Fleeting

The Show Must Go On

9th June 2019

"I look to the sky to give me strength,

But the stars just laugh at me instead,"

"Well, that was a waste of time," Kotori said.

"You can say that again," Jaxon moaned, lugging his guitar and some of Kotori's drum equipment.

I held up the bag of spare change, my guitar slung across my back, and tried to be optimistic.

"Come on guys, at least we made a bit of money."

"Five hours of busking for forty dollars in change. Yes, this was a Sunday well spent." Jaxon rolled his eyes before falling silent.

He always became more prickly the longer he went without food, and me and Tori shared a look of concern. Right then, Jaxon was a ticking time bomb and if we wanted to escape undamaged, we needed to find him some food, and fast.

"Hey, isn't that Evie."

We all came to an abrupt halt as Jaxon pointed to the open windows of Mama Rosa's where Evie sat, her head buried in a book.

"We should definitely go say hi and get some food," Jaxon said in a sing-song voice as he started skipping towards the cafe.

Tori and I rushed to catch up with him, both wondering where his sudden energy had come from. Not five minutes earlier he had been complaining about how tired he was, and now he was skipping. Jaxon's mood changed quicker than the weather.

"Hey, Evie," Jaxon called, making her jump and slam the book she was reading shut.

For a moment she looked around in confusion before spotting us.

We made our way towards her, collapsing into the spare seats, our instruments taking up most of the remaining floor space.

"Busy day?" She grinned and looked at our baggage with curious eyes.

"You could say that." I lounged in my seat, enjoying the shade after spending so much time in the sun.

"Others would call it a giant waste of time," Jaxon mumbled behind his menu.

Evie's grin faded as she took in our downtrodden expression. "What have you all been doing?"

"Busking. Did you need another coffee?" Tori asked, staring at her empty cup.

She looked over at the cup and frowned. "It's not mine."

I looked at the boys. "That's strange, Mama Rosa doesn't normally let anyone in unless they're a paying customer."

In fact, the plumb Latino woman was famous for it. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of Mama Rosa. If her rolling pin - usually tucked into her apron for easy access - didn't scare you, then her stony stare would have.

"Guess I'm just special then." Evie laughed, but she still looked a little troubled.

Tori shrugged, took the rest of our orders, and disappeared.

"So I'm guessing the busking didn't go to plan?" Evie asked, eager to change the topic.

Jaxon leaned his head into his hands, looking horrified. "Busking is the absolute worst. It's long, hard work and for practically nothing."

"So why are you doing it?"

"Because our bandmate, who was our frontman by the way, left and we lost our regular gig. And we got to make money somehow," Jaxon grumbled behind his hands.