My Kind of Crazy - Robin Reul Page 0,71
and annoyed.
I scramble to find the next CD and get it playing before the audience and the dancer lash out at me, but I send half a stack of cases clattering to the floor first. When I stand up, DJ Dude has magically reappeared, and he doesn’t look happy. I quickly get the next song going.
“What the hell, man? You some kind of moron? You wanna get us both fired?” he asks. That word does seem to be coming up a lot lately.
“Sorry,” I say, hastily grabbing my duffel bag.
“What’d you say your name was again?” he asks me.
I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “Peter Parker.” If he’s ever read a single issue of Spider-Man, it doesn’t show.
“Well, where do you think you’re going, Peter? You just got here.”
“Now I gotta take a piss.”
“Why do you need your bag?”
I think fast. “I always travel with my own toilet paper. Germophobe.”
He narrows his eyes. His look is one of pure disgust. “Don’t take too long.” He waves me away, and I’m out of there like a shot, winding my way toward the back dressing rooms to find Monica. After a few songs play and I don’t return, it’s only a matter of time before the DJ realizes I’m not, in fact, the guy Jake sent and signals the bouncer, and they start looking for me. The clock is ticking. I’ve only got one shot, and there’s no room for error.
It doesn’t take me long to find Fantasia’s dressing room door. I give a quick knock, looking over my shoulder nervously.
“Yeah, yeah. Relax… I’ve still got ten minutes,” she yells from inside.
She opens the door, and she’s wearing nothing but a G-string and those red tassels. I try to keep my eyes focused above her neck and on the reason I’m actually here. “Monica, I need—”
She pulls me into the room.
“Holy shit, Hank! What are you doing? They’ll arrest you if they catch you in here!” she tells me as she reaches for a robe that’s draped over the back of her chair and wraps it around herself. “Not to mention your father is going to kill me if he finds out.”
“Then don’t tell him.”
“Interesting look for you,” she says, raising an eyebrow.
“Where’s Peyton?” She stiffens and I can tell she wants to protect Peyton, but so do I. “Look, Monica. I need to know that she’s okay.”
“I don’t know if she wants to be found right now, Hank. I get the feeling she’d like to stay lost for a while.”
“She sent me a matchbook from here, and I know that won’t make any sense, but it’s her sign that she wants me to find her. She is here with you, right?”
Monica sits down in her chair and begins applying her makeup for the show. “She came here after she heard you and your father fighting about her. She didn’t want you to get in trouble. I guess she didn’t know where else to go. She was pretty upset. I felt bad for her so I let her crash with me, but I told her it could only be temporary. I had to tell the manager she was my sister.”
I shake my head. “It was a big misunderstanding. Dad didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t have a chance to explain before she bolted out of there. But I talked to him, and everything is okay now so she can come back.”
“You stormed the castle to save the princess, huh?” She smiles as she brushes bright-purple eye shadow on the creases of both lids. “That’s very chivalrous, Hank.”
“So does she hate me?” The words just flood out of my mouth. “You said she was upset, and then she left this note for Amanda Carlisle, like she wanted me to go out with her or something. But then she gave me the matches. She had to know I’d come looking for her, and I can’t help but believe that’s what she wanted. So I’m really confused.”
“So am I. I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about. Who’s Amanda Carlisle?” she asks.
“It doesn’t even matter.”
Monica draws her eyeliner carefully on each eye, making it fan out at the corners like she’s from ancient Egypt. “She doesn’t hate you, Hank. Just the opposite. And I think that scares her as much as anything else right now.”
“I need to see her.”
“She’s lucky, Hank. You know why? Because she matters to you. It would have made all the difference