Chapter 2

Alright then, here's Chapter 2. I realize that I'm writing these somewhat short, but if James Patterson can get away with it...

Anyway, I probably wont post up whole sections anymore, only samples every once in awhile. I mean, if I put up too much, that sort of negates the whole purpose in my mind. I realize that not that many people read this space, but still. Plus, it stretches out the page, and it really kind of detracts from what I really want to do here. But that's a me issue. Here we go.

Chapter 2

Jason watched Brian light up his fifth cigarette in half an hour, and gave him a rueful look. “You’re going to kill yourself before you even get a chance to go back on the road again. You know that, right?”

“Aw, bite me, Jas. My nerves aren’t what they used to be.” He blew out smoke towards the ceiling and followed the stream with his eyes as if admiring his skill at exhaling. “Of course, they’d be a lot less tense if you’d just say yes already,” he remarked, squinting at Jason across the dining room table.

Jason leaned back in his chair, and looked around Brian’s dining room, pausing to rub his hands over his face. He had come over at Brian’s insistence, and knew he was in for a hard sell. But he had hoped he could have a conversation with him on both sides of the issue. He should have known better. “Brian, why are you so jacked up to get back with those two, especially Bobby? Did you forget what he said to you? I mean, I seem to remember you mentioning how satisfying you found it when his last album flopped.”

Brian took another drag and shrugged. “He apologized.”

“You believe him?”

“Yes and no,” replied Brian with a helpless expression. Jason looked hard at Brian for about ten seconds, and then chuckled. He leaned forward, and was about to say something, but thought better of it, and stood up. He found himself looking at a picture of Morning Star on stage that Brian had hanging on the wall in the dining room. It was a pretty good shot taken at a small club back when nobody had heard of them. A much easier time for all of them, when the pressure from the label hadn’t caused so much friction. Jason had never looked too closely at the shot, but noticed now that Doug was barely in frame, which wasn’t unusual for the drummer, being positioned slightly behind the rest of the band. What was sort of unusual was that Bobby, the front man, was partially obscured by Jason. Essentially, the shot was of him and Brian.

“How can you believe him, and not believe him?” asked Jason, turning back to the table, and leaning back against the wall with his arms folded.

“Well, it’s like, I know if he’s got other reasons to get the band back together, he’d be as slick as snake oil. But he sounded sincere, you know? When he was apologizing, he sounded like the old Bobby, the Bobby who wasn’t famous. He was stumbling over words and shit. But at the same time…” Jason nodded, letting Brian off the hook. He knew exactly what he meant. Bobby Paige was almost a used car dealer sometimes. “What’d he sound like when you talked to him?” Brian asked.

He thought back to the phone call the prior day. “Pretty much the same. I figured it was an act,” Jason said, rubbing his cheek, “but you make a good point. He’d probably try and sell it to us a bit slicker if he wasn’t somewhat sincere. But Bri…is an apology really enough? He said some downright shitty things ten years ago. Wrong things.”

Brian looked at Jason for a second, and hung his head a bit. “I know,” he said sheepishly, “But he really did sound sincere. Talked about pressure from the label, and how he didn’t know how much clout he had, and how he should have told them to shove it instead of buckling, and I sort of believe him. I mean, I have no reason not to.”

Jason’s eyes popped out incredulously. “No reason?! What about him telling you that you had no business being in a dinky garage band, let alone a gold album rock band?”

“Man, I know, but it was one night. He said really nasty stuff, once, one night. Horrible stuff, yeah, but what about the years before that where he never said one word? Yeah, he was always an ass, really, but he never said anything like that to me before. Does one night, which he apologized for…”

“Ten years later.”

“…completely invalidate everything else?” Jason started to say something, but stopped, letting Brian’s words sink in for a second. Brian grinned widely, and said, “Ha, I finally won one, alright,” pumping his fist.

“You didn’t win,” Jason grimaced.

“I so won.”

Jason sighed, and sat back down. “I honestly don’t know what to do. Ann is all for this, and it nearly broke my heart when Alex asked me if his dad was ‘gonna be a rock star again.’ But I don’t know if I have it any more, not just the grind of a tour, but the patience for Bobby and Doug.”

Brian took another drag of his cigarette, and then stubbed it out. “You don’t have to be friends with them. That was probably part of the problem in the first place. You just have to play music with them. Speaking of Alex, why don’t you bring him over here anymore? I’d like to see my godson once in a while.”

“Brian, for the millionth time, you aren’t his godfather.”

“Why do you have to crush a man’s dreams?”

“Your dream is to be a godfather?” Jason grinned. “Anyway, it’s your fifty pack a day habit. Don’t want him around all this smoke.”

“Four pack a day habit, thank you,” Brian said as he lit up another cigarette, “though I have been hitting them hard lately. Point taken.” He took another drag and rested the cigarette in his ashtray. “You still haven’t indicated either way what you’re gonna do, you know. You don’t have to commit to anything beyond a summer tour. It’d be an adventure, at the least.”

Jason smiled, and replied, “An adventure? Who am I, Indiana Jones?” He held up his hand to the protest he knew would be coming. “Look, I’m starting to think this might not be such a catastrophically bad idea. But I really don’t want to commit to something this huge without thinking it through. I’m not quite as free as you. I have a wife and kid to worry about, and as much as Ann assures me it won’t be a problem, I know it won’t be completely smooth sailing, either.” He shrugged.

Brian rolled his eyes in a “why me?” fashion, and focused back on Jason. “I hate you sometimes, man. All this ‘I’m not saying no, but I’m not saying yes, either’ crap.”

“You love me. That’s part of my unique charm.”

“Whatever. Well, at least you’re considering it.”

Jason nodded. “That’s all I can promise right now. I just need a few more days to think about it all, okay?”

“Deal. I really don’t want to do this without you along for the ride, you know,” said Brian, picking his cigarette back up to take a drag. “I mean, I will, I could use the money as well as the thrill, but it’d be a complete bummer without you.”

Jason couldn’t help but grin at the sentiment. “I promise that when I know, you’ll know.”