Page 20 of All That Remains
Soon Sal and Rose approached, ready to call it quits. I wasn't ready to head back to a cold and empty hotel room and allow my thoughts to consume me, so I told them to go ahead. I instructed Sal to look after her and said I'd check in on them in the morning.
"Be good," Rose cautioned me, planting a kiss to my cheek before heading out.
“Bright and early tomorrow, pal…” Sal said, ruffling my hair.
“Yep, see ya then.”
As the night wore on, the place became more crowded. My security set up shop at a nearby table, and I inclined my head when we locked eyes. When it became difficult to hear over the noise of the growing crowd, Joe suggested we moved to the second story bar and pick up our discussion there. Before I knew it, I was signaling my team to stay seated and making my way up a tight staircase that wound to the second floor.
***
Upstairs, the lights were dialed low and the bar was completely empty. It bore the distinct smell of cigarettes and ammonia and too many warm bodies that were bygone. Asettee upholstered in the same grungy green as the bar stools overlooked the balcony from inside, so it was here we sat, relishing the night breeze and watching the traffic lights rotate.
"Much better," Joe declared, settling back onto the old sofa.
"Yep." I set the bottle at my foot after refilling our glasses. We toasted to solitude. To peace and quiet. To our acquaintanceship, and to the'bro-code of confidential inebriation'as he so graciously put it. Then I slumped back in the seat with a thud.
"Can I speak frankly?" Joe ventured.
"Uh...sure. Of course."
"You know, Ralph..." He sat forward, elbows on his knees. "I don't know you very well, but something tells me you're not always this bummed."
I wasn't surprised he'd noticed. Contrary to what I’d hoped, the more I drank, the more my mood plummeted. I refilled our glasses.
"Well, Joe, you'd be right."
"What's eating you, kid?"
It was the quintessential bar question, and although I wasn't looking to be therapized, a small, shriveled part of me wanted to rant to anyone who'd listen.
"It's just not my night, Joe…"
"I hear ya. I've been there."
"Oh yeah?"
"Of course. We all have." He eyed me in earnest. "How'd the show go?"
At that I sat up and mirrored his position, resting my arms on my knees, holding the empty glass between my hands.
"Um...it was good...for the most part. It's what happenedafterthe show, mate, that's fucked me a bit in the head, to put it mildly."
"Edify me. Do tell."
"It's a bit dodgy. I mean…I always try so hard not to implicate anyone in my shit. Makes it sort of difficult to talk about." I shook my head, taking another shot.
“Then tell me as much as you can.”
"Alright. So...um...you've heard of the band before, right?"
"Here and there. Mostly tonight.In…In...?"
"—victa. Invicta. Don't even ask why, mate," I grinned, not wanting to betray I’d chosen the name because I thought it sounded edgy. Thought it might make us sound hard or countercultural or something. "So, there’s a bunch of uz, right? There's Nathan—he's just the best in my opinion...and the first of us who played a few chords onstage."
"Some band.”
"Well, we got there. Lot of crash courses in guitar, percussions." I deliberated a moment, then laughed. "Fuck’s sake, we were hopeless there for a minute. Until we got Levi on the drums, to be fair. He really pulled it all together. Almost single-handedly defined our sound.”
