When she came back out into the main part of the store, Casey wolf whistled at her, and Lex could feel herself blushing in response. Riss raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“You guys,” Lex said, twisting her hands behind her. “How do they look?”
“I think they look great on you,” Casey said with a nod. “What do you think, Riss?”
Riss nodded as well. “You should get them. Maybe Casey would let us go home then.”
Casey shook her head. “You make it sound like we’re on a death march or something. It’s just some shopping.”
Lex gave Casey a dour look, but Riss let out a small laugh. “Take a look at us. Do either Lex or I look like we’d like shopping?”
Casey gave a belly laugh. “Right. Lex, if you get the leather pants we can leave the store. Deal?”
“In that case, I’ll get them,” Lex said, smiling for the first time since they’d gotten to the shop.
They made one more stop before they left, at a boot store. Lex left with some motorcycle boots and a pair of short, red cowgirl boots. Riss got some slim black boots with a short heel and pointed toes, and even Casey found a new pair of fairly plain cowgirl boots that suited her.
“All right, ladies. Let’s head home before Lou starts to think we’ve disappeared entirely,” Casey said with a smile.
The three of them fell silent as they drove home, Lex and Riss both looking out the windows as Casey drove. After a while, Lex spoke up.
“So, do you think we’re ready?” she asked, addressing no one in particular.
Riss turned from the window and gave her a hard-to-decipher glance, but Casey just laughed. “I think we’re all about as ready as we can be. Don’t stress out about it too much; just remember that the main reason we’re touring is to figure out where we want to settle.”
“Yeah,” Lex agreed, nodding at her friend as she met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “I just want to give people a good show even though we’re not really planning on making a lifetime career out of it.”
Riss nodded. “I think we’re ready. The things we’ve been practicing sound good, and even a few of the new pieces that we haven’t added to the set yet have been getting good enough that I think we should use them as encores, or if we need to play longer at one of the venues.”
Lex smiled back at Riss. “I think you’re right,” she replied, sitting back in her seat, feeling relieved.
The only thing that worries me
, Lex thought as she looked out the window,
are the non-musical encounters we might have
. From everything they could tell (since Riss still had monitoring programs listening for mention of them), no one had found their trail, but Riss had noticed that an MSI team had been tasked to locate them and had now moved to investigate the states just west of the East Coast. The things that made Lex feel nervous in general were that they would be doing a lot of moving around and that plenty of people would be seeing them…
Lex shook her head to clear the train of thought away. She’d changed her appearance enough that no one was likely to recognize her, perhaps not even someone who’d known her well before the change. Since Casey had started dyeing her hair black, her appearance had changed as well. Lou and Riss’ looks hadn’t changed much, but all in all, Lex thought none of them were likely to be identified and spotted.
Everything should be fine
, Lex told herself as she slid down the seat a little, resting her head on the back and watching the road pass by.
Chapter 26: Reconnaissance
Lex stopped to look at herself in the mirror. She returned her own bemused glance before gazing up at the light fixture for a moment, thinking it odd that something like a dressing room existed in a club they got to play at.
She watched Riss’ reflection as she came into the room to pick up her laptops. Riss looked at Lex in the mirror as she shouldered her backpack, nodded with the ghost of a smile, and then went back out.
Lex recalled the tiny first place they’d played, in San Diego, on their “first West Coast tour” (as Casey insisted on calling it). It had room for no more than fifty people if they all stood shoulder to shoulder. On the day they played, a Wednesday, there had only been a small fraction of that number, but the crowd and the other two bands had been friendly, and everyone seemed to appreciate their performance.
San Diego itself had been great, Lex and her friends had agreed. They’d been struck by the beauty of the city, and the people there seemed welcoming and interesting. However, one of their criteria had been someplace without excessive heat, and it had already been hitting the 90s on a couple of their days in town in May. So they had moved on to Los Angeles.
After spending a few days in town, they had all seemed to know they wouldn’t choose to settle there even though no one came right out and said it. They had had trouble even before they’d gotten into town on Sunday night, getting lost on the freeway and having to backtrack a few exits to get to their motel. Casey had been driving and was thoroughly grumpy by the time they’d arrived, but on the plus side, the place had a hot tub, so Lex had been happy they’d been able to soak out some of their annoyance after dinner.
The group quickly learned that they had to leave early to get anywhere on time because of the maze of streets, freeways, and unpredictable traffic. To Lex, the topper had been the occasional street closure due to filming crews. After a while, she had noticed that all of them seemed to feel stressed out even before they had to get in the van to go anywhere.
They had played on Tuesday at a small venue, about the size of the one they’d played in San Diego, but Lex had noticed right away that the crowd seemed different. Aside from some of the people from the other bands, many individuals in the crowd had seemed like they felt too cool to be with anyone else there, talking only to their little cliques or on their cell phones. Lex had felt disappointed as she’d taken the stage that night, but somehow managed to throw it all off when they had started to perform. They had begun with “Crazy Wind,” and as she had sung Lex had lost herself in thoughts about when she’d fled her parents’ house and later when she’d run away with her friends, and how her life had changed both times, including the new opportunities that had sprung up.
When she had finished singing, Lex had looked up at the crowd. As the last notes of the song had died away, she’d realized that the room had stood in complete silence. The audience had all seemed to be listening with great concentration, a number of them with surprised looks on their faces. Lex’s eyes had slid to Riss, who had sat to her left, and Lex had seen the other woman shrug minutely out of the corner of her eye before she’d heard someone in the audience start to applaud.
After a moment everyone else had joined in, some people cheering and howling. Lex had waited, turning slightly back to look at Lou, who had just raised an eyebrow and canted his head to the side a little, as if to say,
no harm in letting the crowd continue
. The applause had continued for longer than Lex had expected, but she’d stepped back up to the microphone some minutes later once it had died down.
“Thanks, LA,” she had said, hoping the heat she’d felt in her cheeks wasn’t a blush. “That’s a really warm welcome, and we thank you for it. We’re Alexander’s Army, and the next song we’re going to play for you is called ‘Hungry.’”
As they had started the song, Lex had noticed that they now seemed to have the full attention of most of the people in the crowd, and she had made herself take deep, calming breaths as her stomach had flip-flopped. She had felt amazed and a little scared at the difference in the crowd from before they’d started their performance to after the first song.
Might as well keep going and give them a good show, though
, Lex had thought as she had drawn in a breath just before she’d begun singing.
They’d sold more CDs that night than anyone had thought they would based on the size of the crowd. Lex had ended up feeling pretty good for one of the first times since they’d arrived in the city, and as she’d checked out her friends’ expressions as they had headed back to the motel that night, she had been able to tell they shared that feeling.
The following day they’d had no show booked and painfully made their way around the city to some things they’d wanted to see, but on Thursday they had had their next gig. Lex had been able to see the club was bigger and more packed than the last one they’d played at. Alexander’s Army had gone on first, and Lex and the others had expected that most of the people had come to see the following acts, so Lex had felt surprised to see that they seemed to have had the full attention of the crowd when they’d started their performance.
Lex felt the show went over well, and afterwards Lex, Riss, and Lou had joined Casey in the club to watch the second and third acts. Later that night they had ended up having a long conversation with the closing band, End of the Road. The band members had begged them to stay after the show, so they had and the whole lot of them had ended up going to a nearby all-night diner to have breakfast and “talk shop.” Laura and Eddie Vander, the bass and guitar players, were a married couple, and Laura’s brother Hal Robbins played drums. They’d been fixtures on the LA music scene for about a year and proceeded to tell Lex and her friends lots of stories about the scene in town.
When Casey had mentioned where they were playing on Saturday, Laura’s platinum blond eyebrows had nearly lifted off her head. “We’ve only played there once, and it was during the week!”
Casey had shrugged. “Well, the day I called they told me they’d had a last-minute cancellation for the show and asked if we wanted to substitute. I guess it was a lucky break.”
Eddie had laughed, leaning over so that his black hair nearly touched his wife’s long blond locks. Even sitting he remained about a foot taller than his petite wife. “I’d say. Too bad we’ve got another show that night or we’d love to come out to see you. Hey, though, I just thought of it—are you guys booked for tomorrow?”
Lou had looked over at Casey, and Casey had returned the look with a shake of her head. “No, we don’t have anything booked for Friday night, actually,” he’d replied to Eddie.
Eddie and Laura had both smiled, and he had continued. “You should come to our house, then! We’re having a party. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of folks coming over, mostly music people. If you can come, we’d be glad to introduce you around, and it’d be great to hang out with you guys some more.”
Hal had nodded his head in agreement, the overhead lights glinting off the reddish highlights in his brown hair. He’d shot them a winning smile before adding, “Yeah, come over. It’ll be fun.”
Riss, Lex, Casey, and Lou had all exchanged glances in which Lex had noticed all of her friends smiling. Casey had answered for all of them. “Thanks, we’d really like that.”
So, when Friday had rolled around and they had visited the address they’d been given, all four of them had dressed in jeans and t-shirts. They’d brought beer and snacks for the party, but Lex had felt odd as they had arrived and realized that about half of the party had looked like they did, and about half had dressed up as if going out for a fancy night out on the town.
As they had made their way through, Casey introducing herself to several of the people they passed, they had finally run into Laura.
“Hey,” Lex had murmured into her ear, “what’s with all of the people all dressed up here? Should we have worn something more formal?”
Laura had laughed and waved the question away. “No, I’m in jeans here, too. Actually, one of my housemates is dating someone in the film industry and, well, if someone hears there’s a party and there might be food, somehow a huge number of them show up.”
Lex had shrugged as she’d looked around the room at the unevenly dressed gathering while Laura had ushered them all in. “You can put stuff over there,” she’d said, indicating a counter between the kitchen and living room, currently stuffed with food. “There’s a cooler for beer on the floor–oh, Cindy!”
She had broken off to hug a woman who had towered over her and worn her teal-colored hair in a thick, shaggy mohawk, her head shaved close on either side. “Let me introduce you to the members of Alexander’s Army,” Laura had continued as she drew back, naming Lex’s friends in turn. “And this is Cindy and Tai from Melliflame.”
Ducking out from behind his band mate, Tai was a man several inches taller than Laura, thin where Cindy seemed more muscular. “Pleased to meet you,” he had said with a nod that caused his short, spiky hair to bob.
“Honey, where are the paper towels?” Eddie had broken in, popping his head around the corner. Upon spotting Lex and her friends, he had smiled. “Glad you guys could make it.”
“Sorry, emergency,” Laura had said with a smile, going to Eddie’s side. “Cindy, Tai, this is the group I was telling you about, the ones we shared a bill with the other night.”
As Lex had watched Laura disappear into the kitchen, she’d also caught Cindy’s raised eyebrow. “So that was you guys, huh? Laura was talking about the show before you got here. Sounded pretty intense.”
“I heard about you from my friend Jeremy, who was at your show the other night too,” Tai added. “I’m going to go find him, because he said he wanted to ask Lou about the effects he used.”
As Tai had turned to go, Hal had showed up to say hello, accompanied by a friend from yet another band. The rest of the evening had seemed to Lex to be a blur of new faces and band shop talk, but she’d been pleased at how many people there had seemed enthusiastic about their music, or at least interested to hear it.
While the party had been fun, Lex reminded herself it had been the previous night and tried to focus by meeting her eyes in the mirror. She was wearing a tight black t-shirt with a picture of one of her favorite anime characters on it, standing with his hands up, sand flowing in irregular patterns in the air all around him, along with a caption about how he’d been born a monster. She was also wearing her black leather pants and a pair of short motorcycle boots, and felt it all suited her just fine.