Chapter Nine : Living The Dream
December 1995

    Stephanie's hair fell into her face as she started an opening riff to Sunset Curve's song 'Now Or Never.' She didn't know who Cheryl managed it but tonight they played the Orpheum. The thing all five members of the band had dreamed of since starting to play music together.

    Alex banged his sticks together, "One two three!"

    Luke's hair tossed to the side as he thrashed his head, "Take off. Last stop. Count down till we blast open the top. Face first. Full charge."
    Stephanie stood in front of Reggie's mic, "Electric hammer to the heart." She finished the line, her voice having a grace that none of the boys did. All five of them started to sing at once.

    "Clocks move faster. 'Cause it's all we're after now" Bobby held his bass up to the mic, strumming it sideway to get the right sound, "ohhhh." Luke nodded Stephanie over to him and away from Reggie's mic. The two now shared his as they sang,
   "Won't stop climbing. 'Cause this is our time, yeah." He playfully shoved Stephanie back into the center of the stage and away from his mic.

    Luke shifted his weight so he could play better as Stephanie hit another rifft, "When all the days felt black and white, those were the best shades of my life."
    Reggie and Steph were at the same mic again, "Don't look down."

    Steph took the lead, "Cuase we're still rising,
Up right now." The rest of the band joined in for the second line. A bead of sweat dripped from her forward into her eye, but Stephanie didn't care, she loved this feeling. Just her and her boys, Cheryl standing in front of them as they played.

    "And even if we hittt the ground."
    "We'll still fly," Luke was leading again, "Keep dreaming like we'll live forever but live it like it's now or never."

    Stephanie turned around to face Alex as he took his line in the song. Her fingers were hurting from playing so hard but she didn't care, "We ain't searching for tomorrow."
    "Tomorrow" Reggie echoed a little higher up the octave.

    "'Cause we got all we need today."
    "Today!" This time Stephanie echoed into Bobby's mic.

    Luke spun back around to his mic, "Living on a feeling that's been running through our veins." Stephanie felt like  her arm was about to fall out of its socket as she strummed all the way down her body, feeling the vibrations of the guitar moving through her.

She turned to Reggie as he started to play and sing his solo, "We're the revolution that's been singing in the rain."
    "Don't look down!" The five of them had started to clap their hands to the beat, Alex keeping tempo by banging his sticks together. '"Cause we're still rising" Luke swung his guitar around his body, "up right now" Stephanie played the opening note of the verse, her strum matching the smoke cannons going off from either side of the stage.

Luke played the next note, finding his way back to his mic, "And even if we. Hit the ground. We'll still fly, keep dreaming like we'll live forever. But live it like it's now or never"
    "Or never" Stephanie echoed again, taking the note up in the middle of the word. "It's now or never....." Her and Luke held out the word Never as the rest of the guys sang over them.

"Now or never. " Everyone turned around to face Alex as he played the last few notes of the song with Reggie, finally ending it with a symbol crash.

They turned around to face the workers at the Orpheum, "Whoo! Excellent!"
    "Sounds great, Guys! Girl!" Another praised.

"Hell yeah!" Cheryl screamed the loudest.

A girl clapped, "Whoo! Yeah!"
    Reggie grabbed his mic, "Thank you! We're Sunset Curve!"
    "Don't say 'tell your friends." Stephanie muttered under her breath. Thankfully he didn't. She sighed, running a hand through her sweaty hair, "Too bad we wasted that on a sound check."
    "Yeah." Bobby agreed as they climbed off the stage, "That's the tightest we've ever played."

Luke and Steph high fived, "Just wait until tonight, man, women, when this place gets packed with record execs." He over emphasized the words by flailing his arms around in the air.

Reggie clapped Alex on the back, "Alex you were smoking."
    Alex waved the complement off, "Oh no. I was just warming up. You guys were the ones on fire."
    Stephanie scoffed, "He's joking right? Just like own your awesomeness for one second."
    "Alright. I was killing it."
    Stephanie laughed at the boys as Luke grabbed Alex's shoulders from behind to show his agreement, "Okay, well, I'm thinking we fuel up before the show, I'm thinking street dogs."

Alex used his drumstick to point at Luke, "Yes."
    "I'm in." "oo"

    Stephanie rolled her eyes as her brother made a steam line of the worker wiping off the tables. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" She asked her twin, following him over to the girl.

    "I'm good. Vegetarian. I could never hurt an animal." Well that was a lie.

    The girl gave a smile as the rest of the band joined Bobby. Stephanie leaning against her brother, "You guys are really good. I see a lot of bands, been in a couple myself. I was really feeling it."
    Luke patted Stephanie on the back, "That's what we do this for. I'm Luke by the way."
    "Hi, I'm Reggie."
    "Alex."
    "Bobby."

    The girl turned to Stephanie, "And I'm regretting my life choices." The girl laughed, "I'm Stephanie." Her brother pushed her back, so the girl was mostly looking at him. Stephanie, being the little twin she was, licked her finger and gave him a wet willy.

    "Nice meeting you guys. I'm Rose."
    "Oh, uh." Reggie fiddled with the cd in his hand, "Here's our demo. And a T-shirt. Size Beautiful."
    Cheryl came over and hit Reggie in the back of the head, "News flash. Girls don't like being infinitely hit on." After that she fixed the dog tags around Luke's neck so they sat correctly. Stephanie couldn't held thinking she was going to make a wonderful mother.

    Rose held the shirt up to herself, "Thanks." She folded up the Sunset Curve shirt, and threw it over her shoulder, "I'll make sure not to wipe the tables down with this one."

    "Oo." Alex bit his lip, "Good call. Whenever they get wet, they just kinda fall apart in your hands."
    Bobby turned to the rest of the band, "Don't you guys have to go get hot dogs?"
    "Yeah." Steph pushed her brother out of the way, "He had a hamburger for lunch. Cherry you coming?"
    "Nah. I gotta finalize some stuff for you guys. Bring me back one though?" Alex just nodded to say sure.

~

    Luke threw open the door of the Orphan. "That's what I'm talking about!"

    Reggie chucked as Alex grimiested, "The smell of Sunset Boulevard?"

    "No." Luke gave Alex a friendly shove as the four started back down the boulevard. (No not of broken dreams) "It's what that girl said in there tonight. About our music, all right? It's like energy. It connects us with people. They can feel us when we play."

    Stephanie chuckled, "You are quite the passionate my friend."
    Luke threw his arm around the girl who had become something like a younger sister to him, "I want that connection with everybody."

    Reggie leaned in, "Then we're gonna need more T-shirts."
    This time Stephanie full out laughed, shoving Luke off of her, "Yeah Regg, not what he meant." She took a step forward and turned on her heels as she started to walk backwards, "Let's go boys." She tossed her sweatshirt over her head to hide her face just a bit.

    Reggie walked away from the group to the crowd already waiting outside. He handed two of the girls T-shirts before spinning and falling back in step with Alex, Steph and Luke. "Reggie!" "Oh my god, Reggie!" "Oh my god! Hi, it's me!" Reggie laughed, throwing his arm over Stephanie's shoulder as the four walked away.

~

    Alex paused as he picked up a pickle to put on his hot dog. It was a mystery to Stephanie why he even liked unchopped relish, but she wasn't about to stop him. She laughed at the sight of Reggie hitting his head on the top of the car as he pulled back.

    "Man.. I can't wait until we eat someplace where the condiments aren't served out of the back of an Oldsmobile."
    Stephanie patted him on the back, "Try to remember, two of us live in Cheryl's garage."

    Alex grumbled a response before turning to the guy who worked the street dog car, "Hey sorry. I got some pickle juice on your battery cables."
    The man waved it off, "No problem. It'll help with the rust."
    Alex shook his head in disbelief, "That can't.. Okay." Slowly he walked away from the man and back to his friends. Still blink his eyes like that was the craziest thing he had ever heard.

    As the four fell onto a couch Stephanie couldn't help but notice the missing poster behind Luke's head...... of Luke. Luke had ran out maybe two weeks ago and his parents were worried enough they placed missing posters out.

    Stephanie had run out nearly a year ago now, and nothing. Not even a shred of concern seemed to come from her mother. Hell for all Stephanie knew her mother had died of alcohol poisoning and Bobby just didn't have the heart to tell her.

    "This is awesome you guys." Luke's words shook her out of her thoughts. "We're playing the Orpheum! I can't even count how many bands have played here and then ended up being huge." Reggie huffed out a laugh, "We're gonna be legends!" Luke held up his hot dog, "Eat up boys. Girl. 'Cause after tonight, everything changes." Oh just how right he was.

    The four clicked their food together before all taking a bite. Stephanie stopped mid-swallow. Something wasn't right. She gulped down the rest of the bite, "Well that's new." The look of disgust was clear on her face.

    Reggie whipped some of the mustard off his face, "Chill, girl. Street dogs haven't killed us yet."   
  The next thing the four bandmates knew was the sound of sirens.

~