Louder Than Thunder

He took her hand again and together they followed the other girls out of the room. The girls chatted amongst themselves once they were out, and Michelle and Sidney started their own conversation.
“You know him better than us. He meant it, right?”
“I think he did. I’ve never seen him so calm in his life. I mean, not that he didn’t lay out on a couch for hours many times before, but he’d be watching TV, which doesn’t really let your mind relax at all. I think he’s finally let his brain have a break. For once, he listened to himself, and I guess he found an answer.”
“I guess so.”
The next evening, they played their last show. Backstage, Kim and the Rag Dolls rehearsed unplugged to pass the time and to ensure that it would be a great show.
“I can’t believe that this was our tour – our first tour. I mean, I never really stopped to think about it once it started, but I mean. . .we went to America,” Michelle said, nudging Mary.
“We did.”
“I was thinking that, if the album takes off well, we could headline our own tour. It’d be of Europe and the UK, but you’d still be headliners and that would look good,” Kim explained.
“That would be great,” Darlene said with a chuckle.
“We have an album coming out,” Michelle said, with disbelief. “And my mum said that no way was I ever going to be able to make money off of music.”
“Proved her wrong, didn’t you? Maybe you should visit her soon; show off a bit,” Darlene suggested.
“Maybe. I wouldn’t mind. For once in my life, maybe she’ll say that I’m a good influence on my sister. I’d like to see her again; it’s been too long.”
“Well, you can make little Eleanor proud tonight,” Mary said, touching up her makeup in the mirror.
“Anyways, the show’ll be starting soon. Let’s head over to the side of the stage,” Kim suggested.
“Right.”
Michelle grabbed her guitar, Mary her bass, and Darlene her drumsticks and they filed out of the dressing room. Heading through the backstage, they waved at any member of the Leatherjackets they walked by and waited backstage for the show. Once they were announced, they went on, full smiling and proud of their work; they finally had the time to be proud of their work.
They started with the song that had already been released as a single and the crowd cheered with a roar of approval and appreciation. The girls played with such an enthusiasm and excitement that they could hardly muster before feeling accomplished. Mary danced around during musical breaks, taking as much pleasure in it as she did dancing in clubs. Darlene attempted tossing drumsticks in the air and, though she caught none, a few members of the audience ended up with a stick as a souvenir. Even Michelle bounced about a bit as she played the riffs and strummed quickly.
The three of them gathered in front of the bandstand at the end of the show and, with each other’s arms on their shoulders, took a bow to the audience clapping, causing the room to rumble with the noise almost as much as it did while they played. The cymbals even wobbled slightly from the applause.
“Thank you!” Mary said to the audience.
“And we’ll see you again in a few months, hopefully,” Darlene said with a laugh.
With that, they walked off the stage, arm in arm passing by the boys, who smiled admirably at them. They met Kim, who joined them and they walked into the backstage together.
“Why don’t we ‘ave a friendship like that?” Eric asked jokingly.
“Shut up, ya blinkin’ wanker,” Keith said with a laugh as he readjusted the crutch under his arm.
The Leatherjackets went on and gave a great performance even though Keith couldn’t move around the way he usually did. It allowed them to focus on their playing and the audience, on the music and lyrics. It made for a different experience, but it was a nice change for them. The audience was slightly let down by the sight of Keith limping onto the stage, but most were happy that he could at least make the show and play.
Meanwhile, backstage, the girls packed up their instruments, glowing from the transcendental performance they had just got through playing. They packed and headed back to the hotel, knowing that it would be the last day they spend in the same place with Leatherjackets, who were returning to their own homes the next day.
That night, the bands and road crew threw a party in the hotel’s ballroom. They ordered the food directly from room service, since they didn’t have the time to order from anywhere nice. Darlene and Eric walked down to the nearest liquor store and bought an assortment of drinks and the party started once they returned.
“Great, this,” Keith said, gazing upon the bottles of beer, wine, and various hard liquors.
“And don’t think we forgot about tomorrow, Mary,” Darlene said as Eric ran out of the room.
“What do you mean?” Mary asked.
Eric came back in carrying a large cake.
“It’s your birthday, silly! Michelle and I ordered the cake yesterday because we knew that, no matter what, we were celebrating today.”
“Happy birthday,” Michelle said to her, appearing at her side.
“Oh my God! I don’t know what to say. I forgot my own birthday, but you two remembered,” she said with a laugh.
A real laugh from Mary: something that wasn’t easy to receive but was always nice to hear when they came out. Mary put her arms around Darlene, Michelle and Kim’s shoulders, in a friendly and loving embrace.
“Thank you so much!”
Everyone went into a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ as the cake was set down on the table. They pushed Mary towards the end of the table as they sang to her. At the end, she held her long blonde hair back and blew out the candles.
After that, almost everyone grabbed a drink to socialize for the last time.
“So, where are you guys going after the tour anyways?” Mary asked the boys.
“I ‘ave a home in the countryside now. I’m going to stay there,” Eric said, drifting off dreamily. “It’s a nice place – big yard, lots of trees and grass and a little pond. I was thinking about buying a dog. It’s nice, but lonely. Has a bar in the basement though, always good.”
“That’s lovely, Eric.”
“I was going to stay with Eric for now,” Keith admitted.
“I guess I won’t be lonely after all,” Eric corrected, taking a sip of his beer.
“Yeah. I was thinking about buyin' a place in New York, but I don’t know yet. I should probably buy a place in London since it’s closer to the boys and to the studio and everything. We’ll see what happens, I guess,” Keith explained.
“What about you, Kurt?” Michelle asked him politely.
Kurt looked up at her and shyly readjusted himself, his earth green eyes looking up between her and the ground a few times.
“Kurt has a place here, but he likes California,” Sidney explained.
“Oh, California! That’s where Sid and I are from,” Darlene said to him.
He nodded with a slight boyish grin.
“What about you, Sidney?”
“I actually still own my place in Malibu. I’m renting an apartment over here but I’m looking to buy one now that we’re permanently recording over here. What about you girls?”
“Well, we still have an apartment here. A terrible one, but it’s home,” Michelle admitted.
“We were talking about buying separate apartments here, if we have enough money. We still need to check how much we actually have. We might end up back in that place,” Mary explained.
“Hey, if you need somewhere nicer to stay, you can stay with us. Like Eric said, he has a big place. The place I’m renting has two bedrooms,” Sidney said.
“Yeah, I could make room. I tell ya, within a month of bein’ back, I’ll have a living room full of musicians who don’t wanna go home,” Eric said with a laugh.
“You’re gonna ‘ave a full house, mate,” Keith said, putting the crutchless arm around Eric’s neck in a brotherly hug.
“That’s how I like it.”
“You know, now that we’re not arguing all the time, it’s kinda nice,” Mary said.
“Yeah, it is,” Keith said.
“I’m actually going to miss you guys,” Darlene admitted.
“Yeah, we all will,” Michelle added.
“Yeah. I mean, I know that if we do stay with Eric, this probably isn’t goodbye just yet, but after that we probably won’t see each other for a long time.”
“That’s probably true. Ya know, I think we’ll miss you too,” Eric said, taking a sip of his whiskey. “You girls are alright.”