She Wouldn't Say Goodbye. (Guns N' Roses)

Seven

I stood next to Jeff in the little cramped bar, a can of half empty Coke in my hand. Bill was on the small stage, singing loudly into the microphone with Rapidfire. There was a handful or so of people standing around the stage, each one of the bar stools taken by men and women with teased hair, heavy leather or blue jean coats on. The real feeling of something new and exciting happening as every minute passed by. While Jeff stood there tight black jeans, white button up, black blazer and a floppy hat pulled down over his face. He was his own kind of cool, you felt groovy just standing near him. He looked from the stage to me, "We'll have to do something nice for Bill's birthday. We only have two more days." His brown eyes glancing over to the wall clock. "Twelve more minutes, till February 5th actually." He continued. "I'm actually surprised you remember his birthday now, you forgot it almost every year we lived in Lafayette." Jeff stepped back to lean against the old bar. "That happened like twice." "It's fine, he couldn't remember his own fucking birthday that one year." I laughed at the memory. "He was just so drunk." "Gah, I know. I think he ended up sleeping in your yard." Jeff nodded his head and laughed, "He did. When he realized what happened though, didn't he go to your place and crash for like a week?" Jeff questioned. "Yeah, that was after he stole your fucking car though." I sat down next to where Jeff stood. "We've had some real crazy things happen." I sighed. "This is probably the craziest." Jeff stated, slinging his skinny arm over my shoulder. "What?" He moved his arm and shifted to standing in front of me, using his finger to point to the ground, "This, living in California finally." I nodded. "I'm glad you and Bill are here now." "Thanks Jeff, it's really surreal still. A part of me still feels like I'm going to die alone in fucking Lafayette." He glanced around, keeping his eyes on the stage for a while. Just observing the band. "This is Bill's last show with Rapidfire." I stated out of the blue. Jeffery looked down at me. "But they just recorded a demo?" "He wants to quit. I think Gina said some shit to him." "Why would he care though, they  aren't together anymore." Jeff took a seat. "That's news to me." He grabbed a pack of Marlboro reds out of his blazer pocket. "You were there with him, how did you not know they weren't still together." I shrugged my shoulder, the flimsy silk sleeves moving across my skin. "It's not like he's a very talkative guy." "Ain't that the truth." After a few more minutes of me and Jeff shooting the breeze, a Blond headed guy about our age, makes his way towards Jeff and me. He was about medium height, wearing a plain white shirt and dark wash jeans. "Hey, Jeff. What's up?" Jeffrey turned around to face the blond. "Hey, Man." I turned my attention to the end of Rapidfire's set. Not wanting to intrude into their conversation. The band hit the ending notes of the last song. "Goodnight, thanks for coming to watch us play." Bill Pointed towards Jeff and I, a few people turning to see who he was pointing at. Before the group started packing their equipment up. Jeff caught my attention, "Hey Kat, you didn't meet Chris did you?"  I shook my head. "No, Hi, Chris." "Hey, Kat, right?" He stuck his hand out. "Yeah. Well Katherine but, Kat is what I prefer to be called." He let go of my hand, "Alright than, Kat. Nice to meet you, I'm going to assume you and Jeff are friends, right?" "Yeah, we've know each other since middle school." Chris looked kind of stunned. "And you both ended up moving to California?" "Yeah, Jeff moved here first. How long have you two know each other?" "Just a couple days actually." He answered. "Yeah, Tracii Guns introduced us." Jeff commented. "Really, Bill knows him." Jeff shook his head. "Bill Rose?" Chris questioned. "Yes, he played with L.A. Guns a few times." "I know, I saw one of the shows, he's really good." I smiled at him, "That's nice, he actually just got finished playing a set here tonight, if you missed it?" "Fuck, really? Wasn't L.A. Guns was it?" "No it was Rapidfire. He's quitting though, not quite sure what's next." Chris nodded, "We should start writing together?" Jeff spoke up, obviously directing his question to Chris. "Totally, Man. Hey, you free any this week?" Jeff nodded his head 'yes'. "Hey, Jeff. I'm going to go find Bill. It's been real nice meetin' you, Chris." "You too Kat." He smiled and turned back to his conversation.

(Chapter continued on eight)