The New Dudez

Chapter 4

I opened my eyes as I finished singing the last lyric for ‘Angel’ and looked at the small crowd we had. Which, in fact, was mostly made up of IM5. We are that bad, I swear. It’s just we’re playing live. Honestly, it's usually a little more packed than this.

Cole was staring at me intimately; it was kind of creeping me out. Why is he looking at me like that? I just sang a somewhat sad song. I mean, it’s supposed to be happy too because it’s saying he is watching over me. Which, I know, he is and always will be. I can just feel it. I felt the silent tear roll down my cheek. Quickly, I turned around and wiped it away.

Dalton gave me a look that was asking, ‘Are you okay?’

I gave him a short nod, telling him I’m okay. I am okay; I kind of wrote the song in a way to show I’m okay with my dad being gone. I will never be fully okay with it, but I’ve come to terms and peace.

I walked over to grab the electric guitar from Dalton. The next song we’re singing is ‘American Idiot’ by Green Day- One of my favorites. Dalton’s going to be the main vocalist in this, but Brad and I will be backing him up.

Brad is our bass guitarist. He has long, black hair, blue eyes, and is always wearing black studded bands on both wrists. Max, as mentioned before, is our person on the drums. He has short, black hair, hazel eyes, and always wears the same black red wings band shirt when we gig. Which he made himself- he could make some serious bank if he sold those. It looks frickin sick!

I grabbed my pick and set myself up in front of the mic next to Dalton’s.

We all gave each other the okay and Max yelled, while tapping his drumsticks together, “One! Two! One, two, three, four!” We all fell into the fast beat of ‘American Idiot’ and Dalton got into it. He was dancing around on the small stage and I tried not to laugh. I’m going to straight up say this now- he looks adorable when he’s rocking out.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Cole still watching me. What is his deal? It’s been like a week since I’ve met him, and his flirty comments haven’t stopped. Hasn’t he got the message I’m not interested? Clearly he’s a man who doesn’t know the word ‘No’ or sarcastic remarks that mean ‘No’.

After we finished our last song, we packed up the amps, drums, and guitars into the van. Then we went back inside to have a couple of drinks with IM5. I do literally mean drinks. I know the manager of this place; his name is Carl and he was a close friend of my dad. I’m pretty much the reason we got this gig. Carl only allows us to have one beer, so then we’re not that intoxicated. Yeah, that’s only about how illegal I will go and, even then, this only happens like twice a month.

You’d probably think I’m a big time party kind of girl, but I’m not. I’m more of a chill, stay by myself at home kind of girl. And in some cases, Dalton is there with me. We also like to play our guitars together.

“I could really feel the emotion in your song.” Dana stated, taking a sip of his sprite.

“Me too. Especially since you had your eyes closed most of the time. That tells me it’s about someone very special or close to you.” Will added, taking a sip of orange Fanta. Yeah, I should mention right now, Dalton and I are the only ones who took up the one beer offer.

I took a sip of my Bud Light and pointed my pointer finger at him. "You’re good, Will. Oh you’re good. It’s about my dad.”

“Did he walk out or-“

“He passed away. Disease in his liver.” I, again, took another sip of my beer.

Dalton, quickly, took away the bottle from me and stated, “I think you’ve had enough.”