Rock All Night(16)

“Hey, how is Shanna?” Ryan asked. “Do you guys still talk?”

Suddenly Derek swept into the group with the two girls. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t think they could get any taller – hey, Mr. and Mrs. Miller!”

They greeted him happily, and proceeded to chat as Casey tried to keep Derek’s attention and tell him all about Disneyland. Mara was playing it much cooler… but it was clear she was just as infatuated. She had really blossomed, and was all made up for the show. As soon as she saw me, her face darkened, and I remembered the icy looks she had shot me years ago.

Apparently she remembered that evening, too.

I guess I was still competition.

She turned away from me and back to Derek. “Can I take a picture with you? Pleeeaaaase?”

“Of course – gonna send it to your friends and make them jealous?” Derek teased.

While Derek and Mara took a selfie, Ryan pointed out Killian and Riley to his parents. Killian walked on over, though Riley just waved from across the room. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were both polite in return, but it was clear that they were uncomfortable with Ryan’s bandmates – especially as Mrs. Miller kept backing away from Killian’s cloud of pot-stank with a wrinkled nose.

I wound up near Riley as the Miller family continued to chat and Derek clowned around with the two girls. I expected some snarky humor from her, but instead Riley just watched the scene with a wistful look on her face.

“You didn’t want to say hello?” I asked.

She looked at me like she had awoken from a daydream. “What? Oh, they know me from Athens. They don’t really like me too much.”

“Oh.”

She kept watching the scene play out, her expression blank.

Something odd was going on.

Time to play journalist. That’s what I was here to do, after all.

“Did something happen?” I asked. “Some kind of fight?”

Again, she seemed distracted. “What? Oh, you know… just that we kind of showed up and took over Ryan’s life. And, I mean… look at me, and look at them.” She said it without rancor – just matter-of-factly. “But it’s cool. They’re good people. They really love Ryan.”

The comment, coming from her, surprised me. Especially the offhand way she said it.

She watched them for a long moment, and said one more thing:

“It’d be cool if somebody came across the country to watch me like that.”

And then she walked away.





12




Showtime neared, and the anticipation in the air almost crackled. I was even becoming nervous.

Killian wasn’t. He just smoked a doobie over in the corner and plinked along on his guitar as the opening band rocked out on the stage, the sound of their vocals and guitars echoing through the concrete hallways.

Derek wasn’t nervous, either. He joked with various crew members, and chatted with all the famous people who had dropped by before the show. Current stars, rock luminaries from decades past, actors – the Beautiful People. And all of them seem entranced with him.

But Ryan and Riley were off in their own private worlds. Ryan was pacing back and forth, breathing in and out methodically, a sick look on his face. Riley was sitting on a swiveling stool by herself, her eyes closed, drumsticks clasped loosely in her fingers, pounding out beats on an imaginary drum set.

“Hey,” I said to Derek as he wrapped up talking to a famous actor who had played a musician in a recent biopic.

“What’s up? Getting good stuff for the article?”

“Uhhh… I guess. Where should I go while you guys are onstage?”

“Oh, you’ll be going onstage, too.”

My face went slack with shock. “…what?”

“Yeah, I’m going to get you out there. I thought I’d introduce you as the inspiration for most of my songs, and maybe have you sit out there with me. I could sing them to you – ”

“No,” I said, waving my hands. “No, no, NO, BAD idea – ”

And then I saw that he was suppressing a smile.

I stopped moving my arms. “…you’re kidding, aren’t you.”

He burst into a full-fledged grin. “You just had that same look you gave me when I said I came over to sleep with Shanna. You remember that?”

I glared at him.

Yes, I remembered that.

“Very funny,” I snapped.

“Aaaah, don’t get your panties in a wad,” he teased. “Ancient history.”

Actually, not so ancient – and maybe not even history.

“You’ll be on the side of the stage so you can see everything, but the audience won’t be able to see you,” he continued. “You’ll have to share with Mara and Casey – we’re letting them stay, too, but we’re putting Ryan’s parents up in a box seat. I think they’d get a little bored otherwise.”


“They’re going to let a thirteen year-old just hang out backstage at a rock concert?” I asked, surprised.

“It was a giant negotiation,” Ryan said, walking over to join us. “Mara did not want them around because it would look like she was a little kid, and Casey pitched a fit about not being able to go, too. So now we’re having a security guy babysit them, and I had to promise and check up on them between numbers.”