French Benefits

18/ Lone Rider

* DISCLAIMER: Contains explicit language, drug use, violent references, sexual content.

[ THIRD PERSON P.O.V ]

Wednesday · May 16, 2001 · Kansas City, Missouri

Joey, Alice, Sid and Chris were backstage messing around because Sid said that he had written something new and wanted to try it out. Alice had a video camera to record him, and Joey was playing a beat on his drum set. Chris was just back there hanging out with them.

"I've got a bad history of mental activity. I mean it quite literally. 3,000 hits of LSD. Did something inside of me; fucked up my philosophy. Truth is in OC's so I smoke trees with no seeds. Keeps me hazy, crazy, deranged, awake. Already stolen by Jay Z. Everyone else is spittin' all hypocrisy. Is it really so hard for G's to find originality? Sick of this shit. Don't come back or you'll be verbally scarred."

Alice zoomed the camera in on Sid's mouth as he rapped, not being able to help herself. After he stopped, she zoomed out and panned over to Joey who was still going on the drums.

"That's all I got on that one." Sid said and Joey stopped.

"I thought you had another verse."

"No, not on that one. I haven't written another verse on that one yet." Sid replied before going through it again, this time without Joey's beats.

"That's a fast rap, though." Chris commented and Alice agreed with him as she giggled slightly.

Not long after they decided to call it quits. Sid pulled Alice to his chest and kissed her deeply. She never cut the camera off so she was still recording everything. Chris took the camera from Alice and zoomed in on them. Eventually the two broke away for air and rested their foreheads together. Sid kissed Alice on the nose making her blush.

Alice then placed one last quick kiss on Sid's lips before turning to Chris and giving flipping off the camera. He laughed and stopped recording, handing the camera back to her. "Thanks, Chris. I think?"

Sid and Alice walked hand in hand to the other room when they saw Jim and Paul practicing a song together. She started the camera back up and filmed them as Sid stood behind her resting his chin on her shoulder and his arms wrapped firmly around her waist. She didn't recognize the song they were playing but it was beautiful.

They were so into the music that they didn't notice the couple in the room until they were done. "That was beautiful. Something new?" Alice asked as they acknowledged her presence.

"Yeah, just something we're playing around with," Paul answered and they moved into another song that Alice didn't recognize. Their energy together was just amazing. They didn't have to communicate through words what they were playing, and it was magical to watch.

◊◊◊

"Hey, Alice, would you wanna hear that song I was mentioning to you a while back?" Corey asked for the millionth time. Alice kept turning him down because she was pretty sure that Corey had feelings for her and she didn't want to hurt Sid by enabling him. Sighing, she knew that she couldn't avoid this forever.

"Sure," She kissed Sid as she stood up from her spot beside him and walked out of the room, down the hall to the soundcheck room, and sat on a stool as Corey picked up his acoustic guitar.