The Now or Never Kind

I swung my seat back and forth, paying more attention to the physics of my motion than the people around me. We were at commercial, and the guys were talking to the radio DJ about… something. Like I said, I wasn’t listening. I was excited and nervous and a little drowsy, but only because I had a few shots of Dayquil before I left the house.

“We’re back in one,” someone announced, poking his head into the sound booth. Being the closest, I whirled around and flashed him a grin.

“Is that cool with you, Pen?” the jockey asked.

I blinked, returning my chair to its former position. “Is cool what now?” I asked, sheepish at being caught.

Jesse rolled his eyes, chuckling slightly. “Fan questions,” he said, leaning to poke the side of my head. “People calling in.”

“Oh. Absolutely. Like I’m going to say no.” The DJ grinned, pushing buttons and readying himself to go on air. Sean looked sceptically down the row at me; I waved blithely, making him crack up as the light went on.

“We’re back, KXYZ. This is your host Jeph Springwater, and here in the studio we’ve got Penny Dreadful, who haven’t just walked in.”

Matt smirked. “We’ve been waiting for about ten minutes,” he asked, running a hand through his thick black hair. “We would’ve been late, but Penelope drives like a fiend.” I shot him a glare, which he combated with a toothy grin.

“Why don’t you introduce yourselves for people who’ve been living under rocks for a past year,” the jockey Jeph suggested. “Starting with An—Sean,” he finished, seeing me point to the couch.

The guys snickered, along with some staff, and Sean shook his head. “A’right. So ah’m Sean Vanderpol,” he said, leaning towards the mic. “Ah play guitar an’ piano, and… er, I dunno.”

“Favourite beverage, Butch Cassidy,” Matt suggested impulsively.

“Uh… chai, Ah guess.” Sean had always been the quiet one of the group, which was unusual for a lead guitarist. Tall, blonde, and English, he had started the original version of the band—sans yours truly—before I was even in high school. Sean generally kept the peace, but those who knew him better looked forward to his special brand of mayhem.

Sitting next to him on the small couch was Jesse, who was looking curiously at me. “Why are you all the way over there?” he asked, ignoring the fact that we were live.

“The three of you barely fit on that couch as is,” I pointed out, spinning in my chair, “And you, Trill, are the skinniest person I know, second only to Bill Beckett.”

“Well, I’m not talking until you’re over here.” I rolled my eyes and heaved myself out of my chair, grumbling about spinny fun, soon getting pulled down into Jesse’s lap. “Much better. Sitting over there all by your lonesome. If I have to be squished, so do you. Hi, I’m Jesse,” he announced to the microphone, leaning his chin on my shoulder. I squinched an eye shut; his electro-shock hair was tickling my face. “I also play guitar, and sometimes bass, and my favourite non-alcoholic drink is Vanilla Coke. Oh, and I’m six-foot-five.”

A very important character trait of Jesse Brandon Christopher, height. Trill was the kind of guy who would spend all week hanging out with the boys, being “manly”, and then ditch everyone else on the weekend to go out to lunch and shopping with his twin sister. Or me. He was sweet—there was no way those brown eyes could lie about that— but he loved practical jokes and had a tendency to be snide; his favourite word was “der.”

I turned my head to Matt, on Jesse’s other side, and smiled expectantly. “I don’t know what you’re looking at,” he laughed. “Beauty before age.” He winked a bright green eye at me.

“Brains over brawn, Sundance?” I retorted with a grin.

“Absolu—hey!” Matt and I had a strange sort of relationship. We were probably the closest, despite having both admitted to the other that were it not for the band… well, we’d have jumped each other a long time ago. That didn’t stop him from being overprotective though. It simply stopped him from being quite as much of a playboy as he used to be. Most of the time.

“Just for that, you’re last, babe.” He stuck his tongue out at me when I beamed. “I’m Matthew Vaughn Lawrie the fourth. I make the most noise—not like that, Jess, shut up—on drums. I’m six-two, I like sushi, and my favourite drink is a white Russian.”

Sean coughed. “Which ‘e’s never ‘ad except in Europe because he’s only twenty,” he finished, trying to keep our approval rating up. We were usually good about that, making everyone think we were pristine upstanding citizens. If they went to a show, that theory went right out the window.

“And last but not definitely not least,” prompted Jeph, smiling.

I took a deep breath; I still hated talking about myself, despite it being a major part of my chosen career. “My name is Angie Callaghan—the first and only—but you can call me Penelope. Or Pen. But not Penny; that’s way too cute for me and cute is no.” I grinned at the laughter; I loved entertaining people. “I play bass and I make weird noises with my vocal cords.” I thought for a moment. “I like anything with cranberry juice, really. Though fans like to bring me Dr. Pepper since that video of me and Adam Siska fighting over a bottle of it.”

“Awesome. Now you guys are from San Francisco, right? How do you feel about the music scene there?”

“There’s some really great music back home,” Matt said, covertly poking my leg. “I mean, if you wanted to, you could to three shows every weekend and chances are you’d find at least four good bands.”

Jeph continued with the usual questions: how’d you guys start, tell us about your album, what are your plans for the future, what the hell’s up with the nicknames. It was kind of an unwritten rule with us that Matt and Jesse did most of the talking; Sean and I only answered questions directed at us specifically and made sporadic amusing comments and anecdotes. It wasn’t until a certain question that I talked at length.

“You started pretty young though—when your album came out Angie was only sixteen,” Jeph said, glancing at the flashing phone lines. “How did your parents take to you roaming around the country.”

“Well, Sean, Matt, and I were already in college,” Jesse explained, jostling his foot, which was really fucking weird since I was still on his lap, “So they couldn’t really do anything about it then, but I know mine didn’t really care so long as I wasn’t making noise in the house.”

I got sick of Jesse’s inability to sit still and flopped sideways into Matt’s lap. He smiled down at me while others laughed. “Comfortable there?” Matt asked. I nodded happily.

“Penelope, for the record, is now taking up all of the couch,” Jeph announced, chuckling.

“Hey, they use me as a pillow all the time,” I said, stretching my legs across Sean. “They least they can do is let me do the same.”

“Angie’s the most comfortable person ever,” Sean conceded.

Matt poked my cheek. “Answer the question, fool.”

I snapped my teeth at his finger. “Um… oh! Right. No, my parents completely disapprove of musiciandom. Well, actually my mother says whatever makes me happy, but it was definitely assumed I was going to college. This is less expensive and more fun.” I shrugged. “But my parents have never been to a show, which all things considered is probably a good thing.”

“Probably,” Jeph the DJ agreed. “Our lines have been tied up since you got in, so let’s talk to some people, huh? Caller 12, you’re on.”

“Hey, guys,” a female voice said.

“Hey, sexy,” Matt said above the rest of us.

I flicked his ear as the girl giggled. “I just wanted to know, are you a virgin?”

We all looked at each other, confused. “Uh, which one of us?” Jesse asked, laughing.

“Yes,” I declared, “The collective Penny Dreadful is a virgin.” The boys devolved into laughter, Matt rolling his head back against the couch. I smiled blithely; I was infamous for my roundabout, distracting answers.

“Hey, my name is Tony,” the next caller said, and we all made the obligatory AA joke. “Angie, will you marry me?”

“No,” I replied. Pause for amusement at bluntness. “I’m still underage.”

“Well, damn. How about you, Matt?””

“Yeah, sure, man. I’m all for usurping the government.” Matt grinned.

When life gives you limelight, find some tequila-light and have a party.