And that morning, sippin’ her coffee to be nice to Dave who ordered it for her, it began.
She sat next to Preacher, silent, terminally pretty, totally clueless to the fact that every dude in the diner was checking her out, those dudes unable to do shit because she was tucked to Preacher’s side, and he was brutally handsome.
After a while, she turned to him and whispered in his ear, so they slid out of the booth and we all watched them go to a payphone.
She made a call with Preacher standing at her side like she couldn’t dial without his presence, and while she did, that was when Josh showed.
I don’t remember if she ate breakfast with us, I do remember the coffee.
I also remember Josh was the only one who voiced bein’ pissed she was with us, this after we all got over the fact she was with us.
So, when they got back to the booth, Josh shot off his mouth.
Preach was screwin’ himself up, ready to rumble, but Lyla got in there first and said, “I just called my friend to come get me.”
“Good,” Josh says. “Maybe you can wait outside for her.”
That was Josh. Wouldn’t leave it alone.
Lyla had tried.
“And maybe we can leave your ass here when we go to Lafayette,” Preach shoots back.
“You are fuckin’ kiddin’ me,” Josh says.
“Just shut up, would you?” Tim says to Josh.
“No bitches, it’s the rule,” Josh says to all of us.
Preach starts screwin’ up again, because in general he did not like women to be called bitches, and Josh knew that.
Referring like that to Lyla?
Shit.
Tommy gets into it then.
“If you know what’s good for you, just shut the fuck up, Josh,” he says.
“I see how it is,” Josh says.
“You’ve got no fuckin’ clue,” Tom says. “But you better get one, and fast.”
Well, Lyla, she does not like this shit.
Not at all.
Not about her, but just sayin’.
Not at all.
Conflict was absolutely not her scene.
She forces down a few more sips of her coffee and then says good-bye to everyone and she and Preach slide out.
He stands with her outside and he’s got her hair held at the back of her head all bunched up in his big fist and it’s not a secret.
Everyone knows.
All of us, at some point, ’cept Josh and Tom, crushed on her.
That’s when mine began.
I wanted to be the man standing with her outside that diner while she waited for her ride, resting my forearm on her shoulder, my fingers in her hair.
But, you know, Preacher was gentle with women. Saw it with my mom and sisters. Saw it with him and all his chicks.
The only time I ever knew him to use his powers for what could be considered nefarious reasons was when he told a girl who wanted him to go down on me.
But that was Preach.
His brother was in need, anyone he cared about was in need, he went all out and dealt with the moral consequences later.
Case in point, dealing with Nick.
But I’ll tell you, I never saw him like that with a girl.
There was usually a lot more PDA for one.
Boiling it down, she was China to him before she was China to the rest of the band, that’s all I’m sayin’.
Her ride comes and Christ.
I mean, Christ.
Watchin’ those two say good-bye.
Christ.
We didn’t know.
He didn’t know.
She didn’t know.
But it was like we all knew, you know?
Christ.
He didn’t kiss her.
But he did stand outside that diner a long time after she got in her friend’s car and took off.
And yeah, that’s where “The Back of You” came from.
Yeah.
“Give Then Take” and “The Back of You” were the songs we cut for our first demo.
Balls to the wall rock and a rock ballad that’d make Hitler weep.
The first two hits we had.
Big hits.
And…
Yeah.
He finally comes back in, his breakfast is cold, but that isn’t why he pushes it away.
Dave pounces ’cause that’s Dave.
“You didn’t even fuckin’ kiss her, dude. What’s up with that?”
“She’s seventeen.”
That got all our attention.
Especially Tommy’s.
“Say what?” Tommy asks.
“Not yours,” Preach told him. “She was the older sister of the one Jesse banged.”
He looked at the rest of us.
“But yeah, all of yours.”
“There is no way the woman I had last night was seventeen,” I said.
Because…
Fuck.
I mean, you gotta know, I was all about the rubbers. What happened to Penny.
Fuck yeah.
But I was all about them being fuckin’ legal too.
And Tommy absolutely was.
No way he was gonna bust his balls for that band and have any of us go down for something that stupid.
Stupid and illegal.
“Wrong,” Preacher says to me.
[Shakes head]
First and last, sister.
That girl was the first and she was the damned last.
After that, I’d goddamn card if I needed to. You know what I’m sayin’?
“I’ll kiss her when she’s eighteen,” Preach decrees then looks at Tommy. “Which is when we’re comin’ back to Indy. In four months. When Lyla is eighteen.”
It’s weird, doin’ this.
[Sits back, sighs]
It all comes into focus, doin’ this.
You know, I knew.
Later, I got it.
But talkin’ about it like this now?
Crystal-clear focus.
After we left Indy, Preach tore the lid off.
And I’ll tell you what.
Serious as fuckin’ shit. You lookin’ at my face?
[Points at face]
[Off tape]
Yes, I’m looking.
So, you see I’m serious as shit when I say I was pissed way the fuck off.
I did not get it.
You know?
Lyla, at the booth at breakfast with us being…Lyla.
And Christ, from Lafayette to when it all went down, he’s fuckin’ anything that moves. Booze. Pot. Blow.
Mostly booze.
And blow.
Even let loose, back then, Preacher had a rein on it. It was like he knew. She wasn’t there, he let go, it’d get ugly.
He had iron control, that guy, and he might get loose, he might get laid, he might get happy, but he never let go.
Now, I know that was when we started building our reputation.
Good guy, gentlemen rockers who knew how to blow out a set, have a good time and left the women smiling.
But I still have an issue with it. If he was right here, even now, I’d have no problem getting in Tom’s shit about how he supported it.
Egged it on.
Enabled it.
And okay.
[Raises hands and presses out repeatedly]
It’s rock ’n’ roll.
It’s the life we all wanted.
Freedom.
Be who you are, do what you like and make yourself happy.
I get that.
But this was after Lyla.