Stigmata

Vivien wondered what treachery of the mind had befallen her as she squirmed helplessly in the huge chair; she tried not to watch as the man wearing blue sterile gloves who happened to be holding the thickest, longest needle she had ever seen ventured toward her. So far, whenever the band had downtime on the tour (frequent, to say the least), the boys would participate in one of three rituals. Ritual one included getting straight wasted - after their show, of course - so much so that they could barely stand and/or remember their names, stage or otherwise. Ritual two involved one of the band mates getting a tattoo while the rest of the band watched and got drunk, depending weather the tattooing was done before or after their show of the day. Ritual three had been Vivien’s favorite, for it charged her with dragging one or two of the unruly men out at a time to see their favorite bands. Why she had to chaperon for ritual three, she hadn’t quite figured out. She also hadn’t figured out when ritual two had expanded to include her body, but decided it didn’t matter as the piercer proceeded toward her, the needle in dangerous proximity with her belly button.

“You know, you don’t really have to -”

“I want it! I like the way it looks! I just hate needles!” Sanders was surprised at how well Vivien managed to exclaim through clenched teeth as he held down her upper torso with one muscled arm; he shifted, effectively blocking any view Viv had of the imposing device. “Just do it already!”

Haner, who held her head between his calloused hands and had an arm braced under each armpit, looked up past Sanders towards Jimmy, who pinned down her legs. Zachy moved to Vivien’s side from a nearby chair where he had sat with another piercer, who very unceremoniously had shoved a needle through his septum and replaced it with a ring. The boys who held Vivien exchanged that mischievous grin that Viv knew so well - the one that meant they were obviously up to nothing good - and suddenly, just as Zachy reached to rub her arm in his reassuring manner, Viv’s eyes rolled back into her head. Out cold.

“Do it now, she’s just fainted!” Haner nodded to the piercer, who quickly assessed Vivien’s exposed, pre-disinfected bellybutton before he quickly shoved the needle through and quickly replaced it with a silver-and-red ring. With expert hands he swiftly disinfected her right nostril and marked it in exactly the right spot with a pen, exchanged needles, and pressed the new, thinner needle through the sharpie mark on her nose.

That was when Vivien woke with a start - her eyes slowly crossed so she could view the three inch long needle which stuck out of her nostril. She trembled with fear as her eyes drifted toward the pain she could feel in her nose, before they rolled back in her head again. Brian looked to Zachy, who shrugged as the piercer replaced the needle with a little diamond stud that the boys had bought for her.

After a few minutes, Vivien came back around and was able to move off the table; with Matt and Brian on either side for support, she was able to make her way back to the bus the six of them slept on. When she joined the band on their tour, she had figured that she would be like any other roadie, sleeping in a van or a trailer or something equally ramshackle. However, since she was a “lady,” as Brian had put it, the boys were all too willing to lend her the bus’s couch for sleeping purposes. It wasn’t the most comfortable of places, but it beat the hell out of sleeping in a van as far as Vivien was concerned.

“You know, you guys didn’t have to get me the nose ring, I would have been able to afford it on my own eventually,” Vivien complained as Sanders led her up the RV’s steps - Haner followed close behind to be certain she didn’t fall over backwards. The other boys filed on the bus after the trio.

“Yeah, but now you can save that money to do something fun with!” Brian replied, as Johnny pulled two coca-cola’s out of the bus’s fridge and proffered one to Viv. As her fingers brushed the short bassist’s, Viv was suddenly much more excited about her new piercings and partying than she had expected to be.

“Drink up now, you’re probably feeling pretty faint,” Matt said, as he proceeded to the back of the bus to toss cokes to Zachy, Jimmy and Brian. The small redhead raised an eyebrow - Matt was always eerily exact with his guesses as to her feelings, her thoughts. “We didn’t know exactly how afraid of needles you are, Vivs!”

“I told you how afraid I was!”

“Well, we definitely didn’t know you’d faint!” Zachy exclaimed, and plopped down on the opposing couch right beneath where Matt was about to park it. With an angry glare, the tattooed singer turned and dropped into the couch beside Haner, who nearly spilled coca-cola all over the front of his shirt.

“Drink that,” Jimmy motioned to the coke Viv clutched desperately in one white-knuckled hand, as he mixed his own coke with an anonymous bottle of some dark liquor from beneath the sink in a tall tumbler. Vivien did as she was told and cracked the top of the can as she wondered how the boys ever survived a tour - they all drank dark liquor like fish! Brian had tried to entice her with a mixed drink of the dark liquid once, but one sip had set her throat ablaze hotter than any bottle of shitty vodka would and she had been forced to abstain since.

Their show for the day had ended already - the boys had played under the blistering noonday sun in long pants and t-shirts while Vivien had stifled on the sidelines in a tank top, shorts and a pair of ratty red Converse. She had to admire their fortitude, but understood why Jimmy was ready for a drink at three in the afternoon - Vivien was more than ready for a drink herself. She stood and retrieved a bottle of Jack Daniels from beneath the sink and a red solo cup from the stack on the counter, before she had unscrewed the cap from the bottle, she had three requests for a mixer. With a sign, Vivien began making drinks as she reminded herself that it was because of the men on the bus that she earned a living and had a place to sleep at night.

“So Vivien, Zachy and I want to go to the Killswitch concert at four.”

“What time is it now, Mr. Gates?” Vivien continued mixing and passing out drinks as she spoke with practiced ease until she was able to make her own drink. With it in hand she turned to face the two guitarists.

“Uh. Three forty-five.” Zachy provided, when Brian resorted to his trademark evil smirk. Viv swore under her breath before she rushed into the bathroom to re-do her makeup.

“Ah, come on Vivien, I thought you liked being our chaperone!” Haner called from the couch, as he grinned at his band mates.

“You’re a little hard on her, Brian, she’s doing her best,” Matthew murmured beside his friend as he swished a finger around in his own Jack and coke and sucked the flavor away, Jimmy voiced a likewise concern as he concocted another drink. The guitarist flashed a smile and stood to begin “disguising” himself - he and Zachy each donned a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap pulled low over their eyes. When Viv emerged from the bathroom, her light eyes traced in dark kohl, she almost shuddered at their getup.

“Aren’t you guys going to swelter in that?”

“Au contraire my black-eyed Irish beauty, we’d swelter more if people recognized who we were. How do I look?” Viv rolled her eyes at the guitarist and looked to Zachy, who shrugged.

“He’s right, though. We wouldn‘t be able to watch if people recognized us.”

“Good thing you’re masters of disguise, then. Uh, stop twirling around, Brian, or I’ll expose you for the fairy you are!” The lithe redhead brushed past both boys to lead them off the bus.

“You’re one to talk!” Haner quipped, and earned a swift kick in the ass from Jimmy as he exited the bus after the small redhead.

Vivien sipped her drink as she walked arm-in arm with Zachy through the packed fairgrounds, with Brian trailing at a slight distance as he “scoped out chicks.” Even though the tour was still young - they had only been on the road for five or so shows - Vivien felt very close to the men who allowed her to sleep on their bus and control a plethora of Brian’s guitars, his mix and to perform sound checks with the other techs. She had never thought, as a prima ballerina, that she would take a job as a Guitar tech.

“What was that movie you picked up the other day, Vivs?” Brian called as he drew level with his guitar tech and fellow musician, and took Vivien’s other arm. The little redhead drew the boys in close to her as she led them through the packed crowd, hoping desperately that nobody in the thick walkway recognized the musicians she walked with.

“Actually, it’s a recording of the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. I love it.” Vivien smiled brightly at Zachy, who understood her love of Shakespeare and British humor far more than Brian, who was usually quite insensitive whenever she and Zachy decided to pop in Monty Python or the like.

“I love that movie! You’ve had it for days and haven’t shown it to me?” Baker gushed at a smiling Viv.

“You two should elope to England,” Brian interrupted, as they drew in on the Killswitch Engage crowd. The show had just begun, and the crowd was just beginning to whip into a frenzy. Grinning broadly, Brian found himself leading Vivien through the crowd to a place near the front (they lost Zachy in the mosh pit area, but Haner was confident Baker could manage on his own).

“This is so fun!” The redhead at Haner’s side shrieked over the band’s new singer’s deep growls and high-pitched screams. Haner smiled back and grabbed her hand in his before they both began to headbang - Vivien frantically threw up devil’s horns with her free hand while Brian chose to grip the fence they were pressed up against.

During the second song - End of Heartache - the vocalist held the microphone between the wildly flailing duo; Vivien desperately clutched Howard Jones’ forearm as she and an all-too-calm Haner sung chorus in two parts, an impressive feat.

“God, that was a good show!”

The trio finally made their way back to the bus, each covered head to toe in sweat, blood, and other people’s sweat. After a few songs, Zachy had extracted himself from the mosh pit he had been in and moved to the front - Viv thought it was odd he had been able to find she and Brian out of a huge crowd, but then, Zachy always was a touch abnormal in that way, she supposed. All of the boys seemed to make the impossible possible quite often.

That night, Vivien fell asleep on Brian’s shoulder as he coolly strummed the acoustic guitar he had asked her to tune on that fateful audition day.