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And I gave it all up to be treated like this?
I think not.
Kael glances over Nick’s shoulder as they head for the car, and he smirks. That’s what he does. He fucking smirks at me.
Oh, hell no!
“You’re going to lose everything,” I shout, my fingers twitching with pent-up rage. “You get that, right?”
Nick opens the passenger door for Kael and tries to help him into the car, but I rush after them and slide between them.
“You keep this shit up and you are going to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for.” I snatch his shirt between my fingers and shake him. I’m not proud of myself, but I physically shake him until I hear his teeth rattle. “If you don’t wake up to yourself, you’re going to lose the lot. Your apartment. Your car. Your holiday house up in the mountains. And that’s just the material things. If you don’t get your shit together, you could lose so much more than that. You could lose your life and where would that leave you? ”
“Fuck off, Reed.”
“I’ll tell you where that’ll leave you… on the cover of some trashy magazine boasting a title that reads something like ‘Thirty rock stars dead by the age of thirty.’And you’ll be ranked number twenty-eight, or something as equally pathetic, because everyone will have forgotten who you are, with the exception of your family and friends, of course. But their lives will never be the same again, because they love you and care about you, and now they have to spend the rest of their days in some dark place because their hearts are broken and there’s no coming back from something like that.”
“Dramatic much,” he says, wiping his nose on his sleeve.
“I’m not going to keep saving you, Kael.”
That last sentence seems to catch his attention, and his eyes fill with something else other than an alcohol-infused haze. My admission puts him into a few moments of stunned silence, and then slowly, ever so slowly I see the bitterness and the rage burning through the haze. It’s like watching headlights tearing through a foggy morning full of oncoming traffic.
“Saving me?” he bellows, shoving Nick out of the way. “Is that what you think you’re doing? Saving me?”
“Stop it. Both of –”
“Saving me!” Kael shouts again. “You don’t know shit about my life, or me, or anyone else in the band, for that matter.”
“Guys, please –” begs Nick, checking over both shoulders to make sure we’re still alone.
“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” I say, focusing all my attention on Kael and his bleeding face, and not on Nick, who’s pacing back and forth now with his head tipped up toward the night sky.
“You think you’re the only one with problems,” spits Kael. “Is that how it is, Reed? You’re the hero and you get to save the rest of us. Just like you’re the face of the band and you get all the attention. You’re the one with the fucking pretty boy looks and the insanely good voice. You’re the one that writes all the fancy words, and you’re the one the girls throw themselves at.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re not a hero, Reed.”
“I never said I was.”
“Your life is just as screwed up as the rest of us. Take today, for example… you think we didn’t all see the way you were gushing over that chick this morning? You’re fucking her, aren’t you?”
I can’t believe he just said that. I just stare at him blankly, blinking slowly.
And then Kael bursts out laughing, so loudly and so unexpectedly that a stray cat scrambles from a dumpster behind us and runs for the bushes. “You are! You’re fucking her.” He laughs again and my insides twist tightly. “Holy shit, that’s sick, man.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Scraping the bottom of the barrel there, Reed. Even for you, that’s pretty low.”
“Come again?”
“I’ve got hookers on my speed dial with more class in their little fingers than that chick’s got in her entire body.”
My arm swings back before I even know what I’m doing, and my fist connects with Kael’s jaw so hard that my knuckles instantly burst into flames.
“What the fuck, man?” shouts Kael, stumbling against the car. He falls over and ends up slumped on all fours, resting against the curb.
