Dialtones

Chapter Four: Meet The Band.

Song Of The Chapter: Territorial Pissings by Nirvana.

Two Weeks Later...

Leah flicked through a guitar magazine as she waited. She had cleaned up the store and retuned any guitars that had been used or tried out that day and the place was spotless. She had gotten permission from her boss to keep the store open for Richie, David, and their friends and had promised to lock the store up when the boys were done.

Around 8:15pm, there was a knock at the door of the store. Leah had locked the doors because closing time was usually 8pm and her boss didn't want just anyone waltzing into the place after that time.

She looked up from her magazine and smiled as she walked over to the door and unlocked it.

There stood Richie and David, surrounded by three new guys that she had never seen before, but she recognised one of them.

One of the men looked slightly older. He had jet black hair and grayish-blue eyes. If she had to guess, Leah would have said he was in his early to mid thirties.

The next man also seemed to be in his thirties. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and he had a mullet. He was spinning a drumstick around in his hand.

The last guy was the guy that Leah had recognised. He had brownish-blonde, long hair and bright blue eyes. He was on the sleeve of the record that she had listened to Runaway on.

"Leah!!" Richie said with a smile and she returned the smile. "Heya Richie!!" Leah said and the two shared a hug before she hugged David.

"Nice to see you again." David said and Leah smiled. "Nice to see you too." She said.

"These are our bandmates that we were telling you about. Alec John Such, our bassist," Richie said as he gestured to the first guy.

"Tico Torres, our drummer," He gestured to the second guy.

"And Jon Bon Jovi, our singer. He plays guitar and piano and couple of other things too but he's very picky... you're a guitarist, you know how singers are." Richie said and Jon rolled his eyes. "Why are you so mean?" He asked.

"As you can tell, he is also the baby of the band." David added, and everyone laughed. "I'm twenty - one!!" Jon huffed and folded his arms across his chest.

"I don't think you're helping your case, buddy." Leah said and the boys laughed at Jon's almost shocked expression.

Leah smiled. "C'mon. Go nuts." She said and the boys stepped further into the store and ran towards their respective instruments as Leah shut the door behind them and relocked it so no one else could get in.

About a half an hour later, Leah found Jon looking through some records that were by the checkout desk. "Hey." She greeted him and he looked up and smiled. "Hey Leah." He said and she smiled. "Who ya lookin' for?" She asked.

Jon looked from her back to the records. "Anyone, really. Mostly Elton John, Aerosmith, Heart and Tom Petty." He said. Leah smiled. "Aerosmith are one of my favourite bands." She said and Jon smiled. "Mine too." He said.

"Well in that case," Leah said as she went behind the counter, and grabbed a record. "I think I have a band here that you might like." She said and Jon looked at her, intrigued. She held up a record that he never expected her to hold up.

"Holy fucking shit!!" Jon gasped and his face lit up. "Y-You listened to Runaway?" He asked and Leah nodded. "Richie said it was the only song on the record... so, I'm expecting an album soon, 'cause I need more of this in my life." She said and she sat up on the checkout desk.

Jon smiled widely. "Luckily for you, we are just finishing up the album." He said and Leah smiled.

"Oh my God, yes." She said and Jon smiled. "Rich was telling me you're a guitarist." He said and she nodded. "Yeah, I am." She said.

"How long have you been playing?"
"7 years." She said.
"Will you play something for me?" He asked.

Leah shrugged. "Depends on what you want me to play... I don't usually play for people." She said.

Jon shrugged. "Play whatever you want to play." He said. Leah thought about it and got off the desk before going over to a selection of electric guitars, and picking a gold dommegeant mastercaster, similar to the one that Tommy Thayer of KISS played.

She plugged the guitar in and started to play a song that Jon recognised to be Walk This Way by Aerosmith from their 1975 album, Toys In The Attic.

Jon smiled to himself and nodded his head along to the beat, his jaw dropping as he heard Richie and Alec begin to play along with Leah on a bass and a guitar.

"Sing it you absolutely joyous idiot!!" Richie called to Jon and Jon laughed. "Now why would I do that?" He asked. "Because it would make sense!!" Leah replied.

"You voluntarily moved to Sayreville, nothing here makes sense." Tico said from beside Jon.

"School girl sweetie with the classy kinda sassy
Little skirt's climbin' way up her knees
There was three young ladies in the school gym locker
When I noticed they was lookin' at me.
I was a high school loser, never made it with a lady
'Til the boys told me something I missed
Then my next door neighbor with a daughter had a favor
So I gave her just a little kiss, like this." Jon sang.

Leah smiled. Even in person, this dude had killer vocals... not only that... he was quite cute too.

When they had finished playing the song, Leah put the guitar down and highfived Alec and Richie. "You're pretty good for just-turned 16." Alec said and Leah smiled. "Thank you!!" She said as she put the guitar lead away.

She then realized what he said and turned to look at him. "How did you know I just turned 16?" She asked. "Rich said it was your birthday yesterday... Happy late birthday." Alec said. Leah gave a small laugh. "Thank you." She said before walking over to Jon again and sitting back up on the counter.

"Ta-dah?" She said and Jon laughed. "That's was amazing!!" He said and Leah laughed. "Thank you. Your vocals perfected it though." She said and he shook his head. "Not at all, that was all you." He said and she blushed. "No, it really wasn't."

Before they knew it, it was 9:30pm and everyone was just about to leave the store.

"Thanks so much again, Leah. It was fun being able to try out the new equipment." Richie said and Leah nodded. "The pleasure is mine, man. I'm glad you had fun." She said.

"Yanno, we're all just boutta head out for pizza if you wanna come with us. It'd be great to get to know ya more, kid." Alec said and Tico nodded in agreement.

Leah shook her head. "I couldn't intrude like that... not only that, I'm broke as fuck until I get paid next week because I had to pay some of my bills today, so yanno." She said.

David looked at her. "You're over here by yourself?" He asked and Leah nodded.

"We asked if you wanted to come with us, not if you had the money to do so." Alec said, placing a hand on his hip.

"In case you haven't gotten the memo yet," Richie began. "Alec is the mom friend who won't take no for an answer from people who reject food." Jon finished.

Leah laughed.

"Please come with us?" Tico asked and she nodded. "Sure, why not?"

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