Hex

Chapter 7

     "That's it. I'm going to throw up!" I announced, as Bishop and Finn loaded the last piece of equipment into Bishop's dad's truck.

     "Calm down, babe, we got this. We're gonna be good," Zane said, as he checked his hair in his cell phone camera.

     "Children, let's go, we're gonna be late," Danny called, sticking his head out the passenger seat's window and theatrically clapping his hands.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Finn grumbled, climbing into the driver's seat. "Bish, keys!"

"Sure, Finn, you can drive," Bishop said, rolling his eyes, as he tossed the keys up. Finn plucked them out of the air and slammed his door shut without a thanks.

     Zane got into the seat behind Danny, leaving just Bishop and I by truck bed.

I leaned my back against the side of the truck and stared at my shoes. Bishop copied me, staring down at mine as well.

"You know," he began, making me meet his eyes. "At first, I had my doubts about why you've been staring at them, but your shoes really are interesting as fuck."

I bursted out laughing and shook my head. Somehow, he knew exactly how to make my nerves dissipate. He grabbed my hand and opened the truck door for me, escorting me into the cramped middle seat, before following me in and slamming the door behind us.

"Let's go!" Zane yelled, rolling down the window and banging his fist in the air.

Finn blasted the radio, tapping his hand on the exterior side of the truck along to the music. "Highway to Hell" came on, and the five of us screamed along full heartedly into the city afternoon.

     "Uh, Danny? Are you sure these directions are right?" Finn asked, as we came to a halt in a parking lot.

"Yeah, uh, this is the place," Danny said, biting his bottom lip nervously.

"Uh, Danny?" Bishop asked.

"Yes, my dearest brother?"

"This is a retirement home," I finished, my jaw dropping.

"Wait what?" Zane asked, dropping his phone in his lap and leaning over me to peer out the window. "Shit."

"You booked our first gig at a retirement home? Are you shitting me?" Finn said, banging his fist on the steering wheel and leaning back, blowing air out of his mouth. His jaw tightened in anger.

"Well, yes, but...."

The truck erupted into indignant cries and negative shouts towards him.

"But, it's a gig, and you guys need the practice, so who cares if the audience might be a tad bit older than you expected?"

"A tad bit older? We're gonna give them heart attacks!" I yelled, throwing my hands in the air.

"They won't appreciate our music!" Finn said.

"It'll smell like old people!" Zane cried.

Finn and I looked at Zane, tilting our heads to the side, eyebrows furrowed, before shaking it off, turning, and waiting for Bishop's input.

He stared out the window in silence for a moment or two, his knee bouncing slightly against mine.

We waited, but he didn't say anything. "Bishop?" I asked, elbowing him softly.

"Let's do it."

"What?" Finn asked, whipping around to look at Bishop behind him.

"Let's do it. We said we'd play, let's play."

We all looked around at each other, smiles slowly growing.

"Let's rock this old folks' home," I said, which was met with whoops and hollers to affirm my thought.

We emptied out of the car and grabbed our equipment, our new found excitement rushing us inside. We loudly burst through the entrance of the retirement home.

"Sh! Don't disturb the residents," the fake red head behind the desk said, her beady eyes narrowing into thin slits.

We immediately halted our chaotic entrance and looked at each other sheepishly.

"You must be the band, huh? Y'all don't look like a jazz band. Our residents, or friends, as we like to call them, enjoy jazz."

"Danny," Finn muttered, crossing his arms and blowing air out of his mouth slowly.

Bishop had just started to step forward to deny our involvement in the jazz community, when Danny jumped in front of him. He crossed the room and rested his arms on the table, leaning forward to speak to the lady.

"Listen, Lydia, can I call you Lydia?" She rolled her eyes and nodded. "My guys know jazz, and we're here to put on a show, so if you'd please show us to the stage."

Lydia hesitated for a minute, while we all waited with bated breath, before she finally nodded and stepped out from behind the counter. "Follow me."

"Much obliged, dollface," Danny said, ushering us to follow her.

The boys started to follow, but I grabbed Zane's arm and pulled him back. "Zane, we don't play jazz."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me, babe."

"I'm serious. I can't even name a jazz song, never mind sing an entire jazz set."

"Just go with it." He pulled me along behind him into a back room, where dozens of elderly people were seated in plastic chairs, pointed towards the front of the room.

     We dragged our instruments to the front of the room, set up, then let the band play.

     "We're going! We're going!" Danny yelled, struggling to be heard over the screams, as we ran as fast as we could out of the retirement home. A group of residents and workers were hot on our heels, their walkers clanking and their wrinkly hands throwing various surrounding objects at us.

I barely dodged an extra supportive shoe, as we neared the automatic sliding doors. We bustled out of the retirement home, our hands filled with our unwieldy instruments and various equipment, bumping into each other and yelling apologies and rebuttals towards the angry mob of senior citizens.

     We broke out into the parking lot, high tailing it towards the truck and not looking back. The equipment was precariously thrown into the truck bed, and we all jumped into it, Finn hitting the gas, as soon the doors slammed behind us. Our skidmarks were the only evidence that we had been there, apart from the crowd watching us leave through the glass doors.

     We sat in silence for about thirty seconds, the only sound being our heavy breaths, before what had just happened finally sunk in. I burst out in uncontainable laughter.

     The boys looked at me like I was crazy. "The fuck is so funny?" Finn asked angrily, as he ran a hand through his curly hair and glared at me in the rearview mirror.

     I caught my breath just long enough to choke out, "they chased us out of there!"

Soon enough, the entire car was dying laughing, even Finn. Tears ran down my cheeks, and my laughter was uncontrollable.

"In hindsight, a nursing home was not the best place," Danny said, sending us into another bout of unbridled laughter.

"All's well that ends well, my dude," Bishop said, knuckle bumping each of us.

I grinned and leaned my head on the window, watching the city fly by, and thinking about how far we'd come, and how far we still had to go.