Page 4 of Laying it Bare Backstage

Ivy and I both jumped out of my car.

“What the fuck was that?! And where the hell did that come from?! And that better not be blood!” I screeched.

“Hey, you fucking son of a bitch! Come out from your hiding place so I can kick your ass!” Ivy shouted; her fists clenched at her sides, her face twisted in fury. My best friend had a bit of an explosive temper.

Although, I was pretty pissed off at the moment too, I wasn’t ready to dish out any violence. “Watch your threats. You’re going to get us both killed out here.” Getting a closer look at my soiled windshield, I groaned. “The windshield wipers are just going to make that worse. How the hell am I going to be able to see to get home?” And what if thatwasblood? I couldn’t tell for sure in the dim illumination from the parking lot lights. As I stared at the mess, ice ran through my veins when my brain drudged up the memory of the psycho chick who had shot me a death glare when I was talking with Teak.Could she have done this? She seemed bitchy enough. Well, she didn’t need to threaten me because she had felt threatened. I had walked away from him.

“If you’d let me kick the asshole’s ass who did this; we could make him lick it off.” Ivy still hadn’t lowered her voice.

“What seems to be the problem here, ladies?”

The question startled the two of us and we yelped as we spun around to face the security guard who had ventured our way.

I slapped my hand to Ivy’s arm so that she’d let me do the speaking. I didn’t want tossed in arena jail, if there was such a thing. “As we were heading down the lot, someone threw a bag of red stuff at my car. It’s splattered all over my windshield. I think my wipers will just make the problem worse.”

“And you have some lunatic running around the lot.” Ivy added, despite my squeeze.

He keyed up his mic and asked a Jim to check out the north lot, briefly explaining the situation. Then he radioed maintenance and requested they report to our location to clean up a spill. While we waited for maintenance, he asked the two of us more questions and inspected the mess on my windshield, jotting down various notes and reassuring us that the red substance was ketchup not blood.

Less than ten minutes later, one of the arena golf carts rolled down to us and circled around to the front of my car. After the guy hopped out of the cart, he removed the plastic bag that had suctioned to my windshield and tossed it into the garbage bag in his hand. Then he sat the bag in the back of the cart and grabbed the bucket and squeegee. When he was finished, he put his supplies back and gave Ivy and me a friendly smile. “Glad you ladies are okay. There’s always at least one out of control drunk at these events. Although I’m sure I’ll discover other acts of vandalism and mischief before my shift is over. Have a great rest of your night.” He tipped his hat at the security guard before climbing back into his cart and driving up the lot.

The guard shifted his attention back to Ivy and me. “I’m sorry there isn’t much else we can do here. Jim hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. No one skulking around the lot. My guess is a drunk and he’s probably gone. Hopefully, he got a ride home and isn’t driving.”

“And if he would have caused an accident just now, he would have gotten away with it.” I scowled, patting Ivy’s arm so that hopefully she would hold her tongue and not berate him.

His expression grim, he nodded. “Unfortunately. The guys and I will check the other lots as well and see if we come up with anything, but that’s the best I can do. You ladies try to have a great rest of your night. I’ll watch until I see your taillights disappear at the end of the aisle.”

“Thank you.” I bumped my shoulder into Ivy’s. “Come on. Let’s go home. I’m way past exhausted.”

We climbed back into my car and headed down the aisle. The drive home was quiet. That insane incident in the parking lot was not the best way to end our night and it had my thoughts ping ponging around in my brain.Was it a harmless prank from a drunk idiot or a more disturbing act from a jealous infused wacko?My nerves were on edge. And Ivy was probably silently cussing me out for not staying with the band. Because if we would have still been hanging out with those guys, we wouldn’t have been in the line of fire ofhopefullysomeone’s drunken fun. But I couldn’t regret my decision to walk away. Because a mess on my windshield was a lot easier to clean up than the mess of a shattered heart.

two

~ Teak ~

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