Sex & Drugs & Dungeons & Dragons

D13. Slaying

Nicky's band wasn't scheduled to take the stage until eleven, and then they were expected to play all the way until closing time. Nicky had a strict midnight curfew, so she had to pretend she was studying in her room. Then she snuck out her bedroom window and climbed down the fire escape. She couldn't drop the ladder to the sidewalk because her parents would hear it clatter. So instead she jumped on the top of Stella's Volkswagen rabbit.

Stella had invited her boyfriend Chris who, when he found out beers were just a penny, invited all his friends from his Catholic boys' school. Nicky figured Chris' friends would be the majority of the crowd, so when she entered through the back and stepped onto the dark stage she was shocked to discover the bar was crowded with hundreds of young men standing shoulder to shoulder. Penny beer night, it turned out, also attracted the Marquette University frat boys. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to the band, but Mr. O'Malley, the owner and bartender, didn't seem to care. As far as he was concerned, the live music was just an excuse to charge the college kids a five dollar entrance fee.

The college kids' disinterest didn't last very long. The Tainted Loves started their set with The Pretenders "Precious", getting the crowd's attention with its hard beat and punk guitar licks. Then they segued into Blondie's "Call Me." While she sang the lyrics "colour me your colour, baby," Nicky lifted her skirt and Grant brushed her bare thighs with red paint. Suddenly all eyes turned to the stage. Before the Tainted Loves had finished their first set all those frat boys were no longer screaming and chugging. Instead they were staring quietly at Nicky, both carried away by the music and drooling into their beers.