Page 84 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“Nothing. I just want to go to the concert is all.”

“Well, we aren’t going anywhere but home with you acting like this.”

“Home. Very funny. Listen, I spent a lot of money for those tickets and I’m going to the concert. You can’t stop me. If you want to throw your ticket away, I’ll just take it and pawn it.

I’m sure I can sell it at the gate.”

Troy is beside himself. “Let’s go.”

She digs her heels in. “No. I’m going to the concert.”

She breaks away from him and starts walking in the opposite direction. Troy regrets letting her carry the tickets in her purse. He catches up to her easily, pulling her to another stop in the middle of the sidewalk. Other concertgoers have to detour around them as they stand in their stare-off.

“Hallie, please. Talk to me. Honey, what’s going on with you?”

She was tempted, but he sees her steel herself again. “I just want to go to the concert. Please, let’s just go. I don’t want to be late.”

Troy knows it’s a mistake the second he allows them to continue walking towards the stadium. He should throw her over his shoulder and carry her home, but he just doesn’t have enough history with her yet to do that. Mistake or not, it’s New Year’s Eve and they are going to go to the concert. One thing is for sure. He’s not going to give up trying to get her to open up tonight.

The only thing holding Hallie together is the alcohol and sheer determination. She’s having trouble holding onto her anger at Troy’s betrayal and planned move back to DC. The sadness and sense of loss for something she almost had is setting in. She wants so badly to crawl up into a corner and cry, but sheer pride is the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

She has to hand it to him. He’s a very good actor. Several times tonight he’d almost convinced her that he really cared about her, but she had to steel herself to remember he was just hoping for more sex before he cuts her loose.

She’s on her second glass of wine since hitting the stadium. She had pulled in some favors with friends in the industry to get them really great seats and Troy doesn’t know it yet, but her contacts had also sent her two backstage passes for after the concert.

As she settles into her seat to wait for the show to start, she takes stock of how it feels to be surrounded by her old lifestyle. While Eddie and The Kings are not here tonight, they have played in endless concert halls just like this and the memories of that life are fresh. It’s not that she missed Eddie and the band necessarily, but it hits her how much she had walked away from when she got in Gopher and drove away from her old life.

She was good at managing the band. In spite of being so young, she had just begun to get really good at her job and then she’d thrown it all away. It depresses her to think that she’ll need to start all over again and worse, she has absolutely no clue what she is going to do to support herself if she stays with her aunt and uncle. She knows she can’t live off their charity forever and the little nest egg she had saved is just that… little.

As the lights go down and the warmup band takes the stage, Hallie is relieved. It’s finally too dark and loud to have to try to talk to Troy. He hadn’t given up trying to get her to open up to him and he was wearing her down. As the concertgoers around her reveal in the music, Troy and Hallie stand silently miserable in the middle of what should be a fun event.

Hallie’s thoughts turn to Eagle’s Pass and her aunt and uncle. She’d planned on telling Troy tonight that she had made up her mind to stay in Eagle’s Pass, but now what’s the point? Yes, her family is there, but she’s an adult. They don’t need to have her complicating their life. If Troy isn’t going to be in Eagle’s Pass with her, maybe she should move on.

Hallie’s head is pounding by the time they make it through the concert. Troy is reaching for their coats as Hallie decides to spring the VIP passes on him.

“Listen, I have backstage passes since I got the tickets through some of my contacts.”

“No way. We came to the concert, but we need to get home and talk.”

“I’m not passing up on going backstage, Troy.” Hallie breaks away from him and takes a few steps to the nearest security guard. Even Hallie is surprised how easy it was to flash the VIP badge and the next thing she knows, she’s being ushered behind the scenes by the burly security guard. She can hear Troy’s boots rushing to catch up to them and she ducks into the backstage dressing room just as Troy grabs her arm. She knows he plans on dragging her out of there, and she only hopes he won’t make a scene.

The sight that greets her turns her stomach. The smell of pot and beer mingle with sweat and sex to permeate the air with what she likes to think of as the smell of rock and roll. Half-dressed men and women mingle around the room while a lone guitar player sits in the corner strumming out a sad melody. Memories Hallie would rather forget flood her brain and she’s just about to turn and leave when she hears her name being called from across the room.

“Hallie Boudreaux! What the hell are you doing here, girlfriend?”

Hallie looks up to see a woman she’d gotten to know pretty well when she had been working on the record deal for The Kings. Stacey is with the management company and pretty much has the same band management gig for tonight’s opening act that Hallie had for The Kings. She and Stacey had gotten to know each other pretty well when their groups had both been recording in Los Angeles for a few months together and she is a sight for sore eyes.

“Stacey! Wow, I’d hoped I’d see you tonight.” Stacey hugs Hallie tight.

“I’m so glad to see you. You have a lot of people worried about you, you know. You kind of dropped off the map there and none of us knew how to get in touch with you. Eddie has called a couple of times to see if I’d heard from you.”

“Oh God, don’t tell him you saw me. I don’t want him to know where I am.”

Stacey looks confused. “Well, if you say so.”

Troy has caught up to Hallie and has stepped up close. Stacey looks up to acknowledge him with a grin. “Well, hello there. And who might you be?”

Before Troy can speak, Hallie cuts him off. “This is Troy Jackson.” She leaves it at that.

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