Page 24 of The Devil's Tattoo
Chapter6
“Sorry.”
I turned around and found Dee behind me, scuffing his toe against the carpet. I knew he was talking about the coffee incident, and seriously, it was such a small thing to be upset about I’d already letitgo.
“Whatever,” I said. “Don’t apologize for my totally insane socialissues.”
We were backstage at the venue hanging out until it was time to go on. The Gold Coast was actually pretty nice if you could get past the whole ‘Hollywood on the Gold Coast’ slogan. It was packed with theme parks, wildlife sanctuaries, casinos, and kilometers of white beaches. We had a photo shoot scheduled for the next day down by the surf, and I was actually looking forward to itforonce.
“It was a stupid thing to do,”Deesaid.
“It’s a stupid thing for me to get worked upabout.”
He smiled then, and it reminded me of when we were kids and he had something devious planned. “I’ve got a presentforyou.”
“Really? What’s the occasion? I mean, other than you being adoofus.”
He chose to ignore me. “It’s eight months today since we startedtheband.”
“Really?” Went to show how fast things had turnedaround.
He put his hand into the back pocket of his battered jeans and pulled out a copy of our album, Do Me aFavor.
“Uh, thanks Dee, but I’ve already got one ofthose.”
“Not this one,” he declared, shoving it into myhands.
I opened it up, but it was exactly the same. “What am I meant to be doingwithit?”
“Open the booklet up, Zo Zo.” He looked extremely pleased with himself, and I knew he’d done something while I was in the car withSimone.
I took it out of the cardboard cover and opened it up. It was full of black and white photos of us on stage, promo photos, and candids. All the lyrics were written out in longhand, which gave it that photocopied punk zine look. Toward the back, there were a few mostly white pages with bright photos. In the spaces, there were little messages written. One each from Dee, Frank, andChris.
To Zoe, The raddest chick and guitar player I know. Without you, we wouldn’t be here today. You are The Devil’s Tattoo, babe. LoveFrank.
Zoe, honored to have met you and count you as a best mate. Never change. xxChris.
And below, was Dee’s message.To my best friend, Zoe Granger, aka hot legs. The day I met you was the day my life began. You’re my sister and my family, and I love you more than you’ll ever know. To quote Bryan Adams, ‘Everything I Do, I Do It For You.’ Thank you for making my dream come true. And to quote Chris, ‘NEVER CHANGE.’xxxxDee
I felt a tear slide down my cheek, and suddenly, Dee had me inhisarms.
“Stop it,” I said. “You’re ruining mymakeup.”
“Love you,ZoZo.”
“Love you, Dee.” I wiped the back of my hand underneath my eye. “You apologize for the stupidest shit,youknow.”
“Best I apologize for everything in case I fuck up and don’t know it,” he replied. “Then I’m always in the goodbooks.”
* * *
Thankfully,the gig that night was one of our besttodate.
Seemed that making me angry made for a better show. You know, more raw emotion to filter into our songs. It didn’t help that they were all about love and sex, but I was sure the audience got their money’s worth, so much so, I wondered what the review was going tobelike.
Dee was so excited about the photos he was running around like a two-year-old high on sugar, refreshing our Facebook page on his phone a milliontimes.
For the first time since the tour began, I didn’t stick around to watch The Stabs. Instead, I disappeared into the crowd where I was accosted by people telling me how awesome I was. I spent the rest of the night with Simone at the merchandise table, and I was even asked by a few people to sign their albums and take selfies. If someone had asked me a year ago if I could see myself here as I was right now, I would have told them they were mad. No, scratch that. I would’ve turned red and run away. The Devil’s Tattoo was the best thing that had ever happened to me.Period.
