Pleasure of the Pain

It was the day of our tour, and we were halfway to our first venue. Barrone was driving, as Luke had already driven a couple of hours, Laurence was asleep, I couldn’t be bothered and even though he offered, no one would trust Drew to drive the van unless we wanted to die.

He had pulled into a small cafe as Drew was whining that he was hungry. I remember being a little hungry myself, and so we went there. I don’t think Laurence actually ate much...no, I remember finishing off his almost untouched food. It was a hot day, yet Barrone insisted on wearing a hoodie, even though the rest of us were wearing short sleeves. His excuse was a recycled Drew joke, that: ‘the sun should dress for him.’ None of us thought that he was actually hiding something.

We then got back to the van, and I decided to drive for a bit, seeing that we only had an hour to go, and Barrone and Luke had driven a total of three hours between them. Laurence was my copilot, or really the person who switched past all my favourite songs to annoy me. I slammed on the brakes when someone pulled out in front of us, causing a thud to be heard from the back if the van. I learnt that it was Drew who Luke would have pushed anyway because he was touching his drumsticks. I could hear Luke saying “you wouldn’t like it if someone threw your baby around, so don’t throw someones drumsticks around!”

I chuckled at this remark, imagining that Drew had pretended to be a unicorn with one of Luke’s drumsticks. The only way to annoy a usually laidback Luke.

“Turn left” Laurence pointed off the motorway, where I drove. We found ourselves in front of the venue we would be playing, seeing that Blitz Kids were already there. I’d never really met them before, but I knew they were good artists. We parked in the space next to their van. As soon as I turned the engine off Drew had jumped out of the van yelling ‘freedom!’ Luke followed, and Laurence left me to lock the van up and take out the rest’s suitcases. I got out of my seat and walked to the back of the van, thinking. Where was Barrone?

I remember yelling his name and making him jump. He had fallen out of his bunk. That was when I found the blade that fell on the floor and his wrist pouring out blood.

“Shane?!” I gasped. He looked up, knowing I only used his real name when I was shocked. His eyes went from surprised to serious, and he pinned me against the wall.

“Don’t you dare tell anyone!” He tried to be threatening. It really didn’t work.

“I won’t if you promise me you’ll stop” I replied calmly.

He sighed, seeing that he had gotten blood on my shirt.
 “Alright” he said, looking me in the eye “I promise” his eyes darted away, because he had lied.

I then shrugged him off and walked to where we kept the first aid kit, and bandaged up his wrist. I was suprised to find so many scars. He said nothing, looking out of the window, flinching every now and then when I accidentally pulled it too tight.

-

After we had everything cleaned up, and I had changed into a new shirt, we both walked in, deciding to leave our luggage for later. Drew was talking to someone who was taking a swig of his beer, I was to learn that he was Jono, their guitarist, whilst Luke was setting up his drum kit with their drummer, Matt, and Laurence was no where to be seen.

“Hey, you must be Kier and Shane” Someone with dark brown-almost black- curled hair smiled at us, his blue eyes meeting mine. 
“It’s Barrone” Barrone mumbled. He never was good with meeting new people.

“Oh, sorry” He apologised, scratching his stubble. “I’m Joe, but people call me Joey”


“Hi” I smiled, looking back at Jono, who was collecting another bottle from the box by the stage.

“He’s not always like this, it’s just because we’re on tour” Joey noticed where I was looking. I was more concerned about him offering Drew one.

“Maybe after the show Drew, yes?” I called before Drew took it. He looked at me and nodded, a little disappointed.

Drew drinking always ended in disaster. We all called it the three D’s.

I then saw what is probably the last member of Blitz Kids, their bassist, Nic. Drew pounced on him (not literally, although people would expect) talking to him about bass guitars. Then Jono walked over to us.
“Don’t you have two singers?” He asked.

“Yeah, where is...” Joey paused, thinking, “Laurence?”

“I’m not sure, I thought he came in here with Drew and Luke” I remember being concerned “I’ll go outside and look. You coming Barrone?” I asked. He looked thankful when he nodded.

-

We came back half an hour before the show started, meeting a crowd of fans on the way, but I promised them I’d stay behind to see them as we had to get back because the concert would start soon. We saw Laurence there finishing off sound check with Luke and Drew. Luke looked fuming, and I realised Blitz Kids were no where to be seen. I could tell something had happened whilst we were gone.

“You okay?” I asked Laurence, climbing up onto the stage. He nodded, not looking me in the eye.

“It’s fine” he muttered, fiddling with the microphone stand and putting his guitar picks into the side. I heard the door open and saw Joey walk through. A growl came from the back of Luke’s throat.

“Look, I’m sorry Laurence, about what Jono had said, he gets loud when he’s drunk and he doesn’t think...”

“Why?” I cut in “what did he say?”

“He asked Laurence if he was on a diet, and when Laurence said yes he said ‘that’s good because you need to’...”Joey squeaked. I clenched my teeth.

“And where is Jono?” I asked.

“In our van” Joey answered
.
“Don’t worry about it” Laurence muttered.

“Or at least wait until we’ve finished our set” Drew reminded me.

As if on queue the doors opened, so whilst they came in I grabbed my guitar from backstage, trying to keep my anger minimal. How dare he say that about Laurence! What has Laurence ever said to him?

----

After both our sets, and after we had gotten back to our tour busses, where we decided to stay for the night, I sat with Laurence on one of the bunks-I think it was Luke’s-talking to him. We had spoken about what actually happened, which was just as Joey had explained, and how he wasn’t that bothered, but I had said that I didn’t care and that he wouldn’t say it again after I’ve done with him.

When we left the next day, Jono had a black eye and had apologised to Laurence a second time.

----