TMNT: We don't play the game
Chapter four: Metric
Backstage was the best place to be at Club Weed, everyone knew each other, back here, we were actually friends, we were all artists, music was our passion and it was something we shared, everything had happened to all of us, we'd fallen in love, broken up, got married, died, disappeared, mugged, birthed a child, it was our own little world and it was full of memories.
Along two walls parallel to each other were two sets of lockers, each one had been personalised by the owner, mine had been painted entirely red and everyone who had ever set foot backstage had signed it with a black sharpie, which hung from a piece of string wrapped around the handle, I took the sharpie from its cap and opened the locker, on the inside of the door was a tally chart of the number of shows I had done at Weed, I added another little stick to the tally, show number seventeen.
I took a bleach blonde wig from the top shelf, tinted with brunette dye, I tied up my real brunette hair with an old elastic band and slipped the wig on over it, underneath the top shelf hung an array of gothic clothing, coupled with a small pile of shoes beneath them, most of which were black leather boots, the first thing that caught my eye was a strapless black dress.
I stripped down to my underwear, throwing my daytime clothes into the bottom of the locker, I knew no one was looking at my half naked body, because everyone in here had already seen each other naked at least three times, after each show we had an after party, it doesn't matter whether it was good or bad, we always went out for a drink and ended up going back to someone's apartment to get hammered, and probably get laid, I smiled nostalgically as I slipped into the dress and zipped it up, I pulled on a random pair of boots from my collection of many.
"Ready for the show?"
"I'm always ready honey." I zipped up the right boot, then turned to find a brunette boy leant against the next locker, Mark Theller, tall, brunette and windswept, he was also my other half.
For the moment.
He smiled anxiously at me, I took his hand and squeezed it slightly, in an attempt to calm his nerves, no matter how many shows we did, he was always agitated before them and I had to do all in my power to keep him calm, I pulled him along behind me towards the door that led to the stage, the club fell silent each time we entered, everyone knew who we were and had gotten tired of applauding us every time, plus, some people didn't like me too much, I was too eccentric for them, what with all my wig wearing, one minute I was a calm, average high school student, but when I was on stage, I was wild.
Being in a band at my age was a difficult thing to handle, I still had some exams going on, so that got in the way of rehearsals, that being the case none of us had much time to write any original songs, so we just played music by more well-known bands, tonight we kicked it off with a bit of Metric, because we didn't have much money for expensive synthesizing equipment, we stuck to the basics; Ebony on drums, Mark on bass, my brother Freddy on lead guitar and yours truly sang lead vocals.
"Hello again friend of a friend, I knew you would...Our come and go was waiting for the world to end!"
