This choice: "Oh, he went to get a plumber." • Go Back... Walking to pick up her guitar case, Crystal noticed that there was no one behind the register or anyone else except her band in the immediate area. “Where’s Jack?” she asked, wondering where their “supervisor” had gone.
Alison’s grin grew wider as she replied, “Oh, he went to get a plumber.” Crystal didn’t want to laugh but she did anyway. Despite the stress that Jack Maroose must have been going through, his current predicament was pretty funny. The restrooms of Richard’s tended to be clean for the most part and Jack intended to keep it that way during his father’s absence; however, things changed in the last twenty-four hours. The story goes that Jack was manning the cash register in the last hour of service when a female customer walked up to him completely drenched. She directed him to a stall in the women’s restroom whose door had been blasted off its hinges and the only remains of a toilet was a tank that was bolted to the wall and a few pieces of porcelain surrounding a three foot hole leading to the pipes below. Luckily, the rest of the facility looked fine but that didn’t stop Jack from locking the room up and scouring the Internet to find a team to do a full inspection of each stall before tomorrow. With some maneuvering of furniture, the diner could hold nearly two-hundred and fifty screaming fans that would keep up-to-date posts on their experience on social media. Exploding toilettes usually meant bad news for any business.
Bad news for Richard’s probably meant bad news for Total Breakdown as well, so Crystal didn’t mind the extra precaution Jack was taking. She just wished he didn’t block off the other stalls like they were a crime scene as well, fake police tape and all. The thought of the blocked off toilets made sweat form on the guitarist brow, expecting the worst out of this situation and hoped that Jack would return sooner rather than later. The blue haired girl decided that playing her guitar for a bit would put any more urges out of her mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Crystal made a mental note that the power of guitar playing could not overcome any urges after two and a half hours of waiting and the five cups of tea Jen made for her, which she reluctantly accepted to sooth her voice.
Now, the guitarist’s nails were beginning to make small carvings on her instrument as she sat hunched over with her cheeks almost as red as her jacked. She tried to muffle her huffs as she prepped up to play 'Pressure,' a slow song about drowning in water and other stuff that Crystal really couldn’t remember right now. She thought that her ears would ignite when she heard Alison cue the tempo for the third time in-between her constant giggling. The blue-haired girl questioned if her urges could be fought by thinking about the numerous ways she would torture her drummer after she finished the song.
The question soon became whether she could finish the song or not as her fingers were unwilling to play the intricate guitar lead-in no matter how hard Crystal tried. After her forth attempt, the guitarist settled to play the chords along with Aimee instead. She didn’t face the younger-guitar player or any of her other bandmates out of sheer embarrassment. The blue haired girl realized that the group had been playing the intro three times over, waiting for her to start singing. Crystal swallowed hard as she tried to recall the lyrics as they played the intro one more time.
“I think I died today...
The waves crash against my frozen body.
Sending me far away from land
Was this tattered thing really me?”
Wait, were those my words?
She believed those were the words she wrote down but she wasn’t sure anymore and couldn’t remember the rest of the sheet anyway. Not wanting for the other to repeat the same few seconds of the song until she remembered again, Crystal pressed on-
“As I....... As I........ Uh... ‘Submerge?’ No, not yet.... Um....”
- and figuratively fell flat on her face. Her cheeks sported a brighter shade that ever before as her right foot scratched up and down her other leg. The motion tugged on her jeans which had been uncomfortable for the last three songs. The last chord she played faded and gave way to the amplified sound of strings being tightly messaged by fingers eager to carve into the back of the guitar neck once more. The blue haired girl was unwilling to face her band members who ceased playing a few seconds after but she had yet to find method to trick herself in to believing that they were not right next to her.
She could hear Alison stumble as she fell backwards laughing, struggling to find the right quip for her lead guitarist’s situation. I will make you suffer one day, Alison. She could hear the clanking of Jen’s boots pass by her towards the counter for some reason Crystal couldn’t understand. The familiar squeak of new sneakers became louder as the blue haired girl could feel Aimee reach around to grab hold of her friend’s guitar, pressing her head against the side of Crystal’s neck. The guitarist released her grip, watching her legs jet out and quickly wrap around themselves to provide more protection.
Crystal put a hand to her face to cover her blush and tears. With her friend’s guitar firmly in her possession, Aimee repositioned herself to whisper the struggling blue haired girl, “Don’t worry.” The guitarist couldn’t respond. Her jaw had been locked for the past minute. However, her ears were working just fine.
Click!
Jen. Counter. Bathroom. Locked. Keys. Freedom.
Crystal darted towards Jen who was calmly holding the door for her fellow band member. The door closed and she gathered her surroundings: seven stalls guarded with fake police tape and one without a door or much of a toilet. This was the ladies’ bathroom whose stalls were all locked for inspection. Damnit, Jack! Perhaps she should ask Jen for access to the men’s bathroom? Well, a person really can’t be picky if they’re quivering so much that they can’t even do the “pee-pee dance” properly. Evaluating her options for merely a second, the blue haired girl...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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