Page 65 of Feuds and Interludes
“That’s exactly why I didn’t! Ihatethis, I swear. I hate having anyone know I can’t handle myself. I don’t like it one bit. But I had another close call last night, and I realized it’s not fair, me not telling you. As ridiculous as this has gotten, I might keel over onstage and you won’t have any idea what’s wrong with me.”
“Boone,” Annie said, and her attitude melted away to concern. “If you’re sick, maybe you should be resting. Take some time off?—”
“No! We’re on a roll, Annie. We need to stick to our schedule. Out of sight will mean out of mind, you know? We can’t afford?—”
“For you to get sicker,” Bran said. “Come on, man. This is serious. Should we even be doing Rocktoberfest?”
“Yes, we absolutely should, and we’re finishing this album. We’re halfway done already and Morrison is happy with our progress. Let’s finish it up and then we can rehearse with Shane. I’ll rest, I promise. I told Felix, and he’s going to help me with food?—”
“You told him before us too?” Annie narrowed her eyes. Man, I was in hot water with her.
“Just right now,” I said, gesturing toward the mess hall. “Come on, please? Don’t be mad. I’m trying to do this right, I swear.”
“Doing it right would have been telling your best friends first, but whatever,” Bran said. He tilted his head up and looked at the sky.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” This was awful. Worse than I thought. “I thought once I got on medication and stopped drinking it would, like, go away. I’ve been exercising…some, notas much as I should, and, well, I try to sleep but it’s hard.” In trying to pretend this wasn’t happening, I’d kept a big deal from my best friends. All I could do was hope they’d forgive me and not decide to leave me.
“Instead, you’ve been letting that hot man in there suck on your neck,” Annie said, rolling her eyes. “Probably other things, too.”
I opened my mouth to answer but all that came out was a snort.
“At least there’s a good reason you quit drinking and smoking,” Bran said with a sigh. “I thought you were just going through a phase or something, like that time you went vegan for a week.” He turned to look at Annie with an eyebrow raised. “Guess we should quit smoking, too. If it can happen to Mr. Perfect Pants over here, it could happen to us.”
She exhaled with a groan. “Fuck, I know. I thought we had at least until we were forty to fuck around. Guess we just found out.”
“I’m sorry, guys. I really thought I could handle it and you’d never have to know.”
“Do you have to give yourself shots and shit?” Bran asked, shuddering.
“No, at least not yet. I’ve got this,” I said, pulling up my shirt to show my glucose monitor that I’d moved to my stomach. My arm was getting itchy. “It’s read by an app on my phone. I’m taking medicine, but I need to call the doctor when we get back to LA because it’s not cutting it. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to follow doctor’s orders, I swear.”
Annie finally dropped her arms and she put a hand on mine. “I know it’s scary. I’m sorry you’ve been going through this on your own. Asshole. You should have told us. We’ve always taken care of each other.”
I put my arms around them and they returned the gesture.
“You guys are my world. I love your crazy asses.”
Bran elbowed me in the gut, then apologized. “Guess I have to be careful. No more wrestling, huh?”
“I mean, as long as we’re careful.”
“God, you’re both children,” Annie said. “Is Shane at least being smart about this shit?”
I grinned. “He is. He knows how to take care of me.”
“I bet he does,” Bran said. He started with thebow-chicka-wow-wowsand I jumped on his back. He spun me around, and we both went down in the bushes while Annie screamed at us to stop fucking around.
Shane appeared at her side while Bran and I cracked up. The two of them shook their heads at us.
“I hope you know what you’re getting into,” Annie said to him as she took off toward the studio. “Come on, dorks. We’ve got an album to record.”
Bran gave me a double tittie twister and then ran before I could get him back.
“Bran, you butt munch. That’s going to bruise,” I said, rubbing my nipples. Shane reached down to help me up and then pulled some twigs out of my hair. “Great. They’ll match my other ones,” I said, smiling up at him. “By the way, Gran saw. She suggested I wear a scarf next time.”
His eyes widened. “What else did she say?”
“That you’re a good man. That you come from good stock.”
