Fully Automatic (Bullet) (23 page)

“I know…stupid.”

He laughed.  “Nah.  If you’re gonna drink, this is better than a lot of other things.”  He twisted off the cap and handed it to her.  She took a sip and winced and he smiled.  Sweet innocent Val.  And since he was already here talking with her, it was time to lay it all out on the table.  “There’s something else we should probably talk about.”  She squinted her eyes, but it didn’t matter.  It needed to be said and sooner rather than later.  He’d had a couple of months and had some perspective, and this was the first time they’d been alone in a long time.  He took a deep breath.  “You and me.  I want you to know I respect the hell out of you, Val.  Now that you’re in the band, it’s hands off.  I don’t want to lose you for Fully Automatic.  You’re exactly what we needed.  No way am I gonna fuck that up.  So…I just wanted to assure you, in case you had any worries, that I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

She was quiet for the better part of a minute, absorbing his words.  Then she said,
“I respect you too, Brad, and I trust your decisions for the direction of the band.”

He stuck out his hand.  “Shake on it?”

She grinned.  “Deal.”

The next step would be convincing Valerie to stick with the band after school started…but he’d save that conversation for another day.  Instead, he wanted to share a beer with his friend, now that they were
also sharing an understanding.

Chapter Twenty-six

BETWEEN HIS JOB and Fully Automatic shows (and their small merch table they’d finally started), Brad had a little extra cash, and he was ready for fresh ink.  So he went to the guy downtown he’d always gone to.  The guy had some new original designs, and Brad found a couple that spoke to him, so over the course of a couple of weeks had a couple of new tattoos painted on his right forearm and the right side of his chest.  He knew getting a tattoo on his forearm was flagging himself.  The more tattoos he got, the less likely he’d be able in the future to get a “real” job.

That was another way he would keep himself driven.

He had a schedule for himself, aside from his forty-hour-a-week oil-and-lube job.  One of his goals was to book at least three new future shows a week.  Another goal was to write a new song every two to three weeks—music only.  He wasn’t going to touch lyrics again, unless for some reason he felt driven to, because it came so naturally to Val, and she was way better at it than he’d ever dreamed of being.  There was no sense even trying.  He also made a point of working out twice a week, because otherwise he tended to focus on music to the exclusion of all else.

He had a plan, though, a big one
, now that August was half over.  He simply had to convince the guys to help him out.  So he invited them over one Monday night, tempting them with his mom’s killer spaghetti.  And then he managed to get them on board.  Now they just had the monumental task of convincing Val.

* * *

Brad and the guys drove to Winchester to pick Val up for what was to be their last show with her.  She’d told them all the reasons why she couldn’t do it while she was in school.  It was too far away and playing shows with them would take her away from valuable study time.  Brad had sensed, though, that she was trying to convince herself more than them.  And he and the guys had a plan.

She’d settled in her seat and they were heading toward Colorado Springs, their ultimate destination the Denver Metro area.  Brad had been cranking a hard and heavy song, but he started thinking maybe there was no better time than the present.  At some point, her going back to college would be talked about anyway—he knew it was on the back of everyone’s minds, including hers—so why not just get it over with?  If she declined their offer, the rest of the drive might be a little somber, but Brad was pretty sure he knew her heart.

Yeah, he knew what made Val tick.  How, he didn’t know.  He just did.

He turned the music down and glanced over at her.
  “Val, we wanted to broach a pretty serious subject with you, and now’s as a good a time as any.”  He looked toward the back of the van.  “Right, guys?”

The
re was a general consensus and then she said, “Okay.”

She was acting nervous, like they were going to deliver bad news to her.  He couldn’t help it—he was grinning from ear to ear.  Well, good. 
If she was feeling anxious, then maybe when she heard what they really wanted to talk about, she’d give it some serious thought.  “We’ve been talking, Val, and we’re not ready for this to be over.  Not by a long shot.  You know we’ve already got dates clear through November, and I’m still booking shows out past that.  We don’t want to lose you, Val.  You’ve become one of us, and we can’t see doing this without you anymore.”  That was his best pitch.  He hoped it was enough.

She nodded.  “
Yeah, but I’ve got college soon.”

“Yes, that’s what you’ve said.  So you’ve decided on a major then?”

“Well, no.”

“You’ve narrowed it down, though, right?”

He could hear the amused sound in her voice.  “No…”

“So why can’t school wait
until
you know?”

Ah…
  That made her stop and think a little.  “Okay, so let’s say I wait.  But then I have to get my parents on board.  More than that, though, my job’s ended.  What do I do then?  How do I support myself?  It’s not like we’re rolling in the dough.”

“But what if we were playing four or five nights a week?”

“Yeah…I can see how that might add up.  But you’d have to spend it all on gas, though, wouldn’t you?”

“Not if we moved to where the shit is.”

She paused again.  She was considering it.  “Are you thinking we should all move somewhere and play all the time?”

He smiled again
.  “Yeah…that’s what we’re thinking.  We mostly play around Denver, so why not find a place that fits all of us?  I keep booking shows, and I could do more if we lived there and didn’t have to drive all over the place.  Instead of figuring out if it fits around work and if we could make it to a show on time, I would just have to make sure we had the time free.  There are lots of shows we could do, and Denver’s a huge place.  And that wouldn’t mean we couldn’t do shows somewhere else, but it would make the ones there a lot easier to get to.”  She nodded, listening.  “We have a better chance of building a big audience, maybe even of getting picked up by a label someday in the future, if we’re playing more shows.”  She looked like she was building up to a major objection, so he asked, “Would it help if all us guys talked to your mom and dad, let them know you’re safe with us?”

She looked over at him and then back at the guys.  Brad could see them in the review mirror.  They were all smiles.  She nodded then looked at Brad.  “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

Yeah.  He couldn’t have asked for more.  And the rest of the night they let themselves dream.  Now that the members of Fully Automatic had fully committed to one another, the show that night was beyond great.  It was one of the best shows they’d ever performed up to that point.

And that was why it would have been a damn shame to just let it end.

* * *

That Sunday, the boys of Fully Automatic got up earlier than any of them had in ages to begin the long drive to Winchester.  They had to get there before one in the afternoon.  Valerie had told her parents they all wanted to talk to them
(she told Brad she hadn’t told them
what
), and her mother had suggested inviting them to their Sunday barbecue.  It was to be Val’s last Sunday at home, because she would be leaving for college at the end of the week, ready for classes a week from Monday.

Time was, obviously, of the essence.

Brad had lectured them the night before about “looking presentable.”  He got a few grumbles, most of them from Ethan, Mr. Bad Attitude, but even he saw the importance of looking as normal and “respectable” as possible.  They weren’t going to win Val’s parents over by being the epitome of dissention and rebellion, no matter what their actual heavy metal message might have been.

Much as he hated the idea of it all, he’d promised Valerie and would do whatever it took.  He pulled his hair back into a ponytail and was going to wear a t-shirt for the ride, but before they got to Val’s house, he was going to change into a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt.  Jesus.  When he saw himself in the mirror, he almost
did
look respectable.  All he needed was a tie.  He also got rid of all jewelry.  From everything Val had told him (and from meeting her mother and brother earlier that summer, even though it was only for a few minutes), her family was ultra conservative, and looking buttoned down was a good thing.  None of his tattoos were showing, although if anyone tried too hard, they could see some of them through the fabric.  But his job here was not to appear to be someone he was not; instead, it was to show her parents respect and put their minds at ease.

Ethan and Zane wore their typical attire—t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers—but they were low key.  They didn’t look too far out, and neither had hair that was too long or lots of tattoos.  They looked almost like college kids…which they
had
been up until a couple of months earlier.  Nick dressed the same as the other guys, but he had short hair and he didn’t even have any tattoos peeking out from under his sleeves.  He had one small one on his upper right arm that was only seen when he wore sleeveless shirts.  Brad examined them before leaving and declared that they’d done a great job.

It was a tense drive, only because Brad knew what was at stake. When they finally got t
o Winchester, Brad pulled into the parking lot of the first supermarket he spotted and took off his t-shirt, replacing it with the office-type shirt.  “Why you gotta go and do that?” Ethan asked.

“You know why.”

“Yeah.  Just seems unnecessary.”

“I have lots more tattoos than you, man.  I don’t want to be the problem.”  Then he started walking to the front doors of the store.

“Where you goin’?” Zane asked.

“Trust me.”  In minutes, he returned with a bouquet of flowers for
Val’s mom and a few moments later, they were walking up the concrete to Val’s front door.

She opened the door and damn if she didn’t look as cute as could be.  She was wearing a light white cotton sleeveless dress
, her hair pulled away from her face but hanging down her back.  She grinned when she saw them and said, “Hey, guys!  Follow me.”

She led them through the living room and kitchen toward the back door, and Zane said, “Nice place.”

“Thanks.  I’ve lived here all my life.”

They stepped out onto a patio.  There was a picnic table there covered with an umbrella, and there was already a huge spread—iced tea and lemonade, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, corn on the cob, condiments, and paper plates and utensils.
  Brad could see her father barbecuing over at a grill farther away, and her little brother was sitting at the picnic table texting someone.  Val’s mom, though, smiled warmly and walked to the other side of the table where they stood.  “Welcome.  We’re so glad to have you here.”

Brad handed the bouquet of flowers to Val’s mother. 
“Mrs. Quinn, we wanted to thank you for inviting us over…and for letting us borrow the vocal skills of your talented daughter.”

Her mother smiled, and he could
again see the resemblance.  She said, “Oh, you’re certainly welcome.”

Val said, “Mom, Danny, you’ve already met Brad, but the rest of the guys are Ethan, Zane, and Nick.”  She pointed at each of the guys as she said their names.  Her mom smiled at them
, and Danny looked up from his phone.

Her mother said,
“I’d better get these in water.  Valerie, could you introduce them to your father?”

Her
dad had turned off the grill and was walking toward the picnic table, a platter full of steaks in his hand.  When he made it over, he put the platter on the table and Val said, “Dad, these are the guys.”  She introduced her father to each of them, and they shook hands as she introduced each one.  Her mom came back out then and they sat down to eat.  It was civil, with the food going around, a couple of dishes at a time, and everyone was either buttering corn, cutting into a steak, or taking a first bite when Val said, “Well, I guess I need to just tell you what we’re thinking.”  Both her mother and father nodded.  She continued, “We’ve had so much fun and done so well this summer as a band, that we feel like we were just getting started.  So…we’ve talked about it, and we’d like to give it a hardcore try.  Not just play on the weekends, you know, but really give it a solid effort.  We think if we move to the Denver area, we can give it an honest shot.”

Wow.  Val wasn’t wasting any time, instead just going for the jugular.  Well, he supposed, that was one way of doing it—get it over with and see what would happen.  Her mother put her fork down and said,
“You’re not planning to go back to college this fall?”

Brad wanted to help, but now was not the time.  He didn’t know her parents well enough to know what to say or how to say it.  He’d help when the time was right.  He just had to support Val in silence for the time being.

The girl was prepared.  She’d finally allowed her passion to take over, and she was ready to fight for what she wanted.  “Mom, I’ve thought long and hard about this.  I’m wasting your money.  I have no idea what I want to do with my life, and so I don’t have any solid ideas about a major.  I thought after a year of attending school, I’d know, but I’m no closer to a decision now than I was a year ago.  And I
want
to do this.  It might not be for a lifetime, but I want to do it now.  It’s like those kids who travel around the world for a year or two before going to school.  I went to school for a year, and now I’m going to try something different.  I need to figure out who I am and what I want.”

Val’s mother nodded her head.  Her father, though, had been listening intently but not saying a word.  He looked from Val to Ethan, then down the line, to Nick, Zane, and his eyes landed on Brad’s.  If he’d been a young guy vying for Val’s affections, he would have been taking up a challenge.  But that wasn’t it.  This was a father who loved his daughter and cared for her well-being.  His eyes gave nothing away. 
“Let me tell you my concern here.  I want to know what your intentions with my daughter are.”  He continued eyeing the rest of the band again, staring them down, challenging them all.

Brad had prepared for this, though.  All he knew about Val and what she’d said about her family had given him an idea of how he should handle the situation.
  Honesty—always the best policy.  He respected her parents because he thought Val was a hell of a young woman.  He made sure he looked and sounded calm when he answered.  “Mr. Quinn, Valerie and I actually already had a conversation about that earlier this summer.  And I’ll be honest with you, even though it probably won’t help my case at all.  Valerie and I got a little friendly, but when we invited her to sing for the band, I told her that would be a line that we wouldn’t cross.  Relationships and work don’t work, so there’s no way I’m going to ruin my band just because I find her attractive.  I want to assure you, sir, that we respect your daughter and value her contribution, and we have and will continue to treat her as one of us.”  He thought a little humor might lighten the conversation, so he threw in, “With one exception.  We’ll use different bathrooms.”