Chapter Eight

 

 The club was originally called Darkness Prevails.  When people asked her why she’d named it that, she said it was because she wanted to be different; Darkness Falls was in use already, so she decided to be contradictory.  It didn’t really explain it, but they walked away happy, but Sara decided it didn’t sound quite right and changed it to Fading Light.  No one complained, or questioned, oh the perks.

Getting out of the car, Sara noticed what Mel had changed into.  She was wearing a black babydoll tee with glittery red roses on it, a black skirt, which came a couple of inches above her knees, and black boots, with four inch heels, that covered most of her lower leg so that there was only a few inches of skin showing between the two.  She’d done her make up.  Some black eyeliner, lip-gloss, not much, fingernails were also black.

“Well don’t you look good tonight?”  Sara asked.

“Sure, if you say so.”  She opened the door and followed Sara in.

“Sara?  I think Darkness Prevails was a better choice for the club.  There are no f*****g lights in this place.  Gloomy as all hell.”  She was feeling for the switch, the band must’ve gone somewhere.

“Right, right,” Sara laughed and clicked on the lights, “want me to install a Clapper system or something?”  Mel shook her head and laughed.

“Wonder where the band went?”

“No idea.  Are you paying them?”

“No it’s a local thing, they’re bored, so I told ‘em to come on over.  They didn’t ask anyway, I’ll probably give them a little cash or something.”  She shrugged.

Then the band walked in.  Justin, Dan, and Clunky.

“Hey guys, want something to drink before we get started setting up all the equipment?”

Dan answered for all of them after looking at his band mates, “Nah, we’re good, let’s just get started.  Hate to be late for our own gig.”

“Okay, where’s everything?”

“Next to the stage.  We started already, got the drums up, just need to move amps around and petty stuff like that.”

Sara walked over and started moving the amps to suit the building and the music.  It’s not that hard, considering it’s a warehouse, everything reverberates off the walls.  It was a forty by fifty foot space she’d converted into a club for teens.  Off to one end was the stage and equipment, on the side to the left of that was the “bar” and some seating, directly in front of the stage was a “dance floor,” but really it was just an empty place where people did whatever in, and next to that was more seating.  On the second floor, there was a landing which was about 15 feet wide and it went all the way around the perimeter.  Accessible by stairs in the right corner, you could go up and watch the shows.  Lights worked from a fixture on the ceiling, there weren’t many actual lights, strobes, colored lights, laser lights, things that looked like glitter shone onto the walls.  It was an awesome place, at least it was to Sara, but then again, she owned it.  Right after they finished, Jared walked in.

“Welcome back, Jared!”  Sara winked.

“You’re a damned insane driver.”

“No, I just know how to drive, sweetie,” she laughed, “besides, it wouldn’t look good if you showed up before the boss did would it?” 

He shrugged.  The conversation wouldn’t get any further anyway.  If he would’ve tried to debate, there would’ve been no point to it.  Meanwhile, the band had been going talking about if there was actually going to be any people there.  They hadn’t seen or heard advertisements.

“Hey, Sara?  Jared?” it was Clunky, “how are people to know that we’re playing here tonight?”

“Um… s**t.  They don’t know yet.  Jared, call WCOX and tell them to advertise it.  Uh, ten bucks to get in should do it.”

“Isn’t ten bucks a tad low?  …and I already did it.  That’s why it took so long to get here, not because I ‘can’t drive.’  I drove to the station and told them to get whoever was on air to say the show was on.  We should get a big turn out.”

“I retract my previous statements about your driving,” she walked over and hugged him.

“Uh-huh.”  He, of course, returned the hug, he was still attracted to her, but he also knew it wasn’t going to happen.

“We done with the wishy-washy crap?” there was smartass Mel, “’cause the show starts in like forty-five minutes.  Oh, and I haven’t gotten my hello from Jared.”

“Hey Melanie, sorry I didn’t notice you were here.  You were quiet for once.”  He walked over and hugged her too.

“Smartass, and hi hon.” She hugged back.  Everything was fine and dandy now.  At least that’s what everyone hoped.  It seemed to be.

Turning to the band, Sara said, “What songs are you planning on playing, that way I know how late I need to be here?”

“Well… we thought we’d play eight or nine, or that we’d play until you decided it was enough.”

“It’s up to you, I really don’t care, no school tomorrow… so yeah.  Not that if we had school it would make a difference, I’m up all night on school nights anyway.”

“And then you pass out in English and I’m waking your a*s up.”  Mel pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah, s**t happens.  But where would I be without you?”

“Nowhere.”

“Exactly.”  They laughed a little, but Mel and Sara knew it was true.  People started showing up maybe five minutes later, hoards of people.