Blood Sugar

Part One Hundred Twenty: Baby Chili

Nothing happened. The crowd was quiet, too. Tony was sitting on the stage. Back to the crowd. He looked like he was meditating. Flea rushed over to John. They were clearly having an argument.

Loe and me looked at each other with huge question marks in our eyes. The people around did, too. Some started booing. But they were shut down when John started playing the first chords of Knock Me Down.

The crowd was getting into it. He was singing all by himself. At first hesitantly, then the pressure fell off him. I was so proud to see him up there. Even though it was weird to have Tony next to him, sitting on the ground.

John proceeded playing covers of the Bee Gees, of Elton John and the Ramones. He was great. Nobody thought otherwise. But people wanted to see the Peppers songs. They wanted Tony.

"Loe, what's gonna happen?", I asked as I hesitantly pulled on her arm.

She looked to me and shrugged. We looked back up when the crowd started cheering. Tony was now standing in front of the mic.

"Thank you so much, John. I wasn't doing so good, I'm sorry guys. If you are patient for ten minutes. We'll be back on stage. It's gonna be huge, I promise", he said and smiled as the crowd showed him they were up to it.

Immediately, John, Flea and Tony came together and Chad chilled his life behind the drums. John looked mad and Tony gesticulated and I wasn't sure what was going on.

John went up to the mic. "Kaya. Come up here, please?"

What the hell, I thought, but did as he said anyway.

I fought through the crowd and got funny looks from the people around me. I felt funny, too.

"John, what's up ?", I asked.

"Tony is such an asshole. I can't believe it. He dropped me into it in front of thousands of people. He said he wanted to test me. If I could take it up when there was an incident like that again. Whatever", he ranted.

I had to stroke his arm to calm him down. "Hey John. But he thanked you up there and you did so great."

"Yeah.. but it was so humiliating. I know he thanked me. He said I did great, too and was proud of me..", he said.

"See..", I said. "It's not that bad after all. You should do covers more often."

"You really think so?", he asked and breathed deep.

"Yeah I do."

"Alright..maybe it wasn't so bad after all", he said and smiled.

"He wasn't humiliating you, John. Now go on and proceed rocking this crowd."

"Hey.. Kaya?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I love you, right?", he asked and took my face into his, giving me a heartfelt kiss.

I smiled. "I know."

From that point on, John grew much more comfortable up there and I was so, so proud. Even though I still found it a bit odd how Tony handled the whole situation.

When they played the last chords, the crowd was a whole party. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. So were the guys up there.

When we met at the bar that was built up outside, everyone was still sweaty. I took John into a big hug and told him again how proud I was. "I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for you. You always lift me up, baby", he said as he kissed my head. I smiled into his eyes and stroked his back.

Annik showed up with a huge grin on her face. "Wow this is insane, you guys. And we have to empty the tip box every half an hour. People are really willing to donate. This is so so cool", she said.

Tony went up to her. "We did it for the baby", he said and swung his arm around her, motioning to her belly. She stroked it and smiled. "Yeah. We thought about calling her Antonia-Jean or Michelle or Charlotte. Some kind of tribute to you guys", she said and poked out her tongue.

"Call her Chili", Flea yelled and Annik chuckled.

"That's cute actually", she said and smiled. "I'll have to think about it."