Rock All Night(62)

“It happened a few months after Killian and Riley joined the band. We weren’t playing frat gigs anymore, so I was basically broke. Couldn’t afford a last-minute plane ticket. Ryan saved me. He was on the outs with his parents, so he didn’t have the money to loan me, either, but we drove cross-country in his car, non-stop, taking turns driving and sleeping in the back seat. We made it in just under two days. He went with me to the funeral. There weren’t that many people there… just us, my aunt, and a bunch of my dad’s musician friends from back in the day…”

He was staring out at the horizon, caught up in another time, another place.

“Ryan’s a good friend, isn’t he?” I asked quietly.

He smiled at me. “The best.”

I leaned my head against him. “I’m sorry it happened. I wish he could have seen you the other night.”

“Yeah… me too. He would’ve gotten a huge kick out of it. If he’d been there, I would’ve had him up on stage… so I could sing it with him one last time.”

We walked in silence for the next few minutes, him holding me, and me holding him, no sounds but the water washing in all around us and the seagulls above us in the air.





50




Things weren’t morose for long. We walked back to where we’d parked the car and found a Greek place with gyros.

“For old times’ sake,” Derek said, and winked.

The sun was getting low in the sky when we climbed back in the car and headed south for San Diego.

We got into the city limits just as the sun was setting. The sky was on fire with gorgeous oranges and reds, and I snuggled next to Derek as he drove along the freeway.

Somehow we missed our exit. We had to stop for directions (at my insistence – like most men, Derek couldn’t admit when he was lost, and did NOT want to ask anybody else), but we finally figured out how to get to San Diego University.

After the truck stop clerk drew us a map, Derek got a mischievous look on his face. First he bought a San Diego Padres ballcap, two red bandanas, and a flannel shirt. Then he motioned me over to a payphone and dumped in a whole bunch of quarters.

I could hear Ryan answer on the other end. “Damn it, Derek, where the hell are you?! The opening band goes on in fifteen minutes!”

“Ry, if I’m not there, I want you to go up onstage, okay?”

“What do you MEAN ‘if you’re not there’?! You PROMISED me you’d be here! I bought a 95,000 dollar car for you JUST SO YOU’D BE HERE ON TIME!”

“Just go up on stage on time, okay? Just do it.”

“DEREK – ”

“Talk to you later, man!” Derek said happily, and slammed down the receiver.

“What are you doing?” I asked, worried beyond belief. In my mind’s eye, I could see Miles getting that shovel out of his car and starting to dig a hole by the side of a lonely desert highway.

“Trust me,” Derek said, and lifted up his sunglasses long enough for me to see the twinkle in his eye.





51




We finally got to SDU at 8:50PM and pulled into the parking lot for Viejas Arena. I was on the verge of hyperventilating, but when we finally turned in, I was okay.

And then he went and parked way out in the middle of nowhere with all the concertgoers.

I stared at him. “Aren’t you going to go park with the tour bus?”

He tied the two bandanas together and looped them over his head and under his jaw like he had a toothache. Then he pulled the cap down on top of it all. “Nope.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

He pulled on the flannel shirt and buttoned it all the way to the top, then removed his sunglasses and tucked them in his shirt pocket. “We’re going in undercover, baby.”

“WHAT?!”

“Do I look like Derek Kane, lead singer of Bigger?”

The flannel shirt covered all his tats, the cap hid his distinctive hair, and the weird-ass bandana arrangement over his ears and jaw totally obscured his face. And Derek Kane never appeared in public without his sunglasses; everybody knew that.

Unless you knew you were looking at Derek Kane, there was no way in hell you could tell it was him.

“No, you look like an alternative rock dork who doesn’t know how to tie a do-rag,” I said.

“Excellent,” he grinned, and got out of the car.

“You’re just going to leave your new car out here in the parking lot?!” I asked, flabbergasted.

“It’s not exactly new.”

I scowled at him. “Okay, you’re going to leave your $95,000 car out here in the parking lot?”

He shrugged. “There’s other expensive cars out here.”

“At least put the top up!”

He finally gave in because I refused to budge until he did.





52




We found a scalper in the middle of the parking lot who sold us two pit passes for $150.

“Jeez,” I muttered as we walked towards the stadium.

“What?”

“That was expensive.”

“Compared to a $95,000 car?”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a smartass?”