Dream On

New York City

Last night was a dream. Picture fucking perfect.

I ended up running down the street to a little convenience store after I dropped her off and bought a single red rose. I scrounged up some paper and a pen out of my car and wrote her a little note:

Haley,

Thanks for a great night, it was amazing. I'd love to do it again sometime, so call me whenever you get the chance.

-Steven

I scribbled my number at the bottom of the note and slid it right underneath the door.

Corny? Maybe a little. But I didn't care.

Hopefully, she'd be the one to find it.

So, here I sit in the living room of our apartment. Huddled next to the phone and crowded by the band.

Today was the day. We were headed to New York City for a gig, and all the big labels would be there. If we were lucky, and we played well enough, we'd have a new record deal by tonight.

"Alright. We got the set list down, but we've gotta practice some more." I said to the guys.

"We've gotta get down to the city though, we can't be late." Tom says, plucking the strings on his bass.

I didn't want to leave yet. It wasn't even eleven o'clock, and the gig was at five thirty. It wouldn't take that long to get into the city.

Well, at least that's what I was telling myself.

You probably know the real reason.

"If we leave here by noon, we'll have plenty of time to get everything set up and go through the whole set list." I encouraged them to stay a little longer. I'd hate to miss a call from her.

So, that's what we did. We went through almost all of the songs in the set list for tonight. We made a few tweaks and tried them out. If we sounded like this tonight, they'd have no choice but to sign us. Everyone was playing great.

I couldn't even believe the day was finally here. Aerosmith- making it big.

I shoved some clothes in a duffle bag, since we were staying the night in NYC. Frank said we might have to play tomorrow too, so we're staying overnight just in case. I shoved some of my favorite incense in my bag and the weed I just bought off of Joey's buddy.

"STEVEN! PHONE!" called one of the guys from the living room. I nearly jumped out of my shoes, moving towards that direction.

I took the phone from Joe and held it up to my ear, but not before taking a deep breath. "Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Steven- It's ummm-" she stuttered nervously, but I understood. I was feeling the same way.

"Haley" I finished for her.

"Yeah. I'm just calling you about that da-" she stopped herself, realizing the mistake she was about to make.

"I mean, you know, just hanging out? That's why I was calling. Vin comes back into town tomorrow morning, so I figured maybe we could do something tonight?" I could hear her voice perk up in hopeful expectation.

I thought about it a second.

Jesus christ. We had that gig tonight in New York City. We were supposed to spend the night!

But

I didn't want to blow this with Haley. She came to me this time. I didn't have to chase her all around town. She wants to hang out with me.