Cold At My Core | Johnnie Guilbert

Ch 6: And This Is Who?

Johnnie's tour starts today, and I'm not complaining. Long drives with good music, and even better company? Suh-weet!

Early in the morning we swung by a gas station and loaded up on Monsters and candy. I got a few bags of various Sour Patch kids, some King sized Reese's, and a Hershey bar. And a small bag of marshmallows, which I felt lucky to have snagged.

I practiced my singing in the car with Johnnie. He had a great voice, almost whiny but totally emo and desperate-sounding. Like desolation was sulking inside his solar plexus.

King For a Day came on and both us flipped. Turns our Johnnie can't scream and I apparently can. Hittin them high notes, yo.

We burst into laughing when my shitty phone skipped and started playing some Latin polka. What can I say? I have an eclectic taste in music c:

After hours of driving, we touched down at the first venue. No one was there to help set up, and my noobish brain quickly realized the main acts had to do their own soundcheck and everything.

My eyes lingered on the bar as we passed by.

I would not drink. How could I, with Zoloft deep in my system?

Someone shouted, loudly, and before I knew it a girl was running towards us.

Johnnie spun her around, and my stomach somersaulted into knots with each annoyingly bubbly giggle she made.

She was carefully set on the ground once more, leaning in to peck his cheek. Johnnie smiled, not even glancing my way in the slightest.

Fuck this.

Fuck whoever pink-haired girl this is.

Johnnie had someone, and he didn't even tell me? She had been mentioned a total of zero times.

Granted, we haven't known each other for that long... I pushed the thought out of my head. Fuck this. Fuck this with a rake and a blowtorch.

I needed a drink. Or two. Or ten.

________

Pinkette said her first words to me an hour later, and if she didn't look blurry and my speech hadn't slurred maybe we'd be on different terms. Maybe verbal punches wouldn't have been thrown.

"Oh, so you're Johnnie's bitchy girlfriend?" I asked.

Confusion warped her pretty little features.

"N-no," she said. "I'm Alex. Johnnie and I are--"

"Just friends?" My brow rose, and I felt like throwing up.

"Um--"

My stomach suddenly lost control. Puke erupted from my mouth, spraying all over Alex's pretty plaid outfit.

The yell she gave would forever linger in my consciousness. Drunk or not.

My life was officially ruined.

__________

I emerged from the bathroom.

I stumbled and staggered through the bar, past tables and chairs while Johnnie's voice overtook the air.

I should be watching his first set, but I was too hazed out of my mind.

Time passed, and soon the music ended. Silence gave way, and something emerged from all this darkness.

I didn't know how. I didn't know why or when - all I knew was, for a moment, Johnnie's lips were on mine.

When he pulled back, my drunken brain tried to catch up. But Alex called him, and my stupor steps lead me away.