Wait until the music's over

19. Gatorade and the annoying ticks

"Whattime is it then?" I ask unfastening the strap and placing theguitar on the floor.

"Almost8:00" Jeff answers after doing the same with his bass.

"Shit,Eddie... I liked him better when he was unemployed" Mike doesn'tput away his guitar and, still holding it in his hands, plops down onwhat used to be a couch once upon a time and now is only a vaguelyshapeless mass of faux leather, fabric, foam stuffing, paint,cigarette burns, permanent marker writings crumbs, beer and otherorganic substance nobody would dare identifying.

"Honestly,I like him more now that he works and pays the rent" Jefflegitimately objects and drinks up the last drops from the bottle ofGatorade he had on the floor by his side.

Yeah,Ament is going through one of his recurrent health fanatic phases.Tsk, jocks!

"Bullshit,you loved him also when he was a guest, you'd have him live off youforever just to keep him home with you!" Mike steals my job andmakes fun of him holding a hand against his own heart, while thebassist throws the cap of the now empty bottle at him as a backlash.

"Hey,are you fool? You could have hit me in the eye!" McCreadycomplains.

"ActuallyI was aiming at your throat"

"Wouldyou please stop?" I chime in to settle the little skirmish.

"Ok.Don't be jealous though, ok Stoney?" Mike bats his eylids at me andI regret not having anything not too heavy and not too light at handto throw at him.

"Anyway,Ed will work at night in the future, and that will make it easy forus with reharsal" Jeff explains as he's screwing the cap back onthe bottle and places it in a corner of the basement beside theothers, ready to be used the next time someone won't want to goupstairs for his physiological urges.

"Ihope that will happen before the 22nd. It seems a lot oftime from now, but it's not that much" I remark thinking about ournext show, which by the way is only the second one.

"Ican't wait!" the guitarist exclaims adjusting the hat on his head.

"Idem.But I'd like to get there prepared. The first time we had an excuse,we had been a band for less than ten days, now we've got no pretextto give. We must be good" I add sitting beside Mike, playing therole I immediately took inside the band from its very beginning: therole of the pain in the ass.

"Andwe'll be good as fuck this time also! We're gonna kick asses!" Jeffshouts and gives a loud high five to Dave, playing therefore the roleof the caveman as he's been doing for the past 27 years.

"I'mgonna kick Eddie's ass if he's not here in five minutes" Mikesnorts, aware that nobody will take his threat seriously.

"Youcan't, we need him" Ament says and then steals his hat. Like, whythe hell does he even wear that hat when he perfectly knows thatJeff's favorite hobby is taking it off?

"Hedoesn't sing with his ass, I won't hurt the rest" he snaps makingeverybody laugh.

"Anyway...we don't need him for the band only" I casually say when everyonestops laughing, since I guess now it's time for me to share mydiscoveries with the guys.

"Whatelse for?" McCready asks, sitting more comfortably on the couch,apparently not feeling like chasing Jeff around for his hat.

"Fora lot of things! Cleaning our bathroom for example. Fuck, he makes itsparkle, I got no idea how he can make it. That guy has a naturaltalent!" the caveman replies as he sits on the floor.

"I'mglad to know he's a perfect housewife, but that's not exactly what Iwas referring to" I explain to the dumb people.

"Whatwere you referring to then?" the question comes from Dave, who'snot included in the dumb group, not in this specific situation atleast.