92. Ziggy Stardust

When the band was done I helped Reggie move his gear to the side while the next band came on. “Come on upstairs and have a beer,” he said.

I followed him to the crowded stairs, wondering if Bart was up there as we worked our way up between the people loitering there and the people trying to come down. I tripped on my own foot and fell hard into two people necking on the landing. One of them pushed me by the shoulder back into the person behind me.

That’s when I saw who it was on the landing, who had pushed me. Ziggy gave me a crooked smile and said “Watch where you’re going.”

“I…” The flow of the crowd pushed me forward and past him but I turned to see him bending to kiss her again. Blonde, upturned nose, couldn’t see much more than that. When I got to the top of the stairs I wanted to go back down and confront him but I had to wait for a break in the stream of people coming up, and by the time I had a chance, I couldn’t think of what I was going to say to him anyway. Get real, Daron, what are you going to do, call her a bitch and tell her to stay away from him, he’s yours? Yeah right.

No, I wanted to know why he blew off rehearsal today without telling anyone. I wanted to know where he thinks he gets off blowing off that responsibility. I wanted to know how he expected me to react to something like that.

I got a few steps down the stairs and realized they were no longer on the landing. Oh fuck it. I retreated to Thrash Rat’s cubbyhole backstage, trying to pretend I hadn’t seen a thing.

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