This time, instead of looking like she was going to explode with sadness, she had a look of primal rage on her face. At the end of her solo, she hit this one long note that sounded like a scream. She held her free hand up in the air while the note vibrated endlessly.
I couldn’t help myself. I cheered as loud as I could, “Yeah!!”
It was incredibly exciting.
When the song came to a close, the band made a ton of noise, strumming their guitars and hammering the drums at the same time. The stage lights flashed through every color of the rainbow. Then, on cue, the girl and Lucas both jumped in the air. They strummed their instruments a final time when they landed back on the stage. The drums stopped at the exact same moment, the band went silent, and the stage lights went dark.
Everyone in the bar roared their approval.
When white stage lights came back on, illuminating the band, Lucas Summer shouted over the mic and pointed at the guitar player, “Victory Payne on lead guitar, everybody!” He clapped his hands over his head, applauding her while his bass guitar dangled from his shoulder strap. People whistled and screamed. “We’re Lucas and Logan Summer! We’ll be back in a half hour for some more music! All right!!!”
The crowd cheered again as the band walked off the stage.
I turned to Madison and said, “That girl was incredible! I’ve never seen anyone play guitar like that before!”
“Me neither,” Madison said.
“And she’s a girl!” I cheered.
“I think I’ve got a girl crush,” Romeo said genuinely.
Kamiko said, “I thought I was your girl crush.”
“What did they say her name was again?” Romeo asked.
“Victory Payne,” Madison said.
“That’s her name?” I scoffed. “It sounds fake.”
“I think her real name is Victoria,” Madison said thoughtfully. “Victoria Payne.”
“Do you know her?”
“I’ve met her through Lucas and Logan once before. She’s really nice. You’d like her.”
CHRISTOS
The bar was so busy, I was still waiting for our drinks when the band took a break.
“I’ll be right back,” Jake said. “I’m gonna take a piss.”
I nodded.
A minute later, someone tapped me on the back. I turned around and Tiffany Kingston-Whitehouse stood right behind me.
“Hey, stranger,” she smiled. She wore standard Tiffany garb, which meant a tight top and tighter skirt. She loved to show off her body whenever she had the chance. I couldn’t blame her.
As usual, she seemed happy to see me. “Hey, Tiff.” Had it been a month ago, I would’ve given her a quick brush off, but after the way she’d told Samantha’s tribunal the truth about her ‘stolen credit card’ I was inclined to be nice. “How they hangin?” I grinned.
“Perky as ever,” Tiffany winked, subtly thrusting her chest at me. She wasn’t exaggerating. She did have an amazing rack, which I knew was the real deal. But she didn’t need anyone reminding her how good she looked. Her ego was plenty big enough already.
Changing the subject, I said, “I saw your mom and dad at my solo show tonight. How come you didn’t come? You usually do.”
“Oh,” she glanced awkwardly away, “I, uh, sort of thought maybe I should leave you alone. So you could, you know, enjoy the show. With, uh, Samantha,” she rolled her eyes like it took everything she had to talk nicely about Samantha.
That was progress. Sounded like Tiff was turning over a new leaf.
“What happened to you calling her Scumantha?” I grinned. “She told me about that, you know.”
Tiffany shrugged. For once, she didn’t have her hands all over me. She just stood a foot away, holding a girl drink in her hand, which was half gone.
I decided to be polite and let her off the hook for past transgressions. “Can I buy you another drink, Tiff?”
“I’m good for now,” she smiled. “How were sales tonight? Did you clean up?”
I nodded cockily, “Hells yeah. We sold everything.”
“I heard your dad and your grandfather had paintings on sale tonight?”
“Yeah, their stuff sold too.”
“Congratulations,” she said sincerely, “you should be proud of yourself, Christos. I bet you made a ton of money.”
“I hope.” The next thing I knew, I was opening up to her like I used to. “I just hope it’ll cover the civil suit hanging over my head.”
“Civil suit?” She sipped her drink. “What civil suit?”
“Oh, some douche bag named Hunter Blakeley. Do you know him?”
She shrugged.
“Total prick,” I shook my head. “This guy Hunter Blakeley was harassing Samantha a few months back every time he ran into her. One day he does it in front of me. Tried to start a fight with me, but I tripped him into the dirt. So everything’s fine, right?”
She nodded, cuing me to continue, and sipped her drink.
I gave her the run down about running into Hunter in front of Hooters, and him and his three buddies following me and Jake to our car. I glossed over the part about me and Jake stealing Hunter’s bar babes and buying them drinks because I didn’t want Tiff thinking she had a shot with me, because she didn’t. And I’d been shitfaced that night anyway. I didn’t plan on doing much if any drinking beyond one or two at a time for the foreseeable future. I had too much to lose.
I never wanted to lose Samantha.
“What happened at your car?” Tiff asked, her eyes wide with interest as she sucked down more of her drink.
I had a moment to wonder if she was trying to get buzzed so she would have an excuse to put the moves on me without inhibition. It was her usual strategy. I’d have to keep an eye on her.
“I popped the guy in the nose,” I said. “Once. But I think I broke it. Anyway, this guy Hunter is a model, and it turns out he lost a bunch of work. Now his attorney is asking for close to a million bucks.”
“A million!” Tiff swallowed wrong and coughed several times. “Sorry.” She blotted her chin with her cocktail napkin.
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What?” she smiled
“Nothing,” I grinned.
When she finished blotting, she said, “What are you going to do about this Hunter guy?”
“Fuck, I don’t know. Me and Russell think Hunter’s attorney found out how much my family is worth and they’re trying to bend us over.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Tiffany winced. Over the years, I knew Tiffany’s family had seen their fair share of people trying to sue the shit out of them over the littlest thing, just because they had money. She could relate.
“Thanks, Tiff. Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up. We don’t have any videotape evidence or anything to prove that Hunter started it. It’s just me and Jake’s word against Hunter and his three pals. This Hunter guy can come across totally clean cut when he wants too. A jury would probably believe him. Best case scenario, I’m hoping we can get the damages reduced. But even then, it could be a few hundred grand.”
“That’s awful, Christos,” Tiff said, resting her hand on my arm.
I glanced at her hand.
She let it fall away.
“I wish there was something I could do to help…” she gazed into my eyes, but then suddenly got a far away look, lost in thought.
She was gone so long, I finally said, “Tiff? You still there?”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “Sorry. Just thinking about something.”
“Anyway, I was going to say thanks, Tiff. I appreciate you listening. But don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with it.”
She shook her head and smirked, “You always do.”
She set her empty drink on the bar and said, “I need to go freshen up in the ladies room.”