End of the Hall, page 12
“Eric!” Becca calls over. “Tyson’s okay with it! Go shower!”
“Okay, mom!” He grabs a towel and some shorts then walks over to the bathroom as he texts Victoria. “Hey, my parents say it’s okay. What time you want me over?”
“Uhh, I think six?”
“Okay. I’ll be there.” He speeds through the shower and walks back over to his room to decide on an outfit. Five or ten minutes go by until Becca walks over and knocks on his door.
“Are you picking your clothes or having some alone time? We gotta go soon,” she tells him.
“I’m going, I’m going,” Eric replies. He scratches his scruff and crosses his arms before deciding on a white undershirt and dark red button up. He rolls up the sleeves to the elbows to show off his forearms then grabs some blue jeans and a belt. He ties his sneakers and sprays some cologne before finally exiting his room. As he and his mother walk to the car, he plays with his hair to try and make it more presentable.
“Eric, your hair is fine,” she tells him during the drive. “Is this your first time meeting her parents? You two have been together since last year.”
“I know, but they usually have something going on, that’s why she’s always at our house instead,” Eric explains. They drive almost to the other end of town before reaching Victoria’s house. He tells his mom goodbye and that he’ll text her when to pick him up then traverses the lawn over to the front door and rings the doorbell. Victoria answers the door and embraces him in a hug.
“I’m happy you could make it,” she says with a smile. She guides him into the dining room where her mom, Janine, is setting the table. “Mom, this is Eric.”
“Oh! This is the boy you’ve told me so much about,” she says before walking over to shake his hand. “She’s been talking you up all day.” Janine smirks and winks in jest, making Victoria blush.
“Where’s dad?” Victoria asks.
“He’s finishing up on the grill outside,” she answers. “Country style ribs. He’s been brushing the barbecue sauce on them for the last hour.” Eric salivates at the thought. Eric follows Victoria to the kitchen and grabs plates and silverware to set the table with her. Just as they get everything ready, Victoria’s dad, Roy, walks in with the night’s meal. While the family digs in, Eric silently prays then begins eating.
“Religious boy, I see,” Roy infers upon noticing Eric’s hands in a prayer stance.
“Yes, sir,” Eric replies before taking a bite of rib meat. “Grew up with it, actually.” Roy points a fork toward him and looks at Victoria.
“Markings of a good man,” he tells her with a fatherly laugh. “You devout, son?”
“Uhh, not as much as I should be,” Eric tells him. “I’ve skipped a couple Sundays here and there.”
“What do you do in your free time?”
“He actually plays in a band, dad,” Victoria interjects. “They’re playing at the Bash tomorrow.”
“A band, ya say. Mind full of aspirations too. What’d you wanna be when you grow up?” Roy continues.
Eric repositions in his seat and takes a sip of his water. “Well, to be honest, I’ve always wanted to be a firefighter.”
“Got family in it?” Roy takes another bite of his ribs, then wipes his mouth with a cloth. Eric can feel the man grilling him, making sure he’s worth Victoria’s time.
“No, sir. Stepdad’s an ex-marine, now cop. Mom is a nurse.”
“Guess your dad’s a deadbeat then, huh?”
“Roy!” Janine stops him. “Jumping to conclusions, let the boy finish his dinner at least.”
“I guess you could say he is,” Eric trails off before continuing eating. Victoria can tell his entire mood has swung into something more serious that she hasn’t seen. Once dinner is done, Eric finds himself outside with Roy as he enjoys a cigar.
“Eric, you smoke?” he asks before taking a puff.
“No.”
“Good. Stuff’ll kill ya,” he tells him before slouching further in his lawn chair and letting out a boisterous laugh. “If ya let it!” Eric joins him in a laugh before taking a seat next to him. “You say you wanna be a firefighter, but you’re also in a band. Enjoy the fun while it lasts. Once you turn that tassel though, the party’s over. Time to step up and be a man and do what needs done.” Eric simmers on his words for a moment.
“I don’t know how far this band will travel, but while it’s fun, might as well be there for every step,” he defends.
6/16 songs
Track 8: Breaking and Entering
[ERIC and CYDNIE]
“Ugh.” Cydnie groans as she reaches for her phone on the nightstand. Reading the caller ID, she swipes to accept the call. “Yeah?”
“Hey Cyd, it’s E. Think I can come over to lay down a track before the show?” Eric asks over the phone.
“Yeah, sure,” Cydnie asks with a yawn. “Lemme put pants on, and I’ll meet you in the garage.”
[AAR]
The Back to School Bash is off without a hitch. Everywhere Cydnie looks as she sits on the stage she can see people partying, eating food, playing jokes on each other. “You know,” Stella begins as she sits next to her friend. “You can always hang out with your friends before we all go on.” Cydnie shakes her head with a smirk. “What then?” Stella laughs as she speaks. “We already got the sound checks done before anyone even showed up, had a little time to jam and rehearse, so what’s on your mind?”
“Over there,” Cydnie nods her head over at a group of people.
“What about them?” Stella asks with a cocked eyebrow.
“There’s a girl, right at the edge of the little circle. I know who she is, but every time I glance, for a second I keep thinking she’s my old friend, Krystal.” Stella shifts her weight and places the palms of her hands on the stage next to her knees.
“You really only mentioned her to me,” Stella tells her. “What was she like when you two were little?” Cydnie leans back and rests on her elbows. She thinks about her old friend for a moment and chuckles a bit.
“Fearless, ready for anything,” Cydnie explains. “I remember all the times we would climb to the top of the monkey bars and have a pirate fight until the teachers would yell at us to get down. She helped me a lot when I was still... “
“Not you yet?” Stella asks. With a grimace, Cydnie nods.
“I would have my… therapy… and then I’d see her the next day and she’d de-brainwash me. She was my Little Gem.”
“Yours?” Stella giggles. “Sounds like a crush. Cydnie the lesbian.”
“Mmm, no.” She shakes her head. “I’ve never really… had feelings against any gender.”
“Well, did you ever try to find your Little Gem if she was yours?”
“Yup.” Cydnie grunts as she sits up. “She’s on social media. Lives in New York now with her mom. Kinda figured the reason she had to move was cuz her parents were splitting up.”
“Did you try and message her?”
“Why bother?”
“What do you mean?” Stella turns her frame toward Cydnie with irritation. Cydnie can tell she’s bothered Stella just by seeing her hazel eyes shift to a more greenish tint. “You had a thing for your best friend who even helped you become Cydnie. Don’t you think for at least a minute she’d like to see how far you’ve come?”
Cydnie reaches into her shirt and pulls out a necklace. It’s a basic black cord and hook clasp, but the charm is a feather that had been jammed into a harness and now dangles from the cord. “Towards the end of third grade, we both got the idea to make these friendship necklaces. We had no idea the other was making one. I’d managed to find this really pretty rock and she’d picked up this feather. We gave them to each other when we got together that final day before she left.”
“All the more reason to try and reconnect.” Stella interjects.
“The last thing she said to me before she moved away was that she needed to pick my new name. Like it was her life’s mission for me to be me. She grabbed a piece of paper and she wrote and crossed out all these names.” Cydnie makes a gesture as if to slash the air with a pen in her hand while laughing. “She finally handed me this paper that had ‘Cydnie Makkscene’ on it.”
“Alright everyone!” The loudspeakers boom, cutting off the two’s conversation. “This is Brent Masters from Home99 FM! In just a few short minutes, we got our first ever live showing of Against All Risk, the newest rock band out of Oklahoma! Stay tuned!”
“That’s our cue,” Stella says before the two stand up. Damien and Eric run across the field and join them on the stage. The four take their spots on the stage, Damien on drums, Stella on bass, Cydnie on guitar vocals, and Eric on lead guitar.
“Everyone ready?” Damien asks. Everyone nods and he runs his fingers through his shaggy, brown hair. “Alright. Cydnie, you know your cues right? Eric’s starting us in.”
“Got it,” Cydnie switches the toggle on her guitar to the neck humbucker and turns the tone knob all the way up. Looking at the red bursting to black on her guitar reminds her of Adrien’s words. ‘I just better see you when you have your first concert.’ They echo through and she smirks then shakes her head. “Not a concert just yet,” she tells herself. “Just our first real gig.”
“Okay, now’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” Brent announces at his console. “Here on Home99 is the radio debut of Against All Risk.” He waves his hands upward in the air to generate some scattered cheers as he switches audio from his console to the band.
“Did he say radio debut?” all four think in tandem. Damien attempts to shrug the words off and hammers down on the ride cymbal and bass drum as Eric strums out some heavy volume swells while Cydnie walks up to the front of center stage and grips the mic stand. With closed eyes, Eric’s vibrant reds flood the left side of her vision as the green of Damien’s drums swell around from behind her. Once all three colors begin swirling around Cydnie, she opens her eyes to the hallway.
Stella’s skin crawls as she looks over to see a very different Cydnie. “What the hell?” she whispers as Cydnie breathes the opening lyrics into the microphone with a sultry tone the bassist had never noticed before.
“What really lies beyond the end of the hall…
“What really lies beyond the end of the hall…
“What really lies beyond the END OF THE HALL!!!!” A shockwave comes over Stella as she comes back to reality and attempts to keep up with Eric and Damien. This new persona of Cydnie sways back and forth with both hands on the mic as she makes her way through the first verse. Damien can’t help but get into the song finally being able to play live. During the pre-chorus, Cydnie takes the microphone and saunters over to lean on Eric as she and Stella duet their lyrics.
‘This is hella different,’ he thinks as Cydnie screams out the final words of the pre-chorus and beginning the chorus. The rest of the band screams out, “KNOCK-KNOCK!” while Cydnie screams the chorus, surprising the entire audience. The seemingly possessed Cydnie’s vision shudders for a moment and she notices Kate watching on and she decides to wink at her as she makes her way through the second verse. Upon entering the second pre-chorus, she makes her way over to Stella this time, sharing a microphone with her as the two duet.
Reaching the bridge, Cydnie holds the mic stand and slowly raises her voice more and more as the band climbs toward the final chorus, repeating the lines from the intro until Cydnie lets out a 10-second-long scream. “KNOCK KNOCK!” the four scream out as they headbang through the breakdown until Cydnie begins the final chorus. The band plays their hearts out as students finally cheer them on.
“What really lies beyond the end of the hall?” Stella sings.
“All I know is that its winner take all!” Cydnie screams.
“What really lies beyond the end of the hall?” They end the song with a quick riff on all instruments as the crowd roars with cheers. Cydnie’s vision finally dissipates, bringing reality back as she notices people cheering for them.
“What an amazing first song by Against All Risk!” Brent proclaims from the mixing board. “We’re gonna play a few more radio favorites and then see about bringing them back out for another outing.” Cydnie attempts to catch her breath as she is embraced by Damien and Stella in a hug, further joined by Eric in a bear hug.
“We kicked ass, you guys!” Eric yells. Cydnie nervously laughs as she tries to make way for her arms.
“Did we really?” she asks.
“Yeah! That was awesome!” Stella confirms. “What was that, Cyd?”
“I-I don’t know!” she stammers. “Something just… took over me.” Friends of the group along with some students of higher grades come up to the stage to congratulate the band before pattering out to obtain refreshments. Cydnie sits back down on the edge of the stage, out of breath, attempting to process what just happened as the other three hop down. “Hey!” Stella calls to Cydnie to grab her attention.
Snapping to reality, Cydnie turns to her friend. “Oh. Hey, what’s up?”
“Going to the snack shack, want anything before the next song?” she offers as the boys walk off to talk to their other friends. Cydnie leans back on her palms and thinks for a moment.
“Maybe some water?” she requests. Stella nods and walks over to the shack.
[DAMIEN and ERIC]
“Hey, you guys see us play?” Damien asks his towering friend, Aaron, as he and Eric join the collective misfits.
“Hell yeah, man, I didn’t know you guys were that good,” Aaron tells him. Sharing a handshake, the two catch up talking about their classes while Victoria sneaks up behind Eric.
“Bah!” she screams, grabbing his sides. Eric jumps out of his skin before turning to see his girlfriend.
“Hey! I didn’t see you when we first got here,” he tells her before kissing her cheek. “Were you able to see our first song?” Victoria embraces him in a hug before frowning.
“I’m sorry,” she tells him. “We were running late, mom had some emergency errands. But we heard you guys on the radio and I got here right before it ended. Sounds like you guys were able to get really loud instead of all the quiet playing you have to do in Cydnie’s garage. Was it fun?”
“Oh, it was awesome!” Eric explains to her as they entwine fingers and start walking around the grounds. “We could all feel each other’s energy and it was like just riding a big roller coaster.”
“That sounds amazing,” Victoria tells him with a big smile. “Are you guys gonna get to play another?” Some guys playing football almost crash into the two, but Eric pulls Victoria to the other side of him.
“Sorry!” one yells to the couple as the group continues running.
“Yeah, whatever!” Eric yells back, shaking his head. “I think Brent is gonna try and get us another. I don’t know how radio works. Cydnie is probably asking him a million questions right now.”
[CYDNIE]
Cydnie is sitting next to the DJ as he prepares the rest of the playlist for the event. “So, there’s space for a few games onstage, which means we’re gonna have to move the gear off-stage for a little bit, and I’m trying to cut out some time to get you guys another spot,” Brent explains as he goes over the itinerary of the bash once more. Cydnie spins in her chair for a moment before thinking about where to put all the gear during the games.
“Where are we going to put everything?”
“Probably just move it all over here,” Brent suggests with a shrug. Stella walks over to the two with Cydnie’s bottle of water and takes a seat next to her.
“You’re an elusive one,” she jests, bumping Cydnie’s shoulder.
“The same could be said for you,” Cydnie retorts with a friendly smile. “What took so long, anyway?”
“Oh… you know Taylor Graves, that guy we’ve been talking about at lunch, right?” Stella asks.
“Yeah, I think we share English,” Cydnie recollects.
“Well, he was in the line too and we kinda flirted a bit.”
“Look at you, Stella the Temptress,” Cydnie chuckles. Stella blushes and attempts to change the subject.
“So, are we gonna get to play again tonight?” she asks the DJ.
“We were just trying to figure that out actually,” Brent says as he scratches his beard in thought. “I’m thinking if I cut a couple songs off the end then we can close the bash with one more song from you guys. Got any in mind?”
Cydnie leans forward in her chair and twiddles her fingers while Stella sits with a blank expression. “Do we really have anything else we’ve practiced that much?” she asks Cydnie. “I mean I completely rewrote one of my songs and you’re still being a perfectionist on your two.”
“Umm… hang on,” Cydnie says before pulling out her phone. She opens her music app and plays the song she and Eric worked on that morning. Stella’s eyes widen and sharpen almost to a glare, analyzing the track.
“Eric finished his first song,” Stella surmises.
“Yeah, we tried to hurry through it, so I just put together a simple bass and guitar section and let him focus on drums after putting down his vocals.” Her explanation impresses Brent, who brings his hand over his mouth in thought.
“You put all of that together this morning?” he inquires. Cydnie turns back over to him with a matter-of-fact expression.
“Umm, yeah, actually,” she nervously chuckles.
“You guys sure are quick,” he remarks.
“Well, we kinda got our madness corralled carefully,” Cydnie mentions. “Any time one of us gets some kind of inspiration, I’m usually ready to go whenever for recording.”
“Do you think you guys can practice that song enough to be able to play it at the end of the bash?”
The band members look at each other for a moment as the song plays out. It just might be simple enough to pull off. With determination they look back at Brent and tell him in unison, “Yes.”
[AAR]
Cydnie and Stella split up to locate the boys. Cydnie finds Damien climbing the equipment with his misfit friends while Stella finds Eric and Victoria sharing some pizza slices in front of the snack shack. With all four together at the DJ booth, Stella explains the situation. “So, you’re telling me we’re going to just go in blind to end the show?” Damien interjects.
