The Edge Of Yesterday

Chapter 8

We arrived at the bar, which was somewhat small and run down. In front of the bar ws a group of punk guys, sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, smoking their cigarettes and laughing loudly among one another. 

"Rosie!" one of them, a tall-ish guy with short, blond spiky hair, exclaimed upon noticing her. "How have you been!"

"Fine, you?" Rosie ran her fingers along the neck of her bass guitar, her fingers tracing the strings. "I got a bass." She stated, matter of factly.

"It's about damn time you did" The guy exclaimed "Are you playing tonight?"

"What does it look like?" Rosie sniggered.

"Yeah, of course, you are," he said. "What is your band called?" 

"We have to go, so I'll talk to you later." Rosie said, before sauntering off into the building. I followed after her. The inside of the bar looked like a typical restaurant, nothing special. There were tables sitting around random places, with gingham tablecloths on them. It smelled somewhat like burnt pizza crust and flour. There was some white stuff on the hardwood floors, which I assumed was flour. It was somewhat of a mess, but wasn't too bad. 

It when then when I had realized that something was wrong. 

"Shit." I said, suddenly."We don't have a band name." 

"We can come up with something." Rosie said, leading me to a staircase that was going down into the basement of the building. She practically flew down the staircase, as she would step on 2 stairs at a time. I followed after her, keeping up at her pace, although I nearly tripped flat into my face. Thankfully, Rosie caught me by my upper arm, saving me from the potential embarrassment of falling in front of everybody. 

The basement smelled strongly of alcohol, even though there was barely anybody in there. I could only imagine how it reeked when people were drinking there.

"Don't worry about the smell, you'll get used to it eventually," Rosie told me. 

"Who was that guy you were talking to?" I asked her.

Rosie shrugged. "Oh, just someone I knew in high school. We still talk, but not as much as before. His name is Johnny, by the way."

There was something about him that I didn't like, but I wasn't going to say anything about it. No, I didn't want to piss off Rosie. But Johnny seemed like the type of guy who would act sweet and charming at first, but then start degrading you, dragging you down to his level, and eventually ruin your life.

Bones was busy assembling his drum kit, Alex assisting him with it. Rosie walked up to them, offering them help. 

Johnny walked down after us, and he was just standing there, watching the 3 of them with the drum kit. His gaze then turned to me "You're Avril?" he asked. 

I nodded.

"Rosie's been saying a lot about you."

My heart began beating faster. So she had been saying things about me. What kind of things? We're they good or bad? I fidgested with my ring. 

I was just about to ask him all those questions, but he had already walked off by the time I opened my mouth, so I had no chance of knowing. 

I wasn't sure what to do now, so I just hung around Alex, who was busy doing his own thing.

Rosie and Johnny were busy having a conversation about who knows that. They seemed relaxed and at ease with one another, so I decided to just let them be. Perhaps Johnny couldn't have been so bad after all. 

That place didn't have anywhere where you could go backstage, so I sat on the edge of the stage, observing everything going on. A few people had come down into the basement, taking and laughing among themselves loudly. They were already buying drinks, even though our show hadn't started yet. 

It turned out that we weren't supposed to play yet. Instead, we were just going to watch. We were supposed to go on stage right after the opening act ended. That meant that we needed to wait around for a long time. Not a long time, but the first two acts felt like a long time.

We were annoyed since our performance was delayed by 15 minutes, all because of a poet (who got booed off the first 7 minutes) and a singer with a whiny voice. The people seemed to be enjoying the whiny-voiced singer well enough anyways, so maybe that meant that our performance would be alright as well. The opening act finished, and suddenly the lights went dark and the music came on. It was time for the third and final act. Us.

Rosie grabbed my arm and took me onto the stage. Some lights had been turned on, and they were flashing, somewhat blinding me. But it was good since I couldn't see the faces of the audience members clearly, and that means that I wouldn't be so anxious.

"What is our band name?" I whisper-shouted at her. 

"Just come up with somehting" 

"I can't." 

"Fine." Rosie walked up to my microphone, grabbed it, and yelled into it. "We're Riot Generation, and we're here to make some fucking noise."

The crowd cheered drunkenly, which maybe meant that the show wouldn't be so bad. I began to relax. 

As Rosie walked back behind, she smiled at me. "You've got this, good luck."

But as Alex's guitar began playing, then Rosie's bass and Bone's drumming joined in, my stomach began churning. I could feel my throat tightening, and I wasn't sure if I would even be able to speak, let alone sing. 

Then I opened my mouth and began singing. And it all felt fine. 

The microphone made my voice sound so large, so big and powerful, that I imagined it flooding the room, spilling out, onto the streets, for the entire city to hear.

I sang each and every word, thinking of them as a message for the world. We were Riot Generation, and we just wanted to have fun. 

I was expecting the show to feel like it was dragging on for hours on end, but that was not the case at all. It ended a lot quicker than I had expected, which was great. The show made me feel like I was ascending into being part of the galaxy. 

Once the concert was over, I stared at the audience. 

"Thank you." I laughed nervously, before shoving the microphone back into the stand and practically running off the stage. 

Rosie went up to me, wrapping her arms around me in a warm embrace. "You were so good!" she squealed.

"Uh, thanks," I responded.

"Do you want to go get drunk?" she said.

"Sure."

I don't remember much of what we did next, but I do know that we had gotten a couple of drinks, then left the bar and walked down the street, yelling the lyrics to our songs and laughing.

We bought a few bottles of beer, and then went back to Rosie's apartment. Once we were inside, we all sat around the living room, drinking our beers and talking about absolute nonsense, and the show of course.

Alex and Bones were both proud of me, and Alex kept saying that I was the perfect singer for our band.

I felt really good. I felt fucking amazing,

I had been so scared of performing, but it had been worth it in the end. I was ready to take on more gigs.

I was ready to take on the entire fucking world.