Dear Dahlia // B1

[22]

I am sitting in the garage again. The band sitting in front of me was quiet. There is an obvious tension in the room.

"Luke," Alex waves his hand in front of his face. "Earth to Luke."

"Yeah, I'm here," Luke says, blinkly a couple times.

"Are you?" Alex says, "We've been trying to get your attention for the last 5 minutes. Where'd you go?"

"I've just got a lot of my mind right now," he defends.

"What? And we don't?" Alex retorts. "Look we're all freaking out a little alright? Our first big gig, obviously its gonna be nerve racking, but you can't just sit there worrying about it. I already do that enough for all four of us."

"It's not about the gig, Alex," Luke says.

"Well then, what's going on?" Alex asks. "Because you've barely been showing up for rehearsals and when you are here, you're not actually here."

"Get off my back," Luke growls.

"No, I wanna know," Alex persists. "We all deserve to know."

"Hey, Bobby," Reggie interrupts. "You feelin alright, dude?"

"No," Bobby shakes his head, looking pale. "I'm gonna hurl." Without another word, he puts his guitar down and runs into the bathroom, slamming the door. The sound of vomiting echoes out from the bathroom and Reggie and Alex flinch away.

"Well, that's a wrap, I guess," Alex says.

Luke puts his guitar back in its case and grabs his bike.

"Where are you going?" Alex puts his arms out. Luke doesn't answer, instead he pedals away.

Bobby comes out of the bathroom, still looking pale.

"You alright?" Reggie asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I think I had some bad celery or something," Bobby says, nodding his head. "I think I got most of it out though. I -uh- sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it," Alex waves his hand.

"I'll -uh- see you guys tomorrow," Bobby says, packing up his guitar and walking out of the garage.

"And then there were two," Reggie mumbles.

"I suppose that you're going to leave now?" Alex sighs, sitting on one of the amps.

"I actually wanted to talk to you," Reggie says, looking down at his bass. "I -uh- well, I'm gonna put this away first I guess," he laughs, taking the strap off his shoulder.

"So, what's up, Reg?" Alex asks.

Reggie sets the bass in its case before wiping his hands off of the flannel tied around his waist.

"I don't really know how to say this," Reggie laughs again, more nervous this time.

"Just spit it out, dude," Alex laughs. "Look, whatever it is, I'm sure it's not as big of a deal as you're making it seem."

"Okay," Reggie takes a deep breath. "I -uh- how did you know?"

"Know what?" Alex raises his eyebrows.