How Do You Do?

20: That Redheaded Daffy Duck

All My Friends - Palaye Royale

  "Stevie."
  "No."
  "Stevie."
  "No."
  "You'll be fine!"
  "You don't know."
  "Stevie, we don't have time for this."
  "So I'll walk."
  "Stevie, with you please just get on the damned bike?" Remington finally snaps, holding out his helmet while sitting on the purring bike.
   "I can't!" I cry out again, stomping my foot childishly, much to Remington's amusement.
   "Yes, you can," he urges me, holding out the helmet once more. "I won't let you get hurt." I study him to see if he means it, staring deep into his eyes, which are staring back intently.
   My fingers ever so slowly inch out any touch the smooth surface of the helmet, slightly grasping it. "Promise?" I ask insecurely, my voice small. My whole body is shaking very visibly, my bottom lip slightly quivering. Remington's eyes soften, and he pulls me towards him gently, my front touching the metal of his bike. His arms encircle my body loosely, one arm around my waist.
   "I promise," he breathes into my shoulder, using the hand on my waist to rub my back soothingly so I'll stop shaking.
I hesitantly let out a small, "okay." Remington grins at me, and takes the helmet from my grasp, putting it on my head, earning him a whimper from me.
"Hey hey hey," he quickly shushes, taking my hands and pulling me behind him towards his back. I climb on while shaking. He then proceeds to wrap my arms around his torso. "Just hold onto me, okay? You'll be just fine if you can do that for me."
I let out a shaky breath. "You can't even begin to fathom how much I hate you at this precise moment."
His laugh is lost in the revving of his bike, and I scream as we speed down the road, with Remington suffering from my snake like grip.

•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

"Stevie honey, you've gotta let go," Vienna chides, touching my tense arm.
"You're gonna cut off his air supply with the amount of strength gore using to hold onto the guy," Reina points out, also trying to get me to release Remington. See, we're parked a block away from the event, but I'm so terrified after that horrendous experience that I can't find it in me to let go of Remington, let alone move.
"Sweets, we'll be late if we don't head over soon," Drea adds, and I continue to keep my eyes squeezed shut tightly.
   "Let me try," he mutters to them softly. Suddenly he's attacking me, tickling my sides and I make a weird catlike sound at the back of my throats and I jump off the bike and away from Remington.
   "Jesus f*cking Christ, was your goal to liquidate my innards?" He groans, stretching as he gets off the evil machine. I glare at him.
   "It's your own fault, you were the one who brought that death trap instead of a car and made me get on it, even though you knew I was--" I stop, my eyes landing on the floor. I let out a breath.
   Remington slowly climbs off his bike and puts his hands on my arms. "Stevie--"
I push him away from me. Remember why you're mad at him Stevie, stay strong! He looks confused, up until I put in my stone cold expression, the one he's seen for roughly three weeks now.
   "Are you serious right now? We were getting somewhere, Stevie! What the hell did I do!" My gaze goes back to the floor when I know that pain is evident in my eyes, and when I open my mouth to tell him, Reina cuts me off.
"Maybe, and this is just a thought, so do correct me if I'm wrong, it has something to do with the fact that you told her you were starting to fall for her after she confessed her feelings for you, and practically the next day you've got another girl clinging to you--but not any girl, no, you chose her childhood bully."
"And it does kind of seem sketchy, like you and that Redheaded Daffy Duck planned this to hurt her, like that witch loved doing all through middle school and high school," Vienna adds, hands on her hips.
I'm full on blushing, and I say, "you were there for that?" They nod. But when I look at Remington, his beautiful brown eyes are full of shock, mixed with sudden recognition as well as guilt.
"Oh man, I f*cked up," he mutters, starting to play with his hair. "Oh man, oh man, I really f*cked up bad. Stevie--" he starts, but I'm already down the street, trying not to cry, my band hot on my trail.
"You're riding with him next time," I mutter at Drea, dabbing at the baby tears forming in my eyes, catching them before they can fall. She nods silently.
As we get closer, Ash rushes to us. "There you are! Let's go, Stevie, you're getting the first interview out of your group, don't worry ladies, there'll be others another time, now let's get moving, good-looking!" I can't help but smirk when he says this, despite my sour mood, but I'm not bouncing with joy, the way I'd imagined I'd be if I'd ever gotten to the red carpet. He takes my slightly dirtied military jacket, and hands it to Reina, saying
   "I'll get it back from her when we're inside." I'm immediately guided rather hastily into the sea of flashing cameras, and led to stand and pose while the cameras click away, and the interviewers shout questions at this, "beautiful rising rock star," aka me.
But as I mentioned, due to my sour mood, all I can offer the cameras is a slight smile, sometimes when I hear a funny comment a genuine laugh, but for the most part I'm pretty calm. When I realize I should probably act happier though, mostly due to Ash's terrible signals, I start plastering on what Ash likes to call my "Grammy Acceptance Smile," or as I like to call it, the "Ash wouldn't let me go home until I gave him a sweet, happy, yet not overkill smile ten times in a row without failing smile."
People seem to react even more when it starts to actually become genuine. You know what? I'm not going to let Remington ruin this for me. This is what I've dreamed of since I was six and first picked up the guitar. This is my time to shine!
Not long after, I'm pulled into an interview with Nick Major.
  "S-So wait, Cell Day Juliet?" He tries once more, struggling not to laugh as he knows he's butchering our band name.
  "No," I giggle. "Okay, try this," I start, and he nods.
  "Say, seal."
  "Seal?"
"Deh,"
  "Deh?"
"Jewel,"
   "Jewel?"
    "Aye," I finish simply. "Now put it together.
  "Seal-de-jewel-aye?" He tries, and I nod in confirmation, a proud smile on my face.
   "Ciel De Juillet."
   "That's f-*cking hard, dude, and I thought Play Royal was hard."
  "It's Palaye Royale, you dumb f*ck!" I hear Remington shout from somewhere in the distance, and we crack up laughing.
  "Okay, now that I've mastered your band name, tell me a bit about your genre."
   "Well, we're an all girl band for starters," I point out confidently.
   "Right, right," he remembers, motioning for me to continue.
   "But we don't have a definite genre. We're a mix of classic rock, soul, alternative, blues, a bit of a glam metal undertone as well. You could say we're a bit of everything--but not country," I quickly add, a shiver running down my back.
   "I happen to love country," Reina's voice adds as she walks by. She quickly leans back into view for the camera. "I'm the bassist, BT dubs, Reina," she adds with a little lazy salute to the camera. "Band pics in two," she tells me, and I nod.
   "So obviously we've gotta wrap it up here soon, but let me ask one more question," and I nod for him to continue. "What're these rumors about you and Remington Leith?"

•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

After the band pictures, we head inside, only to find out we're supposed to perform in thirty minutes.
"What?!" I hiss out, looking around to make sure no one around us heard the outburst besides me, the girls, and Ash.
"I know it's short notice, but it'd be a great way to promote the band!" He pleads, his gray suit crumpling from the movements. I sigh.
"We don't even have our instruments," Drea points out, also shocked by the news. "And I can't play without my guitar."
"The same for me," I tell him.
"Great, no problem, already covered, I had the palaye boys go pick everything up," Ash says nodding vigorously. My eyes widen.
"Did you break into my house?!" I exclaim, shocked, but he immediately stops any further freaking out.
"Nonononono, your keys were in your jacket, so I gave the jacket to the boys and told them to get your things and put them in the Sumerian Records van."
On cue, the back exit doors push open, and the three boys come wheeling in out instruments. Ash turns and looks at me hopefully. I glance at the girls, and they all nod.
"Okay," I sigh out to Ash, who fist bump the air.
"Good, great, I'll get the stuff back stage, you guys head over and plan your set lists, warm up, do your thing. You need to play at least seven songs." I grumble an 'okay' under my breath as we head back.
We decide to play Serenade of Sorrow, three of our older songs that we'd written before Drea came, and added three cover songs in.
Soon after, it's time for us to set up, so I help Vienna carry her drum set out first before setting up the guitar stands, as well as mic stands. Once I'm done with that, I help V rig up her drum set with microphones, and set the amps for the guitars up, setting my trusty mint green les Paul Gibson, and Drea's new marble les Paul Gibson, putting them on the stands. When I go back stage to start my vocal warm up, I'm surprised to find Palaye backstage.
"They're going on after us!" Vienna blushes, avoiding eye contact with Emerson. Okay?
I nod in acknowledgment, continuing to do my warm ups. As Remington walks over to me, we start off our set with a cover of Cheater by Bonsai Trees

After that we sing our original, Serenade Of Sorrow, which made Ash and Nick, who just arrived, smile widely when the crowd cheered loudly. After this, we play one of our older songs, which the crowd drinks up.
   Soon after, we perform a song called Daisy May, by Decade.

Right after we play our final two old songs, we play our final song, a cover of Sleep by Citizen, which slows it down a little. 

After we're done, Reina throws her sticks into the crowd, and I throw one of my picks before we head off stage, me being the last one off so I blow a kiss to the crowd behind everyone.
   Palaye decides to just leave out instruments on stage, Emerson just throwing a palaye tee over the bass drum cover so it doesn't show out band logo, rather theirs.
   I stand on the sidelines, getting ready to enjoy the free show from my favorite band, when Remington throws me a smirk.
   My eyes narrow, trying to figure out what his intention were my doing that, but he's already greeting the crowd.
What're you up to, buddy?