"Hey Bill, are you coming out to the concert this weekend?" Dave, my best friend, asked over the phone.
"I don't know, Dave. I'm pretty down still and don't think I'll be good company." Truth to tell, I hadn't left my apartment much in the past week other than to go to work.
"Shit, don't tell me this is still about Lisa? I never did like that bitch."
"Yeah, well, here's your chance to say 'Told you so.'"
"Told you so. Anyway, now that the bitch is gone, it's time to get back out in the world."
"Gee. Great. Nothing like a quick rebound to make you feel better, right?" I might have tried harder to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but couldn't find the energy to make the effort. "Besides, taking advice from you regarding love is like asking Attila the Hun for advice regarding peace negotiations."
"Look, I'm not saying find someone new to date. But Christ, at least get out of the house. You still have the concert tickets right?"
"Yep." In fact, the pair of tickets were sitting in my wallet. I'd been planning to invite Lisa, right up until the point where'd she dumped me.
"Oh good. I was worried you'd done something stupid like sell them or give them away."
"Not yet, though that might be a good idea. I could always use the extra cash."
"Don't be an idiot. Remember how excited you were when we first got those tickets?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Come on, we've been talking about this for weeks now. You've got to come out. If nothing else, we'll get a few beers into you, you'll get into the pit, and you can forget all about Lisa for a few hours. All right?"
"Yeah, fine all right." I couldn't help but smile. Somehow, some way, Dave always found a way to pull me out of my rut.
"Awesome. So I'll meet you there tomorrow night? Doors open at seven, all right?"
"All right, all right," I replied. "I'll see you there."
'Doors' was a bit of a misnomer, seeing as how the concert venue was at a park, with an open air stage. Still, the line to get in was down the block and around the corner, with plenty of people. Most of them were in their teens and twenties, but I caught a few older folks in there as well, some with kids in tow. It was an all-ages show, but it always amazed me how many people came out for punk shows in suburbia.
I'd decided to go pretty casual in a plain t-shirt and my "air-conditioned" jeans. They were almost at the point where there were more holes than fabric, but fuck it, they were comfortable and I liked them. For me, they were veteran concert wear having seen me through more than one crowd surfing adventure.
Dave was waiting to one side of the line, bouncing up on the balls of his feet. Catching sight of me, his face broke out into a huge grin that lit up his entire face. "Dude! You came! I was getting worried there."
Dave had decided to go all out tonight. He'd done his hair up in a liberty spike mohawk (green), a sleeveless denim jacket so covered in patches and pins you couldn't see the denim anymore, and black and red plaid pants that had no business being anywhere near anyone. He rounded out his look with what I thought was a dog collar, a chain wallet.
"How'd you get your hair to do that?" I reached out and tapped one of the spikes, and it didn't move. "You could put someone's eyes out with one of those."
"Wood glue," Dave answered with a smile.
"Seriously?"
Dave gave a shrug and a smile. "Sure, why not?"
I laughed and punched him in the arm. Truth to tell, it was good to see him and I felt a touch of the funk I'd fallen into starting to lift.
"Anyway, if this can't get your mind off Linda I don't know what will."
"Lisa."
"Yeah, whatever. Have you checked out the local attractions?" Dave grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward the line. Specifically, he turned me toward a group of girls who were standing all clustered together. They were definitely cute, but they seemed to be trying too hard to act as if they were part of the scene. The warm weather meant more skin was on display than might have otherwise been showing, but something seemed a bit off about them.
"Ten bucks says they're all wearing shit from Hot Topic," I said.
Dave shook his head. "I don't get you at all. You're a free man, my brother. Go out, hunt, kill."
"Kill?"
"Well, mount anyway." He gave me a lewd wink. "Oh, hey, lines moving."
"You are a sick bastard."
"Yep."
The line was moving though, so we made our way to the back of it and took our place. I got my wallet out, then realized I still had two tickets. "Shit, you think anyone is going to be looking to buy?"
Dave peered around and shrugged. "No idea. Can't hurt to look though. Chances are you stay in this line someone will come by looking to buy."
"Good point."
We were standing behind a group of what I figured were high school kids. Could have been middle schoolers though, for all I knew. It was a mixed group of girls and boys, and one of the boys had his arm around the waist of a girl. I felt a sour taste building up in my mouth and forced myself to look someplace else. I knew it was because I was still getting over Lisa, but the wound was still a bit too fresh for me to enjoy someone elses' happiness.
"Hey, where's your girl?" I asked Dave.
"Huh? Karen? Shit, she can't stand these kind of things."
"I thought she liked punk."
Dave smiled. "Oh, she doesn't mind the music. It's all the people she can't stand."
"Huh. All right, I guess."
"Hey, do you have any tickets?" a voice from behind me asked.
I looked over, and then down. The girl asking was short, couldn't have come up higher than my chest, and that was in the platform boots she was wearing. The second thing I noticed were the piercing blue eyes gazing into mine. Admittedly, the third thing I noticed as the low cut pleather dress that acted like a gravitational well for my eyes, drawing me down into the massive amount of cleavage she had on display.
"Huh?" A smooth mover I have never been.
"Tickets. Do you have any extra?" The way she spoke made me think she thought I didn't understand English.
"What, yeah. Wait. Maybe. Why?" I stepped to one side as Dave tried to jab me with his elbow.