Volume X: The Industry of Chemical Artistry - or - The Age of Rockism

6. On a Broken Back

I spent the next few nights at home. Trying to get settled in, trying to...readjust. There were a lot of things that had to be fixed. I promised myself to set good examples. I told the boys not to drop by without calling first. I told them I couldn’t make it to a few shows. I told them that they couldn’t be drugging or drinking around me, that I needed to try and sober up.

Half of them laughed.

The other half told me to hit the shit heavier.

There were a few who acted proud, or said they were. Who tried to help - Red being among them. The rest of the band just kind of shrugged. Jekt would drop by to keep me posted. Let me know what’s what, you know?

Riley was a beast of a child. I can’t say that I blamed her. She was just like me. I could spot all of her flaws from a mile off, and then some. I talked to everyone I could, pulled in all the favors I could manage, and got her a job at the bar. She wasn’t too thrilled with me, but the money was good, the people were great, it was secure. The band helped me keep an eye on her. When she wasn’t paying attention, I went and spoke to her teachers. I got the line on her work, found out where she was lacking. And then I called in more favors to find her tutors.

I don’t think I did half bad, all things considered.

This all went down in the first week. How I made it that far without a fix, I’ll never know. I smoked like a chimney. She smoked too, I let her, being I couldn’t play the part of the hypocrite. She was here, this situation sucked, but we had to make the best of it.

And then stability went straight to Hell.

Maybe two weeks had passed, and things weren’t all that bad. Riley didn’t really speak to me, and I let that slide too. She was young and resentful and rebellious. I was too. I had to respect that. I had to try to make it work.

Then Lucius beat the shit out of Brie.

And Mason and Wes got drunk, started a huge brawl and trashed the bar.

Red overdoses, ends up in the hospital. I don’t remember why.

Riley gets caught drugged off her ass, fucking around with one of the boys from another band. On top of that, she starts coming home bruised, if she comes home at all.

All of this happened in three days’ time.

And I had another talk with my brother. Being it was Roger that caught her in the act. Sexual relations with a minor. Drug possession with intent to deal. Possession of a deadly weapon. You get the point. The guy she was with was only with a band as a cover for more...interesting activities. Let’s just say...Roger was far from pleased.

That’s just the highlights.

Let’s start from the top and take this slow.

Lucius and Brie. What happened...I’m not sure. She showed up at my place broken and battered. So I went and rounded up the rest of the boys to take care of it. They went over there...and then the bar got trashed as a result. Seems the talk didn’t go too well. Mason and Wes went to go blow off some steam, got into a fight with the guy my sister was fucking. He was in the bar waiting to meet her, but she was upstairs looking after Brie for me. They beat the shit out of him - he takes off. My brother sees him run off, makes a mental note of this. Red walks in somewhere in the middle of all this, shakes his head, walks out.

Riley leaves my place when it’s safe to go check up on her fuck puppet. That’s when Roger catches her, under him, in a most compromising way. He gets hauled off and she gets a strict lecture from Roger about sexually transmitted disease and drugs. She’s dragged back to my place by her arm, where I meet the two of them at my front door after he’s knocked heavily for ten minutes. It’s about three in the morning by now.