Backstage by Mandy Bee (guided reading books TXT) 📕

As I walk into the room Chris is staring at me, I guess he heard him say it too. I tuck myself into the corner of the couch hoping I can just listen and not have to talk.

“So everyone knows John is out for good right?” Justin starts, everyone just nods at this. “Well Dave, Scot, I’m sorry about all this. I know we have been together the longest, but you guys could see John was getting a big head.” He looks at them both, I guess seeing if one of them will back him up.

“Dude no worries, John was a jerk and everyone knew it. I’m just glad someone came along to help you see that.” Scot says and then winks at me.

“Yeah, thanks Flower. Because of what you and Justin got going on he finally stood up to that jackass of a brother.” Dave laughs. All the color drains from my face, I can’t even look at any of them.

“Hey guys don’t do that. She didn’t do anything. John wanted her gone so that he could try and control me. He saw her as a threat, so he cooked up a plan to get rid of her. I think everyone can see that she is close to her brother, and I know it would kill her to be away from him. So after making sure that she really did want to stay with us, I let John know his place in this group, way under me. I started this band, I am the voice of this band and this is my fucking band!” He takes a deep breath, the pain is still new, he needs to calm down.

“Breathe dude, we know we all make up the band but without Justin Crow there is no Freak Street. Hell if it wasn’t for you I’d still be playing in that night club in LA. So, yeah its your band and you are for real our boss, but don’t let John get to you, he is gone now, no more worries.” Scot tries to calm down Justin.

“Sorry,” One more deep breath and he goes on. “but I had it out with him about trying to make her leave. He said we didn’t need a cunt on the bus causing problems.” I gasp at what he just said, John called me what?! I can see Chris is grinding his teeth, I lay my hand on his shoulder trying to relax him.

“That asshole called her that?” Dave snarled. I could see that the others were just as upset as Justin was.

“Yup, and that’s just the beginning. He went on a rant about how I had to keep my mind on the band and I couldn’t let an outsider mess up my vision. What my vision is showing me now is that John had me writing all the time, always working on either new shirts, new logos styles, anything that made us more money. I have worked my ass off to get to where we are now, to be number one on the charts to having our own heading lining tour. I know I couldn’t have done it without some of y’all but John will never be welcomed back into the band ever again!!!” Justin has his fist griped so tight his knuckles are white.

We watch as Justin closes his eyes and takes a few deep breathes. I think he is counting to ten but I’m not a good lip reader. After a minute or two he opens his eyes and looks calmer but still upset.

“I know Dave and Scot will agree that Chris is the best drummer this band has ever had, so we need to vote tonight. Is Chris permanent?” Without even thinking about it Dave and Scot both said yes at the same time. “Welcome to Freak Street Chris, this will be your band too, if you want to stay.” Justin looks at both of us.

“Yeah, this is great! Yeah I want to stay!!” Chris jumps up and hugs Justin, then Dave and Scot get up to hug him too. Wow Chris is in a band for real this time. I look up and Justin is watching me, I smile up at him and he winks at me. Chris comes and picks me up and spins me around, I have no choice but to giggle. “Now y’all know she stays too right?” Chris asks while putting me down.

“Flower you are now a member of Freak Street too. Welcome to our family.” Justin says coming over to hug me, then the others do the same. Family? That word, can this really be a family?

The rest of the meeting dealt with Peter who was very quiet while everyone talked about John. They have asked Peter to take John’s place until a new bass player could be found. He was okay with this, he said he didn’t mind doing a few shows but didn’t really want to be part of the band either, he liked his job as a roadie.

Justin told us that once he talked to the manager about Chris staying on full time that we would have to deal with the press for a little bit. We would have to give at least five interviews with bigger named reporters, and some photo shoots would need to be set up so that Chris would be on the new merchandise. Then Justin pulled me aside and said that the photo shoots can be fun and maybe we could have some pictures of us taken too.

Getting to sleep was hard after everything that happened. The show went better then anyone could have thought. Peter was great, I think the guys still hope he will change his mind about joining the band but I don’t think it will happen. Justin’s dad called and threw a shit fit on him over John. But once he found out all of what John said about me, and the name