I could feel it.
The nerves, they came first. Then, I could smell it.
The smell of the dust on the curtains, the alcohol in the air, and…the sweat of my friends?
I turned to them, they were shaking. But hey, so was I.
"It's just a gig," I said, "Nothing to be nervous about; it's just another bar."
Lily nodded, Shane shook his head, and Josh closed his eyes. I, on the other hand, was trying to control my breathing and erratic heartbeat. No matter how many times we preformed, the before show nerves would always, always, hit.
Then, I heard it.
The music from the speakers cut off. I watched as one of the bartenders walked up on stage. I think it's Rodger, but I can't tell.
"So…we got some live music for you guys tonight," he says. There were a few claps in the audience. "They came to cover some songs…and stuff…. So here they are! Please welcome, The Demons!" There was no applause that time.
Note to self: Never let Shane name the band. Ever. Under any circumstances.
We walked awkwardly on to the stage, well I thought it was awkward, everyone was staring at us with the kind of hate that made things spontaneously combust. I fondled the neck of my guitar for a moment before I looked over at Shane, my right hand man, our singer. He shrugged; he didn't know what to play either. I looked at Lily, our drummer. She had a blank look on her face, and to be honest, she looked like she was going to puke. Then, I looked at Josh, our bassist. He smiled.
"I got this," he said confidently, "Any requests?" He shouted to the audience.
"FREE BIRD" someone shouted back.
"Who said that, who said that?" Josh asked. He pointed towards someone raising his hand, "Fuck you."
I brought my hand to my forehead; God damn it, Josh.
"Alright then," he continued, "We shall play…uh, oh! We shall play 'For You' by Staind."
That was the start of our, shall I say, interesting evening.
Three hours, several songs, and two drinks later, we finished our gig. We made a pretty good amount; it came up to five hundred dollars. We would have gotten less, but some guy, drunk off his ass, came up on stage and tried to fondle me. Shane stopped, mid song, and took care of it. And by 'took care of it' I mean Shane punched the drunken man in the face.
We had to split up the money before we all went home. There were four of us. So five hundred divided by four is one hundred and twenty five each. But Lily lives with Shane and me, so fifty dollars of her share splits between Shane, Josh, and me. So, fifty divided by three is sixteen dollars and sixty six cents. We would give the spare change to Lily, leaving us all with,
Shane=$141
Josh=$141
Me=$141
Lily=$75.66
We said our goodbyes to Josh and then went home.
Shane, Lily, and I live together. This is because I am adopted. Shane and Lily are blood related and separated by the time span of three years. (Shane being the oldest) When they were little, their, or our, mother died. Our dad became worried that they would need a woman in their life, so instead of re-marring, he decided to adopt me. I am the same age as Shane, which is twenty two now, so we just kind of look after the house, and such. Our dad you ask? He went to war about a year ago. He writes us letters sometimes….
"Good show, eh?" Shane asked me the night after the show. I was currently kicking his ass in chess whilst Lily was a drying her hair.
"I'm going to murder Josh." I replied.
"Aw, come on now, he was just trying to ease the tension. Check, by the way."
I moved my bishop to block his rook whilst replying, "Excuses, excuses. Oh, check mate."
"What? No way, you most defiantly cheated!"
"I most defiantly did not. Now a bet's a bet. I'll have sesame chicken with white rice please." I told him in a gloating tone. And yes, we did just bet on who would buy Chinese food.
"Sissy," Lily called from the bathroom, "come do my hair!"
I made my way to the bathroom and upon entering, found my little sister losing a battle with the straightener. I quickly took it from her before she burned herself, again.
"You'd think at nineteen, you would have learned how to manage the straightener by yourself." I told her. It's not that I minded doing her hair, I actually loved to do her hair, it's just the fact that we aren't little anymore. It feels…different.
I ran the straightener through her long, sand colored hair and asked, "Do you want it to curl under, or are you going to pull it up?"
"I think I'll put it in pigtails." She said.
I finished straightening her hair and pulled half of it up on each side of her head. When we were finished Shane called us for dinner.
At the table, Shane was rambling about some ghost town he had heard about at the Chinese place.
"…And now, there's no one there. It's supposed to be haunted! I guess the name is pretty ironic now, huh? Silent Hill…we should go there!"
"No." Lily stated firmly. She was a pansy, scared of lots of things, surprisingly enough though, she loves bugs….
My thoughts were interrupted when Shane asked, "So? Should we go?"
"Whatever, I don't care." I stated plainly. Ghost town my ass. It was probably just a rumor created by some dumb kids.
"Then it's decided, tomorrow, Silent Hill."