Page 2 of Strum Me

“What? Oh this? It’s just a little bit of sunburn. No biggie.” I try not to cringe as my fingers graze over the tender skin of my cheek.

“You look so fucking ridiculous! We have a press conference as soon as we land! You know the only reason you pickle-dicks are famous at all is because you all look like you belong on the cover of magazines, right? And I DON’T mean Dermatology Today! FUCK ME!” He glares at me and I shrink a little into my seat.

“Hey! That hurts our feelings. We’re famous because we’re talented, right guys?” I implore the guys to take a little of the heat off me.

“Uhmmnowesuckwe’rejustpretty.ThanksforeverythingDennisweloveyouuuuu,” the three of them mumble and pretend to be suddenly engrossed in their newspapers and fingernails. Wuss-asses.

“And um, why did you book our flight so close to our press conference time anyway?” As soon as the words leave my mouth I wish I can take them back. “Um, never mind.”

Dennis’s face quickly burns a bright red, not too different to the right side of my own face. He takes a deep breath and I can feel it coming. “Why? Why?? WHY DID I BOOK YOUR FLIGHT SO LATE?”

“Er, no, it’s okay. I’ll forgive you this time.” I try to spin my chair away from the wrath that is coming, but I feel it stop in its tracks and the chair spin back around to face my manager.

“Oh, maybe you didn’t realize, I DIDN’T book your flights to London so close to your press conference time. In fact, the plane is a WHOLE DAY late because…someone… SOMEONE arrived six hours late to the airport and we missed our window for takeoff and had to wait a WHOLE DAY later to leave. Someone…SOMEONE…Who could that have been, I wonder?” At this point his face is way redder than mine and his two bunched-up fists tell me, he’s not finding this as funny as the three smirking faces behind him.

I decide the best way to handle it is to just sit completely still, play...not quite dead, just spontaneously comatose, and then maybe the beast will just give me a few sniffs and wander off.

So, for just a moment, I don’t move and avoid eye contact. I can hear his hissing breath easing and as I predicted, one of the other thousands of problems we cause him distracts him and he swings around and glares at Sebastian.

“And YOU!” Dennis points to my ill-fated bandmate.

“AH!! What did I do?” Seb jumps out of his skin and narrows his eyes at me.

“Where is Cadence?”

“Um, she’s in Sydney. Did it take twelve hours for you to notice she’s not here?”

“Where is she? I thought she was coming with us. They’re expecting her as well.”

“She’s coming in a few days; she just had to finish up some work and then she can enjoy the rest of her summer with us instead of worrying about her students.” Sebastian explains. Cadence is a music teacher at a local school, and until very recently when a sexy French cellist stole her heart, the school and her students were her life.

“But they’re going to be expecting her to get off the plane with us. The stories are going to run rampant about you guys breaking up if you arrive alone.”

The sound of the four of us guffawing stuns Dennis out of his grump.

“Denny, after what they’ve been through, I think ‘breaking up’ is hardly the news headline that’s going to bother Cadence at this point,” Marius finally speaks up, referring to the recent sex video scandal headlines in the international media that almost broke them up.

Dennis sighs and sinks into an empty recliner, the guilt of not being able to stop the scandal still weighing heavily on him, and Sebastian gets up to pat him on the shoulder.

“Take it easy old man, or you’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”

Jez follows and hands Dennis a drink, who takes a sip and hisses, the amber liquid probably burning his throat.

“And don’t worry about Brad’s face. It actually is an improvement. You know he’s always been the ugliest one out of all of us.”

This gets a chuckle out of Dennis and he gives me a limp smile. “Yeah, I guess. Just…try to sit with your less ugly side to the cameras, will you? With this one,” his head gestures to Sebastian, “out of play, we need the rest of you to be pulling your dreamboat status weight.”

I sigh and stand up and wrap my arms around Dennis’ shoulder in a man hug that he only mildly struggles to get out of.

“Keeping the ladies happy? I can do that, Dennis, just for you.”

I’m too busy patting myself on the shoulder to see the fist coming toward my face.