KISS: In The Band

Ch 9: Crossed A Line (Paul)

I stood in line at the grocery store, waiting to finally be able to check out and go home and start cooking dinner for myself and just sort of take a night off, especially after the soul-crushing disappointment of of my get-together with Eric. It was nice to have a sense of anonymity in the store. As much of a pain as the makeup and the costumes could be to deal with, the fact it meant I could walk into a store without anyone recognizing me was a huge plus.

Still waiting, I scanned the shelves of candy and tabloids. It was always fun to look at the gossip magazines and the blatant fake articles they had. My stomach dropped as I stared at one with Gene's face on it. 'KISS Bassist Tells All! Never-before-heard truths about the band and its members!'

"Gene you fucking didn't," I whispered, grabbing all the copies they had and adding them to my cart. I barely even acknowledged the cashier, just waited impatiently for her to finish checking out my groceries so I could go and read the article. After what felt like an eternity she finished. Grabbing my bags, I practically ran to my car, throwing everything in the trunk and sitting up front with the magazine, scanning the pages and seeing red with every word.

"You fucking bitch!" I shouted, grabbing my phone and calling for an emergency late night band meeting at the practice location. Thankfully, Peter and Ace got there first, and I handed them a copy to read as we waited for Gene. He showed up after about five minutes, giving me a bewildered smile. "Hey what's up?"

"I saw this in the grocery store. You gonna explain yourself?" I snarled, throwing a copy at him. He picked it up, looking at the cover with his face immediately going white. "Oh no," he choked, flipping to the article.

"You motherfucking two-faced, shit-talking, back-stabbing snake! I can't believe you did this! I can't believe you said stuff like this!" I cried, shaking the tabloid angrily. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't know she was a reporter! And-and she took a lot of that out of context and exaggerated it!" he said desperately, face burning.

Peter looked up from his copy of the article, giving Gene a hurt look. "Really? A coked up loser who peaked in high school?" he said softly. Ace looked over his shoulder, face going red. "You really think I'm annoying? And that the band would be better without me?"

"No! I didn't say that! I said it was annoying how sometimes you would be drunk during interviews and the band could be better without that kind of behavior! I swear, I swear on my life that's all I said!" he said. "What about mine though? That the truth?" Peter snapped. "No! No I said I was worried about you because you had struggled with cocaine back in high school! Everything else is just exaggerated bullshit!"

"You know, for someone who's apparently so concerned with how the public sees the band, you're sure doing a good job of dragging our names through the mud," I said angrily, stomach bunching up into knots as I looked at the part about me, looked at him call me a spoiled pain in the ass who had no idea how the world really worked, someone he'd be better off without.

Tears in his eyes, Gene shook his head. "I didn't say any of this stuff, I promise! I would never, you know I wouldn't! I care about all of you guys, I wouldn't do something like this! Please, you gotta believe me!"

I crumpled up the tabloid, throwing it to the ground. "Then what are you always doing with the groupies?! You always just talk with them, it's weird! What else would you be doing if not trash-talking the rest of us?!" I shouted. Gene's face grew even redder and he looked like he wanted to die even more. "I just...I just talk with them. I just vent about stuff. I don't like doing with with Shannon because I don't want her to be worried about me. I don't spend time talking shit about all of you, I promise," he said miserably.

Stunned, I stared at him as his face grew crimson and he nudged the ground with his shoe. "Bullshit, I've seen you kissing them!" I shouted. His face fell even more. "I'm really sorry. I swear they exaggerated and took things out of context, I promise I never said those things! B-but I should've been smarter, I should've just not...not talked to them about personal stuff! I'm really sorry!"

"Well you did say that! You told them all of this and now all of this is out there in the world! Maybe I didn't want people to know I used to struggle with addiction, you ever think of that before you opened your damn mouth?!" Peter shouted. "I mean shit curly! Imagine we're trying to adopt a kid and that shows up in a background check! You're usually the smart one, why didn't you stop and think?!" Ace said, giving Gene a furious look.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't know, I didn't think she'd do this!" he wailed. "Please, I'm really sorry!" Shaking his head, Peter grabbed Ace's hand and stormed out of the room. "Stuff it, bitch." Tears rolling down his face, Gene turned to me. "Paul I'm so sorry, none of it was true, I swear," he whispered. I just shook my head. "Don't start with me, man. Go home."

"I'm so sorry," he said again. Still shaking my head, I pushed past him, trying not to cry myself.

By the time I made it home I had somehow spiraled into an even worse mood. I ended up burning dinner and just sat at the table, wishing Eric would show up so I could apologize for what I had done and get back together with him and finally have someone to love again.

But I had ruined that, just like Gene had basically ruined every relationship in his life. "On the bright side, maybe now that the band died Eric will want to date me again," I said to myself, knowing full well it was because of what I had done that kept him away, not because of the band.