Under the LA skies

7. An importamt decicion

Early in the morning, a phone call rang in my apartment, and with a good curse, I got out of bed and raised the receiver to my ear.

"Keith Mullen is listening."

"Good morning, Miss Mullen.  My name is Gerard Hale, I am the manager of the Weird sunny lovers, and some of them asked me to contact you." came a familiar voice on the phone.

How could I forget this rock band?  They were our opening act a month ago, and I can clearly remember the interested looks from Max, their guitarist.

"What do you want?  Are you inviting me to the group?  And in what capacity?" it was quite funny, because today I am the only one who has played the violin in a rock band.  Hale chuckled at the phone.
"You seem to play the bass well, but their bass player was kicked out, and the guys urgently needed a new one.  Well, what do you think?"

Damn, I really wanted to agree, but I understood that I would let the guys down, that Joe would never forgive me for this, that Jack would stop treating me well, and Ron would say that he was right about me.
But on the other hand, I passionately wanted to get away from such a life, without burdens, without stress and stupid teenage jealousy, without Ron's tantrums and calming him with the whole group.  Yes, and "Weird sunny lovers" were more popular than us, and the salary was decent.

"Well, I need to think of it." I squeezed out of myself in the most polite voice.

"Excellent.  I'll call you back in three days, okay?"
"Okay, goodbye," I echoed and hung up.

And right now I realized that I was finally given a chance to get out of the endless cycle of problems associated with Joe. I was ready even now to go to him and say that everything is over between us, and I am leaving for another group to play bass. But I couldn't, yet.  Fear of the unknown drew in more, and Jack's words sounded in his head that Hunter would not just let me go.

The first two days passed for me like in a veil: nothing special happened, only Joe looked at me strangely, apparently, sensing something was wrong.  I did not want to tell him about my thoughts, but it was necessary to speak out, so I decided to invite Jack to visit, because it was he who could support me in the difficult moments of my life.  Russell came at seven, as promised, and as soon as I opened the door, he asked from the doorway:

"You don't call for nothing, Kat.  What happened?"
"I recently got a call from the manager of Weird sunny lovers and said they needed a bass player.  I'm thinking about leaving the band." plucking up the courage, I said and closed my eyes so as not to see my friend's face.  But Jack did not shout, did not scold me with the last words, he just took my hand and sat me on the sofa.

"Katie," he said slowly and calmly.  "I don't blame you.  I understand perfectly well that you want to leave Joe, but is this a way out?  Are you sure you won't regret it?"

"Absolutely.  I realized that I no longer love Hunter and do not want to be with him." I whispered.  Jack nodded and took out his glasses.  As he poured the wine, I thought about my first meeting with Joe and the band.  It was so long ago ...

"Then go and run without looking back from this man," Russell said firmly.  "It's not so easy to leave him, so hurry up while you have the strength."
It was then that I realized that I really needed to leave.  Everything at once became hateful to me: plastic tapes, cassettes that were piled up in the corners of our studio, Paul's constant cackle, Ron's low-grade humor and his sullen face, the grass that Knight carried with him tons for himself, Ron and Hunter, their drunken conversations and stupid questions ...

I now hated Stardust and wanted one thing: to leave the band and go where I thought I would be appreciated more.  I don't know why, but at that moment I felt nothing but contempt for myself, and this was expressed in the fact that I was smoking for a long time at the entrance to the studio so as not to go in and not see Joseph, closed at night and in the dark  played the bass that Jack gave me, knowing about my packaging love for this instrument.