The Devil's Tattoo (12 page)

I could only nod as the stage lights went up and Damages began to
play their first song. To be honest, I really enjoyed them. They were a really
talented bunch of guys and looked at home on the stage. It was no wonder the
radio station had picked up their song and I had that odd sensation of having
my fear melt away as I listened to the set. Music had that strange effect on
me, it was hard to describe. If a song spoke to me, then everything else
slipped away.

"We'd like to welcome Zoe from The Devil's Tattoo."

Dee elbowed me sharply, breaking me out of my
day
dream
. "Batter up,
Zo
Zo
."

As the song began to play, I put my head down, letting my hair
fall into my face and strode out onto the stage. I didn't hear the crowd cheer,
nor did I acknowledge the guys on the stage. I just grabbed the microphone and
pulled it from the stand. Some people would call it a
rock'n'roll
attitude. I would just call it blind fear.

Standing right at the edge of the stage, I was hardly aware of
people touching my legs as I sang. Right now, more than any other time, I
realised
this was what I had been born to do. Music was my
life and my
saviour
and my blood.

The last chord died away into a loud applause and I finally look
up into the crowd and hands are raised in the air, whistles and cheers and a
lot of people holding up smart phones taking videos. Yeah, this was what I was
born to do.

A hand fell on my shoulder and I turned to find Max beaming at me.
"That was amazing."

Another of the guys came up and said, "Thanks so much."

The bass player came over too, and yelled, "That was bloody
brilliant!"

Soon
we're joined by the drummer who pushed me
forward
and I'm forced to give a little bow and a wave. Backing off, I
look side of stage and see that everyone had come to watch my little guest
spot.

Dee was talking to Will and they look almost friendly. I wonder
what they could possibly have to talk about and the only common denominator
right now was
me
. Dee clapped him on the shoulder and
walked off. I didn't want to think about it. I was enjoying this way too much.

Will caught my eye and grinned, shaking his head. He was too far
away for me to hear, but I could read the word that escaped his lips.

Beautiful
.

And I couldn't help the answering smile that crept onto my own.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Will

I stood behind Dee and Zoe, watching the support band
do
their thing. They're called Damages and we'd seen them
play before on an earlier tour. They've really upped their game and having them
support is great. We were always happy to get younger bands on the line up.
When we'd started we didn't have the same leg
up
as we
were now able to offer. When we could, we liked to pick the openers.

Honestly, I wasn't really watching the band that much. I was too
busy watching Zoe. I couldn't deny that it'd hurt when she jerked away from me
earlier. I mean, it just seemed like everything I did
made
her uncomfortable. She did seem to have a good time thinking of clever
comebacks to everything I said. She had one hell of an attitude and to most
people that would be a turn off, but to me it was a challenge. I kind of
wondered what she'd come out with next.

"We'd like to welcome Zoe from The Devil's Tattoo." The
sudden announcement from the guy from Damages broke me out of my
blatant ogling of Zoe's ass. She was doing a song with them?

I straightened up as she strode out on stage, her hair hiding her
face. I knew this song. It was
Future Starts Slow
by The Kills. She
grabbed the microphone and started singing and my heart pounded.

I knew I'd never get over seeing her on stage. Everyone in that
audience had it for her, too. All the girls wanted to be her and all of the
guys wanted to fuck her. Sounded vulgar, but it was true. I was one of them.

She stood right at the front of the stage and people were touching
her legs, but it didn't seem to bother her. Even without a guitar, she owned
it. She belonged there. In that moment, I understood her completely.

"We know you're into her," Dee said, standing beside me
as the song ended.

"What?" I shook my head as if I was trying to clear it.
Was I really that transparent?

"Everybody can see it, but she can't."

"I'm trying to make it better."

"You're not a bad guy, Will. Just stupid."

"Shit, Dee. Tell it like it is, why don't you," I
scowled.

He laughed, shaking his head. "I'll help you, but if you
stuff it up, I'll be the first person to punch you in the face. Got it?"

"Fuck, do I get it," I said wryly.

"Good." He clapped me on the shoulder and wandered off as
Damages made Zoe milk her applause.

I looked back out at her and she was beaming. I mean
,
her entire face had come alive. When she turned and saw me
looking at her, I couldn't help grinning and mouthing the word,
Beautiful
.
Because she was.

And when she smiled back, my heart skipped a beat. Maybe she
didn't hate me as much as I thought after all.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

ZOE

Each and every show we did was a hell of a lot of fun. When I was
up on stage, I was someone else. I let go and rolled with it, putting
everything I had into each and every note. The applause and the whistles came
in droves and not once did I fall off the drum kit. Simone kept updating our
Facebook page with an assortment of photos she found online and ones she took
backstage and it was a lot of fun to read through the comments and write back
little status updates. I saved all my
favourites
onto
my own phone and looked at them first thing in the morning to remind myself
where I was now and where I was staying.

I'd shied away from social media, deleted everything and got a new
email address after the break up two years ago. The moment I looked at it and
saw all the hateful things people I'd once counted as friends had left for me…
Well, it was devastating. I promptly cancelled my
internet
service and only looked at email once in a while from my phone. The only apps I
had on it, other than the base ones that came with the thing, were for the
weather and a torch. I turned old school and brought music magazines and
listened to the radio. For all intents and purposes, I'd fallen off the face of
the earth. And my savings account skyrocketed with the lack of a bill to pay.

I still didn't have any personal profiles, but with Simone at the
helm of the band's
internet
presence, I had nothing to
worry about. She knew a little about what had happened and had promised me that
she'd watch out for anything nasty, but so far there had been nothing.

Operation, Avoid Will Strickland at all Costs, was going well so
far. When I was forced to speak with him, it was short and polite. We had two
more days in Sydney,
then
we were going towards
Canberra. We were doing a few more interviews and promo shoots for some local
magazines, so we didn't have a show to worry about for a little while.

"Hey,
Zo
!" Frank came bounding
into mine and Dee's hotel room a little too boisterous
for nine am.

"Ugh!" I cried, pulling a pillow over my head. "I
know I'm awake, but tone it down. I'm exhausted even listening to you."

"Up and Atom!" he chortled and I didn't miss The
Simpson's reference.

"What's going on?"

"Interview,
Zo
Zo
.
They want you."

"Do they just? Can't they want me about eleven thirty?"

"Will and Pete are going," he said. "They want you
and Dee."

Great
, but instead I
said, "Fine."

"It's a print thing, so they're going downstairs."

"Is that meant to be a selling point?"

"Dee's already there," he laughed at my lack of
enthusiasm. "He said to tell you you've got thirty minutes before they get
here."

After I'd showered and made myself look presentable, I made my way
downstairs, my stomach doing little
flip flops
. By the
time I actually walked into the bar, I felt physically sick. Looking across the
room, I saw Dee waving me over.

There was one seat left and I knew that someone had done it on
purpose. Dee was on one side and Will was on the other. Somehow I know they're
in league with each other and I don't know who I'm annoyed at more. I should
have known something was up when I saw them talking side of stage last night.
All buddy
buddy
, whispering in the corner. At what
point did Dee decide to push me right in front of Will instead of pulling me
away?

Reluctantly sitting down, Dee smiled at me. "Took your time.
Got you a coffee. You're welcome." He knew I wanted to yell at him.

"I'm exactly on time," I hissed, overly conscious of
Will sitting beside me. "I want to talk to you later."

He just grinned at me knowingly, as the interviewer introduced
herself
.

I had no idea what half the questions were. I vaguely heard Dee
answering most of them. Pete was there too, I suppose. Out the corner of my eye
I watched as
Will
pulled his hands off the table and
folded them in his lap. I almost jumped out of my chair when I felt his
fingertips lightly brush across my knuckles. I forgot to breathe, I forgot that
we were being interviewed
,
I forgot
where we were
. I had a sudden image of trailing my hand up the inside of
his thigh to...

I didn't
realise
I was being spoken to
until Dee elbowed me and I snapped to attention, almost spilling my untouched
coffee. 

"What do you think, Zoe?" he prodded, trying to stifle a
laugh.

"Sorry?" I asked, feeling my face turning red.

"What's it been like being on tour with each other?" the
interviewer asked with a knowing smile. I hoped I just came across as tired,
not horny.

"What do I think?" I blinked. Even though everyone is
looking at me, the only pair of eyes I can feel are Will's. "It's our
first major tour together as a band, so it's been helpful having a band along
who's done it all before." Diplomatic. Even.
Not at all
desperate sounding.

"What do you think of these guys?"

I'm put off by her question, but
I couldn't not
answer
. "They're great musicians. I respect them."

Everyone is staring at me as if they didn't think I was telling
the truth. The interviewer looked pleased though and moved on to another
question.

Thankfully, after that Will kept his hands to himself and I said
nothing that embarrassed me, though by the time the interviewer left, I knew
everyone was onto us.

The first moment I could, I pushed my chair back and walked away,
but Dee was hot on my heels.

"Okay, hot shot," I said as he came level with me.
"Rub it in."

"Footsy under the table?" he asked with lewd wink.

"No," I glared at him. "
Handsy
under the table."

He let out a loud laugh, throwing his head back.

I slapped him on the arm. "What's going on? I saw you, you
know."

"I know what you think you saw, Hot Legs, and I can safely
say, it wasn't my idea."

"Then what was?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss such information," he
tried to say with a straight face, but apparently he found my anger hilarious.

"What happened to wanting to keep me away?"

"He's alright,
Zo
. He said he was
sorry. I had words with him."

"Oh, the magic 'words'," I air quoted, rolling my eyes.

"Zoe," he wound an arm around my waist and guided me
towards the elevator. "All I'm
sayin
' is to give
the guy a chance. If he stuffs up in the first five minutes, I'll be here to
punch on. Okay?"

"Dee," I said, lowering my voice. "You know I'm
attracted to him. I don't know how to deal with it. I'm good now. I'm happier
than I've been in a long time. I don't want to stuff it up."

He looked down at me with a frown, suddenly serious. "I know,
Zo
. But, sometimes you've
gotta
take a chance no matter how broken you've been in the past."

I looked away, tears stinging my eyes.

As the elevator arrived and the doors slid open, Dee gave my waist
a small squeeze. "I think you should take a chance."

I didn't like it, but he was right. "God, you piss me off
sometimes, Dee, but I love you."

He kissed me on the top of the head. "Till the end of time,
sister."

After the interview, we had free time for once. There wasn't a gig
tonight because the venue had been booked for an international band, so
we'd decided to meet up with Frank, Chris and Simone and go out for dinner
somewhere. Just The Devil's Tattoo and I was glad it was just
us
. I still didn't know what to do about today and every
time I thought about it, which was every bloody minute, my hand tingled.

It was such a nice night
out,
we sat out
front of the hotel, waiting for the taxi that we'd ordered. I sat on the edge
of the flowerbed under the windows of the hotel bar, Dee beside me. Simone was
standing as close as she could get to Chris without it looking obvious she was
into him and Frank was horsing around as per usual.

"We look like a bunch of no-hopers loitering out here,"
Frank said, pacing up and down the footpath.

"
Singin
' for our supper," Dee
said in a posh English accent.

Frank started to do a poor imitation of a beat boxer, but all he
managed to do was spit up all over his front, much to our amusement.

"You know they have apps for that," I said waving my
phone at him.

"You're a genius!" He pulled his own phone out and
started tapping on it.

"We should totally form an
acapella
group," Dee said and sat next to me on the edge of the garden bed.

"Don't they do that with just voices?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," I said. 

"We could be a hybrid," Frank said as drum sounds began
to come out of his phone.

"I know," Simone exclaimed. "You could totally do
that with Muse's
Madness."

"Yes," Dee almost shouted clapping his hands together.
"Let's give it a go. Sing it,
Zo
. I'll back you
up."

I know they're not going to back down, so I nod. The idea actually
sounded quite awesome.

Frank worked out his
drum beat
and Chris
has out a guitar app and it's going to be me and Dee on vocals. It took us a
few times to start, each time Frank started on his drum beat, we'd piss
ourselves laughing at the way he tapped the screen with both index fingers. He
looked like my Dad when he tried to type anything out on the
computer.

"Shut up!" he yelled, trying to stifle his own
laughter. "This is awesome. Don't look at me."

Third time was a charm and we got through the intro with straight
faces and it sounded really good once Chris got in with his guitar app. Dee and
I were used to singing together, so the harmonies worked better than I thought
for a song we hadn't practiced before.

By the time we reached the second verse, we had a small group of
people gathered around us, along with some of the hotel staff.
They were tapping their feet and getting into it, smiling and
laughing along with our over the top actions.
It was the most carefree
and completely happy I'd felt since we'd started the band. I loved every second
of it.

When the song came to an end we got a round of applause from the
randoms
that had stopped. Dee curtseyed for them and gave
out some flyers he had stuffed in his back pocket, ever the slick salesman.

It wasn't until we're laughing at how clever we were, did I
realise
we had some familiar audience members and
a future virtual one. Simone had her iPhone out recording us, her
face glowing. As she hit stop, she gushed, "That was gold! I'm
so uploading that."

"
Gimme
!" Dee exclaimed,
rushing over to her.

Simone replayed it for him and Frank ran over and tried to see
between them. They're all glowing and it made me feel warm inside. Happy. I was
beginning to like this feeling.

As I'm watching them with a stupid smile on my face, I
felt someone stand just behind me. I looked up right into Will's
smokey
grey eyes and my expression slipped and my
heart flip-flopped in my chest.

"You're fucking beautiful," he murmured in my ear and
wandered off down the footpath, a paper bag under his arm.

I watched him as he went into the hotel, trying to figure out what
just happened, dragging my teeth against my bottom lip. At the last second, he
looked back and saw me staring and his lips curved into a lopsided grin. Damn
it.