Jem...Chapter 194

*Before…

I’m looking at Rayne and she’s got this sort of wistful sad but happy kinda smile going. “When she’s good, she’s really good...and look.” (Sniffle.)

I look over and Summer’s kissing Hannah in front of everyone on stage….hungry and over and over kisses and she only breaks it to say really sultry like into the mic.

“My driver everyone...and the songwriter…”

Yeah okay jaws dropped.

I look at everyone and take a breath and step out enough and do the two finger whistle in my mouth and whistle cheer them on then start clapping and i start yelling.

“Another lap! Sing it again!”

I start clapping for them and saying in more and more until the crowd picks it up and the girls are too in between Rayne, Brooklyn and Kimmie wiping tears from their eyes.

Good is good...We all need to do better.

I’ve no problem starting that.

*And Now…

LOL I think I shocked Summer who’s still holding Hannah in her arms and she’s staring at me and she’s staring at Rayne and then Hannah said something likely sweet and literally turned Summers head to face her and they kissed again.

The Hanners started bouncing on her feet as the band started playing the opening once more to *Running Hot* By Kisses & Thorns.

And Summer’s kind of moving with her bouncing and that kind of starts turning into her head banging a little bit and with her hair sweat-wet and the red and the lights and in her bra she looks not just hot as heck but she looks like she’s a rocker chick.

And yeah she starts into the new song again and yeah I’m with everyone singing along with it.

The other girls are dancing to it some but hey it’s a start.

And yeah we’re running their spot over into ours but heck with it.

I want them to have this moment.

And I rock out as long as we can before we’re told by the MC girl to get ready and up there on stage and we’re going up and they’re coming down and there’s nods from their guys and smiles on some of the girls and Summer’s getting led down by Hannah and there’s a stop when it’s me and Rayne and Hannah and Summer and Summer looks at me and there’s this strangled sounding “Why?”

I look her in the eyes. “Because it was good. You were all damned good.”

Rayne stares at her. “Because you were honest Summer.” she only says that and she heads up fast the rest of the way up the steps and Summer looks like her heart’s getting squeezed really bad.

I look at her. “There’s lots of bad still there Summer.” I look at Hannah. “But it’s a start.”

Hannah nods and she gives me a fist bump. “Yeah it’s a start, Thanks Angel.”

She walks Summer down the steps and yeah I can see Summer just about ready to fall apart but there’s her bandmates down there and even some others waiting for them too so I’m going to leave that in the hands of the rock gods and goddesses.

I head up to the stage and I kiss Rayne first thing starting whistles and hoots and hollers.

People are used to this or they should be we’re pretty much out as a girl-couple.

Rayne’s crying and I wipe-fix her make-up as best as I can with my thumbs and I smile at her. “I love you, I’m proud of you Rayne this was big.”

She does this smile sob and kisses me pretty hungrilly. “I love you Angel, I love you so much...you make me happy, you push me into being better...and hold me up doing it.”

Then the crowd starts up with more whistles and someone got them started with “SLB! SLB! SLB!”

I step back away from Raven and I turn and I grab the mic.

I nod my head shaking my hair to the chanting.

“Well that was pretty awesome wasn’t it!”

There’s cheers.

I shout into the mic before point it at the crowd. “But hey...look where we are….Pointers!”

There is a huge roar of “ROCK!”

I do it again. “POINTERS!”

“ROCK!”

Roxy starts it off with the drums hitting over and over sort of like the hammers from the old song and yeah we’re starting with a cover but it’s a good cover. I’ve wanted to do this one every since we got the whole Pointers Rock started.

I literally pull on all that energy of the crowd and start clapping in time, then bouncing on my feet a few times before I grab the mic and open with *Rock You!* By Helix.

Gimme an R!

(The crowd loses it. That instant recognition along with all the energy they already have.)

They scream this thunderous “R!!!”

O… “O!”
C… “C!”
K… “K!”

Whatcha got?.... “ROCK!”

And whatcha gonna do?... “ROCK YOU!”

Gimme an R!... “R!”
O... “O!”
C... “C!”
K... “K!”

Whatcha got?... “ ROCK!”

And whatcha gonna do?... “ROCK YOU!”

Hot as a pistol
Loaded like a gun
Ready for action
Gotta have my fun

Don't just sit there
Come on get up and move
If you want to
Tell you what we're gonna do

Rock you, Rock you!
Rock you, Rock you!

I've been waiting
For so long
Gonna play it loud
Gonna play it strong

Well don't just sit there
Come on get up and move
If you want to
Tell you what we're gonna do

Rock you, Rock you!
Rock you, Rock you!
Rock you, Rock you!
Rock you, Rock you!

Gimme an R... “R!”
O… “O!”
C… “C!”
K… “K!”

Whatcha got?... “ROCK!”

And whatcha gonna do?... “ROCK YOU!”

Gimme an R!... “R!”
O… “O!”
C… “C!”
K.... “K!”

……………….And the crowd is going wild as we got the worked up really heavy and we hit them with *AC/DC* By Joan Jett and then we go from that into *Don’t Wanna* By Starlight Butterfly and then into some fun rock with *Boots of Chinese Plastic* By The Pretenders and then follow that up with *My Best Friend’s Hot* By The Dollyrots and then more kind of rockin punk meets girly-pop with *Magical Power Panties* By Starlight Butterfly.

We just finish that up when some girl screams “I Love you Roxy!”

A bra gets fired up onto the stage and Roxy whistles and jams her Moggle-toque with her drum sticks. “Who through that!?”

We see a pair of arms go up and she throws her hat to the girl who’s actually topless.

Roxie pours some water over her head and her hair and she shakes it back and forth and she starts playing this really, really familiar drum beat and that sends the crowd cheering and I grab the keytar and join in then Raven steps up to the mic and belts out the….

“Oooooh! Ho! Whoa! Yeah!”

And we do *I Saw the Sign* By Ace of Base.

Which is a really good song and it’s a lead in that so fits well with *Bring The Rain* With Raven still on vocals.

And it’s still her that takes the mic and she starts to talk to the crowd with that OMG...Tish accent she has.

“En bien that was a lot of fun Qui? I had a lot of fun, did you have a lot of fun?”

She mic’s the crowd and they start to cheer and whistle.

“It’s getting kind of late and we’ve all have our fun and I’d like for us to end the night on a bunch of sweet notes, sweet shoulders and soft, so soft embraces as we play pour tous-la-monde something to dance to.”

She starts with Adele…. And *One and Only* hitting them with the power of her voice her own accent giving her this twist that’s all alone.

Then she looks over to me and she starts to sing *Billie Holiday* By Starlight Butterfly To me and for them and people are already starting to do that whole listen and chill and slow dancing thing that honestly we’re really strong at.

She follows that up really nicely with *Drops of Jupiter* By Train.

And *Never Enough* By Starlight Butterfly follows that and then she steps back to her bass and I step sit behind the keyboard and start doing *Faithfully* By Journey on the keyboards with it set to piano.

And then I hit them with a really, really perfect slow dancing cover.

*Wonderful tonight* By Eric Clapton which makes this really wonderfully mellow lead into *Carousel* By Starlight Butterfly.

And we finish up with *Tingle* By Starlight Butterfly and *Destiny* By Starlight Butterfly.

I lean to the mic using the stand. “Well that’s about all the time we have tonight folks, we had a great time and we hope that you all did too. We’re going to play you out with our usual so everyone drive safe.”

There’s cheers but there’s some people yelling for *Invisible* and *Oncology*

I look to the MC and she shrugs and tells me off mic. “It’s not like we’re paying you.”

I look to them.

“Okay, okay we can do those as long as you want them?”

There’s more whistles and there is a few folks leaving but there’s a lot that stay and I hold the mic stand close as we go into *Invisible* By Starlight Butterfly.

Okay...okay there’s a lot of people here my age that seem to really get it, and there’s a lot of lean and sway and lighters and phones up and glowing.

Day after day … .it’s always the same.
Waking up cold … on a bright sunny day …
Breakfast’s cold coffee and three cigarettes …
Why do I even bother …?
No one will notice …

(Chorus)Because I’m Invisible …
Why can’t anyone see me …
Because I’m Invisible …
Why can’t anyone hear me …?
I’ve been screaming and shouting but nobody cares …
Because I’m Invisible …
I’m Invisible … … And I’m fading away …

And the shower can’t wash away the pain … ..
Another day … of not this again …
And the soap’s not what’s making me cry …
I close my eyes to the razor’s lullaby …
Why should I bother …?
Will anyone notice …?
Will anyone miss me …?
(Chorus)
And is the knife my only friend …?
And will these pills take me to my end …?
And will anything be there at the end of the line …?
Or like everything else is it a big waste of time?
Why should I bother …?
When Nobody loves me …
When Nobody sees me …
(Chorus x2)

The song still gets to me but what gets to me more is that there seems to be so many people here who get it too. It’s sad and scary and at the same thing there’s something that’s kind of soulful too in all that shared pain.

I wipe away a few tears because I’m moved by all of this.

“Let’s not do Oncology tonight everyone, I want to save that for Sunday night. I kinda want to do something with it and I kinda want to shoot a special charity video with it too if that’s alright with you all?”

There’s whistles and supportive voices cheering that it’s all good.

“Awesome it’ll definitely be worth it y’all.”

I smile at them and then at Brooklyn who steps in and she starts to play us out with *One for the money, two for the show.* By Trooper.

There’s a lot of applause and it’s pretty late and we get our instruments and we head to the vehicles together not having to tear down with the event crews doing all of that for us.

Summer and K&T are already gone for the night and We end up hugging Lorna and the Brewers plus Danny and Kate and then we leave and have the windows rolled down and tonight, tonight we’re headed straight home.

Dad doesn’t even turn the truck off he just gets out and helps us with our things and he hugs us all really, really tight.

“I’m really proud of you girls tonight, you played great and you definitely got a lot of the stuff you committed to started hard. But it’s not that...it’s not that by far girls. It’s that heart you all showed tonight. It’s a damned hard thing to forgive people sometimes, it’s hard to get past hurt feelings and anger and especially broken hearts….I watch you all with Summer and them and you girls brought tears to my eyes y’know...I love you all.”

Okay...he’s crying a little again and we’re all really, really crying and he’s taking turns doing the Dad hugging us thing and yeah with the tired and the adrenaline we’re bawling a little.

He hangs onto me a little while longer as the others head off to get cleaned up and to give Dad and I some privacy.

I’m looking at him and he’s looking at me and we’re taking turns wiping tears away from each others faces and he swallows a few times too before he looks up.

“I saw her tonight Angel (guy-sniffle), I saw your Mom tonight...plain as could be y’know (guy-sniffle)...(cough)...she was there right there in you honey. (Guy-choke-sniffle-sob.)...she was just like shining out of your skin…. (Cough)...I’m so proud of you...I can barely get it out...but I’m so proud of you.”

I’m no good, I’m a complete wreck and smiling and sobbing and there’s so many tears that I can’t breathe at all through my nose and after a few minutes he sits me on the couch and hands me tissues.

It takes a few minutes before i’m all blown clear and I’m able to see him and he’s smiling at me and he’s got some tissues of his own.

He leans over and he kisses me on my forehead.

His little finger hooks mine.

“A thousand percent Angel, I’m in your corner a thousand percent. You are my most amazing child, my super, stunning amazing daughter and there is nothing on heaven or earth that I won’t do for you.”

And I’m crying some more and they’re all happy tears.

“I love you Daddy.”

“I love you to so much kiddo, but as your Dad I’m going to pull the older and wiser thing and leave you in the care of someone else that really loves you.”

I look over and I see Rayne there and she’s got her make-up off and she has some towels and our robes and shower things.

“Come on Angele, let’s go get cleaned up and go to bed.”

That sounds almost like a miracle right now.

I let Dad help me up and we both walk him to the front door and we hug him and lock up after he’s gone

Rayne set the shower stuff on the couch at one point and she leans her back to the door but her arms slip around me and she pulls me in and kisses with me in this sweet tender, loving way.

“Thank you.” She says as we part lips and she nuzzles my face.

“For what?”

“For pushing me, for showing me that’s it’s okay to let go of things.”

I smile and nuzzle back. “Well you did most of that yourself.”

She kisses me again. “And you made a good example.”

We nuzzle some more. “You feel better don’t you?”

“A little.”

“Hey it’s a start.”

She nods and kisses me again and then takes my hand and she leads me to the couch to get our things and then upstairs to the bathroom.

She plugs her phone into the wall socket to charge it and she brings up some soft music as I get the shower going and we undress and shower together.

It’s intimate but not sexual tonight...but really nice with lots of soapy suds and it’s smells really nice and mellow, that cocoa and shea butter with like coconut sort of scent that takes you to that want to sleep mood.

We slow dance really basically in the shower together but we still do it and we’re in there for a while and then it’s out and padding dry and getting changed into our night stuff.

Rayne heads to the laundry and I pad down to the kitchen and fill the coffee perk and then look at the clock and set the timer on the perk then I mix up some eggs with cream for scrambled eggs in the morning and put it in Tupperware and that goes in the fridge and I put bacon in a glass baking dish to be ready for morning and make some more frozen orange juice.

I walk around the house just sort of happy and checking in on people and Mike’s with Brooklyn in the living room and they’re editing some of the video stuff we got and some Mike must have shot that fits it and I didn’t see before and she’s actually into it.

Molly’s nowhere to be seen and neither is Carmen but there’s music playing from their room so… and Kimmie’s in her room...okay I hear Max’s voice too and he must have come over while all the stuff with me and Dad was going on.

That’s pretty nice, though we should look at stuff long term and things if he and Janey are going to be over a lot more.

I head to our room and I’m looking at Go-Go’s bakery online stuff and their webpage and they’re online at this hour.

[Hey, can you girls take an order for tomorrow?]

[Of course XD.]..... [Wait Angel Benton as in Jem from SLB?]

[Hellos *Waves* okay that’s cool you’ve heard of me.]

[R U Serious of course we’ve heard about you! SLB is Flipping awesome! You’re like breaking stereotypes and playing like all sorts of stuff and have like...you do the goth thing and the punk thing and the rocker thing and the babymetal thing.]

[Baby Metal? That’s a band right?]

[Yeah well Roxy-Moogle is like the closest thing to that here in this town like ever so that’s huge too.]

[LOL that’s really cool Kimmie’ll love that.]

[Awesome!]

[So can I place an order?]

[Depends on like what and when and how big an order?]

[Twelve dozen sugar cookies decorated with our band stellar butterfly?]

[No problem for when?]

[Fair opening at nine?]

[Done, anything else?]

[Not that I can think of, do you do Paypal?]

[Sure do you want the bill e-mailed to you?]

[Def, can u?]

It comes through the e-mail and I go through the banking app and pay for them there and then and it’s not bad considering their time and our saved time.

[Can you send me pictures of them when the first ones are decorated? I want to Instagram them to our page.]

[Really sure!]

[Okies see you tomorrow.]

I go from the banking app to Facebook and liking their page and adding the link to their shop onto the band web page and then post up on both about them making our cookies and by the time I’m done that Rayne’s come in with fresh blankets and sheets that smell like the dryer.

I set my alarm to match the kitchen and help Rayne make our bed and we slip into the fresh and still warm sheets together and we snuggle up tight.