Tangled Weeds (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2024)

Epilogue

Six Months Later

Devon

“ H ey, baby, where are we playing again this weekend?” I asked Johnny, who rolled his eyes because he knew for sure there was no way I could keep track. We’d been traveling across the southwest for the past month hitting every place that would let us play and it was paying off. The bigger venues in New Mexico had taken notice and we were playing at one over the weekend. I just couldn’t remember which one it was.

“The Chili Factory,” Johnny said, and kissed me as he walked past me to the bathroom. We were staying in a house Tanner had rented since we’d be here for at least a week.

“That’s right,” I said.

“Hey, did you hear Jayne is now playing in another rock band?” Jeremy asked.

“No, but I thought she liked the studio music gig?”

“She did, but this is an all-girl band and they’re all just as talented as she is so there was no way she could say no.”

“Are we playing with them at all?”

“I’m not sure, I’ll ask Tanner though,” Jeremy said.

“I know it’s only been a month, but I miss the guys from Blinding Light,” I said.

“Starting next month, we’ll be opening for them in Arizona so I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to be sick of them,” Mateo said. “How’s their drummer’s arm?” They all knew about Glenn breaking his arm since that was the reason I’d been able to play with Blinding Light, but they didn’t know him as well as they did the other guys.

“It’s good. He says it’s as good as new, but I doubt that. He snapped that fucker in half.” Mateo cringed and Jeremy made a gagging sound. “It’s not like the bone was poking out,” I said and laughed at them.

“Still gross,” Jeremy said.

“They took this month off so he could get used to playing again,” I said.

Johnny walked out and sat on my lap. “So, I’m thinking we can get there early and watch the band that’s on before us and see what we think.”

“Sounds good. Is it anyone you’ve heard of?” I asked.

“No, they’re local but have a great following.”

“So, the next big thing?”

“No, that’ll be us, baby,” Johnny said and leaned in to kiss me. We never hid how we felt from Mateo and Jeremy, which I was happy for since I really sucked at keeping secrets. And so far, they didn’t seem to mind.

“We need to work on the new song,” I reminded him. Usually, Johnny wrote the songs for the group, but the past few months he’d been so busy he’d only been able to jot down some lyrics.

“I think we should all work on it. I know usually it’s me doing it all, but I like the idea of us all contributing. It’s not like you guys haven’t written songs before,” Johnny said and looked at Mateo and Jeremy.

“Yeah, but our music sucks,” Mateo said and laughed.

“If we all work on it together it’ll have a little bit of us all in it. That’s how it should be,” I said, and they both looked at each other and shrugged.

“We’ll give it a try, but if it sucks then we’re back to Johnny doing it,” Jeremy said.

“We’ll probably play four songs at Rocktoberfest so we’ve got plenty of time to write something new and get it down before then,” Johnny said, always the one in charge and driving us to be better.

“I still can’t believe we’re playing there,” Mateo said. “Weren’t you nervous, Devon?”

“Ah, yeah. I threw up and basically forced myself not to look past Easy the whole time we were playing, but once we started, I just focused on the music and that helped a lot.”

“I’ve seen videos you did not look nervous,” Jeremy said.

“Fake it til you make it right?” I said, but deep inside I remembered how terrified I was of fucking up and how relieved I was when we walked off the stage triumphant and I fell into Johnny’s arms.

A few hours later we were on our way to The Chili Factory. I forced myself not to tap my hands on the seat in front of me as we made our way through traffic and finally pulled the van up to the place that looked more like a warehouse than a bar and grill. “Is this right?”

Johnny checked the address and nodded. “Yes, this is the address Tanner gave me.” Jeremy pulled the van around to the back of the place and Johnny and I walked inside to find out where they wanted us.

“Do you think it’ll be busy tonight?” I asked.

“Hard to tell. Thursday is a wildcard,” Johnny said as we walked back to the van to tell everyone where we’d be setting up. The other band was already setup and ready to play so we brought everything in but stacked it in the back of the stage out of the way. We walked out just as they were starting and they opened with an explosion of sound that made everyone in the restaurant take notice.

“They’re good,” Johnny said as he focused on each of them.

“Yeah, now we need to show them how good we are,” I said, and he met my eyes with a smirk.

“Yeah, we do,” he said before kissing me hard. The first band only played a fifteen-minute set, so as they were walking off, we were walking onstage to set up. More people were streaming in, so it was a little different setting up while people were eating. But we had it down now, and it wasn’t long before we were ready to go. After a final soundcheck and a nod to Johnny, he stomped out to the front of the stage.

“Hello, Albuquerque, we are Anchor Grey!” he screamed, and we blasted out the first song. Before it ended most people in the restaurant had forgotten their food and were dancing in front of us. We went right into the second song and when Johnny ran behind where I was playing and grabbed a handful of my hair to pull my head back for a kiss, I didn’t mind one fucking bit. He took and I gave, just like I took, and he gave. We were equals and both of us were focused on two things. Making the band great and falling in love with each other over and over every day.

The End! (Until next Rocktoberfest)