something is serious or not?”
”No,” Jeff said determinedly. ”You wanted to get engaged to Duncan Farrell after you had dated for one week!”
”A week is a long time!” Kate yelled. ”A BLT, please,” she added with her normal voice to the cashier. ”Anyway, I didn’t realize you kept such close watch on me and my boyfriends.”
”It’s hard not to notice when you have a different one every day,” Jeff muttered.
”And you would like to be one of them?” Kate added curiously.
”No!” he exclaimed. This time all eyes turned on him. ”Stop saying I want to date you,” he hissed to her.
Kate giggled as she paid for her sandwich. ”I wouldn’t mind dating you, Jeffster. I think you’re nice.”
”Do you have some kind of list with our names on, going through us one by one?”
”What’s the harm? Chris already told me he’s not interested, Matt and I are never gonna work out, and I’d prefer you over Anthony, but he’s nice too.”
”Are you completely crazy? Why can’t you just be friends with us?!” Jeff asked. ”Is it so hard for you to have a platonic friendship with a guy?”
”No. My best friends are guys,” Kate said simply. ”I’m just looking for a nice boyfriend, that’s all. I just asked you where the harm is in me dating around a little. It shouldn’t bother you this much, because you said you weren’t jealous.”
”I’m not.”
They sat down at a table in the corner to get some privacy. ”What does it matter if a girl asks a guy out? Or that she tells the guy straight out that she’s interested in him. It would solve so many problems if more girls did that!”
”The problem with you is that you’re interested in all guys,” Jeff complained. ”You’re too… impulsive!”
”And you’re too strict and boring,” Kate whined. ”I don’t think I want you to date me anymore.”
”Because I’m responsible?” Jeff asked with frustration.
”No, because you’re boooring,” Kate complained.
”Still, you and Matt-”
”There is no ‘me and Matt’, stupid.”
Jeff still wasn’t convinced. ”You slept together.”
”No, we didn’t,” Kate objected instantly, glaring at him.
”You were about to.”
”That’s not the same thing.”
Kate kept herself busy eating her sandwich, while Jeff was trying to find an argument against her reasoning. ”So why did you do it?” he finally wanted to know. ”Why did you change your mind in the first place?”
”You mean I should have been with him even though I didn’t want to just because I initially had told him we could?” Kate muttered with her mouth full with mayonnaise. ”Could you get me a napkin?”
Jeff reached out for the box on the counter behind him. ”Of course I don’t mean it like that. You’re always preaching about not being the girl who sleeps around. What happened?”
Kate shrugged, staring intently at piece of tomato in her sandwich. ”I had a weak moment, I guess. And I like Matt so much, and Fred always says that if you’re going to do it, it has to be with someone you like and trust and who is a friend and respects you. And Matt was all those things, so I figured I wouldn’t find a better guy to be with if I was just going to get it over with.”
”Sounds awfully romantic,” Jeff snorted. ”So you’ve just decided on a whim to let Matt have sex with you ‘just to get it over with’?”
”No. It was stupid to think that it wasn't going to mean anything. And I am waiting, aren't I? I guess it was more important to me than I thought it was. I'd rather it be with someone who likes me than with someone who's only trying to make Sammie jealous.”
”That wasn’t the reason he was with you, I hope you know that. Sure, Matt can be pigheaded sometimes, but he would never take advantage of you to make another girl jealous. He’s not like that.”
”I still don’t understand while you and I are discussing this,” Kate said patiently. ”What does it matter to you if Matt and I have sex?”
”What does it matter to you if Daniel and Sammie sleep together?” Jeff asked back.
”I guess it doesn’t,” Kate said. ”Are you talking to me about this because you’re worried about me, or because you’re annoyed with me?”
”A little bit of both,” Jeff admitted, smiling. ”I just know that your reputation isn’t as true to your person as most people would think.”
”So you don’t believe the rumors that I sleep with every guy I date just because someone told you I've never had sex before? You don't need to protect me. I'm a big girl; I know what it means and what consequences there might be. As long as the people I care about respect me for my decisions, it doesn’t matter to me what the general public thinks I do with the guys I date.”
”Some guys wouldn’t be as understanding to you changing your mind on them as Matt was,” Jeff pointed out warningly.
”I would never let any other guys do to me what Matt did. He was special.” Kate couldn’t say anything more on the subject, as her mouth was full with the last part of her sandwich. Jeff waited while she tried to chew. “So, where are you going with this interrogation?”
“What? I don’t know, I was just trying to have a conversation,” Jeff said, not at all sure how they had ended up on the subject of Kate and Matt to start with. “I guess I was just curious where you two will be going from here on.”
“Nowhere,” Kate shrugged, wiping her mouth with another napkin. “Matt doesn’t wanna date me, and I won’t act like a puppy following him around everywhere and make a fool out of myself. It would have been different if he had asked me out or something. It would have been nice if he had, but in the end he meant more to me than I did to him.”
Jeff watched her as she gathered some crumbs together. It almost made him sad when he heard the finality in her voice, as if it was obvious to her that a guy wouldn’t be seriously interested in her. “You meant something to him,” he said to be nice. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have had sex with you.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Get over it, will you? Okay, so I almost lost my virginity to him, but I didn’t and that’s the point! I’m still up for grabs, Jeffster.”
“I’ll remember that if I feel a grab coming on,” Jeff laughed. “Don’t hold your breath, though.”
“Oh, you know you love me,” Kate grinned.
Daniel was standing right outside the backdoor to the backstage hallway, smoking another cigarette. Fred had taken the clipboard away from him, claiming he had to make a list of all the songs the band would be playing so he’d know when to give cues to Kate. Daniel had a strong suspicion that Fred and Kate were going to ruin the entire performance by accidentally sending the band down a trapdoor.
“Those things are bad for you, you know,” Anna said with her sweetest voice. Daniel immediately dropped the cigarette and put his shoe on it. “Wouldn’t wanna scare off all the chicks with your yellow fingers and bad breath, would ya?”
Daniel tried to coolly lean back against the railing but accidentally hit his elbow against the bar instead. He resisted the urge to swear. “I don’t inhale,” he tried to joke. Anna was not impressed by it.
“You only smoke because it makes you look cool, don’t ya?” Anna snorted, moving down a few steps so they would be eye to eye. “You’re like a fourteen year old girl.”
“What do you want, Anna?” he asked grumpily, feeling through his pockets for his lighter. He was sick of having to play games with her. It sickened him even more that he was still trying to impress her and be nice to her.
Anna crossed her arms, doing the cool movement Daniel had attempted earlier by leaning against the railing without slipping and hurting herself. “Why are you being rude to me? I haven’t done shit to you, and I even tried to be nice to you before you told me that I was only good for sex.”
Daniel looked away. He was ashamed of what he had said to her, but there was no way he was going to admit that to anyone, least of all Anna. “I’m not being rude. This is just how I deal with people.” He could hear how lame that sounded and wished he would have picked something else to say to her.
“What the hell is your damn problem?” Anna wanted to know. She was obviously out looking for answers to his shitty behavior, and Daniel had no idea what was going on for once, as everything he’d done so far had been completely irrational and not at all thought-through. “Maybe you’re not used to being completely honest with people, but I’m gonna be honest with you. Before we came here, I liked getting your attention. You were funny when you tried to be nice, even though it so obviously doesn’t suit you. At the very least you respected me and the things I did, but since we’ve been here you’ve just been this huge asshole. You deliberately hurt my feelings and told me terrible things just so I wouldn’t get any closer to you. Because I assume you only said all that because I was nice to you the day before and cleaned your wounds, and you felt close to me and that freaked you out.”
Daniel was unsure what to say when she finally stopped speaking. Anna was a lot savvier than he had given her credit for, and she was definitely not some dumb, giggling bimbo. “You’re wrong,” he muttered.
“So you’re going to continue treating me like dirt even after we get back home?” Anna sighed with resignation. “I can’t believe I wasted my breath on you, thinking you might actually be a decent guy somewhere deep inside.”
“Well, I’m not!” Daniel snapped. “This is how I really am, I was just being extra nice to you because…”
“Because of what?” Anna asked coldly, not going to give Daniel as much as an inch before he started acting like a normal human being.
Daniel lost his temper, kicking the trashcan next to them with such force that it flew into the wall of the building and bounced back. Anna didn’t even flinch. “Because I thought you deserved it, okay?” Daniel yelled at her, grabbing the railing behind him with both hands. “Because you make me weak and needy in a hopelessly pathetic way. You’re the smartest girl I’ve ever met, and the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and you make me feel all these fucking feelings that I’d rather bury deep inside with everything else I’d never admit to.”
Anna was a bit stunned, realizing that Daniel was actually telling the truth for once. “Daniel…”
“You wanna know everything?” he asked frantically. “I can’t lie to you, even if I try. I can’t look at you without falling apart inside because I want you but I know I can never have you because I don’t work that way. You wanna know more? Every Sunday I watch the morning cartoons with my little sister. Every Tuesday I call my grandparents in Italy just because my mother tells me to pay them respect. Every time a guy acts like a jerk with Kate, I have to fight every fiber in my body not kill him because in ten years, some guy might be saying or doing the same to my sister.” When he realized he was still holding his cigarette lighter, he threw it to the ground as well. “I don’t really smoke outside of school, because it would disappoint my mom. I treat the girls I date like dirt because I had a girlfriend once who cheated on me and I know the same thing would happen again if I ever got another one. The reason I’m one year older than everybody else at that damn school is because I got expelled several times for getting into fights. I don’t get close to people and the thing I fear the most is losing my friends because they’re the only ones who put up with all my bullshit and bad behavior.”
He was standing so close to Anna that he could smell her perfume. She had tears in her eyes for some reason, but Daniel was equally upset as well, and they just stared at each other. “Do you get it now?” he asked quietly. “You make me feel bad for all the rotten things I’ve ever done. And you make me wanna spill my heart out to you, just so you would know everything about me.”
“I make you feel like shit,” Anna said conclusively, wiping a tear away from her cheek.
“Yeah. Pretty much,” he mumbled. “But I love it. I love how you make me feel. I wish you were the kind of girl I would deserve to be with. But you’re not.”
Anna bit her lower lip, noticing how unbelievably destructive Daniel was when he was being completely honest with himself. “I wish you were the kind of guy I would choose as my boyfriend.” Daniel’s eyes expressed unfeigned sadness as she said this. He brought out unknown feelings in her, too. Feelings she couldn’t quite determine, but they weren’t all negative.
It was strange how the person she trusted the least, would bring out the feelings she cherished the most. Daniel had poured his heart out to her, telling her things no one else knew about. There was nowhere they could go from here. It all began and ended at this spot, unless one of them would take the first step and admit what they didn’t want to put words to yet. Anna put her hand gently against his cheek. Daniel turned his head down, scared that she would see how sad he really was, but she tilted his head back up. “You’re the most fake person I’ve ever met,” she whispered to him. And then she pulled him into a deep kiss, this time not letting go at once. Daniel kept his hands on the railing, making no tries to feel her up like he had previously.
They stood like that for a long while, lost in the moment. Neither of them wanted to pull away or let go, as they both knew that once the kiss would end, their last moment together would end as well. Nobody disturbed them or came bursting out through the door. It was just a long, quiet moment they had to themselves before all of it would end.
Daniel didn’t know who had stopped first, but suddenly he found himself alone out on the stairwell, feeling calm and empty at the same time, knowing that his chances with Anna Eukovich had probably vanished from his life forever. In the distance, a soft thunder could be heard.
Kate was sitting on a box in the middle of the dressing room, quickly scribbling away in her diary. It could look like she had much better things to do than to write the latest news of her life, as the others were carrying things around and trying to fix broken equipment. But to Kate, nothing was more important than a brand new diary entry. When Fred leaned over her shoulder to see what she was writing, she slapped the book close and glared at him. “You don’t read a girl’s diary! That’s forbidden territory. I don’t try to snoop in your most important inner thoughts, do I?”
“I don’t have that many inner thoughts,” Fred grinned. “What was that part about Jeff being cute as a knight?”
“It did not say so!” Kate gasped with horror. “Stop reading!”
“Am I in there too?” Chris asked as he passed them by. “Fred, could you help us get the amps set up?” Fred got up from the floor, glad to be of some actual help. Chris took his place next to Kate. “What did you write about me?”
“Go away!” Kate hollered, poking at him with her pen. “I’m going to dedicate a whole paragraph to you and how annoying you are.”
“That’s what a guy likes to hear,” Chris laughed, just as Anna came in to the room. Chris smiled at her, but she didn’t return the smile. “Hey, Anna, what’s up?”
She made a try at smiling, but it looked more like a grimace. “Just nervous,” she said, nodding at him. “Don’t worry.”
Chris didn’t really believe her and he could see that she had been crying, but he didn’t want to ask her about it in front of Kate. “You want something to drink? McKinley here is first assistant; she’ll get you anything you want.”
“I’m publicist!” Kate yelled. “And I also keep a lookout for any annoying fans that might show up.”
“You’re our only annoying fan so far,” Anthony joined in on the conversation as he entered the room with Sammie’s guitar case. “What are we talking about? I mean, except for Kate being annoying.” Kate’s diary came flying towards his head and he just managed to duck before it hit him.
Lex came bursting into the room, making a quick halt to avoid crashing right into Anthony. “Is Fred here?” she asked breathlessly, moving her head around so fast that she could only see blurry shapes.
“Eh, no,” Chris said, getting up. “He’s going to the stage with some more of our stuff.”
Lex sprinted out just as fast; they could hear her shoes screech against the floor when she tried to take a corner in high speed. “Interesting,” Anthony commented. “Seems like the roles have changed.”
Daniel pushed the door open, looking down the hallway, probably meeting Lex on the way. When he saw Anna, however, they both avoided each other’s eyes and quickly found better things to do than just standing around.
“Really, really changed,” Chris said suspiciously as Anna ran off as soon as Daniel had left. “What the hell is going on?”
Kate, who was as oblivious as always, perked up. “Where’s Jeffster?”
“I’d be hiding from you if I were him,” Anthony mumbled, but Kate pretended not to hear. “Kate, shouldn’t you be doing something productive?”
“I’m keeping an eye on everything, somebody’s gotta do that too,” Kate pointed out. “Oh, I gotta change before we go on!” With that, she quickly put down her pen and ran out. Anthony and Chris stared after her.
“Change into what? Has anybody told her that she isn’t going on stage, we are?” Chris said. “By the way, where’s Matt? I haven’t seen him in hours.”
On cue, Matt crashed through the door and stormed in, kicking at everything that lay in the way as he walked by. Sammie came in after him, also in a huff. The truce seemed to be over between them. “Matt, you had no right to drag me out of there like that, it was embarrassing!”
“Embarrassing?” Matt yelled, almost tripping over a bunch of entangled cords on the floor. “Just yesterday we were talking about… And then I found you kissing that guy today anyway! And you thought you didn’t mean anything to me; that I didn’t understand? Well, Sammie, who’s the one feeling like a complete jackass right now, you or me?”
“Yesterday was-”
“Yesterday was only good yesterday and now when Kate isn't a threat anymore, you can do whatever you damn well please!” Matt raged. “Well, I’m sick of being treated like an idiot. Kiss whoever you want, but don’t take it out on me when I do the same!”
“You were the one dragging me out of there by the arm like a child!” Sammie screamed.
“Are you two having some sort of problem?” Anthony said jokingly. Matt and Sammie got quiet and took one last look at each other before Sammie stomped off in anger, dragging two extension cords with her that had gotten stuck to her shoes.
Matt slumped down on the box Kate had been sitting on earlier, leaning his head in his hands. “I caught her kissing that guy, what’s-his-face.”
“Luke,” Chris said helpfully.
Matt shivered when the name was mentioned. “Yeah. And just yesterday she said… Well, it doesn’t matter what she said, but it’s just typical that she’d go and change her mind at the drop of a hat.”
“Stay here and cool down for a while,” Anthony suggested, nudging at Chris to help him carry one of the larger boxes. “We gotta get this stuff up to the stage, and you and Sammie can’t be mad at each other if it might affect our performance.”
“I know,” Matt muttered. He stayed behind as the others left, feeling a bit sorry for himself for some reason. Suddenly getting attention from Kate didn’t seem so bad. As he was thinking that maybe he’d gone a little bit crazy over the past few days, he caught sight of a large notebook with a pink cover, lying on the floor. It didn’t look like the kind of notebook someone had written down music and lyrics in, so he picked it up from the floor, turning the first page. He was met by Kate’s handwriting, declaring the book as ‘Kate McKinley’s Book of Fun’. This made Matt roll his eyes, but he didn’t put the book down. Kate’s life was as interesting as the life of a fruit fly, meaning that she did almost the same thing every day. School, cheerleading, arguing with Daniel, dating the loser of the week, doing something wacky, repeat.
Matt didn’t really process anything of what she had written until his own name was mentioned, a few lines down on January 13th earlier in the year. From there on, he couldn’t tear himself away from what she had retold in her diary over the past six months.
Lex was depressed. She had been chasing after Fred all day, finally knowing how he had felt when he had been trying to get her attention while she had never acknowledged him. She was now on the verge of giving up, sitting on one of the loudspeakers (even though Jeff had told her not to), drinking a bottle of water. The last thing on her mind was the concert, and they were going on in less than an hour. Usually they tried to spend the last hour before a performance together, catching their breaths and calming their nerves. Now they were all running around like crazy with all kinds of personal agendas to tend to.
“Hey there, how’s it going?”
Lex was so surprised to hear Fred’s voice that she almost fell off the speaker. “Eh, hi,” she said, drawing a blank on what it was she was supposed to tell him. That speech she had practiced on was completely gone. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Been crazy around here all day, hasn’t it?” Fred said with a smile, sitting down next to her. “What’s going on with Anna, by the way? Did Daniel make her cry again?”
“I honestly don’t know,” she mumbled, having no idea what he was talking about. “Fred, there’s something I need to tell you. Daniel hasn’t said anything to you, has he?”
Fred was still all smiles. “No, not really. Is this about him and Anna?”
“No, it’s about you and me. And to some extent, Daniel. It means a lot to me that you’re my friends, you know and-”
“It means a lot to me too,” he interrupted her. She wished he would stop smiling so much. He had struck out with her all year long and his spirit was still high. It was incomprehensible to her. This made her all the more nervous; what exactly would bring Fred’s spirit down and would he ever recover from it?
She decided to say it all fast, so it would finally be over. “I got really drunk at Ryan Hansen’s party last year and messed around with someone and Daniel claims that-”
Fred, who hadn’t really been listening, shrugged. “Don’t worry about Daniel, he does that sometimes. He likes playing around with people so when he finds something out about them he tests them to see their reaction. Just ignore him and he’ll let it go.”
“You don’t understand!” Lex exclaimed frantically. She had no chance to explain wherein the problem really laid, as the stage was rushed by the other members of the band. She almost screamed at them to get lost, but when she turned back to Fred, he was already gone, dragged away by Daniel. This time, Lex knew that he was going to beat her to the punch.
Daniel pushed the door open to the dressing room, still holding Fred by the arm. Fred was protesting loudly, as he was supposed to help the band to get ready, but Daniel paid no attention to him. His day had been absolute crap, and it was all Lex O’Leary’s fault – at least she was the one he had singled out as the responsible one. It was time to pull the rug out from under her feet.
They ran into Matt, who was still hiding out in the room. “Isn’t that McKinley’s diary?” Daniel asked with a confused frown. Matt flew up from the box he was sitting on, tossing the book to the side and quickly running out without a word. Daniel forgot all about it instantly. “Fred, I need to tell you something about Lex.” There was no time to use courtesy at a time like this.
Fred was still annoyed about being shoved around but sat down on one of the chairs anyway. “My Lex?”
“She’s not ‘your’ Lex,” Daniel rolled his eyes, impatient with Fred’s slowness. “Besides, who else do you know called Lex?”
“What is it?”
“It’s… you know last year at the end of school? Ryan Hansen had a party-”
Fred suddenly remembered, knowing what he was talking about. “I didn’t go,” he hurried to say.
Daniel sent him a doubtful look, knowing Fred was lying. “Anyway, Lex was there.”
“So?” Fred said defiantly, not understanding where Daniel’s interest in Lex came from.
“She was also there and she was new in school. Well, I hadn’t paid much attention to her at least, and she never went to junior high here.”
“What’s your point?” Fred asked impatiently. Lex had been right; Daniel was more than playing around with her. He was seriously obsessed with her whereabouts.
Daniel sighed. This was harder to say than he’d thought. “I don’t think you should hang out with her.”
“You don’t even know her,” Fred muttered.
“I know her well enough to know that she’s trouble.”
“You’ve barely spoken two words with her since you first met her!” Fred got up from his seat, standing in front of Daniel.
“But I know her better than you. Trust me.”
“Well, I don’t trust you. How the hell would you know her better than me? I’ve been hanging out with her for months now, talking to her and getting to know her. And you, who haven’t spent any time with her at all, claim to know her better than I do? You’re so full of shit, Daniel. How exactly do you know her?”
“I just know her.”
“You know… her.” Fred paused, feeling sick to his stomach all of a sudden. Daniel’s tone of voice scared him. “You-”
Before Fred would make any crazy conclusions on his own, Daniel decided to interfere with the actual explanation. “We hooked up, at Hansen’s party. That’s all.” When Fred didn’t answer, Daniel continued. “She’s not your type of girl. Believe me.”
“You hooked up with my Lex?” Fred whispered, his head spinning.
“Fred, listen to me-”
“I-I don't believe this,” he mumbled, giving Daniel a shove so he could get out of the room. He could barely look at Daniel, even less have this conversation with him.
“Fred, just listen to me,” Daniel called out, as Fred walked away. The door closed behind him with a bang. “Fuck.” It had not at all worked out the way Daniel had planned, and he angrily punched his fist into the wall. The only thing he was glad about was that no one was around to hear his whimpering.
Kate came thundering in through the door a couple of minutes later, happy as only Kate could be. “Hello!” she shouted, spinning around to show her new outfit. “I call this my ‘rock concert attire’. I look rocky, I look tough, but I also look cute. Isn’t it perfect?”
Daniel glared at her, holding an ice pack against his knuckles. He’d gotten way too familiar with ice packs over the past week. “You look like a punk prostitute,” he told her. Kate didn’t let this get to her, as she looked in the mirror above the makeup desk and puffed up her hair. “Could you beat it?”
“What’s the matter? What happened to your hand? Have you been fighting with Anna? Where is Fred? Do you think I should change my skirt?” Kate babbled on, starting to spin on the spot again. “Guess what happened!”
“Shut up!” Daniel yelled with annoyance. “Why the fuck do you have to ask so many questions? You’re not four years old, Red!”
Kate looked at him with the widest eyes she could procure. “I was just gonna say that Matt-”
“I don’t care what that idiot said or did,” Daniel snarled, walking over to the door. “Do the world a favor and shut your damn mouth from time to time. Nobody cares about your minor problems anyway.”
“That’s mean!” Kate protested, feeling hurt. “I was just going to-”
“Don’t, Red, please,” Daniel said dejectedly. “Don’t do anything. Please, just leave me alone.”
Kate gasped loudly, staring after him with an offended look as he walked away. “Never mind, then!” she bellowed so he would hear her out in the hallway. “It’s none of your business anyway!”
“Fine!” Daniel yelled back, slamming the door shut.
The band was gathered in the green room with Kate and Fred, waiting for one of the real technical assistants to let them know when they were up. The main stage would be opening up at seven, and they were on as the first band at seven-thirty, so they had some time to cool off before they went on.
Kate was chattering with everyone, including the other bands that were there setting up their own equipment for later. Fred was unusually quiet, even if he wasn’t exactly a chatterbox normally. Matt and Sammie were talking politely but coldly with each other if they had to, but otherwise kept out of each other’s ways. Jeff seemed to be stuck in his own thoughts, now and then glancing in Matt’s direction.
All in all, they were not really feeling the usual nerves before a gig. They were feeling sick though, but not because of the upcoming performance.
Finally, Chris slapped his hands together as a sign for them to get moving. “Come on now, let’s get ready.” They all got up and picked up their instruments.
“Do you need help carrying anything?” Fred offered tiredly, hoping they wouldn’t say yes. He had managed to avoid Lex ever since he got there, which was quite a feat considering they’d been in the same room together for nearly twenty minutes.
Lex was desperately trying to get eye contact with him, to no avail. It almost made her want to cry. It definitely made her want to down more drinks, but Jeff had put a stop to that almost immediately. They weren’t famous enough to be able to pull of being drunk on stage and get away with it.
Fred, on the other hand, felt no such limitations.
Daniel showed up five minutes before they went on stage, not speaking to anyone nor doing anything more ordinary than ordering drinks from the bar. He knew that Fred was avoiding him, and he knew that was bad. Still, he noticed that Fred was giving Lex the silent treatment as well. Unfortunately, this didn’t give Daniel the satisfaction that he had expected. At all. He was almost afraid that the word would get out about what he had done, afraid that Anna would find out. Why had his idea seemed so great an hour ago?
“The curtain goes up in a few minutes,” Sammie said, holding her guitar. “You guys wait out here until we’re done, you can watch us on the big screen over there.” She motioned at the wall in the back, where a large TV screen was mounted. “See you later, then.”
“Try not to kill each other while we’re gone,” Anthony grinned. He was the only one except for Chris who found it funny at the moment. “Lighten up, people! We’re here to have good time, remember?”
“Oh, yeah, right,” they all mumbled distractedly. The band shuffled away towards the stage to get in position, while the other three stayed in the couch in the green room. Kate kept the show up by herself, as Daniel and Fred refused to talk.
“Can’t we go watch them from behind the scene?” she asked excitedly, trying to bounce even though she was squished so tightly in between Daniel and Fred that she could hardly move.
“We are behind the scene,” Daniel explained shortly, folding his arms.
They all watched as the host of the festival ended a long speech about the bands performing and the festival so far. Just as he began introducing Suspended Motion, Kate struggled her way up from the couch and ran towards the exit. “I gotta watch this from the crowd!” she hollered, hyped as never before. She almost ran into a waitress on the way, which gave her the opportunity to steal a drink from her tray.
Fred and Daniel still didn’t say anything, but they were probably thinking the same thing: Kate would be killed out in a large crowd if she went by herself. So they both got up and followed her. They could hear Lex’s magnified voice as they stepped out. They hadn’t noticed until now that it had started raining again, and Lex almost had to scream to make herself heard over the clatter of the rain drops against the stage.
They caught a glimpse of Kate’s skirt as she turned the corner towards the area in front of the stage. Lex had made a joke that they missed, because they could hear people laugh, cheer and whistle from outside. Fred leaped over the riot barrier easily, splashing mud in all directions. Kate had already disappeared into the crowd, but he could hear her voice anyway.
Kate used her elbows to shove herself up to the fence, disgruntling people by her mere existence. Fred knew how they were feeling. “Are you happy now?” he yelled in her ear so she would hear over the sound of the music. Kate just waved at him to be quiet. “Oh, because you know what they’re singing about?”
“I read the song sheet,“ Kate stated proudly, holding her arms over her head to shield her hair from the rain. It didn’t work at all. “It’s about some loser club who has to take help from their friends to get dates.”
“Those are two completely different songs,” Daniel pointed out as he got up to them, breathing heavily from exhaustion. As a result, the rest of his sentence was muffled.
Kate gave him an unimpressed look. “Smoking is bad for you, Danny.” Daniel could only cough in reply.
“Can I look at that list?” Fred asked. Kate went through the pockets in her snazzy coat and pulled out a paper that she had scribbled on earlier. “You can hardly make out what it says!”
Kate shrugged. “I wrote it with my pink pen. It has never let me down before.” The rain was hitting harder than ever and as a side order, the rainstorm also started to provide with thunder. The music could still be heard, but whenever Lex tried to speak, most of what she said was completely drowned in the noise.
The problems onstage were also beginning to notice. Even though they were under a roof, the wind made the rain hit them too, and they were starting to worry that the electrical equipment would be damaged by this. It started to feel less and less like a performance, and more and more like a rehearsal gone badly.
Anna was slipping on the wet floor, trying hard not to lose her balance. She was afraid to touch the microphone out of an irrational fear of getting shocked. In between songs, Jeff tried to yell encouraging words to them, but it made no difference. “We’re almost halfway done,” Lex shouted to them. “They’d pull us off the stage if they thought we’d be in danger.”
“No, they wouldn’t,” Matt screamed back. “A band getting killed by lighting is the perfect publicity for a rock festival!”
This comment made them almost smile, and they struggled on. As soon as Lex had announced that they were taking a short break, all seven of them dashed off the stage to get inside. “It’s a disaster,” Anna complained, grabbing a towel that the personnel backstage were handing to them as they went by. “Why are people even here listening to us?”
“I don’t know. They obviously didn’t come to listen to you anyway,” Matt muttered. “I mean, since your voice could barely be heard from you standing fifteen feet away from the microphone!”
“I got nervous, okay?” Anna defended herself. “I started to think I’d get electrocuted if I touched the mic and-”
“Well, it wasn’t much fun for us either, who actually had to hold the electrical instruments,” Sammie pointed out bitterly. “But we managed to go on. It wouldn’t have killed you to try a little harder.”
“Try harder?” Anna said angrily. “I was singing so loud my throat hurt!”
“Guys, cut it out,” Jeff sighed. “It was bad for all of us, but once we get through this-”
“Oh, stop being so damn optimistic, Delricci,” Chris cut him off. “We sucked out there and there’s nothing you can say that could make us feel any happier about having to go out there again. Did McKinley puke happiness all over you or something?”
“What do you mean?” Jeff muttered with irritation. “Kate has nothing to do with this.”
“Come on!” Lex shouted. “We know you like her, it’s so obvious!”
“I don’t like her,” Jeff growled.
Sammie sat down in the couch, pulling off her shoes and socks so she could warm up her feet a little with the towel. “You’re too late anyway; Matt has decided to invite her home over the summer.”
“What?!” the others exclaimed at the same time. Matt tried to shrink back, but that of course didn’t work.
“Yeah, apparently they’re dating now, so Jeff, you have to wait a week or two until they break up before you make your move,” Sammie smirked, obviously trying to get a reaction out of Matt. “Obviously it wasn’t enough that he just slept with her, no, now he’s gotta introduce her to his family as well!”
“We didn’t sleep together!” Matt yelled with frustration. “What I do with Kate is none of your business, and I told you that I was going to keep being with Kate if that’s what I wanted.”
“And what about Jeff?” Anna suddenly jumped in to the conversation. “Don’t you care that he likes her? And don’t you care about Kate at all? Does she know that you’re only dating her to make Sammie jealous?”
“I’m not!” Matt moaned. “Why don’t you people just get it? I like Kate and it shouldn’t matter to you who I date, Anna. It’s none of your business!”
“But you said just yesterday that you kissed Sammie,” Chris pointed out, knowing he wasn’t being very helpful. “Why would you kiss her if you and Kate were dating? Why would you even consider getting a girlfriend when you still have feelings for Sammie?”
“Yeah!” Anna said triumphantly. “Are you going to keep kissing Sammie even though you’re going out with Kate? How will she be able to trust you at all if you say something but do something else? What if she realizes that she really likes you, and by then you’re just gonna rip out her heart and stomp all over it? What if she’s starting to see something in you that others have just overlooked and what if she’s starting to think that maybe you could turn into a decent boyfriend?”
The others stared at her as she was catching her breath. Matt was almost screaming when he took her silence as an opportunity to talk. “Don’t direct all your weird pent-up feelings about Daniel on me, Eukovich. You’re obviously starting to fall for that jerk and the fucking tricks he’s pulling on you. When are you gonna wake up and realize that he’s just using you to get you into bed? Just like he did with Sammie, and with Lex!”
“Excuse me, what?” Anthony said, taken aback by these news. “Lex, you and Daniel-?”
“No! There’s nothing going on with me and Daniel!” Lex bellowed angrily. “Matt, what the hell?”
Matt suddenly grinned. “Sorry, forgot all of us didn’t know that.”
“You and Daniel had an affair?” Anna sputtered.
“Grow up, Anna,” Lex muttered, starting to hear a strange echo for every word she was saying. “It wasn’t an ‘affair’, and Daniel is lying. Nothing happened between us, and if you don’t believe me you can all go to hell.”
“Could you all calm down?” Jeff asked.
“No!” they yelled back.
“Let’s resolve this once and for all: Lex, do you like Fred?” Jeff said, determined to get them all to stop fighting.
“What does Fred has to do with this?” Lex asked dumbly. They all gave her an icy stare. “Fine! Yes, I know that he likes me! I’ve known all along, okay? I just couldn’t let him know because… because…”
Before she had a chance to continue, Fred, Daniel and Kate crashed into the room, waving and yelling. “Hey!”
“What?!” the band members shouted, almost angry about being interrupted like this.
“As much as I’d like you to continue your story-” Fred said to Lex. He was completely soaked from the rain. “-you guys should know-”
“What?!” they all yelled again as he never seemed to get to the point.
“Lex, the mic you’re holding is still on. Everyone out there can hear everything you say,” Kate hollered to drown out their voices. As she said this, Lex could hear Kate’s words echo in the distance out from the stage. She could also hear people whistle and cheer through the open door.
A complete silence settled. Lex held up the microphone she had forgot she was holding in her hand and switched it off, but all of them were afraid to even whisper now. “Is that true?” Anna mumbled after a few minutes in shock had passed by. “They heard everything?” Her eyes were so big that they resembled large plates.
Jeff lowered his voice considerably before he dared answer. “It seems so.”
“What do we do now?” Anthony whispered.
Kate walked up to them, one hand hiding behind her back. As they noticed her presence, she took out another microphone and turned it on. “You go out and take a bow,” she suggested with a smile. “You’re a success!” She turned around, running back out on the stage. The band members doubtfully looked between each other, trying to decide what to do. At this point they were so humiliated that it didn’t matter whether they went back up on stage or not. Lex nodded decisively, taking the lead as they went back outside in a row.
Kate had jumped up on one of the loudspeakers on the stage and was now waving her hands to the crowd. “Yo, Kate McKinley in da house!”
That girl had no inhibitions at all. “Does she think she’s a rapper now?” Daniel asked Fred, forgetting that they weren’t speaking with each other.
“Kate fears nothing, only the silence of her own voice,” Fred said, unable to smile. The band stood frozen at the middle of the stage in front of thousands of people in the audience. It had to be the first time they had ever felt the resemblance of a stage fright.
Kate, however, had no such word in her vocabulary. “Give it up for my friends, the Suspended Motion!” This was met by thousands of appreciating voices from the sea of people. The sound exploded in a big cheer. “We have Lex O’Leary, the reason we’re here today! She has a fantastic voice and my best friend Fred has been madly in love with her for over a year!” Lex wanted to die a little bit as Kate shouted her name out. “And then there’s Matt McDougal, who’s not just a little drummer boy but a big oaf with a good heart who almost took my virginity two days ago!”
“Is she drunk?” Matt sputtered, burying his face in his hands. “Does she have to use our names?”
Kate’s excitement made the crowd go wild. “Sammie Blackburn, ladies and gentlemen! This girl is the best friend you can ask for, and the only real girlfriend I’ve probably ever had. You just gotta love her!” Kate howled, dancing around on the spot. Despite the embarrassment, Sammie had to smile at Kate’s forward way of expressing her love for them. “Anna Eukovich, the girl with the big blue eyes! The most beautiful girl you’ll ever meet, and my best friend Danny loves her more than he could ever express in words-”
“Red is dead,” Daniel growled under his breath. Fred just grinned with amusement.
“-and don’t worry, Anna! You could do a lot worse, ‘cause Danny would never ever cheat on you! I promise!” Kate hollered. “And let’s not forget Anthony Nicholson!”
“What could she possibly have to say about me?” Anthony asked, actually being curious since he and Kate had barely talked over the week.
“He’s the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet even if he’s a lousy catcher if you ever get stuck on a fence. He’s soft to land on, though!” Kate cheered, doing another air kick, almost falling off the speaker. “Chris Mitchell, the guy with the smurf tattoo! He’s not a stoner, though, but a lovely dancer and definitely a potential boyfriend!”
“How would she know if you’re a good dancer?” Anthony said confusedly.
Chris shrugged, unable to look away from the disaster that was Kate McKinley. “I asked her to dance one time at the spring dance,” he explained, shaking his head. “If I’d known it would rock her world so much, I would have treated her to an ice cream instead.”
Kate had left her little speech behind for a second, now dancing around like a maniac, accompanied to the roar of the crowd. “And!” she finally bellowed excitedly. “Last but not least, Jeff Delricci! There’s so much you could say about this wonderful guy that it’d blow your mind! So! He’s the most overprotective, smartest, boringly sensible guy I‘ve ever met – and you gotta love every inch of him for it. And he’s got the best hair color in the world, dammit!”
“Can we die now?” Jeff asked, looking ready to cry. “Are we in hell?“
Nobody paid any attention to him, glad that Kate had no one else on her list to publicly humiliate. “Hey!” she shouted happily, still waving madly at the crowd. “Let’s give it up for Suspended Motion, everyone! Yaaay!”
The crowd was more jubilant than ever before, even though it was raining heavily and the mud went up to everyone's ankles. As Kate started doing another dance routine, throwing kisses in all directions, they all started chanting her name. Knowing that could only lead to a disaster, Fred and Daniel threw themselves out on stage to get to her in time. Kate suddenly went even crazier, her eyes wide with shock. “Mr. Gonzo!” she exclaimed with such a piercing voice that she got feedback from the microphone to the speakers. In the middle of the sea of people, a familiar giraffe bounced up and down, to Kate’s outmost delight. “Mr. Gonzo, don’t be scared, I’m coming!”
Fred almost had a grip of her skirt, but before he could reach her, Kate had given up her greatest war cry and made a stage dive into the crowd. They watched speechlessly as Kate was passed on by hundreds of hands so she could reunite with her stuffed giraffe. They could still hear her cheer, even though she had left the microphone on stage.
“You’re on,” Fred finally said to the band, as he realized that the noise from their audience would never subside. “She stole the show; all you gotta do is take it from here and go out with a bang.”
Anna, Jeff, Anthony, Lex, Matt and Sammie had never been met by such applauding as they did when they reappeared back on stage for their second act.