Chapter Fourteen
They snuck in undetected by Lock or her friends and Bobby picked a booth in a dark corner. Jackie sat with Evelyn and Jerry across from Bobby, Angel, and Sofi (La Vida Loca). The youngest Mercer hadn't been very happy with the idea of watching Lock play without telling her, he had said it compromised the trust thing.
"Jack, try not to look so damn enthused," Angel teased.
"C'mon, Jackie," Sofi said. "Enjoy yourself."
Jack looked up from his pop, hazel eyes full of frustration, then resumed frowning at his drink. Bobby nudged his foot against Jack's leg, earning himself a glare, but he had the boy's attention.
"Hey, wanna go sit at the bar?" he asked, leaning on the table.
"I thought this was a family get together, Bobby," Jerry said. "And now you two are gonna ditch us for the bar?"
"Leave them be, Jeremiah," Ma said. "We're all here, like he wanted, so let them sit where they want."
"So? Want to?" Bobby asked, getting up and staring at Jack.
"Sure, whatever," he growled, getting up.
"Behave, you two," Ma warned. "No trouble, understand?"
"Course Ma," Bobby grinned, leading the way to the bar.
Bobby picked a spot where they were out of sight of his family and Lock, Jack slumped onto a stool and stared at the counter top. Bobby sat down beside him and ordered two shots of Jack Daniels, elbowing Jackie a little when the drinks came. His hazel eyes looked at Bobby, the shot glass, then back to Bobby.
"C'mon, you lil fairy," Bobby grinned, picking up his shot. "Drink."
This was far from the first time Bobby had ever done shots with the teen, the kid could keep up pretty well, but once drunk he was gone. Jack picked up his shot, clinking it with Bobby's, and they downed the Daniels, slamming the glasses down.
"Don't get me drunk, Bobby," Jack mumbled.
"Awwww! C'mon! I love it when you sing 'Jack drinks Jack'!" Bobby laughed, signaling two more shots.
"I'm serious, asshole," he snapped.
"Chill the fuck down, Cracker Jack! I ain't gonna get you trashed, Ma's here."
They tipped their shots to each other and slammed them back, putting the empty glasses upside down on the counter. The shots were doing their job, Jackie sighed and relaxed, leaning on the counter.
"More?" the tender asked.
"Nah, not right now," Bobby smirked. "Can't get drunk."
"'Bout you kid?" he asked Jack. "Anything to drink besides booze?"
"Cherry Coke," he smiled.
"Comin' up."
Bobby snickered, elbowing his brother and checked his watch. It was seven ten, where the hell was the band?
"Hey, where's the band?" he asked when the tender gave Jack his Coke.
"Oh, they're dinking with a slideshow thing and movies to play while they perform. . .Kinda like homemade music videos, they're actually pretty cool," he said and went to serve more customers.
Hmmmmm. . .Lock's got all sorts of little tricks up her sleeves. . .I can't wait!
Suddenly, the lights dimmed, Jack spun on his seat to watch the stage and Bobby leaned on the bar. Ransom showed up in front of the closed velvet curtains, a microphone in hand, Bobby could see the light from a projector on the ceiling and grew anxious.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!" Ransom was amping the crowd. "I give to you, the beautiful, the dark, the twisted: Heart's Locket!"
The curtains opened, revealing Lock and her band.The stray stood center stage, no guitar for now, head lowered--hair obscuring her face--with the mic in her hands. She was dressed very "punk-goth" as Jack would say: torn jeans, black fishnets under them, her combat boots, small chains looping her waist (making U's all the way around), black bracelets, torn long sleeved black shirt with fishnet sleeves that had thumbholes, her nails were done and when she looked up--eyeliner that made her eyes look like phantoms.
"Whoa," Jack breathed. "She's totally got the stage appearance thing down. Damn! She's hot!"
Bobby nodded, then saw the projection screen behind the drummer. It was up high enough so he wouldn't block it and so the projector light wouldn't blind any of them.
The music started, Lock lifted her head and gave the crowd a haunted look, and pictures popped up behind them of the girl. Bobby's jaw hit the ground. The pictures were the teen, but as he'd never seen her: being her complete self.
A picture of her in a cemetery, standing with her back against an angel statue, her head leaned back as if she were staring into its eyes, and her arms over her head--around its neck. Another of her when she was younger, sitting on church steps, acoustic guitar in hands, a haunted look in her eyes as she stared at the photographer. They kept flowing, puzzle pieces from her past, and then she started to sing, making eye contact with the crowd.
"If you feel so empty,
So used up, so let down. . .
If you feel so angry,
So ripped off, so stepped on. . .
You're not the only one
Refusing to back down!
You're not the only one
So get up. . ."
She stepped off the stage, onto a table, then moved through the crowd--the people all moved around her, certain kids being drawn to her.
"Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot.
Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot!"
She sang directly to certain kids, the misfits, the outcasts--making them belong.
"If you feel so filthy,
So dirty, so fucked up!
If you feel so walked on,
So painful, so pissed off!
You're not the only one
Refusing to back down!
You're not the only one!
So get up!
Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot!
Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot!"
The boys had a guitar moment, Lock leapt onto a table soon to be joined by Ransom, and Bobby watched the projections again. Here was Lock, beat to hell: black eye, bloody lip, bruised jaw, and a proud smirk on her face. Lock and Ransom sitting on a stone staircase, both making idiotic faces at the camera. Lock sitting on a building roof, presumably the edge, staring at the rising full moon. The stray playing in a fire hydrant with a whole fleet of little kids, laughing like Bobby'd never seen.
Lock jumped back on stage, taking her place in the center, she seemed different--searching for someone, and then she finished the song.
"If you feel so empty,
So used up, so let down,
If you feel so angry
Just get up!"
People who had been sitting, suddenly jumped up, pumping their fists in the air in time with her voice. Lock did the same.
"Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot!
Let's start a riot, a riot!
Let's start a riot!"
She made eye contact with Bobby, clearly surprised to see him, and glanced at Jack. Bobby felt his heart leap into his throat, he sucked in a nervous breath, and Jackie grabbed his shoulder. Lock smiled to the crowd and they got ready for another song--taking a quick drink from bottles of water just off stage.
"Bobby!" Jack spun him. "Dude, she fuckin' saw us!"
"Tell me something' I don't know," he mumbled. "At least she didn't see Ma and the others. . .And she wasn't pissed. . ."
Jack looked around nervously, hunching down, and trying to disappear. Bobby put his hand on the teen's arm, trying to get him to calm down and Jack looked at him.
"I never knew Lock had a thing with cemeteries. . ." he murmured, staring at Bobby.
"Jackie, I'm not surprised. . .think of the other pictures--we just saw a lot what she hides from the world."
"Think we'll ever see those sides in person?" he asked, claming down.
"Already have. . .well, a couple. . ."
"Huh� What ones?"
"That night with that fuck Rook and the paint fight before. . .Two different sides. . ." Bobby grinned.
"Bobby. . ." Jack was nervous again.
"What, Cracker Jack?"
"I---uhhhh--kissed her. . ." he muttered to his drink.
"I know that, you idiot," he ruffled his hair.
"No, I mean tonight! I kissed her. . ."
"Oh! Wait, what!" he made the boy look at him.
"Bobby! She wanted me to! I could tell!"
"Oh, what? She just said 'Jackie, stick your tongue down my throat!' Jesus, I thought I told you to be fuckin' slow!"
"Dammit, Bobby! Let me explain!" tears filled his baby brothers eyes.
Way to go, fuck head! Blow a nut at the kid when he tells you somethin' personal. . .
"All right, Cracker Jack. . .I'm sorry. . .Go ahead."
The teen stammered out his explanation, telling Bobby how she had looked at him, how she kissed back, how he stopped when she gave him a sign, and how she had told him straight up to not push it. Hazel eyes regarded him nervously after he was done.
"Jack," he put an arm around his shoulders. "I'm so damn proud of you!"
"What?" Jack gave him a stunned look.
"You are going slow, you're letting her get comfortable--hell, you double check every time!" he laughed. "I shoulda' seen this comin'! With as much as you flirt with Stray. . ."
"Bobby!" he snickered, a little embarrassed.
"Oh, c'mon!" he messed up his little brother's hair, laughing "I see why you're the one to sneak through her defenses, you little flirt!"
"Shut the fuck up," Jack laughed, playfully shoving him.
"Hey, Stray's coming back on!" they both turned and paid careful attention to her.
Now, Lock had a long, leather trench coat on, covering everything, and still no guitar. The projector was off and she had the mic in a stand, holding both it and the mic. She looked at the crowd with a grin, while the guys played, then she opened her mouth and sang.
"Well, it rains and it pours,
When you're out on your own. . .
If I crash on the couch
Can I sleep in my clothes?
'Cause I've spent the night dancing,
I'm drunk, I suppose. . .
If it looks like I'm laughing,
I'm really just asking to leave. . .
This alone, you're in time for the show,
You're the one that I need,
I'm the one that you loathe. .
You can watch me corrode
Like a beast in repose. .
'Cause I love all the poison
Away with the boys in the band. . ."
She flicked her hand up and the lights over the guys dimmed, making them vanish, then slowly faded back in.
"I've really been on a bender and it shows.
So why don't you
Blow me a kiss before she goes?"
She put her hand to her temple, as if it were a gun.
"Give me a shot to remember
And you can take all the pain away from me. . .
A kiss and I will surrender. . .
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead!
A light to burn all the empires,
So bright, the sun is afraid
To rise and be in love with
All of these vampires. .
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me. . ."
She moved up to the mic, hands going to the flaps of the coat.
"There's a place in the dark
Where the animals go
You can take off your skin
(here she stripped the coat, revealing her earlier outfit, and pulling a gasp from Jackie)
In the cannibal glow.
Juliet loves the beat
And the lust it commands,
Drop the dagger and
Lather the blood on your hands,
Romeo. . .
"I've really been on a bender and it shows.
So why don't you
Blow me a kiss before she goes?
Give me a shot to remember
And you can take all the pain away from me. . .
A kiss and I will surrender. . .
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead!
A light to burn all the empires,
So bright, the sun is afraid
To rise and be in love with
All of these vampires. .
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me. . ."
Lock, you certainly are a whole different being on that stage, Bobby thought, clapping and cheering. You're---free----
"These guys are gonna take a quick break, to catch their breath and cool down," Ransom was saying."Hold tight, I swear they will return."
Lock didn't come to mingle with the people, like her band mates, but Bobby figured he knew where she went. Jack finished his Coke and got up, heading for the back exit.
"Hey, where do you think you're goin'?" Bobby demanded, grabbing his coat and stopping him.
"To talk to her," Jack said, pulling free.
"Jackie," he have him a serious look, "stay slow with her, don't push."
"I won't," he smiled and took off.
He might stand a chance with Stray, he thought, ordering a beer. If he's careful, he might even date her. . .Now, that would be interesting. . .
"That boy better not hurt Lock," a gruff voice said.
Bobby turned and saw the bouncer, Jack said his name was Brutal, and he looked just that--a brute.
"Brutal. . .I'm Bobby Mercer," he extended his hand. "And Jackie would never hurt Stray, trust me."
"Mercer, huh?" the man had quite the grip. "I've heard that name before. . .Rough bunch. . .Take good care of that girl."
"We are," he grinned.
Brutal turned and went back to guarding the door. Bobby turned and went back to his beer.
Songs:� Riot--3 Days Grace and The Sharpest Lives--My Chemical Romance