Fallen Embers

The next morning found Mike waking up by himself in the bedroom. He checked his watch and was surprised that it read 10:21am, he normally woke up earlier. He moseyed on out of the bed and took his time getting around. He knew that he was alone in the apartment, since Sabrina, John and Robbie left to go antiquing around 9am. He dressed himself in a pair of jeans and his worn work shirt that had the name 'John' on it, His brown hair was just combed back and sans gel so it was just hanging around. He decided to go find a coffee shop and grab some breakfast and wake up before cruising around town. He walked to the kitchen and found a note from John and Sabrina along with the SUV keys and keys to the apartment. He smiled at the thoughtfulness of his new friends as he pocketed the keys and walked to the front door and down the stairs to the street level.

Upon reaching the street level he looked around and spied a small restaurant across the street so he decided to start his day there. The small café was cozy and with only about 10 booths and a small bar which sat a number of locals who were having their coffee. Mike walked in and went to the booth in the back where he could see out the window and face the whole room. An older waitress, who was just the type pf person you'd think to see, came over with a cup of coffee and silverware along with a menu.

"How ya doin' honey?" she said as she placed the mug of coffee in front of him. He waved off the creamers she started to take out of her apron pocket and reached over to grab the mug and take a sip of the dark liquid. A smile came across his face as he tasted the bitter brew. "You know what you want honey or do you need some time with the menu?"

"What's the house specials?" he asked getting into the groove of the small town café.

"Well honey, the homemade sticky buns are famous in these parts." she replied to the handsome stranger.

"Great bring me a few of them." he replied giving the waitress one of his rare smiles.

She toke his menu and walked away to fill his order. He watched as she went over to a display case and reached in with a pair of tongs and pulled out 2 of the biggest sticky buns he had ever seen out and placed them on a full sized dinner plate. She went and grabbed a carafe of coffee and walked back to his table.

"Here you go darlin, I figured you'll need this coffee to help wash down those sticky buns."

Mike started to try to pull apart the buns with a fork and after getting nowhere that way, decided to that the bull or rather buns by the horns and picked up the offending sweet with his fingers and took a huge bite. The sweetness rolled in his mouth like a fine wine. The sugar rush alone was enough to make a 10 year old cry or even Tre for that matter.

He had gotten halfway through the first sticky bun when the waitress came back over to check on him. "How's it going honey?"

"Oh my god, these are beyond words." he said between bites.

"Told you they were famous. You don't look like you're from around here." she said starting up a conversation.

"No, I drove in with a friend who is visiting her friends who have a store over across the street." he said as he pointed in the general direction.

"Oh you mean Robbie and John; well they are the nicest young boys you could ever hope to meet. They come over here and get sticky buns every morning. Say, are you friends with that Sabrina woman they said was coming to visit?"

"Yes, I am." he admitted. "They went antiquing without me, so I decided to explore the stores around here. Hey they said there was a record store around here, would you know by chance where it is?"

"Oh yes, Vinyl Records Shop it's called. You go down to the corner and over 1 street and it's on the corner."

"Thanks" Mike replied, happily eating his sticky buns.

"You're welcome stranger, what's your name anyway honey?"

"Mike."

"Well any friend of John and Robbie's is a friend of mine." she smiled to the man before she walked away to help another table.

Mike smiled at the waitress and went about enjoying the rest of his sweet breakfast treat. He was liking the fact that the town didn't seem to care who he or Sabrina was, and just went about treating them like normal. The thought that they were accepted due to who their friends were instead of being a celebrity was refreshing to the punk bassist.

About 20 minutes later he finished those sweet rolls and left a $20 on the table for the waitress. He waved to her as he left and got a wave and a "Come back again soon, and bring that friend of yours."

Mike smiled and waved again as he walked out the door and walked onto the street. He turned in the direction the waitress had pointed out and began walking. Sabrina was right when she said Plattsburgh was not unlike Watkins Glen. A little tourist town with the cute little tourist stores and a smattering of stores for the year round resident. Within minutes he found himself standing in front of the store; "Vinyl Record Shop"

The door was open and he could feel the air rush from a fan that was placed near the entrance. He pushed open the door and walked inside the little store. A quick glance from him showed bins stacked on top of folding tables. He went to the first bin within reach and starting skimming through them. He had just happened to glance up to where the cash register was and his jaw dropped.

The woman who elicited that response from Mike was the exact opposite of Brittney and Sabrina. She was dark haired and lily white. Mike eyes roamed over her and thought he was looking at the real Snow White. Her plump ruby red lips against her alabaster skin made him think that a Southern Bell from the civil war era was right here in upstate NY. Her brown hair color also made her skin look that more white. A loose tank top along with torn jeans and her hair pulled into a sloppy bun completed her look. And he thought that she shouldn't look any different.

He wandered over to the front where she was busy going through paperwork just to ask her a question. He wanted to hear her voice. "Where are the 45s?" She never looked up from the paperwork or spoke a word. She just waved her hand towards the back of the store. "Thanks." he said as he raised an eyebrow at her lack of vocals, but he moved in the general direction she gestured to.

As he walked away she spoke up "There should be a bin or two back there."

Her voice was dark and smokey sounding, and Mike just nodded his head and continued to the back. He flipped through the bins and didn't really find anything of interest, but he wanted to speak to her again, so he blindly picked a 45 and went back up to the front of the store. He stood in front of her for a few minutes until she finally looked up at him. He placed the record down on the counter and watched as a slight smile came over her face.

"I would have never pegged you to a Kathy Lee Gifford fan. You looked as though you had better taste than that, but I guess I was wrong." she said dryly.

Mike mentally smacked himself for not looking at what he had grabbed. He gave a stupid smile and shrugged his shoulders in response to her comment and handed over the money to pay for his 'find'. She handed back the change and handed him his bag and went back to her paperwork. When Mike didn't move she looked up again, "DO you NEED anything else?" she asked as she looked up at him with an annoyed look on her face.

"N-no." Mike stuttered as he turned tail and left the store. When he walked away, he turned to look back at the little store for a minute. He turned back to head towards where he had come from but as he continued on his exploring of the town, he couldn't shake that sales clerk from his mind.

After a few hours of poking here and there, his cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID and answered it with a "Hello Billie."

"Hey man, where the fuck are you? No one has heard hide nor hair of you. Man we're worried."

"It's okay, I came out here to New York to visit with Sabrina on the farm." he replied to his worried friend. "I just didn't want to bother you or Tre, so I figured the east coast air would do me some good."

"Oh, okay. As long as you are okay man. How are you holding up?"

Mike sighed and paused before he could answer, "Well, okay for the moment. Sabrina and I had a great night in; we ate some good food, drank some even better wine, and watched a great movie. Just what any girlfriends would do when they get dumped."

"Okay man. You know when you're coming home; I mean not that I'm rushing you or anything."

"I'll be back before Sabrina has to go down to New York City. I'll let you know when I'm getting back into town Bill."

"Okay man, we were worried, you know. Stay safe and tell the wild woman Adie and I said hi. We worry about her too."

"Yea, I will. She is either ignoring everything or she is a really good faker but she seems okay."

"Alright man, I'll talk at you later. Bye"

"Later Bill." Mike said before he ended the call. He placed his phone back into his pocket and headed to the doorway which lead to the second floor where John and Robbie's apartment was.

When he got inside the apartment, he found that antique hunters were home and sitting around drinking wine. Sabrina jumped up when he walked in and confiscated his bags. "What did you buy me?" she joked as she started to look through things. He winced as she found what he was hoping she wouldn't. "What the hell is this?" she demanded waving the Kathy Lee Gifford 45 in the air.

"Nothing, I like weird songs." he muttered.

"Bullshit Michael, you have way better taste then that." she joked.

"Stop picking on that poor man Sab, can't you see that he is not thinking clearing, his brain isn't used to this clean air and it's confused." John snorted.

Robbie laughed "Its okay Mike, Kathy Lee isn't that bad. Besides, we'll hear a lot worse tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I thought we would go to this nice little bar restaurant and tonight is Karaoke night." John explained to the confused bass player.

"Well, I think I'll pass." Mike said trying not to frown at the mention of karaoke.

"Oh no you don't." Sabrina warned the man. "If I have to go listen to scary-yuckie then YOU have to listen to scary-yuckie and if you continue to bitch, I will personally place your name on the list and find you the most ridiculous song to sing. Yes you, the Grammy award winning musician will do scary-yuckie along with this Grammy award winning musician." she said as she jabbed a finger into his chest. Mike sighed as he knew that he had already lost the battle.

A few hours later the four friends walked into a little place called 'The Plattsburgh Inn'. It was a nice little restaurant where there was a mix of locals and tourists. It has a large open floor plan with a bar on one whole wall, and a stage running along part of another wall. The group was lead to a table near the middle of the room and requested a couple bottles of red wine before deciding on what to order. The waitress came back with the bottles of wine and with that they filled their glasses and they exchanged salutes.

The night went on as the four people ate, drank and was merry. By the time the karaoke was to began, they had gone through four bottles of wine and were starting the fifth. The DJ came around and placed song books pencils and little papers on each table before the show was to start.

"Ohhh I have an idea." John piped up. "Let's write down songs for the other people at the table. Like I would find songs for the three of you. Then we all do four songs."

Sabrina giggled as she grabbed a book to find songs for the three men at the table with her. 15 minutes later, Robbie was taking the papers up to the DJ and handing them over with a smile and telling him about what the four were doing. Robbie came back and sat back down with a laugh.

They were enjoying the evening and suddenly, music was heard and a throaty, smokey, Stevie Nicks type voice was started to sing.

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell. Jimmy Rogers on a Victrola up high. Momma's dancing with baby on her shoulder; the sun is setting like molasses in the sky. The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything. Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for.

Mike looked at the stage and couldn't believe his eyes. It was the Snow White beauty from the record store. His breath caught in his throat as he took in what she was wearing. The dress was this red number that could make a grown man cry. The thin straps popped out against her alabaster skin. The dress flowed out to a peasant type skirt and she had these delicate sandals on her feet. Mike couldn't believe that she had such a voice coming out of that petite body. He was memorized.

Sabrina noticed the effect that this singer was having on Mike. He looked as though he almost had forgotten how to breathe. His eyes were glazed over and his mouth was partly open. She nudged John who nudged Robbie to gawk at the bass player.

The song ended with the woman singing Black Velvet, if you please. If you please.

There was a huge round of applause and instead of coming off the stage; the mystery woman disappeared into the back. When the waitress brought over a new bottle of wine, Sabrina asked who the singer was.

"Oh that's Beth, she's our ringer for Karaoke nights.... if it's slow or not a lot of people are singing she comes out and performs to pick up the slack." she explained to the table. Mike just nodded his head at the information and took a sip of his wine.

The DJ went onto his mic and said, "Our next singer for the evening is Sabrina and she will be singing a song picked by Mike."

Sabrina glanced at Mike before she stood up, and walked toward the stage. She wondered what song he could've picked for her. The DJ had his hand out holding a wireless mic for the singer as she got within his reach.

"The rules for you and your friends are that you can't know what song you're singing until the music starts." the DJ explained when she asked about the song.

Sabrina grabbed the mic and waited to see what lyrics popped up on the screen. When the title appeared on the screen, she burst out laughing. Mike had either purposely or not knowingly picked a song that she had actually recorded. When the music started, she stood by the screen to make sure how this version of the song was going to go, and then quickly started to walk out among the crowd and sang.

Never know how much I love you; never know how much I care. When you put your arms around me, I get a fever that's so hard to bear. You give me fever, when you kiss me. Fever when you hold me tight, Fever in the morning Fever all through the night.

She moved over to the table where her friends sat and sat down on John's lap and preceded to sing the song to him. Robbie and Mike were just dying laughing since how funny was it for Sabrina to be singing 'Fever' to her gay friend. The song ended and Sabrina returned to the stage.

The DJ went through the names of singers and it ended up that Sabrina and her friends were just about the only folks who put in songs to sing. When Sabrina had to sing 'Material Girl' did the crowd finally realized who she was. Mike ended up having to sing 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' which was a dead giveaway for who he was. The friends went through their songs and finally Sabrina and Mike each had one song left to sing. John was set to pick their final songs. The DJ called Mike up for his final song

"The next song was picked by John for you, Mike. A classic rock song is what you get to do" said the DJ.

Mike stood there with the mic and waited for the music to start. A familiar piano riff started to play and Mike groaned. He was going to be singing a Meatloaf song, and it looked to be one of the more popular ones, "I'd Do Anything for Love." Mike went through the lyrics and tried his best to do a Meatloaf impersonation. He grabbed a napkin off a table and held it in his hand and occasionally mopped his forehead as he sang the lyrics. About halfway through the long song Mike realized that there was a female part in this and he wondered what he was going to do. As he started to sing the last bit of lyric before the female part the Snow White creature that was now known as Beth came out from behind the stage and grabbed a mic and waited for the female part to begin.

But I'll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life, no way
I would do anything for love
Oh, I would do anything for love
I would do anything for love, but I won't do that
No, I won't do that

She looked at the audience and began to sing
Will you raise me up? Will you help me down?
Will you get me right out of this godforsaken town?
Will you make it all a little less cold?

Mike answered her questions with is own words. I can do that, I can do that.

She glared at him with malice in her eyes as she continued on
Will you hold me sacred? Will you hold me tight?
Can you colorize my life, I'm so sick of black and white?
Can you make it all a little less old?

Mike looked at the woman next to him and wondered where her anger was coming from. He certainly didn't do anything to warrant it. I can do that. Oh no, I can do that

Beth ignored his surprise at her anger and went on as though he didn't even exist.
Will you make me some magic with your own two hands?
Will you build an emerald city with these grains of sand?
Can you give me something I can take home?

I can do that, I can do that Mike pleaded with her trying to get her to understand.

Will you cater to every fantasy I got?
Will you hose me down with holy water, if I get too hot?
Will you take me places I've never known?
As she sang she ran her hand down her between her cleavage and down her thigh. She looked haughty as though he wasn't worthy of even talking to her, let alone singing to her.

I can do that. Oh no, I can do that he begged of her.

When she turned back to look at him her anger was bubbling over into the music. She emphasized each word and poked in him in the chest as she accused him of something that he didn't even do yet.
After a while you'll forget everything
It was a brief interlude and a midsummer night's fling
And you'll see that it's time to move on

I won't do that, I won't do that the rock star pleaded with the younger woman.

She got right up in his face and almost spit the words into his eyes.
I know the territory, I've been around
It'll all turn to dust and we'll all fall down
Sooner or later you'll be screwing around

As soon as she sung her last line, she looked at Mike with a look that he was lower than dirt and threw the mic at him and stalked off of the stage to go to the bar.

Mike watched her leave as he tried to convince her that he wasn't like that.
I won't do that
No, I won't do that

anything for love
Oh, I would do anything for love
I would do anything for love, but I won't do that
No, I won't do that

The song ended and the audience went wild. Sabrina watched as Mike had a puzzled look on his face. She had seen the anger in the other woman's eyes and how she directed it at Mike and it almost seemed that Mike had indeed done something to warrant such passion. There must be more to this then meets the eye. she thought to herself.

Mike came back to the table and sat down. He glanced over to the bar area, where his singing partner was now sitting nursing a drink. He signaled the waitress and ordered the woman a drink. The waitress placed the order at the bar, and Mike watched as the bartender then placed the mixed drink in front of Beth, and spoke a few words and pointed over to Mike.

Beth glanced over to where the bartender pointed and rolled her eyes. She picked up the glass and turned it around in her hand, inspecting it intently. She smiled smugly at Mike as she extended her arm and slowly poured the drink out onto the floor. All movement in the bar seemed to stop as the liquid began it's descent to the hardwood floor, making a hollow sound as it make contact with the surface. When the glass was finally devoid of its contents, she placed it back on the bar and turned back to the stunned bartender. "Tell Mr. Rock Star, that I said thanks." she sarcastically said loud enough for the man in question to hear himself.

Sabrina watched the display and glanced over at Mike when she heard what Beth had spoken. Mike for his part looked crushed. The fun happy mood he was in disappeared at the young woman's actions and he appeared almost deflated. Sabrina's heart went out to her friend as he was obviously taking the brunt for someone else in the other woman's life. Mike glanced at Sabrina and she saw the beginnings of tears in his eyes from the hatred sent his way. "Hey guys, I'm actually beat, can we make it a night?" she asked the other men at the table.

Mike just nodded his agreement and rose from his seat and walked outside to wait for the others. John, Robbie and Sabrina exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders at what happened. Sabrina left a fifty for a tip and the three friends left the bar to join the bass player outside. They found Mike smoking a cigarette while waiting for them. Sabrina slid her arm around his and propelled him toward the direction for the short walk home to John and Robbie's place. She leaned into Mike as they walked and when he was finished smoking, he wrapped his arm around her and leaned into her for the rest of the walk.

Soon the friends were inside the apartment and getting ready for bed. John shouted into the living room as he and Robbie took their leave of the other two, "Tee time is 10am in the morning, but we go have breakfast across the street before hand, they have the best... "

"... Sticky buns." Mike finished for the other man, "I had some this morning and wow, they are sweet enough to make Tre weep for joy of the sugar rush." Sabrina laughed at Mike's explanation of the sweet treats and was glad that the happy Mike was coming back again. After they crawled into bed, Mike pulled the woman close to him and whispered in her hair "I'm not a bad guy, am I Sab?" he asked using her other nickname.

She turned around to face him, nose to nose. "No Michael, you're not a bad guy. In fact you are one of best men I know." she replied to him, as she lightly kissed his lips. She felt him smile under her lips as he kissed her back. "Remember the rule Michael." she murmured.

"I think we need to toss that silly rule out the damn window, because I need to feel what's its like to make a woman happy, so happy that she screams my name in ecstasy." He growled as he slid her nightshirt off her body. He tossed the shirt onto the floor and they came together to the blow that rule out of the water.