By the end of the first bands set Sebastian was practically holding onto me for support. Dragging him towards the water station ended when they got close enough to some of the food vendors for Kaeri to smell something mouthwatering. Stopping in front of the vendor after depositing her friend in an open chair she found the delicious smell was actually MexiCali style fish tacos and the birria this food truck was apparently highly reviewed for, she tried to remember to scan its QR code or snap a picture of their Facebook page info. “One fish taco and a double birria please.”
All the wonderful smells weren’t friendly to her stomach since she’d had a longish drive and several sets since she had eaten, and coffee and a donut didn’t count for much. Now that she thought about it she caught the truck attendants attention and asked for 2 colas for a sugar boost while they ate. Whatever the bird of a boy didn’t eat she’d eat happily.
“Thanks.” Paying the vendor and headed to her still breathless friend with the food and drinks balanced like a waitress, “thanks mom” flitted across her mind at the act. That one summer was what lead her to love cooking and taking up home economics as an elective instead of extra physical education classes. “Are you gonna make it lover boy? You need my inhaler or did you learn to listen when I say take it easy? Cola.”
Kaeri wiggled the soda can between her thumb and two fingers around eye level for the recovering twiggy boy, he really needed to figure out how to gain weight with all the growth spurts. “You keep getting taller and your skins gonna be painted over your bones. I grabbed fish tacos and birria, what are you up for today? Chicken of the sea or beef, the age old question.”
Sebastian finally laughed, a huff like guffaw that almost left him like he’d lost his breath, “I’m just not used to this kind of thing Kae-bug.”
If he wasn’t her best friend she’d have whipped around and slapped him as she ruffled through her signature, a.k.a. favorite, shoulder bag she realized it had been a long time since he’d used that nickname but she still didn’t flinch. “Ew, you remember that? Why bring that one up again all of a sudden, I don’t run from spider’s anymore uh as much. Seb-Seb”
She mocked him back assuming he was trying to give a jab at her for being a mother hen as usual, but for once she was just trying to making sure he was going to get the most out of his first music festival and rave scene. Once upon a time she’d made the mistake of going all out from the minute she got to the venue and well she went home early. With sun poisoning. Dehydration and sunshine go together to make a horrible vacation hooked up to an IV drip, covered in silver sulfadiazine cream. Kaeri wouldn’t wish that pain on her worst enemy. But his face looked serious, still smiling but serious, as if he just wanted to use his nickname for me.
“What” She asked with a nervous giggle, it was impossible to stop once she was aware that she might be missing something important. Or worse when she embarrassed herself for any reason, and oh the anger it stirred in her to be mocked for it.
“What’s that got to do with me calling you your old nickname. Is That what you thought made me give you that nickname? Because you used to run to me and hide screaming about spiders?” Sebastian’s face darkened a little and she didn’t know what to make of it, did she upset him for thinking that?
All she could think was “great I’ve pissed him off for real this time, and better not flinch if he swings. But this is Sebastian we’re talking about; he’d never hit us.”
“Well what else was it supposed to be about?” She didn’t understand and the song playing at a stage closest to them happened to be yet another favorite of hers. Lamenting vocals in a pun k rock melody floating to my ears with memories. Such a good song, Ronnie Winter’s really had a way of expressing his feelings and I had always vibed with it because I too had lost people that I should have been there to protect. Wanting to be someone’s guardian angel wasn’t so wrong, especially with so many school shootings around the country.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
There probably wasn’t a single live event ever that had gone off without a hitch and this one was no different, as right then in the second chorus of that beautiful melody she loved, a speaker caught fire as it sparked and ceased working. It was then that she knew they rest of the concerts until the rave, and even the rave really, might not be happening now. Kaeri hoped like hell that they would contain the small fire, it was just a matter of having the fire marshal clear them for safe operation which wouldn’t happen if the fire spread from the one speaker or managed to set off the sprinkler system. She never meant to ignore her best friend or prevent him from answering her query, but their conversation never finished. Nor did she forget the sad look on his face when she asked what else it could have been about, it had looked hurt, more like the look of a sad animal that had been offended. It was now going to haunt her for life knowing she had angered and offended her best friend without so much as a clue to how.
Roadies were rushing around the stage by the time they had gotten close enough to try and see the damage themselves. Body guards kept us far away from the stage in comparison to their usual line of defense but since it was a dangerous situation and they still needed to keep the celebrity’s safe it tracked logically. She could make out the speaker that had been toppled onto its face assumably to help smother the electrical fire men who brought along the CO2 extinguishers were also suffocating the flames and it looked like emergency exits had been propped open to allow more air flow for everyone else. All I did was stare into the extinguishers plumes and hope while mindlessly eating my birria, it was much more delicious than the fish taco Sebastian had said no to and she knew it was because there was less fresh cilantro to consume. Much to her chagrin she’d been cursed, to taste soap whenever she ate or smelled fresh cilantro, by her own DNA.
“I don’t know if we are going to get to the rest of the bands today, they might cut some sets to keep the rave or cut the rave to save money from having to cut professional bands out of the event.” Kaeri groaned inwardly to herself, turning to look at Sebastian in the process, his face was hard and flat. I can’t read what he’s feeling or tell what he’s thinking as if I don’t know the person standing in front of me like the back of my hand anymore.
“Yeah? Does that mean we’ll have to leave or like get a refund or some shit like that.” Sebastian’s voice sounded flat and hollow, like he wasn’t putting any kind of emotion behind it at all.
“Are you okay? Did the birria mess up your stomach or something? Oh maybe I should have given you water to cool down before you ate.” She knew she wasn’t batting 1000 and he should have been having way more fun, but something had changed between them since they took a break for food and drinks. It was almost as palpable as a touch, a pulling feeling in her stomach telling her something felt unsafe or bad now and it was clearly affecting her friend. “Sebastian?”
“Huh?” He startled a little bit as she changed her tone to say his name. “Nah I’m not sick, um I guess you could say I’m just a little drained from dancing still.”
She wanted to call him out on his bullshit and remind him this was supposed to be fun when a familiar voice called her name and his eyes seemed to harden into an angry expression aimed just over her shoulder. Looking to her 10 o’clock she didn’t see anyone and turned back to face him, “What’s. Wrong?”
“Kaeri! I’ve been looking for you since the speaker shorted out.” Freddie’s voice was just behind her now.
“Hm?” His face changed again, looking innocent as he made eye contact with her, “Yeah, I’m just low on energy right now. Sounds like you’re needed though so maybe we can swing by a stall to grab an energy drink while we wait for the damage report.”
Sebastian tried to maintain a happy neutral expression as Freddie put a hand on her shoulder and swung around her left to stand beside them, explaining why she hadn’t seen him even when she could hear his voice. It was too late to switch back to her best friend’s interrogation as Freddie started explaining how the speaker was the bands oldest one and was put out successfully. That the bands all chose to cut their least popular set song so the event wouldn’t suffer too much and the Rave would just be starting a little later than it was scheduled for the event. And of course, since the sprinkler system wasn’t set off the fire marshal wouldn’t have to shut us down entirely. Freddie finished with some of the best news she could have heard after something kind of tragic, especially if you were the band that owned the speaker. “Everybody realized that most of the Hail Mary’s Iron Maiden’s equipment wasn’t much newer than the speaker that fried so there’s also going to be donation boxes to help get them more. They’ve been unsigned thus far and they deserve a major label deal, so everyone decided that an impromptu Get Funds would help them to improve their equipment.”