Long Weekend In Miami (It Can Turn Your World Around)

Youth Interrupted

'Shay, we settin' up for a sound-check?'

Pushing back jet-black bangs from kohl-smudged eyes Shayne "Shay" Miller turned and gave the band's bass player Jamie Scott a nod. 'Yeah, let's get this thing started,' she said and wandered over to the makeshift stage that had been especially erected at one end of Love/Hate for tonight's gig. She hopped up and readjusted the microphone.

'Any idea where our crazy Jewish drummer's at?' Jamie asked as he plugged his bass into the amplifier.

'Your guess is as good as mine,' Shayne replied. The band's drummer Adam Cohen, had left the bar fifteen minutes ago to head out to the store and was yet to return.

What do you need at the store? Jamie had asked him.

Nothin'. Just wanna go browse, he had shrugged.

They'd all given up trying to figure out the workings of Adam's brain. It was enough to drive a person insane. He was the band clown, he had a sarcastic sense of humor and loved playing jokes on everyone yet somehow managed to not get played himself. He saw the funny side to everything. Which could be annoying at times. But mostly it was a great stress reliever. He kept them all laughing when things got bad.

Bass player Jamie was the quiet, intellectual one. He brought wisdom and perspective to the band with his thoughtful insights into the crazy chaos that seemed to follow them. Then he taught them how to process it. The guy had more talent than any one person that Shayne knew, yet he completely underestimated himself on a daily basis.

Guitarist Josh Farro was the oldest and the glue that held them all together when they threatened to fall apart. He refused to let any of them give up, even when the odds were stacked against them. And over the years they'd been stacked high. The band's female followers swooned over him both on and off stage. Of course Shayne and the others enjoyed ribbing him about it incessantly. Together with Shayne he wrote all the band's material and the two had been best friends for over nine years.

The guys would say that Shayne Miller was the reason they were all where they were today. Her tenacious attitude had turned her into the fighter she was, and there'd been times in her life when she'd had to fight hard. She was a tough cookie, but with a heart of gold. The guys were her family and she would fight to the death if anyone tried to hurt any of them. Her music and her boys were what mattered most to Shayne.

'He'll probably come back with a puppy or somethin',' she mused, thinking about Adam.

'More likely a girl's number. Maybe even a girl,' piped up Josh.

Shayne grinned at him. He was sitting quietly on a stool, gently strumming his guitar. 'I don't care what he brings back so long as he comes back and aren't you s'posed to be the one who gets the girls numbers?'

Josh flashed her a grin. 'Not when I'm meant to be working. Which he is. He better put a step on it, it's opening time and we're on in an hour.'

'He'll be here,' said Jamie twiddling the tuning knobs on his bass.

'Ever the optimist,' Josh said.

'With someone like Adam you gotta be,' was Jamie's reply.

The bar was beginning to fill up with customers and a few of them had already booked their seats around the stage. Thanks to social media, 'Youth Interrupted' had become something of an overnight sensation. In a bid to get their music even further out there they'd posted bulletins on Twitter and Instagram telling of their upcoming 'Bar Crawl Tour' where they hoped to cover as much of the States as was possible and so far the feedback had been incredible. They'd already had interest from two record companies. But they weren't about to sign their lives away to the first name that wanted them just to make it big. The contract had to be on their terms and they were keeping all their options open, waiting for the right one to come along.