music and forgot about everything else.
I pretended to be happy, smoked entirely too much weed, and drank like a fish. When the guys brought home girls, I flirted and fooled around often, but I could never bring myself to have sex with any of them. It was a tragedy what Patience had done to me. I was more broken now than I was before she fixed me.
Months went by and soon I only thought about her every few hours versus every minute of every day. When we were invited to Rockfest in Orlando, Florida, I was excited, but more so because I knew by being on the East Coast again, I was also going to be close to Patience. It was a never-ending cycle of emotions that I was sick of being on.
When it was time to go to Orlando, I slept through most of the plane ride. Sleeping was my favorite thing. When I wasn’t playing, getting high, or partying, I was sleeping.
A wall of humidity slammed into us when we got off of the plane. We were put in a nice-ass hotel close to Disney World for the week so we spent that week getting drunk off our asses and hanging out at all the kickass clubs in Orlando. Four single guys could get into some serious trouble around these parts, and I should’ve been enthralled by all the beach bodies surrounding me.
Women were everywhere trying to get a piece of me, yet I went to bed alone every night while I listened to the guys in their rooms with whatever girl they brought back to the hotel. It was hell.
By the time the weekend came and we were setting up for Rockfest, the weather was starting to cool to a nice ninety degrees. I was still hot, but just not hot as fuck. There was a big difference. The crowds came in swarms and we were set to play later in the day. I hung out with other bands behind the stage setup and smoked way too much weed.
Once it was time for us to go up, the crowd had doubled. More than half the people were drunk and burnt from being out all day in the Florida sun. Women were on men’s shoulders with their tops off and the smell of weed circulated around the crowd.
People jumped up and down with our music while Finn dominated the crowd. Girls with T-shirts that said, “I’m a freak for Zeke!” jumped around without bras on in the front row. I nodded down at them to let them know I hadn’t missed them, and they smiled and blew kisses up at me.
It was a good show.
The sky was turning black as night set in and the area became cooler. When we played our last song, sadness settled over me because I knew we’d be leaving the East Coast in two days and I’d once again be thousands of miles away from wherever Patience was.
I scanned the crowd once more as I played my final solo for the night and I was caught off guard by a flash of platinum hair. One minute it was there and the next it was gone. I was positive I was seeing things when suddenly the crowd cleared once again and my eyes collided with Patience.
She stared back at me with wide eyes and an aggravated look on her face. She looked different, thicker in some places and tanner, but she was just as beautiful as the last time I saw her. I continued to play as I watched her struggle to get to the front and then finally she gave up and stared at me. From so far away I couldn’t see her eyes, just as I’m sure she couldn’t see mine, but my heart felt her presence and it took everything I had in me to stay put on that stage.
I lost her in the crowd and wasn’t able to locate her blond hair again. Once we were off the stage, I attempted to go through the crowd and try to find her, but I could barely move it was so packed, and I kept getting stopped by drunk girls who kept trying to rub their tits on me.
We followed the crowd to the buses and I was on the verge of losing it. She was so close. She was there and I couldn’t see her or get to her. I was almost in the bus when I saw her cutting a