deadly nightshade | fever in, fever out

chapter 20: the boy with the pearl in his hair

"born into a world of hatred,
nothing to live for.
what started with a simple match:
turned into something more.
the pain i felt inside my head..."
-"apocalyptic city", testament

"What do you think I should wear for tonight?" Sam asked Aurora.
It was the night of the Legacy show, and Cliff had yet to call her up to say that they had landed in New York yet. The latter had taken her seat at the couch and kept her purse upon her lap. She had already put on a deep purple sleeveless top so she could stand out in the crowd, at least that was her suggestion. She explained that if most people in the crowd were wearing black or had nothing on, she could stand out to Eric in particular.
"Why'd you wanna stand out to him?" Sam teased her as she gave her wet hair a toss back with a flick of her head. She stood before Aurora in nothing more than her little black shorts and a plain white bra.
"'Cause he was extra sweet to me in particular," Aurora insisted. "He was the one who talked to me the most. He also told me that he would try to look for me in the crowd, too." Sam showed her a little grin and then she showed her the two blouses she had picked out from her closet: one was a black one with a low neckline while the bright blue one had no sleeves and had a line of sequins along the neckline.
"Well, figure it's not a date," Aurora pointed out, "and you're going to a metal show with him, too. I'd save the sequins for a round of dinner, if you ask me."
"The black one fits me kinda snugly, too," Sam added.
"Make Cliff go crazy 'bout you, babe," Aurora quipped with a wink at her, and with nothing more, she put on that black top and the fabric stretched a little bit across her stomach and her chest. The low point of the neckline accentuated her chest and made her breasts appear fuller.
"I'm even kinda crazy 'bout you," Aurora continued, and Sam tousled her clean wet hair with both hands. "He's gonna pop one at the sight of you."
"He still hasn't called yet, though," she pointed out.
"I say we bounce," Aurora suggested as she scooped up her purse from the couch. "He told you they were gonna meet us there, right?"
"Yeah," Sam replied with another toss of her hair, "but he called me the other night to tell me that he was gonna say they had landed here, though. I haven't heard a peep from him since then."
"Let's just go, though," Aurora insisted with a check of her watch. "Show starts at seven and I don't really wanna get caught up in traffic."
Sam fetched up a sigh but she nodded in response, though. She adjusted her bra strap and picked up her purse and her key.
"Do your parents know about him?" Aurora asked Sam as she locked the front door.
"About Cliff?"
"Yeah." Aurora ran a finger her the violet leather band of her watch.
"Well, like you said, it's not a date," she pointed out when she pocketed her key. "If something serious happens, I'll tell 'em about it. Like when I got into school, I was eager to tell them about that."
The two girls descended the stairs and, once they reached the front foyer, Aurora fumbled her watch and it flung down onto the carpet before her.
"Shit," she muttered under her breath; she stooped down to pick it up when Emile stepped out of his apartment right in front of them.
"Hang on, hang on," he said to her, and he picked it up before she could. Aurora showed him a warm smile as he handed it back to her.
"Aw, thank you," she sweetly said to him.
"I try my best, darlin'," Emile assured her; she slipped the watch back on and showed him another sweet smile before she followed Sam outside. Both girls slipped on their sunglasses in unison and slipped into the slick front seats of Aurora's new car. The late afternoon sun loomed over the New York skyline as they made their way down to L'Amour with the windows rolled down to take in the warm spring air. It had rained the night before and thus everything was still cool and sweet even with the sun shining down on them.
"You oughta draw these fellas, too," Aurora suggested after she took the next exit to the club.
"Who, Legacy?" Sam asked her.
"Yeah. I've got my camera with me, so I can give you a bit of reference just in case."
"They will be movin' around quite a bit." Sam adjusted her sunglasses and gazed up at the bright sun from her window. They were about to get there early but neither of them minded it, especially since there was nothing else significant to do in that time. She thought about Cliff and the hat atop his head: she wondered if he would actually resemble to a cowboy. A cowboy next to a woman in black and with most of her legs exposed.
Indeed, once they rolled up to that parking lot outside of the club, Metallica themselves were nowhere to be seen, but Marla, Zelda, and Charlie congregated near the shaded corner of the building to stay out of the sun. Sam and Aurora climbed out at the same time, and Zelda whistled at the sight of them.
"Babe alert!" she called out.
"A couple more strapping young ladies just for Charlie's enjoyment," Marla joked as they came within earshot; she removed the black fedora from her head and ran her fingers through her orange hair. She bowed her head forward so the sun shone down on her, and Sam could see the first few glints of dark roots at the crown of her head.
"You look way better in that hat than I do," Charlie told her as he inched closer to her.
"Why are you even wearing that hat, anyway?" Zelda asked her as she crouched down to retie her Chucks.
"I'm gonna dye my hair again," Marla announced as she lifted her head.
"Ooh, what color?" Sam asked her.
"I'm thinking either bright electric blue or hot pink," she said as she fingered the pink streak on the side of her head. "Something different and shocking from the norm. I've had orange hair and been a false redhead for about a year, too, since I started school."
"You're not gonna wait 'til school starts again this fall?" Charlie asked her.
"Maybe when spring break is over," she clarified, "I'm not waiting all the way 'til September to dye my hair, Char." She set the hat back onto her head. "When's Frankie getting here, by the way?"
"Soon. I know that much."
"When's Metallica getting here?" Sam asked him.
"Also soon," Charlie replied, nonplussed. "That's all I know 'cause we all got here kinda early." Aurora reached into her purse for a Polaroid camera and pointed it at Charlie and Marla.
"Precious memories," Zelda chuckled; she straightened herself up and leaned against the brick wall; Sam spotted a plain pale metal door next to her.
"Precious memories, exactly," Charlie echoed as he put an arm around Marla. Aurora took a photo of them there in the piece of sunlight: the crown of Marla's head shone with such a bright lush orange. A small voice in the back of Sam's mind told her that that would be the last time she saw Marla's hair in that bold tangerine color. Aurora lowered the camera nad took the fresh Polaroid out of the slit, and she waved it about for it to settle. She showed it to Charlie and Marla, and the former showed her a little smile and a thumbs up.
"Let's take this and put a seal on it," he declared.
"I really just wanted to see if it worked at all," Aurora confessed as she put the camera back into her purse.
"Where are Minerva, Morgan, and Rosita?" Sam asked Zelda.
"Roz went home for something—Min and Morgan, I forget where they went," she replied in a single breath and slipped her hands behind her lower back. The door next to her swung open and she lunged off to the side to avoid the smooth door surface.
"Whoa," she blurted out.
"Easy there," said Sam, and Zetro poked his head out from behind the door panel.
"Peek a boo," he greeted them; he lifted his gaze to Charlie, and Sam looked over at him waving the Polaroid about again.
"Precious memories with a bit of hallucinogens thrown into the mix," Zelda cracked, and Zetro burst out laughing at that.
"The boys are all already here, by the way," he told them; meanwhile, the door held in place.
"Which boys?" Aurora asked him as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
"The Legacy boys—they're all tuning up and getting ready, though, so—" His voice trailed off and he held out his hands before him.
"Proverbial 'do not disturb' sign," Zelda filled in.
"'Do not disturb', exactly! But you all can come on in and chill out for a bit before they go on. It's gonna be about an hour or so."
Zetro led them all into the club: Sam spotted the cables on the floor next to the stage and she made a mental note to not run through there again. At least that time she wasn't about to make a bit of money for attending the show and being present there. The whole front of the room was deserted but she could catch the sound of chatter in the backstage area. Zetro led them to the bar on the other side of the room, and Sam and Aurora were quick to take a couple of seats near the ladies' room. They kept their purses close to them given more people were about to come on in soon afterwards.
"Something to drink?" Zetro offered Marla and Charlie.
Sam paid no attention to them and she turned to Aurora, who adjusted her watch yet again.
"That was so kind of Emile to do that for you," she said to Aurora in a low voice.
"Yeah, and—" She gestured for Sam to move in closer to her. "—I kinda felt something between us."
"Aurora!" Sam quipped in a hushed voice.
"What?"
"He's married! At least, I think he still is, anyway. I don't know anything about Emile other than that."
"But—I still felt something, though," Aurora insisted. Her eyes wandered over to the far side of the room. "Cliff's here."
Sam turned her head and indeed, Cliff stepped into the room with the big black cowboy hat upon his head, black leather boots on his feet, and one arm behind his back.
"Oh, my," Zelda called out to him; Lars surfaced behind him with a pair of drum sticks in hand.
"Are those for me?" She brought a hand to her chest.
Meanwhile, Sam stood to her feet as Cliff came closer to her. He took his one arm from behind his back and showed her a small bouquet of little yellow tulips.
"What the hell," Charlie blurted out, and Marla gasped.
"Thank you," Sam told him as she took the flowers for herself. She took a whiff of the flowers and ran her fingers over the smooth petals.
"I didn't know what kind of flowers you like, so I just picked out a random little bunch," he confessed with a shrug of shoulders. James and Kirk emerged from the door: both of them complete with shiny waves of hair.
"I'll take care of these," she promised him as she brought one of the flowers closer to her nose. Cliff then pulled up another stool right between Marla and Sam. He kept his hat on, much to her delight.
"I love that hat," she remarked.
"Had a feeling you would." He touched the brim of his hat and showed her a lopsided little smile in response to her. Aurora climbed to her feet and doubled back to the ladies' room; Marla returned to Charlie, and thus Sam and Cliff were left alone there in the corner of the bar.
"By the way, the new record is supposed to come out some time around the end of this year," he told her in a low voice. "That's just all I know at the moment, and that's all I can say. Aurora knows about it more than I do."
"What's it called?" she asked him.
"Master of Puppets—after one of the songs on there. It's like a, uh—I wanna say, form of manipulation."
"Like, mind control?" she followed along.
"Yes—yes!" Cliff's face lit up at the sound of that and he pointed at her. "Our first two albums were about like head banging and partying, but we wanted to go a little bit serious this time around."
"Sometimes you have to go serious after a bit," she pointed out.
"Go serious as part of growing up." He raised his eyebrows at her. She gazed up at his hat and then down at his boots.
"Kind of a cowboy," he admitted.
"Just a little tiny bit," she joked.
"I'm into country and also classical music," he started. "Like I've really into those since I was a kid."
"Classical music, really?" she proclaimed.
"Oh yeah, my dad got me into classical music when I was a kid and I learned piano. I've actually been playing piano well before I picked up a bass."
"When'd you learn bass?"
"About ten years ago, after my brother died. I was thirteen." His face fell right then.
"Aw, I'm so sorry."
Cliff shrugged at that.
"The pain drives me to do my best," he explained. "Most people let serious, horrible pain get to them and they shut down—like I used to hang out with kids in school and they'd break down over the slightest things, like a bad grade or whatever. But pain is pain, though, and it's even more so the case when it's something so personal like that. Like, for example, I used to know this girl in my art class who lost her father right in the middle of the school year. She was a great artist, but after that, she just shut down, like she couldn't hardly bear to pick up a pencil and doodle something. So when Scott—my brother—died, I refused to let it get to me. I picked up a bass guitar and I told my dad, 'I'm going to be the best bassist ever for my brother.' In the past ten years alone, I've learned that the worst feeling in the world is what drives you and you end up digging yourself out of the hole. It's kind of the case with all four of us, really. I lost my brother—James is pretty much an orphan now, having lost his mom when he was still in high school and he doesn't really know his dad too well. Lars is an immigrant: you know. It's the whole 'boy in a strange land and doesn't really know anyone' thing. And Kirk just lingers in the background with his books and whatnot. Pain is what drives us."
He showed her a small smile and Sam inched a little closer to him. She stroked the flowers yet again and gave another sniff of the one closest to her.
"These smell so good," she told him. "Like, they smell better than most flowers I've seen."
"I thought they did, too," he added; he eyed her chest and the rest of her body. "You're looking so good this evening."
"Thank you—so are you," she told him. "So how'd you meet James and Lars? You guys seem like such an odd bunch when held next to each other."
"I used to play in a band called Trauma, and literally the year after the two of them formed Metallica, we went down to L.A to this place called Whisky a Go Go. James and Lars just happened to be there that night and they heard me playing a song called 'Anesthesia', and James thought it was the work of a guitar player." He chuckled at that. "They recruited me because they needed a bassist but under the condition that they move up to the Bay Area because I didn't like the idea of leaving home all that much, which is funny because we moved to Jersey to be closer to our label, but—what're you gonna do. It's even funnier to think about since we moved to another label now."
"You guys aren't with them anymore?"
Cliff shook his head. "Nah. Apparently, some bigger label looked at our last one, Ride the Lightning, and was like 'we need you guys.' That's—kinda one of the reasons we went over to Denmark and just been all over recording this thing as of late. And, well—the rest, as they say, is history." He then cleared his throat. "So word got out that you're officially an art student now."
"Yes, I am!" she piped up. "I start in September with Marla right behind you."
"And you're a California girl out here in the Big Apple. What exactly caused that?"
"Just a change of pace. I needed to get away from the West Coast to start a brand new chapter of life."
"That has to be the best excuse to do anything," he remarked, "it's like 'why are you going there?' 'Because I want to?' Yeah, that's the best reason to do it!"
"So—Legacy tonight," Sam pressed on with a smile on her face.
"Our little brothers from Legacy," he added with a nod of his head. "Well, not exactly."
"Brothers from other mothers," she corrected him.
"They're from the Bay Area, too, just like me," he explained. "Whereas James is from around the L.A area."
"Like me!" Cliff raised a fist for her and she returned the favor for a bump.
"Kirk and I are from the Bay Area—so are Eric and Alex."
"Eric and who?" She knitted her eyebrows together.
"Alex. The lead from Legacy."
Sam paused for a second.
"The—The boy with the little white stripe in his hair?" she stammered with a gesture to the crown of her head.
"Yeah. Sixteen year old kid still in high school. Sixteen years old and he's already going gray."
"What's he doing way the hell over here? Besides, the obvious."
"I think school just sucks," he admitted with another shrug of the shoulders. "I think it does, too. But that's all I know about him, though. Kirk knows more about him than I do, but that's not really saying much, though."
"Why's that?"
"They studied guitar under a dude named Joe Satriani together out in the Bay Area," Cliff explained. "I wanted to study under him, too, but Metallica had already started up when the opportunity arose. And I guess—this is just according to Kirk anyway—Alex was like a star student, but—again, that's as far as I know." Cliff shrugged again. "I should also tell you that Scott, Joey, and Dan are gonna be here soon, too."
"Oh, boy!"
Aurora surfaced from the bathroom behind Sam and returned to her seat. Zelda burst out laughing at something Zetro said and Kirk took a seat on the other side of the bar. Sam eyed the black curls all around his head and she thought of Joey. She gave the flowers another sniffle before someone from the backstage area called out Zetro's nickname.
"Show time!" he declared.
"Already?" Zelda asked him.
Aurora checked her watch again.
"Yeah, it is!"
"Jesus Christ, there's like nobody here," Marla remarked.
"And Scott, Frankie, Joey, and Danny aren't here yet, either," Charlie added.
Sam watched Zetro take to the center of the stage: she recognized Eric, especially once he slung the tiny guitar over his shoulder. She spotted the boy with the tiny pearl of white in his hair, Alex, on the far right side of the stage. He bowed his head and held onto the neck of his little black guitar as if it was made of glass.
"Like a bunch of little boys," she told Cliff, and he chuckled at that.
"Little boys who know how to shred like hell," he pointed out.
"It's like we're just playing for some friends," Zetro announced into the microphone. Before he could say anything more, the actual front doors swung open and Scott and Joey almost stumbled into the room.
"Hey, there they are!" Eric called out. Joey sidled up to the bar, right next to Cliff and Sam themselves.
"The amazing Joey," Cliff greeted him.
"The amazing Joey," he echoed, and he gazed down at the bouquet in Sam's arms. "Oh, those are pretty."
"He gave them to me," she confessed, and she remembered what she had said to Joey the week before when they had that day trip together. Indeed, he raised his eyebrows at that and he swallowed. Before Sam could say anything more to him, one of the two guitarists up on stage strummed hard and a wall of sound filled out the vast room. Drummer Louie began playing a hard beat, but one that Zelda could clap along with.
"Oh, wow," Marla said in a loud voice. Sam watched Eric lunge forward: he held his guitar out as if he was showing off to the whole world, and yet she couldn't see Alex. Right behind Eric was the bassist Greg, with his smooth jet black hair tied back behind his head.
"Kinda groovy, aren't they?" Cliff asked her.
"Oh, yeah!"
Without another moment's hesitation, Cliff stood to his feet and Joey took his spot right next to her. He leaned back to watch past Marla; Sam looked back at Cliff who held onto the brim of his hat and proceeded to dance against Zetro's high pitched singing. They were hard and fast, on the same level as Anthrax or the Cherry Suicides, but there was something more to them. Something more ferocious and powerful.
But Sam glanced back again at Cliff, at his moving one step forward and another to the side, followed by another. One man square dancing.
"Wow," Marla muttered right back to Sam and then back to Charlie, except Sam herself paid more attention to Cliff's dancing. Someone up on stage was playing a solo and yet she was more drawn to Cliff attempting to square dance solo. He clutched onto the crown of his hat with one hand and he reached for Sam with his other hand. She set the bouquet down on the bar before he yanked her closer to his body. Her face hung right below his chest. He gazed down at her with that warm Mona Lisa smile plastered across his handsome face.
"May I have this dance?" he asked her, and for a second, she forgot about Joey.
"Please."
Cliff held onto her hand and proceeded to square dance with her to the hard fast music. Everything was a whir and a flash, but she let Cliff and the music guide her way. At one point, he reached into the bouquet for one of the flowers and he tucked it behind her ear. There was another solo, one more melodic that time around, and one that made Sam's hips sway a bit more. He held her close to his chest again at one point: it was a fleeting thought, but Sam pictured the two of them dancing together like that at their wedding. She caught a glimpse of a bright white light and she knew Aurora was taking pictures of Legacy. She thought of using one of those Polaroids for reference later on and she knew she would make herself known at the school. By the end, Cliff put both arms around her and bowed his head towards her.
"I think it's a testament of our music that people can dance to it," Zetro said into the microphone: despite having sang so loudly, his skin was still smooth and dry, without a glimmer of sweat to be found. But Legacy only played one more song before they disappeared behind the stage, and right when Frank and Dan showed up with flustered looks on their faces.
"Damn it!" Frank barked, and Eric shrugged at them.
"Knew we should've left at four thirty," Dan scoffed with a shake of his head.
"It was just us in here, anyway," Zelda assured him.
"Yeah, and this place is usually packed, too," Greg called out to them as he began putting his bass away in its black canvas case.
"Like the first time we played here it was packed," Eric added.
"Oh, yeah! And we were only gonna play four songs, but Zetro was like, 'let's just take our money, play one more song, and boogie. It's not worth it if it's just gonna be the gang here.'"
Cliff then put one arm around Sam and beamed down at her.
"I kinda want something to drink. Don't you?"
"After all that dancing? Definitely. I'm in the mood for coffee, though."
"Dinner, a show, and a cup of coffee. I guess there's a coffee house like right across the street and I saw Alex go in there. So—" Cliff nodded his head, but then he raised a finger. "I have to use the men's room, though."
"I'll be right here," she promised him, and Cliff doubled back to the bar. He ducked into the hallway and disappeared; she returned to the tulip tucked behind her ear, which she took out its place and she brought the bright yellow petals to her nose. She closed her eyes and pictured Cliff right next to her. She felt a tap on her shoulder, and she turned to see Joey right behind her. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
"I wanna like, take you out again," Joey confessed to her. "I wanna take you out to the next Stormtroopers of Death show when they go out on tour in a few months."
Sam was stunned. They weren't a couple, but she could see it in those big brown eyes and that soft look on his face. She swallowed and nodded her head.
"Yeah, we—we can do that," she said with a smile on her face. "I probably won't be doing much this summer so—I'd be honored to do that again." She then handed the tulip to him and, with two fingers, he gently took it from her and took a whiff of it himself.
"Wow, those flowers do smell good," he noted.
"Freshest of the fresh," she told him, and she hesitated for a second. "You wanna come with me and Cliff across the street? We're just gonna have some evening coffee and that's it."
"Um—sure," he answered as he brought the flower down to his chest. "Kind of a change of pace for myself, too."
"It'll get you away from the liquor," she pointed out. "Lemme go fetch my purse and I'll tell Aurora and Marla where we're going..." She did just that and for Cliff to surface from the bathroom in time.
"Joey wants to join in," she told him.
"Oh, excellent!" Cliff set a hand on her shoulder as they walked back towards Joey himself. He tucked the tulip behind his ear before they headed out to the warm evening and crossed the street to the little coffee house. Sam spotted the little pearl of gray out there on the porch, right under the soft white lights and under the biggest umbrella: even if it was the size of her pinky finger, she could recognize him from anywhere in New York City, or perhaps in San Francisco. He was just a boy, but he caught her attention no matter what.
"You two go on inside," Cliff told her and Joey, and he doubled back to Alex.
"I was waiting for someone to join me tonight," he said in that big bold voice: he was such a small young looking boy and as a result, his voice struck Sam in particular like a bolt of lightning. Joey held the door for her and she kept walking but she was curious about him now that she had a name.