Far Beyond Broken

January 24, 1987. Saturday

Mad and I walked on stage, along with Bennie. The drummer from the band that opened for us.
No one could find Vic. She didn't come home the previous night. I was starting to worry, but Vic was tough. She would take care of herself.
"Hey, everyone. As you can see, Vic isn't here. There were some personal issues she had to deal with. We have Bennie here. Let's give him a round of applause for helping us out."
The crowd began applauding.
"Alright, let's go!"
Half way through our set I noticed lots of movement behind me. I was shocked to see Vic grabbing Bennie's drum sticks and taking his place. I knew she saw me, I was staring directly at her. She didn't even look at me, she was still pissed.
After our show, Vic was quick to leave. She was almost out of the back door before we caught up.
Mad started talking before I could even catch my breath, "Vic, please wait. Let's just talk this out. I'm sorry."
She turned around, still not looking at me, only Mad.
"You shouldn't be the one apologizing. She should," Vic stuck her finger out towards me.
"I'm very sorry, Vic. I was just pissed. You're right, I have no clue what it's like to hide myself. I should've just agreed with you and dropped the conversation. We need you, please, come home."
She was tense, jaw locked. I could tell she was thinking.
"I'll see you two at the studio."
That was all she said before leaving.
"Great!" Mad smacked her hands against her thighs.
"We lost our fucking drummer."
"No, we didn't. She said she would see us Monday."
"She probably just said that, so she had some time to think about quitting."
I grabbed her shoulder, "Mad, look at me. Chill. Everything will work out."
She just shook her head.
"Let's just go to Darrell's, both of us need a break."
The thirty-minute drive felt like an eternity.
There were a few unusual cars parked in front of the house.
I roamed the house looking for someone with some pot.
Finally, I spotted Rex sitting in the kitchen.
"Hey, how was the show?"
"Great. Phil's really good. I think Darrell and Vin are gonna actually ask him if wants in the band soon."
"He definitely does."
"Why are you so sure about that?"
"We've talked a little. I can tell he likes us."
"Us?"
"Me and my girls and you guys."
"Oh, right. Speaking of girls, did y'all ever find Vic?"
"She showed up late to our gig. Like thirty-minutes into set late. She didn't say much other than she would see me and Mad on Monday at the studio."
"Damn. What'd you do to piss her off so bad?"
"We got in an argument about the band and some personal stuff. I apologized, but she didn't really accept it."
"She's hot-headed, she'll come around."
"Yeah," I mumbled, "you have any smoke?"
He chuckled, "No, I wish, Darrell might. Or Phil, whoever you find first."
"Ah, alright, thanks," I patted him on the back as I went on my quest. Darrell was nowhere to be seen, which was weird. He was always the life of the party.
Since the little house had a good amount of people in it, it was hard to find anyone.
I walked up to Phil, there were a few girls standing around him.
His eyes lit up when he saw me walking to him.
"Well, it was nice talking to you ladies but my pal is here now. I'll have to catch up with y'all later," he was drunk. If not drunk then heavily buzzed.
One of the girls gave me a nasty look and the others were just confused.
I was confused as well. Phil had never been this happy to see me. Also, we never labeled ourselves as 'Pals'. I didn't mind though, I just assumed it was the alcohol getting to him.
"Thanks for saving me," he said as he draped an arm around my shoulder.
"I love chicks, but damn, they kept asking me stupid questions. Only like two of them actually wanted something to do with me. The others wanted to know about Darrell."
He began to do a girl impression, "Oh, Phil, where's Darrell? Does he have a girlfriend? Do you think he'd f-"
I cut him off with a laugh, "Okay, okay, I get it. As much as I like chatting that's not what I came over here for."
"Hm, what can I do for the special lady?"
"I need to smoke."
"I hope you mean weed, cause I just ran out of cigs."
"I do."
"Great," he said with a big smile. "Follow me," he led me outside.
We sat under a tree in the backyard and passed the roach to each other.
"So where is Darrell?"
"I don' know man. Wait. Wait." He stood up.
"Man, I totally forgot!"
"What?" I was very confused.
"Rita is here tonight. Darrell said he was trying to score some with her. Shit," I could only somewhat see his smile cause of the moonlight.
"He's totally getting some right now. He's been AWOL for like an hour!"
"I think this is too much information for my little ears."
"Hey, you asked."
"Fair enough."
Phil picked up a few pebbles and threw them at Darrell's window.
"What was that for?"
"I wanna know if he's in there."
Phil waited about five seconds before throwing more. He was being very impatient.
A shirtless Darrell slung open the window.
"What the hell!" he yelled down to Phil and I.
Phil began to do thrusting motions.
The moon hit just right, so I could see Darrell roll his eyes before slamming the window shut.
"Hell yeah, he totally got some."