by Thia Finn
The way he and Ryan engaged the audience amazed me every time I watch them. KeeMac drew them in, and Ryan wowed them with the riffs and solos. Sometimes Chandler played up to the guys in the audience. She always wore the rocker chic look sometimes with thigh-high leather boots, bustier, and that gorgeous long black hair swinging around stick straight. I wondered if she picked out her wardrobe or they brought someone in to make her look that way. Either way, she epitomized the looks of a female member of AD in my opinion.
Guess I’d never know the answer to that now. Oh yeah, I was supposed to be leaving I thought when I saw the turn-styles, so I put my head down and walked through the exit as I pulled up the Uber app on my phone. I saw the car waiting on Lamar at the McDonald’s. I jumped in, sat back, and closed my eyes. It was a long way out to the lake house, but I didn’t mind because it was quiet with the low music the driver had playing. The mellow sounds soothed the anxious thoughts running through my head. The ride gave me time to think about driving back to Houston tomorrow morning instead of waiting until Monday as I told Journey I would. I’m angry at her for causing a scene with Gunner.
I couldn’t help myself so I opened my phone and searched YouTube, and just like the girls said, it was already posted on there for all the world to see. The embarrassment the video caused was horrible. His manager would be angry with him, too. I can’t understand them since there are so many people yelling for Priority as the band made their way on stage, but it’s obviously a heated argument when Addie was almost touching his nose, and then Journey was stabbing her finger in his chest. Before I get to the end, a disclaimer popped up saying the video is no longer available. Hmm, I wondered what lawyers got ahold of that already?
The driver pulled into the driveway, and I realized I gave the girls the key and the garage door opener was on the car’s visor. Great, just great. I thanked the driver and walked around to the side of the house. The gate was locked, too. Now, what the hell was I supposed to do? I put my cross-body purse down at the bottom of the wrought iron fence and started looking around for something to climb on to get over the fence. I was too short to jump up and grab the top bar.
The only thing available was the garden hose container, so I dragged it to the fence. When I stood on it, I could reach the top bar. Thank God. I was tired, and angry, and ready for a bath and bed. I put my foot up on the railing and pulled myself up. There were spikes on the top of each of the decorative fence posts, so I had to avoid those to keep from getting speared. As I let myself down on the other side, my shorts got caught on the spike, and gravity took over and pulled me further down on the spike. “What the fuck!”
“Dammit, dammit, dammit. Why me?” I hung there with the worst wedgie I had ever had. I started wiggling around, and the spike ripped through the material. So much for these shorts, but if I moved around enough, maybe I could rip myself out of them and off the spike. I started jumping up and down as much as I could, while the hole ripped more and more with each determined jump. The material finally let go all at once, and I landed on the ground in a humph that came close to knocking the wind out of me.
I lay there catching my breath when I saw some yellow and red lights shining from the driveway. “What now?” I said out loud. A bright flashlight came around the side and up to the fence and shined right in my face.
“These homes are protected by security that reports directly to the police department. Breaking and entering is a serious offense, ma’am.” He was still shining the damn light in my face.
“No shit? Can you get that out of my face, please? I’m not breaking and entering. I’m renting this house for the week.”
“Why are you lying on the ground, miss?”
I rolled over and showed him the butt of my shorts, and he also got a perfect shot of my ass since I was wearing a thong. “Because the spike ripped my shorts and when it did, I fell eight feet.”
“If you’re renting the house, why did you climb the fence?” He shone the light to the hose reel box, obviously making the connection on how I got up there to begin with.
I stood up and looked at him. “I left ACL in an Uber after giving my sister the keys so she could drive the car home. The house key is on the ring, and the garage door opener is in the car. That meant I was going to have to sit out front until they got home from the big after party, so I decided I was going to sleep on one of the patio lounge chairs until they get here. To get in the backyard, I had to climb the fence, but my shorts got hung on the way down. They ripped and dropped me to the ground from up there.” I pointed to the black spike above my head.
He looked at me like I was psycho. “That’s a pretty good story you have there, miss. Do you have any ID or is it at ACL, too?”
“No, it’s not at ACL.” I reached through the fence, but he reached the purse first.
“How do I know this isn’t stolen?” He was pissing me off. Rent-a-Cop had the, “I have a badge so I’m a badass syndrome.” It would have been different if he was actually the police, but he was a damn security guard with a flashlight and radio.
“If you look at my driver’s license, you’ll know it’s me.” I remembered I only had a paper one since I didn’t need one in Paris. This situation kept getting better and better. He opened my purse and pulled out my wristlet with my cards in it.
“There’s no driver’s license in here, miss. There are credit cards though and a large amount of cash.”
“Yes, and it’s all mine.” I was ready to throat-punch this guy because his tone bordered on accusatory, and I had done nothing wrong or illegal.
“How do I know that? I could all be stolen, purse, money, cards. All of it. I think I better call this in, and we’ll let the police take a look.”
“Oh, great. I bet the police will be thrilled to drive out to the fucking lake to look at my ripped up shorts and my ass showing.”
“In the meantime, you need to sit down with your back against the side of the house, please miss.”
“Do I have the right to a phone call? My sister can come here and verify who I am and bring the keys to the house.”
“Yeah, sure.” I called Journey as he called 911. Unfortunately, my call went straight to voicemail. I looked at the time, and it was 11:15, so they were probably in the crowd to get out and couldn’t hear the phone.
“This is just fucking great.” I leaned my head against the brick and closed my eyes. I wanted to sit down and cry. My bad day continued to get worse with each minute that passed.
We waited for what seemed like forever for the police to show, and I kept trying to call Journey. I had no clue why she wasn’t answering her phone or texts.
They shined the light in my eyes and asked for an ID, and I had to go through the whole story since they dismissed the guards immediately. I hoped to wake up from the nightmare any minute now.
“Miss, you are going to need to get in touch with someone who can verify your information, or we are going to have to take you to the county jail.”
“Oh. My. God. Can anything else go wrong on this vacation?” I tried Journey’s number again, and again it rolled to voicemail. I didn’t have the others’ numbers, so I couldn’t call them. The only other number I had in Austin was Gunner’s, and there was no way I would call him. I would go to jail first. “Does this mean I’m under arrest?”
“No, but we can take you in on suspicion of B and E. If you can get us some proof, we will let you go.” The officer was a lot nicer than Rent-a-Cop, so I tried to be nice, too.
“Okay. When my sister finally answers the phone, she can get my passport here inside the house and show you I am who I say I am.”
“The next problem, Ms. Reitzell, is we have to get you out of the fence.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m not climbing that thing again. It almost killed me between the spike trying to ram me in the butt and then hitting the ground and knocking the breath out of me. There has to be another way out.”
The two police looked at each other and smiled. “Miss, y
ou are going to have to climb over. This gate is locked, and you don’t have the key.”
“How do you propose I do this officer? I used the hose box to climb up, and it’s on your side.”
“I’ll stick my hands through, link them, and boost you up to the rail. Then you can climb over, and I’ll catch you.”
“Have you lost your damn mind? I am not having you boost me up and then jump into your waiting arms. You’ll drop me or we’ll fall, and one of us is going to end up needing an ambulance.” The younger officer laughed, which got him a look he had obviously received before because it shut him up.
“Do you have a better suggestion, miss?”
“Yes, I’ll wait here until my sister comes home.”
“No, that won’t work. We have other calls to answer and can’t be here with you all night. Just climb the fence.” He stuck two hands through the fence and locked his fingers together like he was going to give me a leg up on a horse or something.
“I cannot fucking believe this is happening to me,” I whispered to myself. I knew they both heard me, but neither said a word. Officer Comedian shined the light on Officer Leg Up’s hands, and I put my foot in his hands and grabbed the bars.
“On three, jump and grab the top. One, Two, Three.” With that, he pushed hard causing my hands to slip from the bars. He practically threw me over backward from all the force he used. When my hands left the bars, I flew over backward, landing on my head.
“Son-of-a-bitch. That hurt,” I yelled as I rubbed my head. “What were you thinking? I don’t weigh five hundred pounds, dude.”
“Miss, I am not a dude, so please do not refer to me that way.” Officer Comedian bent over laughing this time. We must have looked like the three stooges doing a scene for a new short film.
My phone made a noise, and I realized it was powering down. “You have got to be shitting me. Now I have no phone.”
“Okay, get up we are going to do this again. I won’t throw you so hard this time so you can grab above the cross-rail.”
“I can’t. I’m not tall enough. This is never going to work.”
“Then I’ll come over there and help you.” In one smooth move, he hoisted himself up and jumped over the top of the fence. “Now, let’s get you over this thing and to the jail.”
“No.”
Officer Comedian shined the light in my face, and Mr. Fitness looked down at me. “What do you mean, NO?”
“I ripped my shorts, and you can see my ass. With you over here, you’ll have to put your hands on my ass to get me over, and that’s not happening.”
Mr. Fitness smirked. “Guess you should have thought about that before you climbed the fence.”
“I’m not doing it, and you can’t make me.” I knew it sounded childish before it left my mouth.
“Look, you probably weigh all of 105 and are barely over five foot tall. I weigh 205, and I am six, three. I think I can make you do this. Now let’s go.”
“I weigh 130 for your information, and I’m five feet, five inches, for your information, and no, I’m not.”
“So on top of B and E, we are going to get you for resisting arrest because you don’t want me to see your ass cheek? The B and E will go away. The resisting will not. Now let’s do this.”
“Shit. I guess you got me there. You’ll have to close your eyes then, and you, Officer Flashlight, turn that off me, please.” He shined it down to the ground this time.
Tall, dark, and fitness grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up to put my hands above the cross-rail this time. I grabbed on, and he put my ass in his hands and pushed me up. Mr. Flashlight grabbed my arms and pulled me onto him, lowering me to the ground.
“Wait,” I spun around to Mr. Fitness. “Did you close your eyes?”
“Uh, yeah. I sure did.” He looked at Flashlight and smiled.
Damn him, I knew he was going to get a good look at my ass, but thank God I was outside the fence again.
Tall, dark, and bossy jumped the fence again and was back on the outside and grabbed my upper arm. “That hurts. You don’t have to be so rough. I said I would go, didn’t I?”
“Yes, after you were a pain in my ass, though.”
“Hey, at least you got to feel up a great ass.” I gave him my best smile, and he loosened his grip some.
“Helllllloooo, Austin Fucking Texas! Are y’all ready to rock this fucking stage tonight?” KeeMac yelled into the mic because he knew how to get the crowd excited from the minute he walked on the floor of a venue.
“We are Assured Distraction, and we abso-fucking-lutely love being back home to play for our city.” The crowd responded with loud roars of cheers, claps, and whistles. When he looked back at me, I raised my sticks above my head and counted off the first song.
“One, two, three, four…” and the opening riff Ryan led into was from a song the audience recognized. We liked to pump them up with familiar songs before we moved to the new sounds. To watch and hear them sing our songs, gave us the fuel we needed to send us into our own brand of adrenaline high.
KeeMac played his guitar, too, but he only added to Ryan’s sound because he was at best at firing up the crowd. He ran around dancing on the stage, slung his long blond hair, and played to the fans. The screaming response let us all know the women loved it. Now we also had Chandler to get the men in the audience in on the insane volume because she had come out of her shell thanks to KeeMac.
Where she used to stay behind her keyboard, now she pranced around in those hot as hell leather boots playing to the men just like KeeMac did the women. Peri and Camille, the make-up artist, helped build her confidence on stage, too. They dressed her up and styled her to make her look like a smokin’ hot rocker chick. It helped that she was beautiful, and I was not only talking about her face and body. She was one of the sweetest and kindest people I knew, except for maybe Peri.
From behind my kit, it’s hard to see too many people because of the lights, and the faceless audience illuminated only when the stage lighting spun around and caught their faces. I fucking loved that our stage designer, Jordan, elevated my kit about five foot above the main stage floor. It gave me an outstanding view when those thousand watts of strobes and colored spots captured faces for an instant. He had worked with us on a few stages when I approached him about finding a way to get it so I could see the audience a little more. I had the perfect opportunity now.
We moved into the next song, another favorite, and I’ve played so many times, I could do it in my sleep and never miss a beat. It gave me a chance to look out, so I was happy with the line-up of songs. I could easily see the VIP area where those lucky SOBs were standing. Not too many people paid that kind of money for tickets, so the area wasn’t packed as it was behind the barricade.
The first person I saw was Ivy, who had apparently shaken herself loose from the new friend she made. She was the tallest of the group, and easy to spot. The other girls flanked both sides of her. I didn’t see Lola, though. I looked to both sides expecting to find her there, but no such luck. Guess she decided she didn’t want to see AD perform. I wanted her to be here. As much as I was over the whole situation with her, it would have been awesome to see her standing in the audience. I liked the idea that she would want to watch our show.
Who was she with then if she was not here? Had she found someone else to go home with already? Damn, she worked fast. Part of me knew Lola wouldn’t hook up with someone this quickly, especially knowing we might see each other here. I wondered if she would show at the party tonight with him. No, he shouldn’t be on the guest list unless she found another band member. My mind wandered through all of the scenarios that could happen as the music played.
I finally stopped myself from heading down that road. I was such a dumbass. I didn’t care who she was with as long as it wasn’t me. She could pick up all the dicks she wanted to find out here, and there were plenty to go around. As I ran my eyes across the area when the spotlight scanned the sea of faces, I found mysel
f still looking for her. Fuck that shit. I got my mind back on my drums and started pounding out the fucking beats like there was no tomorrow.
My eyes eventually drifted back to Journey during one of our slower, new pieces. She was rocking from side to side in time to the music with her friends. When their bodies swayed, the appearance of dancing drifted across my mind. It wasn’t so long ago I was swaying with a beautiful woman on a dance floor in Paris. With Lola pressed against me, we moved in time to the music. The scene rolling through my mind was seductive and erotic. Even with a hundred other dancers on the floor, we were only intoxicated on each other.
I let the image go when I locked eyes with Journey, a face so like the one I had danced with. Her stare was chocked full of anger and disappointment. The loyalty to her sister was admirable, but considering I had done nothing wrong, the anger was misplaced.
Dammit, I didn’t want things to end that way with Lola. Maybe I judged her too harshly. She didn’t owe me anything after our only night together. She probably thought just as I did, we would never connect again, but she was special from all of the others I picked up along the tour. I thought we both felt that way. She was certainly more of a realist than I was by understanding the meaning of our night together and accepting it. I guessed I was the one who carried other feelings away from that night.
As AD’s set continued through the playlist, I watched the girls hoping Lola would show up eventually, but when the last song started, I knew she was long gone. I couldn’t understand, though, because that meant she left alone. That was a bad idea. Austin was a great place, and people walked everywhere at night, but the thought she navigated the streets outside the festival area alone had me on the edge of my stool before I hit the last beat. Why would she put herself in that kind of situation? Lots of strangers were in town for ACL.