“Let’s do another.” She requested excitedly when they’d taken a break.
“We’re out of songs.” Party panted.
“How are you not caked in sweat?” Fun asked her, placing his guitar back on it’s stand.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“If only you put this much effort into fighting.” Party joked.
“I think she puts enough effort into fighting.” I interrupted.
“That’s only because she broke your nose.”
“Fine. You fight her next time.”
That shut him up.
“So, does this mean I’m part of the band?” Flash asked.
“No. Never. You’ll just be a burden. You’re not that good anyway.” Fun Ghoul said with a completely straight face.
A sad, hurt look made its way onto her face, and I really thought she was about to cry.
“Oh, shut up before you make her cry, Fun. Of course you’re part of the band, Flash.” Jet told her.
Fun just smiled, and Flash smiled even bigger than he did.
“Thanks.” She managed to say with her smile stretching from ear to ear.
“Have you guys actually kept the band up all this time?” I asked out of general curiosity.
“Well at first we really didn’t. There too much other shit to worry about. As things cleared up some we started writing some new songs. We’ve never been able to finish them though because we didn’t have anyone to play percussion.” Party answered me.
“Now we can finish them.” Fun smiled.
“I think I’m going to go practice my shooting a little now.” Flash walked off, to train on her own.
“We should go on patrols. We completely forgot about them.” Party said. “Bomb, you don’t have a choice, you’re staying here.”
“I kind of figured as much. Maybe I’ll go give Flash some shooting pointers.”
All the guys left for a patrols, and I noticed they all went together in the Trans Am before I walked out back to find Flash shooting her ray gun with decent precision.
“Hi.” She looked up at me.
“Hey. How you doin?” I asked.
“Fine. Well not fine.” A frown crept onto her face. “Want to know the reason I’m so good at playing the drums?”
“Why?” She had me curious now. The look on her face told me it was going to be a sad story.
“Well,” She sighed before starting her story. “I tried to commit suicide.” That hit me like a bullet, but that was only the beginning. “I had to go to the hospital, and when I got out, I got a drum kit. I couldn’t go to school, but life at my father’s house was hell. So I went to live with my mom, and would play for hours every day for weeks. When I could finally go back to school again, life became hell again. Just knowing that my set was waiting for me when I got home was the only thing that kept me sane. My mom took it away from me though, and sent me back to my father’s house. That’s when I sent that message for help. I didn’t actually know that Better Living was coming. I’m sorry.”
I was dumbfounded. I had no clue anyone person could go through so much.
“Come here.” I gave her a hug. “It’s okay. It’s all okay now, you’re with us. We’re your family. If there’s anything we can do about it, we’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again.” I said keeping my voice as calm as possible.
“That’s not the worst of it though.” She pulled away from my hug, and picked her gun back up to practice shooting more. She continued her story as she practiced, “Before leaving to meet you, I stopped at my mom’s house. Korse was there.” She shot a bulls eye as she said his name. “I saw him kill my family, and he was looking for me. I got out of there as fast as I could though.” She shot two more bulls eyes. “How can you still care about me when I lied to all of you. I should have told you, but I didn’t. I hid my mistakes, I’m just a coward.” As she said those last few sentences she shot a few more bulls eyes.
“It’s the past, we’ll leave it there.” I told her. “And, damn. Party’s right. You do things well when you’re angry.” I remarked at her multiple perfect shots.
“Yeah, but I get carried away and break certain people’s noses.” She smiled sheepishly.
I chuckled. “It’ll heal.”
“Yeah.”
Out of nowhere the sunny sky darkened as a cloud covered the sun. As quick as the cloud came it started to rain, and rain in the desert wasn’t a good thing. Because of the radiation left by the fires, any rain was acid rain.
“Shit.” Flash remarked, as we both ran inside the Diner.
“I hope they get back soon.” I was worried about the guys. I wasn’t sure how well the Trans Am could hold up to acid rain.
“Same.” Flash agreed with me.
We sat down at a booth, right as Dr. D walked out from the back.
“Hey, kids. Would you mind doing a transmission. I’m losing my voice.” He said hoarsely.
“Sure, I’ll help.” Flash volunteered.
“Sounds like fun to me.” I added. “What we got to do?”
“I’ve got a script written out for you in the studio. Just say the lines as cool as you can.” He told us.
“Okay. I’ll work the controls, and you can talk.” Flash divided up the work.
We went back to the studio and I sat in Dr. D’s seat. That made me feel special, no one ever gets to sit there but him.
Flash gave me the three, two, one before I started saying the lines. It was pretty basic stuff in over done killjoy lingo. The script even included pauses for when Flash was to play certain songs. It went great.
“You did awesome!” Dr. D thanked us when we finished.
We walked back out to the booths and sat talking about the transmission. It was a lot of fun. I also took notice that it was still raining outside, and the Trans Am was still missing. I was really hoping the guys would get home soon.
No sooner had I had the thought than Party comes bursting through the door.
To be continued...
FOUR MORE PARTS MY FRIENDS!
Like a hipster
-ThatPoet
