souls of black | fever in, fever out

chapter 141: fired!

The minutes there at the gallery seemed to crawl by for both Sam and Alex: he once again posted up at the tops of the stairs before the door to the roof. She offered him to come on down for a drink of water and to at the very least see everyone there, but he insisted on hiding right in there for the time being. He had slung his guitar case over his shoulder as a means of taking the whole thing serious, even though Sam had readily assured him several times over that he was more than welcome there in her new apartment. She suggested that he not leave his amp there at the apartment, especially when he made note that it was a bit heavy once he hoisted it up on his back.
But by the time the hour neared and Sam was anxious about Joey in that he may or may not have received the news yet, Alex all but tumbled down the steps because his amp had weighed him down for the past half hour. He caught himself right before he could run right into her; she pressed her hands to his chest and she gazed into his eyes. She giggled at him and he snickered at the feeling of her hands on him.
"You're quite warm," she said in a low voice.
"It's kinda warm up there," he confessed with a shrug of his shoulders and a gesture back to the top of the stairs. She gently massaged his chest and his slender shoulders for a moment. On one hand, she regretted doing that to him with the threat of throwing him out of her place, and she wished she hadn't stoked his fears of that, either. But then again, it was to open him up to her. She had to see those tears from him.
"Anyways, let's go," she coaxed him with a soft pat on either side of his face. He fixed the strap on his shoulder and then he hoisted up the amp, and he almost lost his balance again.
"Want me to get that?" she offered him.
"Oh no, I got it," he assured her with a break in his voice and a lopsided little grin on his face. Instead she held the door for him before Scarlett could call after them. She led him back to her apartment and, before she unlocked the door of her car parked there at the curb, she reached into her handbag and brought out that old black hat that Cliff had given her, and she lay it upon her head.
"Haven't seen that thing in forever and a day," Alex remarked; she unlocked the door for him and then she opened the back door so he could put the amp and his guitar in the back seat, and he once again, almost fell face first into the back seat. Luckily, he caught himself on the above handle and he set the guitar case on the back seat, and he slung the amp down onto the floor underneath there.
"Something like this warrants the return of the dusty old hat," she declared as she helped him back onto the curb.
"I got it, I got it," he insisted with a little wave of his hand.
"I just wanna make sure you're okay is all," she told him. "You're my best friend, Alex—I need to help you when I can."
"You do plenty, Samantha," he assured her, "trust me. Especially if this morning was anything to go by."
"How are you feeling, by the way?" she asked him once he slid into the front seat.
"Head still hurts a little but a lot lighter, believe it or not," he said, and he closed the door. She rounded the front end of the car to her side and she climbed in next to him, and she slid her handbag down next to her leg. She took out her sunglasses from there and turned to him as he put his sunglasses on.
"Lighter is always good," Sam told him, and she started up the car right there.
"Just realized that's the bag my parents and I made you for Christmas a couple of years ago," he pointed out in a low voice.
"I take it with me everywhere I go," she told him.
She took them out of Hell's Kitchen and to the expressway out of New York City and they darted along the outskirts into upstate.
"Hope we can get there soon enough," he confessed at one point as they reached the outside of Monticello.
"We've made plenty of good time before, you know," she pointed out. "A usually long drive from L.A. to Carson City went by rather quickly with just you next to me."
"That drive was amazing," he recalled. "All the snow just made it even cooler."
"Even when we went up there with Eric and the trailer and we lost the trailer over Donner Pass?"
"That was kind of funny, actually," he said with a little grin, "funny in a satirical way, though."
"We're gonna need that kind of humor lately," she confessed as she reached up and adjusted the brim of her hat.
"Absolutely!"
They rolled through Monticello and then they crossed the river, with its waters deep royal blue and crisp with the recent snowfalls and freezing rain all winter long. Alex turned his head and he fixated on the horizon beyond there.
"You know what's another place you and I should take a road trip to together?" Sam suggested with a glimpse over at him and the reflection of the river waters and the suspensions of the bridge on those mirrored lenses.
"What's that?" he asked her.
"Crater Lake," she said. "Up in Oregon. Like the next time I'm out in the Bay Area and you're not doing anything, I'll take you up there. Nice little summertime road trip between you and me again."
"And the summertime, too," he added with a little nod.
"They get forty two inches of snow up there in the winter. No way we're going up there during Christmastime."
"Forty two!" he exclaimed, taken aback.
"Forty two and it closes off the road up there as a result."
"Yeah, that's definitely a summertime thing or maybe in a month from now."
"I hear the water up there is so blue from the snowfall," she continued, "I would think it's bluer than your eyes."
He turned his head to her and she flashed another glimpse over at him. She held onto her own reflection in those mirrored lenses for a few seconds before she returned to the highway before them.
"Would it be colder than me?" he asked her.
"Colder than you? Alex, you're not cold."
"I am cold," he said, "it took a nudge from you to get me to shed a tear."
"And? That's a bad thing?"
"Not at all! But what I am saying is it's not easy to get me to do that. You know the whole thing about boys not doing that. I also have to keep on a brave face, too. Be the very best 'me' that I can."
Sam reached over and patted his thigh.
"You're a brave boy already," she promised him. "You were brave to do all of that for me and you're brave to go up on stage and give them hell with your guitar. I mean, you're making an inanimate object talk for god's sake."
Alex sighed through his nose.
"How's your head, by the way?" she asked him.
"Still hurts."
"Hopefully we'll make this quick," she assured him. "Make it quick and get you something for it. I can only stroke your head for so long."
"I think you probably can," he teased her.
Soon the two best friends reached Binghamton and the cut-off up to Syracuse. Another couple of hours and they reached Joey and Krista's place right as the sun hung low over the horizon.
"I'm getting kinda hungry—you wanna get some dinner while we're up here?" Alex suggested.
"I was hoping you would ask me that!" she laughed out loud at that.
Sam took the spot next to Joey's car, parked there at the base of the stairs. She kept a hand on the crown of her hat while Alex kept his sunglasses on even as they ducked into the shade. The bottom of his shirt lifted up a bit with the breeze and she caught the slight sliver of his slender waist in time before he pushed it down.
She led him up the stairs to that door of their apartment and she knocked on the panel several times.
Silence on the other side.
"Is that a songbird?" he asked aloud. Sam turned for a look at the little round gray and black bird perched upon the railing off to their left.
"I think it is," she replied: the little bird opened its narrow little beak and it bestowed them with a little melody. "Yeah, it is! When I ran out of the wedding, I went to a place not too far from where they recorded Stormtroopers of Death, and there were utter hordes of songbirds up in the trees, as if they were keeping me company."
"Sometimes Mother Nature knows," he told her, and he returned to the door before them. "Are they even home?"
"Yeah, their car's down here..." She knocked on the panel again and that time, the door swung open. Krista stepped out, complete in her maroon silk bathrobe, a pink towel twined up on her head, that fresh and clean smell of having climbed out of the shower, and a bemused look on her face.
"Hey, you two," she greeted them as she patted the back of her head. "What's going on with you?"
"Is Joey home?" Alex asked in her with a tremble to his voice.
"Yeah, he's in the bathroom."
"We have to talk to him about something," Sam explained as she readjusted the brim of her hat, "well, Alex does, actually. I'm here because I owe him one."
"Oh no, Sam, that's okay," Krista quipped.
"Hey, babe, who is it?" Joey's upstate accent caught Sam's ear, and Krista turned her head.
"It's Sam and Alex," she replied in a low voice. "They wanna talk to you about something."
"Close the door," Joey told her.
"Joey, no!" Sam called out. Alex stuck his foot out and blocked the door.
"Let us in," he demanded, still with a tremble to his voice.
"Get out of here, Alex," Joey growled; he moved Krista out of the way and brought his face up to the door.
"Dude, I'm worried about you!" Alex exclaimed.
"What are you worried about?" Joey demanded, cross. "And dude, don't call me 'dude.'"
"You might get fired," Alex replied.
"Fired?" Joey turned to Sam, who then pursed her lips at him. Her love for him was still very much strong and it seemed so strange to her that he was so adverse to the both of them.
"Alex got fired and we're worried about you," she filled in, "he got canned because of this whole new music that's coming about. We're worried it'll happen to you.
"Yeah, and I actually overheard Aurora talking about it, too," Alex added.
"So you guys drove all the way up here just for that?" Krista asked, concerned.
"Yes," Alex and Sam replied in unison.
"Joey, let them in," Krista coaxed him. But Joey folded his arms across his chest and stood his ground.
"What was the full reason, Alex?" he demanded.
"That I'm holding the band back," Alex replied, and the warble in his voice started to fade away. "The whole thing is that nobody wants guitar solos anymore. Or high soaring operatic vocals, either.
"What!" Joey barked.
"Yeah," Alex said with a calm expression on his face. "They're probably gonna fire you for the exact same reason, dude." Joey rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, like I'm fallin' for that." He was scorn.
"Joey, let them in!" Krista insisted. The phone rang right then and she ducked away from there.
"That might be Aurora right now," Sam pointed out. Joey glanced over his shoulder just enough for a look into the rest of the apartment, but not enough to keep them out of his sight. Sam set a hand on Alex's shoulder and Joey raised an eyebrow at that.
"Joey?" Krista called. "It's for you." He nibbled on his bottom lip and he bowed away from the door. Krista then opened the door and let Sam and Alex into the apartment. They had already bought a new cozy-looking blue couch as well as a new TV and a side table with a heavy wrought iron lamp rested on top. In the room before them, Sam spotted their bed nestled underneath the window; Krista adjusted the lapels of her robe once she closed the door behind them.
And Sam couldn't help but feel as though she let all of that slip through her fingers.
"Hello?" Joey kept his voice down low. "Oh, hi, Charlie." There was a pause.
"Do you guys want anything to eat?" Krista offered Sam and Alex in a low voice.
"Nah, we were gonna get dinner soon," Sam assured her.
"I really would like a drink of water," Alex said as he took off his sunglasses. "Had a headache all day long."
Krista's expression then faded into one of concern.
"What is it—?" Alex turned to the kitchen doorway. Sam turned as well, and Joey trudged into the room right then, still with the cordless phone in hand.
"You okay?" Sam asked him.
"Oh my god," he muttered, and he turned to Sam and Alex with his eyes wide and the olive tone to his skin having washed away to a sickly pallor. "You—" He gestured to Alex and his hand shook from the feeling inside of him. "You—You guys were right."
Joey gasped and he dropped the phone to the floor. He fell to his knees right before his record collection and the record player behind the couch. He bowed his head.
"It was Charlie who did it, too," he added with a break in his voice.
"Oh Joey!" Krista hurried over to him with her arms wide open for him. She hugged him from behind.
"Did he say why?" Sam asked him as she rounded the couch as well.
"No," he replied in a flat tone, "he just said, 'Joey, I'm so sorry, but you're out. You're out for real now, too.' No explanation, nothing." He brushed away a tear and Krista bowed her head towards his in comfort for him.
Alex ambled over to him and he set a hand on his shoulder. The three of them gathered around him as he bowed his head and let his frizzy black curls spread over his face so Sam couldn't even see into his eyes.
"Why would they do this to me?" he asked in a broken voice.
"I ask the same thing with myself," Alex confessed. "Especially when the reasoning for me was that I was holding the band back."
Silence settled over them, silence except for the pipes in the kitchen wall and the dial tones on the cordless phone. Alex picked up the phone and brought it back to the hold in the kitchen. Joey then stood to his feet and he looked on at him with the expression of sheer disgust on his face.
"Holding them back?" Joey echoed him. "That's why they rid of you?"
Alex nodded, still calm and collected despite it all. The tears he had shed earlier that day had helped him a great deal. Joey shook his head.
"I just..." he sputtered. "I don't even know what to say right now."
"Wanna join mine and Lars' new band?" Alex asked him in a soft voice.
"Him, Lars, and Dave?" Sam added.
"We might call ourselves 'Fired'," Alex explained. "You know just to kind of—stick it to 'em."
"You can sing your heart out," Sam pressed on.
"Sing to your heart's content," Alex added.
"It'll be good for you, too," Krista told him in a soft voice. "I'll be behind you every step of the way."
Joey sniffled and brushed away a tear.
"Yeah. I'll do it."
He turned around and he and Krista embraced one another. He set his chin on her shoulder and closed his eyes.
"You guys wanna come have dinner with us?" Sam suggested.
"We're good," Krista assured her in a muffled voice. Joey sniffled again and stroked her back.
"I think we should go," Alex quipped to Sam, who nodded at him. They left the two of them to cry to each other and back to the car outside. The sun kissed the roof of the complex; Alex gently touched his belly with his fingertips.
"You want something to eat?" she suggested to him.
"Definitely," he replied as he put his sunglasses back on.
Sam took him to that old restaurant in North Syracuse near the lake's water, which had just reopened from remodeling. She dared not tell him that it was the place she and Joey used to eat at, given the place had a new coat of paint and then some. A new coat of paint with some new memories with Alex. As with the night before, he was hungry, and he ate up his large pasta bowl as if he was starving to death. Every so often, he closed his eyes and relished in that warm fettuccine and that lush chicken embedded within.
"So good," he breathed out at one point.
She thought about his struggle with his guitar and his amp, and she hoped that most of that pasta would go to those sinewy arms.
"Wanna camp out by the lakeside?" she suggested to him, and she took a sip from her coffee.
"I'd love to," he replied as he twirled the fettuccine around the fork tines and brought it up to his mouth. She watched him eat for a whole minute: though he was a big hearty eater, he always kept himself clean and neat all the while. He looked on at her with his mouth full and his dark eyebrows raised.
"What's going on?" he asked her once he swallowed it down.
"Nothing." And then she returned to her plate. She was sure that it was nothing but the thought remained in the back of her mind, especially once reality set in after what they had witnessed back there at the apartment. She was going to have to be the Krista to his Joey from that point onward, even if they weren't in a romance with each other.
Once she put in for the bill and he left a tip for the waitress, they returned to the car and she drove them down to the lake's edge, and at that point, the sun had gone down and the violet sky overhead acted as their blanket. The trees were all still gathered around the shoreline even with the new concrete foundations set down in the earth to signify new houses in the future. Sam walked him to the shore and the memory of her touching Joey returned to her in a quick flash of emotion.
Alex stood under the nearby small cluster of trees and he glanced up at the darkening sky overhead. Through the dim light, Sam could make out the slight shape of his hips and thighs: a part of her wished she could put her arm around him the way Krista did with Joey, but something told her that she had done enough for him at that point. The flattened circle of a moon rose up behind the trees on the opposite shore and they doubled back to her car.
She thought about the time they nestled down in the back seat of his car up at Lake Tahoe when the snowstorm came in, especially when he lay down in her back seat after he lay it down flat for them, right over his amp there on the floor. She cozied up next to him, albeit with an inch between them, especially since it was rather warm that night with the regulation courtesy of the lake. The two of them fell asleep under the stars; Sam woke up to the soft hoot of an owl off in the distance as well as the darkness still around them. Darkness except for the moonlight through the trees on their side.
A new chapter in life and she wondered how it would all fare for them, and for herself and Alex in particular.
It would be another week before Lars gave her and Alex another call: that time for the jam session in the heart of Manhattan, and a block away from where Anthrax jammed for a long time no less. Given it was on a Friday afternoon, Sam could once again leave the gallery early just to see how it would all go for them: she had tucked her journal underneath her arm lest the moment of inspiration struck her during that time.
The room Lars and Dave had picked out resembled to the bottom floor of a warehouse with its high ceilings and wrought iron lights which cast bright golden light as they were suspended down from the rafters. Boxes and old chairs scattered around the floor, but at the center of it all stood a large rug and Lars' drum kit. The two of them had already begun their set up once Sam and Alex showed up.
Dave's fiery red hair streamed behind him in the form of thick waves: though he still kept it all long, he had clipped it to where it kissed his shoulders. The red and white flannel of his shirt seemed to glitter under the suspended wrought iron lights overhead. When Sam looked closer to his hair, she spotted faint glimmers of blonde and gray within: the lightest she had seen his hair before then. Lars meanwhile took his spot behind the kit and kept one elbow hoisted up on the right tom-tom as if he was talking to someone behind him. But then he turned and he spotted the two of them walking towards them.
"There they are," Lars said with a nod of his head. Dave turned and flashed both Sam and Alex a grin.
"Hey, you two!" he declared and he put his arms around them both. He flicked his red hair back and kept one hand on Sam's shoulder. Such a bizarre sight to see him in that spot, especially since the last time she had actually seen him was right outside L'Amour and he looked as though he hadn't any place to go back then.
"Man, you've come a long way," Alex stated.
"Yeah, last we saw you, you looked like you were living on the street," Sam joined in.
"I actually was," Dave said, "I had nothing, and then I had everything, and then I had nothing again, and I'm starting to find my way again."
"Congrats, by the way," Lars gestured to Dave. "Just had a baby."
"Yup! Pam gave birth to our son back in February," Dave replied with a sly smirk on his face. "We're both coming up in the face of everything." Alex meanwhile strode on over to the rack of guitars behind Lars.
"So when's Joey getting here?" Dave asked aloud.
"I called him a little while ago," Lars said, "and his fiancée told me he's on his way with his guitar over his back."
"That's right! I forgot he played guitar. Like some sort of miracle when it happened with him, too."
"So we have three guitar players and a drummer," Sam said as she adjusted the strap on her handbag.
"Only two of us can sing, too," Dave added, "unless these two are willing."
"I have to have a drink first," Lars said.
"And I suck at it," Alex called back, even though Sam knew he was a good singer.
"Someone needs to play bass, too," Dave continued, "I'm not very good at it and I have no clue about Joey, either."
"The bass we have here is rather heavy as well," Lars chided.
"Well, one of us has to play bass," said Dave. He glanced over at Alex as he ran his hand over the heads of the guitars there on the rack. "Hey, little man Skolnick—you up for thumping the bass?"
Alex turned his head to him and shrugged.
"Might be fun might be mundane," he muttered under his breath.
"What'd you say?" Dave asked, taken aback.
"I might do it," Alex corrected himself with a clearing of his throat. He glanced over at Sam and flashed her a wink, and she nodded in agreement at him.
Within a few moments time, Joey stepped through the front door with his guitar case on his back and a tin can of chocolate and vanilla cigars in hand. Dave ran it by him again and at that point, Alex picked out the big black and gold bass guitar from the rack and slung it over his shoulder.
He turned around right as Joey handed him a chocolate one: the gold pick guard glittered under the warehouse lights, much to Sam's surprise. She wished she had her colored pencils with her because she knew that would make for a beautiful new drawing for the gallery. Alex tucked the chocolate cigar into his mouth.
"Yeah," he said in a voice to imitate Edward G. Robinson. "That's a bass guitar, see?" Sam giggled at him and he took the chocolate cigar out of his mouth. She then took her seat atop the speaker right next to him. Those big heavy strings were a cold, steely gray to contrast the patch of gold by the pick guard, and he put the cigar back into his mouth. She nodded her head as he slid his fingers along the neck with a bit of ease at first. He then put his foot forward and strummed the strings as fast as he could, and Sam gaped at him. It barely made any noise but an unplugged bass guitar played at the speed of hardcore punk was more interesting than the conversation behind them.
"Okay, so how are we gonna do this?" Dave asked Joey, who took his guitar out of the hard case. Sam caught the quick shiny flash of the wedding ring already on his right hand.
"Well, we're four heavy metal guys," he began, and he slung the guitar over his shoulder, "how 'bout we continue with it?"
"Continue and fall through the cracks?" Dave scoffed. "I dunno, man. We could always do what Pantera are doing."
"I don't think my vocals can handle that, though," Joey confessed, and he turned the little dials at the guitar head to bring it back to tune. "My fiancée doesn't want me to abuse my vocals anyway."
"Forgot you got engaged, congrats!"
"She's my girl, man. I popped the question to her right when we got home from tour—"
Alex turned to Sam there on the speaker case and he rolled his eyes at what they were talking about. She nodded and giggled at him in agreement. She loved those three men but she couldn't care less about what they were talking about right there.
"—when the kids come around, we'll have a barbecue!" Dave exclaimed with a big jovial laugh.
"When I start having kids, can I join?" Lars asked right then; Alex took the cigar out of his mouth and took a large bite.
"This is a good idea but like—c'mon," he muttered to her, and she nodded her head and giggled again. "I will say this—this thing is heavy. I can handle it, though. Gotta treat it with just a bit more respect." And he took a couple more bites and swallowed it down in one fell swoop.
"How'd you learn bass, by the way?" she asked him.
"My big brother plays, believe it or not," he replied, "I caught him one night with it—like I couldn't sleep one night and I got to watch him. He never went any further than the hobby level but I've always had a strange fascination for the bass."
"You don't really think of it as being all that glamorous," she noted.
"It's like grunt work. Simple but difficult at the same time. That's not to say it can't be fun, though. I've always wanted to learn funk bass, especially. Something in the vein of George Clinton or even that band Faith No More—"
"Hey, kids!" Dave called out to them, and they turned to find that Joey had already set up a microphone before him.
"Hey, Sam!" Joey bellowed into the microphone head.
"Yes?" she called out to him with a slight jolt from the sudden sound of his voice.
"You comin' to mine and Krista's wedding?"
"When are you guys getting married?" she asked him.
"Right smack in the middle of August," he replied, still into the microphone head.
"That's a long ways off," Alex remarked.
"That's kinda the point, though," Joey replied.
"Yeah, I'll come along," she said, albeit halfhearted.
"I can be your date!" Lars joked.
"I dunno if I can make it," Alex confessed in a low voice. "I don't really wanna go to the wedding of a guy who wants my head on a plate, either."
"Yeah, I'll do it, Lars," Sam replied.
"By the way, Sam," Lars began in a more mellow voice, "since you're here with us right now, what say you be our manager?"
"I would be honored!" she declared with an elated gasp and her arms out. Alex then reached up for a high five from her.
"I shall write it down then," Dave said, and he ambled across the floor to one of the lower boxes. The door behind Sam swung open and she turned around, still in her spot.
"Hey, Lou!" Alex declared. "What're you doing here?" Sam shifted around right as Louie padded into the warehouse and with those white leather gloves on his hands no less. The look on his face took her aback.
"I'm out," Louie replied, nonplussed.
"Not you, too!" Sam cried out, and Louie shook his head.
"No, no, no. I quit."
"You quit?" Alex was stunned.
"It's getting so bad down there, man. Between Aurora and the label putting the hammer down on us to Chuck and me wanting to kill each other, it's... yeah, it's slowly becoming a bloodbath over there ever since they showed you the door." He turned to Sam with his eyes wide. "I'm so glad you're out of that whole cycle, Sam. I'd hate to see you caught up in this bullshit."