KISS: In The Band

Ch 5: Ah, Drama (Eric S)

I walked through the baggage claim, looking excitedly for Tommy. He had been off in Wisconsin with his girlfriend for almost half a year and I was stoked to finally see him again. I caught sight of a shaggy-haired man who was looking around in confusion and grinned.

"Hey! Tommy!"

He just kept walking, either unable to hear me or deliberately ignoring me. "Tommy! Thomas Cunningham Thayer!" I shouted. He jumped, turning around to give me a smile, face red. "Hey! Not cool with the full name, Doyle!" he called back. Rolling my eyes, I finally caught up with him, giving him a tight hug. "Shut the fuck up I've missed you."

He laughed, hugging me back, easily lifting me off my feet. "Aw I know you have! Everyone misses me." "Bet Bruce doesn't miss you," I teased, watching with satisfaction as his face grew even redder. "I never should have told you that. And I told you, he and I are fine now! How have you been though? I've missed you."

Grinning, I fell into step beside him, walking with him out of the airport. "It's been alright! Busy. Kinda miss dating Paul, not gonna lie," I said with a sigh. He gave me a look, raising an eyebrow. "I mean...who had the idea to take a break again?" he asked. I rolled my eyes, punching him in the arm affectionately.

"Oh, shut up. I just mean I miss dating him before everything with KISS happened. Even if I did date him now it wouldn't be the same since I wouldn't be able to see him as much. And he'd probably be with groupies after and stuff. So that sucks."

Tommy nodded, ruffling my hair and grabbing his suitcase off the luggage carousel. "Sorry man, I wish I could help with that. But hey, why don't we get dinner and head back to your place to take your mind off of it?" "Ooh sounds like a plan! Let's get pizza and you can tell me how your trip was. How's Shandi been?" Tommy smiled, face going a happy pink. "She's amazing, per usual. Love that woman."

"Always stealing Bruce's girls, aren't you?" I teased. He shoved me, face burning. "Oh, shut up. I met Shandi in college and we started dating way before I knew she used to date Bruce. But yeah. Damn man I love her. I'm glad to see you literally haven't changed in the what, six months it's been?" I rolled my eyes. "Was I supposed to change? I mean if you want I'll just cut my hair off to my shoulders and dye it black or something and ditch the bandannas."

"No! You can't lose the headbands! How else will I recognize you?" he cried. "You could try dying your hair though, that might be interesting." I gave him a sly look. "Hey, remember when you had your blond perm? Maybe you should go back to that and I'll go and dye my hair and we can just switch hairstyles!"

Face burning, he rolled his eyes, but it was obvious I had landed a hit. "Shut up. We don't talk about the perm, that's the deal." I grinned, leading him to my car. "At least you don't have any dirt on me the way I do on you!" He raised an eyebrow as he slid into the passenger seat. "Hm, dirt on you? I mean, I do have one pretty embarrassing story." I gave him a confused look, starting the car. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

His crooked smile got even bigger and he shrugged. "Well let's see. It was junior year of college, you show up at my apartment and you say 'hey Tommy I think I'm gay' and I said 'why Eric what the hell makes you think that?' and then you said 'well Tommy I like taking it in the a--'" "Alright! Okay so you got me there! Shut up!" I cried, face beet red. Tommy just laughed, shaking his head. "Ah, I've missed you. We can swap stories over dinner though! About like how you've been, not about how you told me you were bi."

We sat at the table in my apartment, sharing a pizza. "Okay, you go first! How's Shandi? How was what, Wisconsin?" "Minnesota, get it right, geez. It was fun! I mean there wasn't like a ton to do there? But it was really nice to stay with Shandi for a bit. Got to finally meet her parents and all that jazz. They're wonderful people. And of course Shandi's an absolute dream, I love her to death. She's honestly just so perfect man, she's amazing!"

I grinned, kicking him under the table. "Good! I'm glad. It's what you deserve! But at the same time, I'm glad you're back, I've missed you! Missed dropping by your place unannounced to bug you." He laughed, eyes shining. "As much as I hate to admit it, I've missed you too. How have things been here? Bruce and other Eric been good?"

Wincing, I shrugged. "I mean...yeah? I dunno. Bruce has been in kind of a bad mood lately. Every time I talk about like Paul and the band and them he gets super mad and I don't really get why?" Tommy buried his face in his hands. "Eric you...fucking dumbass dirty blond. You really don't know why they're upset?"

"Hey! I resent that. It's not my fault I'm a dumb blond." He laughed, punching me in the arm. "Bitch, you've bleached your hair since middle school. Shut up." "I only bleach it to make it more blonder! I'm a natural dirty blond!" "More like a natural dumbass. Anyway, back to Bruce. He's getting upset because he's pissed about how the rest of them have been treating him and Eric, especially Eric!"

"Ohh...yeahhh..." I said slowly. "Oh yeah, that makes sense! Because he went through some shit senior year of high school and Eric really, really helped him through that so they're really close and super protective of each other. And Eric gets attached to people, he loves his friends, and he gets sad when his friends aren't as obviously affectionate to him! So both of them are upset because of that! Damn Tommy you're so right!"

Tommy nodded, heaving a sigh. "Yeah, I know. That's one of the things I love about Eric so much. Sucks though, man. Makes me really want to punch the four of them in the collective face." "Hey, watch how you're talking about my kinda ex boyfriend! But in all seriousness, yeah. They fucked up. We should probably try and talk to them maybe? Like I know you don't like...know any of them, but I could reach out to Paul. Just trick him into meeting up with me and like say it's a date, you know?"

He grinned, eyes twinkling under his usual thick jagged curtain of hair. "Gosh, you're so sneaky, I love it. But hell yeah man, let's do it! Like seriously, the least they can do is RSVP to his wedding. Either yes or no, but it's just...ah, it hurts seeing him so hopeful for them being able to come. Because like...they probably won't, to be honest."

My heart sank and I let out a sigh, pulling my headband over my eyes. "I know, I know, and it kills me. I'll bully them into going, I swear." Tommy heaved a huge sigh, grimacing. "Gosh, I really don't want to talk to them. I've only ever met them when I've seen Ace and Peter drunk at high school parties."

"Eh, they're all chill. They've all got their own issues though, there's always drama in that group man, tell you what. Actually you know what, I'm gonna call Paul right now and chew him out," I said, pulling out my phone and looking at the heart beside his name. "Hey now, don't do that if you don't want to. You said things were awkward between you two, don't hurt yourself," he said gently. "No, no it's fine! I want to talk to him."

Of course he picked up pretty quickly.

"What's up, my dumb blond?" he asked, and it felt a little bit weird to not hear 'boyfriend' tacked on at the end of the sentence. But we had agreed to take a break, and it was my idea to do it, so I couldn't really complain. "Hey dumb jock! Look, we need to talk, you mind if we meet up sometime this week?"

There was a long pause and I felt my heart start to race in spite of not necessarily having the intention of trying to get back together with him. "Uh...yeah, sure! I'd love to see you again! Just text me when and where! We'll be back from the tour in a few days." I breathed a soft sigh of relief, grinning. "Sounds like a plan! I'll text you later!"

Tommy gave me a look as I hung up. "Well? You two set?" I nodded, sliding my phone back into my pocket with another yawn. "Yep. I'll confront him about Eric. But that's tomorrow's problem! Tonight I wanna hang out with you and catch up!"

He gave me a smile, eyes shining, and stole the last slice of pizza. Damn, I had missed that goofy son of a bitch.