Chapter 22

There was no basketball game in the gym on Friday night so Zach went straight home after practice. The house was empty, just as he knew it would be. He had weighed out at 170 pounds, a full pound below the limit. Even so, he ate very little for dinner because he wanted to be absolutely certain about making weight following morning.

He washed his dishes and was standing in the hallway deciding what to do next when the doorbell rang. Jeanine pushed past him and into the house after he opened the door before saying a word. Her nonchalance about showing up unannounced made it even harder for Zach to understand why she was there. He couldn’t remember any plans that had been made for the evening. “Hi, Honey,” she finally said after he followed her into the living room. “Want to go to a party? I don’t have anybody to go with.”

“I really can’t, Jeanine,” Zach said. Now he understood. She was on her way out and looking for company. “I have a match tomorrow.”

“Well, the party’s not tomorrow,” she said. “It’s tonight. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“No, no, no,” Zach said, smiling. “I know you. It’ll go late, real late. I can’t.”

“What if I promise to get you home early?” she asked.

“Early means different things, especially to you,” Zach said.

“Name the time,” she said.

“Whose party is it, anyway?” Zach asked. Maybe going out for a little while wasn’t such a bad idea after all. He could use the distraction, and if Jeanine kept her promise he wouldn’t be up any later than if he stayed in.

“Some guy,” she said. “He was at a show last weekend.”

“You know,” he said. “Maybe I will go. But I need to be home by eleven, or at least by midnight. You’ve got to promise me, Jeanine.”

“Of course, Zach,” she said. “It’ll be great, everybody there will know you.”

“How can you say that?” Zach asked. “You don’t even know whose party it is.”

They left a few minutes later after Zach had scribbled a quick note to his mom. The party was at a house in Deptford, just a few minutes away. Many of the party-goers were recognizable to Zach as members of bands from the area. Like everybody else, Zach greeted each person he came across with a casual grunt of “Hey, Man,”, “How’s it going?” or something similar.

He followed Jeanine through a few rooms without having any idea where they were going. She somehow seemed to know just about everybody. Zach had already gotten used to the fact that many people didn’t recognize him without the long hair, especially now that he’d dropped nearly twenty pounds. Sometimes it was like being new in town.

“Zach, what are you doing here?”

He turned and saw that it was Barbara Tangier, the guitarist from Music Theory class. Instead of a guitar she was holding a tall plastic cup filled to the brim with beer in one hand and a half-eaten pickle in the other. “I didn’t know you knew Jules!”

“I don’t,” Zach answered with a shrug. “I just came with her,” he said, jerking his thumb to the side.

“There’s nobody there, Zach,” Barbara said. Jeanine had flitted out of the room as quickly as she had entered. “Do you have an imaginary girlfriend?”

“Okay, okay,” Zach said.

“Are you sure you came with somebody?” Barbara teased.

Zach couldn’t stop looking at the cup of beer. “I haven’t had a beer in almost a year,” he said. “Or a smoke. Every time I come to a place like this I want to light up. I guess I haven’t kicked the habit yet.”

“I don’t smoke but I’ll share my beer with you,” she offered.

“Man, would I like a sip of that,” he said. “I can’t, though. I have a match tomorrow.”

“Come on,” she said. “It’ll be out of your system by then.” She held the cup out.

“It doesn’t work that way,” he said, but he reached for it anyway. He lifted the cup to his lips and took a healthy gulp. When he handed the cup back Barbara laughed. “You have a milk mustache,” she said.

“God, I can’t believe I did that,” Zach said. “But it tasted so good I think I’m going to cry.” He wiped the film of beer from his upper lip with the back of his hand.

“Here,” Barbara said. “Finish it off. But I’m not sharing my pickle,” she said before cramming what was left of it into her mouth. Zach took the cup, still half full, and drained it without stopping to take a breath. As he lowered the cup he felt the familiar pleasant lightheadedness and knew he was risking big trouble. The problem was that trouble had never felt so good.

“Whew!” Barbara said. “That didn’t take long.”

“I’m done with beer now,” Zach said. “It’s already too much.”

“Okay,” she said. “But I won’t hold you to it.”

“No kidding,” Zach laughed.

“Come on into the back,” Barbara said. “I left my guitar there. Your girlfriend won’t mind.”

They weaved through clusters of people and into a smaller room that was full of musical equipment. “Jules said I could come in here,” she said.

“I can’t believe he’d leave all this expensive gear out with so many strangers like me here,” Zach said. “Doesn’t he worry somebody might steal something?”

“I guess not,” Barbara said. “I know him pretty well. He’d just buy more without even thinking about it.”

“I really miss being in the band, seeing all this stuff,” Zach said.

“What do you mean?” Barbara asked. “You’re not in the band anymore?”

“No,” Zach said. “They kicked me out because I was spending too much time wrestling.”

“Oh,” she said. “Sorry.”

“I thought I could do both,” Zach said. “But they didn’t. Neither did my coach.”

“Hey, didn’t your band do a lot of KISS songs?” she asked. “Did you see them on ‘MTV unplugged’? They were pretty good. They sounded like Crosby, Stills & Nash. I had to buy the sound track I liked it so much.”

“Crosby, Stills & Nash?” Zach said. “Glad I missed it.”

“No, really, it was good,” she insisted. “I’ve been playing some of their stuff since I saw it. Want to hear it?”

“Sure,” Zach said.

“First I’m going to get something to drink,” she said. “I’ll get you one just in case.”

Zach knew he should tell her not to but he didn’t. When she brought back a full cup of beer for him he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to resist it. After that, he told himself, no more. As it was he would probably have to go for a run in the morning to make sure he was still on weight. Besides that, he was worried about a hangover, the last thing he needed on the day of a match.

Barbara put the two cups on a table when she came back, then strapped on her acoustic guitar. “I’m borrowing Jules’ pickup,” she said as she clipped an electronic device onto the guitar and plugged the other end into an amplifier. When she turned the amp on and strummed, the sound was clear, rich and loud. Zach grabbed his beer and took a couple more big swallows while Barbara played chords. The taste of the beer, the smell of cigarette smoke and the music brought it all back. He felt the pull of his old lifestyle. He was still sober enough to understand that if he couldn’t fight it off it would clash with his new life about ten hours later.

“I can’t believe this went to my head so fast,” he told Barbara as he held the cup up. “Used to be I could drink a couple six-packs without feeling it. Of course, that was when I used to eat food.”

“Do you recognize this?” Barbara asked as she played.

“Yeah,” Zach said suddenly after listening for a few measures. “That’s ‘Going Blind’, right?”

“Yup. Come on, sing it,” she said.

“I don’t know the words,” he answered.

“Bull,” she said. “Come on.”

He picked up his beer and took a healthy drink. After that he felt much less apprehensive. “Gene Simmons sang this one,” he said. “I usually do the Paul Stanley ones.”

“Shut up and sing,” she said loudly as she repeated the same chord over and over, as an audible prompt to a reluctant singer. “Here we go!”

He picked it up in the next measure, surprising himself with how well he knew the words. When they were halfway through the song a small group of guys came into the room to watch. They smiled and bobbed their heads to the music as they passed around whatever it was they were smoking. Zach hoped the song would never end. When it did Barbara immediately started another song without missing a beat. “How about this?” she asked. She was strumming chords and picking notes at the same time. “Know it?”

“’Guns N Roses’,” he said before noticing that a fresh beer, this time in a large glass, had appeared next to the empty cup. He timed it out so that he was able to guzzle most of the new one just before launching into the lyrics of ‘Patience’. A few more people wandered in to see what was going on. It wasn’t long after that when Zach heard somebody accompanying him, the same way it had happened in class. By the time that song ended Zach had stopped thinking about the Saturday morning wrestling match.

They played a few more songs, but the scene got rowdier by the minute as the little room filled up with curious people. Eventually it sounded more like a German beer hall or an Elk’s Club convention than anything that Zach or Barbara cared to be involved in. When half the people in the room weren’t even paying attention to the music they both realized that their time had passed. Zach slipped away to refill his beer cup at the keg one last time. When he turned around he saw Barbara heading in the same direction with a guitar case in her hand.

“That was fun!” she said. “You’re not just a rocker, Zach. You can sing a ballad as good as the next guy.”

“Sure was fun,” Zach said. “I really miss jamming like that. You’re really good, Barbara. Next time you form a band count me in.”

“Serious?” she asked. Zach wasn’t thinking clearly but it looked to him like she was touched by the offer. He wasn’t sure if he was serious or not.

“Sure am,” he said anyway.

“But your band didn’t really split up, did they?” she asked. “Not permanently, right?”

“No, they didn’t split up. They just kicked me out. They’re playing a gig tonight without me,” Zach said. “It seems permanent to me.”

“Where at?” she asked.

“A club on South Street in the city,” Zach said. “They’re probably starting right about now, actually.”

“Maybe we should go,” Barbara said.

“Go where?” asked Zach.

“To see your band,” she said.

“Wow,” Zach said. “That would be weird.”

“But in a good way,” she said with a smile.

“I guess so,” he said. “Do you have a car here?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t even have a license.”

“Me neither,” Zach said. “No car, no license. Hey, where’s Jeanine? I bet she’ll drive us. She loves watching them play.”

They found her near the front of the house, sitting on the floor smoking a cigarette with a few people Zach didn’t know. “Well, look at you,” she said when she saw Zach holding the beer. “It just doesn’t look right.”

“It isn’t right,” Zach said. “Too late now, though.”

“I’m kind of bummed out, Zach,” she said. “It was kind of cute how you held out for so long.”

“Nothing lasts forever,” Zach said. “At least I’m not smoking.”

“Hmm,” she said. “It’s funny to see you like this. You’re so happy. Usually you’re just moping around, looking at the floor.”

“You seem different too,” Zach said. “You’re so serious.”

“Yeah, right,” Jeanine said. “It’s all in your head.”

“We were thinking about taking a ride over to see the guys playing over in Philly,” Zach said. “Oh, yeah, Jeanine, this is Barbara. She’s in my music class at school.”

“Hi,” both girls said at the same time.

“So what do you think?” Zach asked. “Should we go see the show?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not?” Jeanine said. “I’m driving?”

“Would you mind?” Zach asked.

“Do they know you’re coming?” Jeanine asked. “I hope they’ll be okay about it.”

“I think they will,” Zach said. “If not, tough. I’m allowed to go to a club aren’t I?”

“Well, no, actually,” she said. “You’re not old enough. You only got away with it when you were in the band.”

“Let’s just go, we’ll get in somehow,” Zach said. “I’ll tell Glimmer to take a hike and then presto! I’m in the band again!”