Speed Dialing

Ray

On stage, no one really noticed what anyone else was doing, between us anyway. I never really even looked up from my guitar unless I was singing back up. The one characteristic I had noticed was Gerard’s voice. The chorus was stretched out and his voice would end up cracking at some point. That never happened before. Well, that did happen a couple of times, but only when he was drunk. I couldn’t just assume that though! I mean, maybe Gerard hardly got any sleep or maybe he had a throat infection. Maybe he got sick.
I then realized I was pushing the thought of him being drunk even farther into my brain. Denying the fact that he could be drunk was only going to make things worse. A war developed inside my mind and while no one noticed, I was multi-tasking. I had to play the guitar with the right notes, as well debate about the condition Gerard was in. If Gerard became even more messed up, we all did. Simple as that.
With one last note, Gerard ended the concert with a slurred phrase, “You all are fucking incredible!” I don’t think he meant to, but he dropped the microphone against the stage floor and stumbled off to backstage. We all followed in suit and I stopped Gerard so I could talk to him.
“Great show right?” I told him, smiling lightly as I began to put my guitar away. Before I did so though, Gerard spoke, “Uh-huh,” He made a face, as if he were to barf as he then turned around. I sniffed and smelled a heavy amount of liquor emitting from his mouth.
Shit, Gerard had gone downhill, again.
“Uh, Gerard-“ I stopped myself. He wouldn’t listen to me, or any of us, just like last time. I sighed heavily and wondered how we would get by this one until I bumped into Marilyn. At first I didn’t know who it was but as soon as I caught a glimpse at her blonde hair, I knew it was Marilyn.
“Marilyn, what’s up?” I asked her casually but inside, I was nervous about her finding out about Gerard. Yet, she needed to know.
“N-Nothing..” Marilyn sniffed and fidgeted as she seemed to not want to rub her eyes “Are you okay?” I lowered my head down as I slightly bent my knees to get an eye-to-eye perspective. Marilyn was crying. What happened this time?
“G-Gerard was d-drinking.” Marilyn told me with a sudden wary tone to her voice. I froze in my spot and bit my lip lightly as my hands turned into fists as I tried to figure this all out.
“Where is he?” Marilyn spoke just moments after. Her voice had been taken control of, yet she tried not to break the tone. “I don’t kn-“ I froze as I saw the raven-black haired male sweep past us. Okay, I’ll be blunt, he stumbled a bit but made it past us after all.
“Gerard,” Marilyn’s voice rang out and I saw her minute hands clutch into fists as she went on speaking, “I need to talk to you.”