by Max Hudson
“I will.”
“I promise I’ll worry about you.” Agnes was a good friend, that’s why Hero had been comfortable calling her.
“Don’t. I was just a little lonely and bored of not traveling anymore.”
“Everyone else hates all the travel and you miss it.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m weird.”
“That’s why we love you.”
Hero smiled. “I’m going to let you go now. Don’t worry. I’m just fine. Just wanted to check in, mostly.”
“I’ll try not to, call me if you need someone to talk to again.”
“I will.” Hero nodded as the call ended. He felt a lot better as he closed out the line, heading to his bed to lay down and get some sleep. Sleep was something that would help him feel better come morning. At least that was what he hoped for.
Chapter Five
Bowie tapped his pen against the table as he lounged backward in his chair. “We have to come up with something.”
Justice groaned. “I know we do.” The drummer looked just as frustrated, as the paper on the table had a list of crossed-out options. “This is the first time we’ve had a chance like this. We need to figure this out.”
“I’m thinking.” Bowie put his head down on the table in exasperation.
“We’re trying to figure it out.” A third man spoke up from a kind of dark corner. The bassist, Pokey, didn’t like being the center of attention, so he tended to stay out of the way of the main conversation, doing a lot of listening.
Justice nodded. “Pokey is right.”
“Yeah.” Bowie agreed.
“Why don’t we take this one step at a time?” Pokey moved closer to the table to be part of the conversation between his two bandmates.
“Right, I’m sure we can figure something out.” Bowie frowned. People were starting to get frustrated and that was going to shut down all thought. “But why don’t we take a short break first.” A break sounded good at that moment.
“Sure. Then we can figure out how we’re going to use these damn resources they’re giving us.” Pokey grunted.
Bowie laughed. “They’re giving us an amazing thing and we can’t figure out how to use it.”
“We don’t have to use it all.” Justice shook his head. “Maybe we can just use part of it.”
“I don’t like the idea of a bunch of pyrotechnics.” Pokey shook his head. “It’s distracting.”
“All right, so what do we want to do?”
“Maybe we can tell a story?” Justice spoke up. The man seemed excited.
“Like a musical?” Pokey seemed a bit annoyed about that prospect.
“No, not like that.” Justice frowned. He thought for a second. “Well, maybe kinda, but not exactly.”
“Like what then?” Pokey looked at him curiously.
“Like a rock opera?” Bowie tilted his head.
“That’s a great idea!” Justice perked up.
Bowie laughed. “I guess it is.”
Pokey chuckled softly as he shook his head. “All you had to do was call for a break and we would have taken one ages ago. We’ll get the dancers and pick our song order to tell a story.”
“What kind of story do we want to tell?” Bowie asked.
Pokey shrugged. “We’ll figure that out, I guess.”
“Well, most of our songs have meaning behind them.”
“We don’t exactly do vapid pop music.” Justice agreed with Pokey’s sentiment.
Bowie nodded. “Right, I think we just have to pick the story and order of our songs. I think that we could make it work.”
“Maybe we could do a break-up story? We have a lot of break-up songs.”
Bowie rolled his eyes. “There’s not that many break-up songs.”
“Have you seen the songs you write? With the number of times you’ve had a break-up, it’s not much of a surprise.”
“Do you have to go there?”
“I mean, they’re not break up songs.” Justice shrugged.
The drummer got back on the subject at hand. He was excited by the fact that “That sounds good. It could let the dancers tell the story. They’re ballet, right?” Justice asked.
“Yeah, at least one of them is.”
“Maybe we can mesh the two styles, make it more like classic rock that they used to do this sort of thing with.”
Bowie nodded as Justice explained the idea. “I could give him a call and see if he wants in on the idea.”
“Him?” Justice looked up at him.
“Yeah, I met one of the dancers. He was an old friend of mine.” Bowie pulled out his phone. “We went to school together.”
“Oh, cool, who is it?”
“Hero.”
Pokey nearly spat out his drink. “Really?”
All three of the guys had gone to high school together. The band had been together for that long. So they all knew Hero’s name. “Really. I ran into him when we were finalizing the paperwork for this thing.”
“I can’t believe he’s still in town.”
“Yeah, I guess he just picked up this gig or something. I don’t really know.” Bowie shrugged. “But he’s here and I told him that if I can find a space for him, I’ll find it.”
“That’s cool of you.” Justice nodded. “It’ll be nice to see him again.”
“I mean, he hasn’t changed much. He still looks pretty much the same, except older.” Bowie shrugged.
“Still hot?” Justice laughed.
“Yeah, still hot.” Bowie nodded with a widening grin. “Probably hotter now that he’s aged into those rugged features.”
Pokey laughed softly, shaking his head. “Are you going to go all boy crazy on us?”
“No, I’m better than that.” Bowie made the promise. “I won’t do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Bowie nodded. He couldn’t blame the bassist for feeling like that. He had some issues letting his heart lead the way in the past. A touch of the romantic hidden behind the tough exterior. Everyone that knew him had seen it before and they had seen him get hurt from it. It’s the reason he had been alone for a while now. He had hardened that part of his heart. It wouldn’t do any good to fall again. Things always ended badly for him whenever he tried to date. He fell too fast and the other person just never did feel the same. “I’m not going to try to date him.”
“Good. Never date someone you work with.” Pokey nodded along as if he was reading Bowie’s thoughts on the subject. Possibly because he had lived through the promises that Bowie had made before. He lived through Bowie’s heartbreak every single time the romances had faded and he had been left alone.
Bowie nodded. He knew that part of it was his fault and that there wasn’t much he could say to ease the natural fears his bassist would have about the situation, but he knew that he could probably get Hero on board. “I should give him a call.”
“Need us on the call with you?”
“Sure.” Bowie nodded and pulled out his phone to call the dancer. They had already exchanged phone numbers so it was a simple matter of finding the contact information of the man from the singer’s past.
He sent off a quick text to the young man that he had gone to high school with.
Are you still interested in working with our band?
They had to wait a couple of minutes to get a response.
Sure, I haven’t gotten another offer yet.
Really?
Bowie made a note to read every single message as it came in, so the guys could judge if his response was flirting or not. So far, the guys seemed on board with what he was saying.
A response took a bit. They sat there and waited in relative silence, only getting up to go refill their drinks and grab more snacks.
Bowie felt like pacing while he waited. He tried to remind himself that sometimes texts get delayed.
Finally, a response came, his phone buzzing.
Guess female dancers are more popular. Most of the rest of my tro
upe got picked up already.
Damn, guess that means we’re lucky then.
What are you needing?
We’re hoping to do a rock opera. We were wondering if you would want to meet up and discuss it.
What kind of thing are you wanting me to do?
Bowie glanced up at the others. They all kind of shrugged, not knowing what to say about it. It was a vague idea really; no specifics were hammered out as of yet.
We don’t know for sure yet, we were hoping that you would consult with us on that. We know that we want to tell a story through music and dance, pick a good story to tell through our music, and use that.
Sure. I can do that. Do you want to meet up?
We’re in a meeting right now. When are you available? We can have a big meeting with everyone together.
I’m free right now.
If you can come over, I’ll send you the address. It’s at Pokey’s house.
Pokey? I haven’t seen him since school.
Yeah, it’s the same band. We’re still together after all these years.
Bowie beamed in excitement. He was thrilled that Hero was going to make the extra effort to come right away. He knew that Hero didn’t have to do that, the man probably had other ideas of how to spend his time, but he was going to show up anyway and discuss what sort of thing they could do.
He quickly sent the address over and they sat back to wait for Hero to arrive. The other guys shot worried glances in Bowie’s direction.
“What?” Bowie looked across the table at them.
Pokey shrugged. “You all right, dude?”
“I’m fine.”
Justice frowned. “You seem like your way too happy about this.”
“I’m just happy we’re finally figuring all of this out.” Bowie played it off, but it was a bit of a lie. He felt excited that Hero was so eager to come and meet with them. Even if it had been years since they had been together, it still held a certain amount of excitement for the man. He liked the thought of getting to know him again, of seeing the one that got away even if nothing was going to come from it.
And he knew that nothing was going to come of it. They had taken two drastically different paths in life and there was no way those paths could come together. They couldn’t even stay together when they were kind of on the right track. Things had changed far too much by this point.
Justice was looking at him with a strange expression.
“What’s wrong?” Bowie tilted his head toward the other man.
The drummer sighed heavily. “I’m worried that you’re too excited over this.”
“I know it’s not going to go anywhere. It’s not even worth trying.” Bowie shook his head. “There’s no need to get all worked up and worried.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Pokey shook his head again.
“What makes you say that?” Bowie frowned.
Pokey pointed toward the singer and guitarist. “You’ve got that look on your face. The one that says you may do something stupid.”
“I know it would be stupid. Don’t worry. I’m going to be fine.”
“We’ll be at all the meetings to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. Nobody wants to pull you out of that funk again. It’s a nightmare.”
“I know it is. And I have no intention of getting all sappy and romantic on him. I know that it’s over. I’m not that bad, am I?”
“Not if you have some self-reflection.”
“And you’re taking that as your job.” Bowie sighed and looked at the other two men. “Like I need a babysitter.”
“You do kinda need a babysitter.” Justice shrugged. “You’re a great guy, but you tend to get your heart broken a lot. And it hurts everyone else to see it.”
Bowie sighed. “I know. I get it. I’m not going to do it. Can we just drop it? At least for now?”
“Yeah, but just be careful. You don’t know Hero anymore.” Pokey gave a warning.
“Rose-colored glasses are getting put away, I promise. I won’t do that.” Bowie shook his head.
And they sat to wait some more. There wasn’t much more to say on either side of the conversation. Bowie felt a little wounded by the conversation like it was something that he shouldn’t have had to be told. He had to actively remind himself not to get bitter. His friends were just worried about him.
He watched Pokey across the table. The bassist was watching him carefully. Bowie forced a smile on his face. He didn’t want to look upset about anything, especially not the fact that he had trouble with relationships. He knew that what they were saying was true, but he had wished that it weren’t. It wasn’t exactly something that anyone ever wanted to be confronted with. Seeing his weakness was a difficult thing, and it was made more difficult at the moment by friends that would tell him the truth. He knew that he would appreciate their concern later, but in that singular time, it hurt more than he cared to admit.
He sighed as they waited. It felt like it took an eternity for the dancer to arrive.
Chapter Six
Hero stared at his phone for a second as he started his car. He had trouble believing that he was taking the job. He knew that networking was everything in his business, but this felt a little strange to take advantage of. Bowie had been a good man to date, but they had been very young, so young, it might have been something had they met at an older age.
He frowned then chastised himself. That wasn’t something that he needed to be thinking about. There was no possibility there. There was no way that they were going to get back together. That wasn’t going to work. Life didn’t work that way, no matter what those romantic movies would imply. He knew life didn’t work that way. Love didn’t work like that and soul mates didn’t exist. That was just the truth of the way the world worked.
There was a time way back when he believed in soul mates. But that was when he was younger and more stupid. It wasn’t like that anymore. He had loved and learned over the years. And he wasn’t going to let himself go back to that mindset.
But Agnes had still put the thought into his head. And now he was heading to a meeting with the band to try to get to know them better. He sighed, wondering how much had changed over the years with all of the guys. He remembered them all. He had spent hours sitting in Pokey’s garage and listening to them play their songs. The songs weren’t very good back then, they had a lot of polish to gain in their style. He had gone onto the internet and watched a few videos of their recent performances and he found out that they had indeed gained that polish. They had gotten a lot better and a lot of their songs had gained some sort of deeper meaning.
There was even one song that prickled at the edges of the consciousness, sharing things that he could have sworn were about him, but there was no way that was the truth. There must have been someone else that was the subject of those songs.
All in all, the band had styled itself to be similar to Billy Idol, but still held the uniqueness they had prided themselves on during high school. They had those old school vibes to them. He had enjoyed listening to them, so working with them couldn’t possibly be that bad.
As he pulled up to the house that they were meeting at he was surprised. It looked perfectly ordinary, like any other place in the suburbs. Pokey must still live with his parents. That wasn’t a good sign for the band.
He frowned and climbed out of the car. He was going to go in and meet with them anyway, see what they had to say. The door opened as he came up the front walk. “Justice?” Hero tilted his head.
“Yeah, sorry. Was just getting some air. Didn’t realize you were here.”
“That big of a brainstorm session?” Hero offered a smile, but it felt a little forced to him. He was trying to be friendly while being hit in the face by a blast from the past. One that made him feel comfortable enough to take note of it. And he was uncomfortable with how comfortable he was talking to this man again.
Justice must have not been able to tell that it was forced. He smiled back, a genuine smile
. It made the dancer feel better about being there. “This is Pokey’s house, right?”
“Yeah, he bought it from his parents when they moved down to Florida.”
“Bought it?”
“Yeah, between working his side gig and the money the band makes he makes enough to cover the mortgage.” Justice shrugged. “The band isn’t quite there to pay the bills alone yet, so Pokey works as a substitute teacher.”
“A teacher? I wasn’t expecting that.”
Justice laughed. “Yeah, very few people do, but he’s pretty good at it from what I hear.”
“That’s good, it’s nice to see you guys finally making it.”
“We haven’t made it yet. This just pays most of our bills. We still have to work side hustles if we want anything extra in our pockets.”
Hero nodded. “That makes sense, but I have a feeling this is going to work out for you.” The dancer had no way of knowing that but felt that it was better to inject a bit of optimism into the conversation. He didn’t want them thinking that nothing was going to work, it would leave him out of work.
“Oh, I’m being rude.” Justice laughed. “You wanna come in?”
“Can you invite me, or should I knock?”
“Don’t need to knock, just come on in.”
Hero nodded and followed the drummer into the house. Pokey and Bowie were sitting there at the table in the open kitchen. The place was nice, and pretty much exactly how he remembered it from when he had hung out here in earlier years. “Wow, did you keep the same furniture and everything?” Hero was getting more comfortable as he walked in. It just felt like a comfortable piece from the past.
“You want a drink?” Pokey’s voice was unmistakable as it sounded from the kitchen.
“Water is fine.” Hero called back.
Bowie smiled from the table. “Plenty of open seats, help yourself to one.”
Hero nodded and walked over to sit down. “So, what’s the plan so far?”
“We’re hoping to kind of go the rock opera route,” Bowie explained. “We haven’t settled on a storyline yet.”
“I’ve been listening to a bit of your music. It seems to lend itself to a break-up.” Hero mentioned casually.