Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Dead or Rock

  Eddie parked in the street, sure to leave the driveway open so Gareth's dad could pull in when they got home from church. They had long given up on the soul of their son, once The Freak had gotten ahold of him. His mother insisted the boys were allowed to hold band practices in their garage. She'd rather know they were safe, even if she would never understand his fascination with wizards and magic and blood spill.

  "Dude you look like shit," Gareth teased, eyes wincing at the sight of Eddie. "We match," Eddie retorted. "Man, I have the best idea for a new song, I stayed up all night writing it," Eddie beamed with pride in what he had created. Gareth nodded, genuinely eager to hear what Eddie had come up with. Eddie was almost always the one who wrote songs they actually used. Jeff had tried and failed, his ideas never transferring well to songs. He needed to start writing books. Books didn't need rhythm or rhymes.

  Eddie and Gareth were deep into figuring out what worked and what didn't from the scribbles and swirls of Eddie's coke-fueled word vomit, when Jeff pulled up on his bike. "I'm Insane" by Ratt buzzed from his headphones. He mumbled something about being off his rocker and falling out of a tree. Eddie snatched the headphones from his head, almost knocking Jeff off his bike.

  "How many times do I have to tell you? We don't listen to music before band practice. Now you're going to just try to copy what they do." Eddie lit a cigarette and picked up his guitar. "Dude, I get amped up listening to Out of The Cellar. I'm sorry. I'll hold off until after practice from now on." Eddie shook his head and plugged into the amp.

The band ran through their regular set list, hitting all the right notes like they always did. Eddie turned off his amp and started going around telling each member what kind of sound he was going for. He went over counts, made sure they were on the same page, and started with drums. He added rhythm guitar, then bass, then his own guitar and vocals. He plugged his guitar back in and talked the guys through the song. They smoothed out the edges and by the time practice was over, they had a new song to play this Tuesday.

  "Eddie, we have a test in second period tomorrow, we should call it quits on time tonight and go study." Roars of laughter busted through Eddie's chest. "I'm good, I want to run through the set list one more time. With the new song." His band mates were already walking out of the garage. "Gentlemen!", he screeched. Nobody took Eddie seriously until he cried out like a loon. "We will run through this set list, and then we may be excused. And we're gonna rock this shit like we're at The Hideout and there's a bunch of girls flashing their tits to us. Got it?" He licked sweat from his lip and glared around at the other guys.

  "You owe me if I miss dinner" Jeff mumbled.