Sad_Girl
Blue Crack Supplier
**The following is a work of pure fiction.
Chapter Three
“Hey, you’re coming back, right?” Holly heard a sweet voice ask as she closed the rolling back door on the truck after loading the last guitar. She turned back to smile sadly at Edge and shake her head.
“I don’t think so.” She told him, chewing on her lower lip as she did.
“Why not?” He asked, stepping out of the doorway to the club to come closer. “C’mon, you haven’t stayed and just had fun with us after a show in two weeks.” She kept her head down, studying her feet as she scraped a show against the pavement nervously. It was true. This was their seventeenth concert in twenty days, and she hadn’t stayed behind to socialize with any of them since night three.
On the morning of October second, she’d been severely hung over but even that had not dampened her high spirits. As she helped to set up the stage, she’d been anticipating what would happen that night, after they had packed it all up again. She’d hurried through her job, rather than taking the time to be sure she was doing it right. She had gotten to the party just in time to see Adam leaving, and not alone.
She had been grateful to leave the room before anyone saw the tears streak down her cheeks. She felt like such a fool! She cursed herself for being an idiot as she curled up in her bed, completely covered by the blankets, hoping they would muffle her sobbing.
She had known the boy for just over 24 hours, and he had her wrapped around his little finger. What was worse was he didn’t seem to know or care. She would’ve gone to bed with him, the night before; after having known him only a matter of hours. If there had been anywhere private they could’ve gone, she knew deep down she would have.
Tonight he was with another girl, and it made her stomach twist into sick knots to think about what they were doing. Twenty four hours. She was such a fool. This was possibly the worst way she could have started her new life; the big adventure she had yearned for so badly chewing her up and spitting her out in the first two days.
On the third night, she and Edge had sat in the hallway outside the party and talked. She had tried not to keep looking into the party and watching Adam flirt with the girls there. More than once she had needed to ask Edge to repeat himself because her attention had wandered to exactly that. She let him think it was his accent which had made her miss what he was saying, to save her pride.
Since then, she simply hadn’t had the heart to be around the parties. Adam would bestow a smile on her or wink at her as their paths crossed on the usual daily routine, but he didn’t say anything about that first night. He never asked her why she wasn’t around after the shows anymore, either. Just another thing to remind her how foolish she had been to think those kisses they had exchanged had meant anything.
“I guess I just need more sleep than the rest of you.” She lied, moving to climb into the passenger seat of the truck and go back to the hotel with Randy and Will, the other roadie. Edge’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“Don’t make me carry you back into the club over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.” He threatened, the corner of his mouth twisting up into a smile and his green eyes glittering with mischief.
“Even if I thought you would, I doubt that you could." she laughed, a spark of happiness lighting in her heart.
“Oh!” Edge replied, his eyes widening melodramatically, his hand pressed to his chest over his heart. “Well, I guess we have to find out now, don’t we?” Holly hardly had time to laugh before he was reaching for her. She took two instinctive steps back and let out a startled squeal as she realized he was serious. Her laughter echoed in the alleyway as she ran around the front of the truck to try and escape. She started around the front and had her hand on the door when she felt herself scooped up off of her feet.
“It’s alright, I’ll see to it she has a way back to the hotel.” Edge told Randy as Holly squirmed and giggled, trying to free herself from his hold. Randy grunted in response and Holly heard the engine grind as he shifted into gear.
“Wait!” She called, but it was too late. With surprising ease, Edge managed to arrange her over his shoulder, exactly as he had threatened, like a sack of potatoes. Her hair hung down loose, swaying as he walked back into the club. She couldn’t really see much of anything besides the small of his back and the flash of lights as they passed the dance floor.
“You can put me down!” She told him, having to scream over the music and noise of the crowd.
“What?” He replied, the laughter in his voice telling her he had heard her just fine.
“What have you got there, The Edge?” She heard Bono ask, obviously amused by the sight.
“It’s not Larry’s birthday for another week or so.” She heard Adam add. “Though that does give me an idea of what to get him.”
“Piss off!” Larry grumbled, though his voice still betrayed his amusement.
“He wouldn’t know what to do with a gift like that!” Bono teased.
“I don’t know, you might be able to use her for a drum.” Adam said, his voice broken with laughter as Bono reached out and slapped her on the bum a couple of times.
“Very funny! Now put me down!” Holly demanded, only half as amused as she had been before, and not nearly as amused as the guys themselves were. Edge bent at the knees and leaned to one side to let her slip off of his shoulder and onto her own two feet.
She swayed a bit as she found her balance, tossing her hair back emphatically. She tried to scowl at the boys, but their laughter made it impossible to be angry.
“I think you owe me a drink.” She told Edge as she pulled out a chair, turned it backwards and straddled it, her arms folded and resting on the back.
“I think I do.” He agreed with a smile, sitting in a chair next to her.
“I think we all do.” Bono told her with a wink.
“What did I do?” Larry asked incredulously.
“You were looking at her arse just as much as the rest of us.” Adam teased, exhaling a long puff of smoke.
“Well it was right there, what else was I supposed to be looking at?” Larry replied, cracking up with laughter even as he said it.
“Alright, can we discuss something other than my ass?” Holly asked, hoping the dim lighting in the club hid the deep blush that had risen to her face.
“We can talk about mine, if you want.” Bono volunteered gleefully.
“Not again!” Larry exclaimed, setting everyone around the table laughing even more. Edge excused himself for another minute, and Adam slid into his chair beside Holly. The hair on the backs of her arms and neck stood up, she was so aware of his nearness. She kept her eyes on the table, trying to seem as if she were paying attention to whatever Larry and Bono were playfully arguing about.
“Hello, stranger.” She heard Adam’s unique accent in her ear, his breath hot and wet against her cheek. He rested one arm across the back of her chair, his other hand resting on the table, a smoking cigarette held between two fingers.
She glanced at him and then looked away quickly. She wasn’t about to let herself get sucked into those eyes again. Adam Clayton was the boy her mother had warned her about. She didn’t need another dose of heartbreak to tell her that.
“Hey.” She replied shortly.
“Where’ve you been hiding?” He asked, drawing in a long puff of smoke and exhaling it slowly. Was it possible to breathe sexily? Somehow, Adam had managed to do just that. Holly shifted in her seat, looking at him only out of the corner of her eye.
“I haven’t been hiding. Just working hard.” She told him, hoping she sounded sincerely disinterested in him.
“You know what they say about all work and no play.” He told her, offering her a cigarette, which she accepted. Adam held up a lighter for her and her heart skipped a beat. As she leaned in to touch the cigarette to the flame and drew in a superheated puff of smoke, she felt almost as if the smoke was Adam, touching her. There was something far too intimate about the simple act of holding the lighter for her.
“I don’t think I need to worry about that.” She replied, smiling at him, her eyes washing over his face and taking in every detail. She barely realized that she had been taken in again, feeling the strong desire to simply lean over and close the short distance between their faces, touching those sexy lips of his with her own.
“What’s this? Get yer arse outta my seat, Sparky!” Edge demanded as he returned with a drink in each hand.
“There’s an empty chair right there!” Adam returned, scowling up at his friend.
“So why don’t you sit in it?”
“What’s yer feckin’ problem?” Adam asked, his eyebrows drawing together as he studied his friends face.
“Just get out of my feckin’ seat and I won’t have a feckin’ problem.”
“Jaysus, I didn’t realize this was your throne, your majesty.” Adam said, rising and moving back over to the seat he’d been in earlier.
“Well, now you do.” Edge said as he settled back into the chair in question. He slid a beer over in front of Holly and took a long drink from the other. She heard Bono and Larry start to snicker and soon, the chair was forgotten and everyone was laughing again.
Holly couldn’t help but think that they acted more like brothers than just friends and bandmates.
*********************************************************************
“Bono, Adam, would you come in here, please?” Natalie called the two late arrivals into the tiny dressing room. It was their last day in England, for awhile. The next day they didn’t have a concert scheduled, because they would be traveling. They’d play in Belgium, the day after next. France after that. Then the Netherlands and West Germany.
Knowing they weren’t going to be on stage the next day seemed to have them wound even tighter than usual, Natalie noticed. She couldn’t help but worry a little what they had planned for after the show that night, considering their high spirits.
“This is Alyx McKinny, from ‘the Beat’ magazine.” She told them when they walked in to find Larry and Edge seated on the couch across from a pretty young punk girl with a camera and a tape recorder.
“Hello.” Adam greeted her politely, reaching out to shake her hand while quickly eyeing her from head to toe. She smiled politely and greeted him in kind, and then exchanged the same sort of pleasantries with Bono.
“I’ve seen you at a couple of shows.” Bono informed her, casting a sideways glance at Larry, who had actually been the one who pointed her out to him. Alyx smiled and glanced down at the notepad in her hands in an almost shy gesture.
“I reviewed your October first show and was… impressed.” She told him. “I thought maybe it was a fluke, so before I would submit my review I had to see another show.” Actually, it had been four. Of the seventeen shows they had put on during this tour, she had been to five. She would gladly have gone to more, if she could have worked it out financially and logistically.
“and?” Bono asked, sitting on the arm of the chair she occupied and looking down at her expectantly.
“And I did not submit my original review.” She told him with a soft smile. “I had to write a better one.” This, of course, made the charming young man grin from ear to ear.
“Alyx has asked to have the chance to interview and photograph you backstage. Paul and I have no problem with it, but it’s ultimately up to you.” Natalie informed them, conscious of the fact that time was running short. They should be dressed and ready to go on stage within the next few minutes.
“I don’t mind.” Bono replied, turning to the others. Adam was quick to agree, and Larry and Edge each simply shrugged. “Though, I should warn you, it’s often not a pretty sight back here after a show.” He told her with a conspiratorial wink.
“Alright, we really need to get moving now, guys. Alyx, I’ll make sure you’re back here after the show, but we really haven’t any time at the moment.” Natalie said, shooing the girl out of the dressing room and urging the guys to hurry.
********************************************************************************
Natalie did, indeed make sure Alyx was backstage before the band finished their set. She had already filled three rolls of film with shots from the show itself, and was quickly snapping away as the sweaty, exhausted boys poured into the room.
Paul took the time to stop and chat for a few minutes, asking her what she thought of the show and making casual small talk while the boys showered and dressed in fresh clothes.
“You really wouldn’t want to be sitting in a closed room with the four of them in that condition.” He joked, and although Alyx was anxious to interview them, she suspected he was right. She hadn’t quite been prepared, however, for their casual demeanor upon returning.
Adam was wrapped in a simple white terry cloth robe, and Bono wore only a towel wrapped tightly around his square hips. Larry and Edge had taken the time to dress in jeans and a T-shirt, though Alyx wasn’t sure which was standard practice and which was for her benefit.
She couldn’t deny that it was an enviable position to be in. One of the two only women in a room full of handsome young men. She could practically see the testosterone in the air. She smiled and pushed the record button on her cassette recorded.
“As your road manager already told you, my name is Alyx. Let me check and make sure I have all of your names right, here. You go by the name Bono?” She started, directing the question, which she already knew the answer to, toward the impish lead singer.
“Right.” He agreed, taking a long drink from the sweating beer bottle in his hand.
“There has to be some sort of story or explanation behind this.” She said, looking around the room at each of the band members, gauging their reactions to the environment and the nature of the question. She was good with people, as far as that sort of thing went. Empathetic, able to get a feel for a persons general demeanor and mood at the moment.
Adam was playing it cool, waiting for his chance to impress her with some witty comment or joke. Edge was only half there, his head bent, his eyes studying his hands intently. His mind was on something that was a million miles away. Or, at least, not in the room with them.
Larry slouched in his seat, his eyes on the arm of the couch, the wallpaper on the wall across from him, or Bono’s wild hand gestures as he explained just how he had come by his name. Alyx could feel his eyes on her face as he studied her intently, but only when she was not looking at him. The moment she looked his way, he averted his eyes as if he had never looked at her in the first place.
Bono was quite comfortable in the spotlight. He had the ability to ramble on about a subject continuously until stopped by someone, the conversation being pointed in another direction. This was in no way a bad thing, in Alyx’s estimation. In fact, it not only allowed her to get the answer to the question she had asked, but the answers to several unasked questions as well. Including the reason behind the handsome, if somewhat awkward, young guitarist being dubbed with the name ‘The Edge’.
“How long have you been together?”
“Five years, now.” Bono replied, the others all nodding.
“So you must’ve been just kids when you started.” She asked, “I mean, you guys can’t be older than twenty one at the very most.”
“That’s right, Adam and I are twenty one, The Edge here is twenty, and Larry is the baby. He’ll be twenty in a week or so.” Larry remained silent but flashed a rude gesture in his mates direction. This only served to make him giggle to know he’d gotten under the boys skin.
“A lot of your songs have lyrics which some people find confusing. One person interprets it one way, another thinks the meaning is totally different. Is there a message you’re trying to get out there with your music?”
“Our music is about where we’re at in our lives. It’s, uh.. it’s about standing on a precipice and knowing we are about to jump. We have to jump, but we don’t know yet if we’re going to fly or plummet. It’s not necessarily that we’re afraid. It’s more…. Uh, it’s like… what is it The Edge?” Bono laughed, nudging his friend and urging him to help with the difficult explanation.
“It’s about learning what you can take with you, and what you have to leave behind. It’s about discovery. Finding out who you are. Not what your father or mother or uncle or teacher wants of you, but who you really are underneath all of the shite other people put on you.” Edge suggested.
The room fell silent for a long moment as everyone seemed to consider this statement seriously. Then Adam snickered, and Bono chuckled in response. It snowballed from there, chasing the contemplative mood of the room away and replacing it with good humored teasing and laughter. Alyx left her pad and pen sitting on the table in front of her and pulled out her camera, snapping several pictures of the boys as they joked and laughed.
“One last question.” She said finally. “Where are you going? Five years from now, if I come looking for U2, will I be writing a ‘where are they now?’ article? Or ‘What were they thinking with this new album?’”
“Shows you what she really thinks of us.” Adam teased.
“No confidence at all!” Bono exclaimed, clucking his tongue and shaking his head at her disappointedly.
“We’ll be around, still making music that we can honestly say is ours. Taking what we know, what we are and turning it into lyrics and chords and rhythms and putting it out there. If people like it, that’s great. Fuckin’ brilliant! But we won’t keep making the same record over and over again just because it worked once.”
“Good answer.” Alyx laughed, winking at Bono playfully.
“Better than what I was going to say.” Adam joked.
“And what’s that?” Alyx wondered, packing away her camera and tape recorder.
“We’re going to be bigger than the Beatles.” He told her with a grin. She arched an eyebrow at him and wondered how much of his bravado was for play and how much was real.
“I think I’ll hold off on using that phrase just yet.” She replied with a laugh. “At least in print.”
“And we all thank you for that.” Edge said, smacking the back of Adam’s head as he walked past him.
“What are you doing now?” Adam asked Alyx once most of the others had left. He took her heavy duffel bag and draped it over his shoulder casually.
“Going back to the hotel and working, I suppose.” She told him with a shrug.
“Why don’t you come back to our hotel? There’ll be a lot of people there. Good music, good booze, good company.” He dangled the offer in front of her as if he knew she would be unable to resist. She sighed and tried to think of the best way to cop out of going as he walked her out to her car. He put her bag in the hatchback and lit a cigarette, leaning casually against the car.
A horn honked from across the car park, and she turned to see the others waiting impatiently. Her eyes fell on the driver, the youngest member of the band, and she knew she could not pass up the chance to spend a few more hours with him. She’d barely had the chance to hear his voice during the interview.
*******************************************************************
Natalie and Paul were seated in the farthest corner of the suite which had, as it usually was, turned into the party place for the night. She had loved this part of the job, when she was a little younger. She had loved it just three months ago when she’d been working with another band. She hated it, now though.
She hated watching him charming everyone in the room, every girl waiting for their chance to snag his attention. Tonight alone she had seen him kiss half a dozen women, whether or not they had boyfriends. She wondered just how long his luck would hold out before one of the boyfriends lost his patience.
She hated to think of it, but it at least brought her some distraction from the nagging feeling in her gut. It wasn’t the boyfriends who were jealous. It was her. Though she had no right to be. She was lost in her thoughts when suddenly she felt as if the world were closing in around her as the subject of her musings placed himself firmly across her lap.
“What…” She exclaimed, her eyes widening and the breath rushing from her lungs as he leaned in and kissed her directly on the mouth. Her heart was racing so fast that in all of her pulse points she felt a wild fluttering rather than a steady beat. *Oh god, his lips were soft!* she barely had time for the thought to register before his lips were gone as he leaned back and smiled at her.
“What the hell are you doing?” She managed to sputter, though she could hardly believe she put together enough words to pass for a sentence. Her mind was racing nearly as fast as her heart, most of her thoughts going in the same direction.
“You looked like you needed that.” He told her with a smirk, his soft blue eyes heavy, betraying how much he’d had to drink. As if his breath alone would not have told her that he was completely pissed.
*Needed that?* She thought. *You have no idea how badly I have needed that.* Before she could make the decision whether or not to let her better judgement fly and act upon the desires of her heart and body, Bono was moving off her lap and toward Paul. He grabbed Paul’s face firmly in his thick hands and kissed the man on the forehead. It was a loud, smacking kiss that was reminiscent of the one’s Bugs Bunny would bestow upon Elmer Fudd.
Natalie’s heart fell as she realized she was just one of the many people Bono had decided needed a kiss. She forced a smile as Paul shoved him away playfully and Bono tried to kiss him again. Everyone around them was greatly amused, and thankfully, for her sake, distracted by this. Natalie slipped out of the room while all eyes were on the playful pair.
She had come dangerously close to making a stupid mistake. So why wasn’t she more relieved?
Chapter Three
“Hey, you’re coming back, right?” Holly heard a sweet voice ask as she closed the rolling back door on the truck after loading the last guitar. She turned back to smile sadly at Edge and shake her head.
“I don’t think so.” She told him, chewing on her lower lip as she did.
“Why not?” He asked, stepping out of the doorway to the club to come closer. “C’mon, you haven’t stayed and just had fun with us after a show in two weeks.” She kept her head down, studying her feet as she scraped a show against the pavement nervously. It was true. This was their seventeenth concert in twenty days, and she hadn’t stayed behind to socialize with any of them since night three.
On the morning of October second, she’d been severely hung over but even that had not dampened her high spirits. As she helped to set up the stage, she’d been anticipating what would happen that night, after they had packed it all up again. She’d hurried through her job, rather than taking the time to be sure she was doing it right. She had gotten to the party just in time to see Adam leaving, and not alone.
She had been grateful to leave the room before anyone saw the tears streak down her cheeks. She felt like such a fool! She cursed herself for being an idiot as she curled up in her bed, completely covered by the blankets, hoping they would muffle her sobbing.
She had known the boy for just over 24 hours, and he had her wrapped around his little finger. What was worse was he didn’t seem to know or care. She would’ve gone to bed with him, the night before; after having known him only a matter of hours. If there had been anywhere private they could’ve gone, she knew deep down she would have.
Tonight he was with another girl, and it made her stomach twist into sick knots to think about what they were doing. Twenty four hours. She was such a fool. This was possibly the worst way she could have started her new life; the big adventure she had yearned for so badly chewing her up and spitting her out in the first two days.
On the third night, she and Edge had sat in the hallway outside the party and talked. She had tried not to keep looking into the party and watching Adam flirt with the girls there. More than once she had needed to ask Edge to repeat himself because her attention had wandered to exactly that. She let him think it was his accent which had made her miss what he was saying, to save her pride.
Since then, she simply hadn’t had the heart to be around the parties. Adam would bestow a smile on her or wink at her as their paths crossed on the usual daily routine, but he didn’t say anything about that first night. He never asked her why she wasn’t around after the shows anymore, either. Just another thing to remind her how foolish she had been to think those kisses they had exchanged had meant anything.
“I guess I just need more sleep than the rest of you.” She lied, moving to climb into the passenger seat of the truck and go back to the hotel with Randy and Will, the other roadie. Edge’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“Don’t make me carry you back into the club over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.” He threatened, the corner of his mouth twisting up into a smile and his green eyes glittering with mischief.
“Even if I thought you would, I doubt that you could." she laughed, a spark of happiness lighting in her heart.
“Oh!” Edge replied, his eyes widening melodramatically, his hand pressed to his chest over his heart. “Well, I guess we have to find out now, don’t we?” Holly hardly had time to laugh before he was reaching for her. She took two instinctive steps back and let out a startled squeal as she realized he was serious. Her laughter echoed in the alleyway as she ran around the front of the truck to try and escape. She started around the front and had her hand on the door when she felt herself scooped up off of her feet.
“It’s alright, I’ll see to it she has a way back to the hotel.” Edge told Randy as Holly squirmed and giggled, trying to free herself from his hold. Randy grunted in response and Holly heard the engine grind as he shifted into gear.
“Wait!” She called, but it was too late. With surprising ease, Edge managed to arrange her over his shoulder, exactly as he had threatened, like a sack of potatoes. Her hair hung down loose, swaying as he walked back into the club. She couldn’t really see much of anything besides the small of his back and the flash of lights as they passed the dance floor.
“You can put me down!” She told him, having to scream over the music and noise of the crowd.
“What?” He replied, the laughter in his voice telling her he had heard her just fine.
“What have you got there, The Edge?” She heard Bono ask, obviously amused by the sight.
“It’s not Larry’s birthday for another week or so.” She heard Adam add. “Though that does give me an idea of what to get him.”
“Piss off!” Larry grumbled, though his voice still betrayed his amusement.
“He wouldn’t know what to do with a gift like that!” Bono teased.
“I don’t know, you might be able to use her for a drum.” Adam said, his voice broken with laughter as Bono reached out and slapped her on the bum a couple of times.
“Very funny! Now put me down!” Holly demanded, only half as amused as she had been before, and not nearly as amused as the guys themselves were. Edge bent at the knees and leaned to one side to let her slip off of his shoulder and onto her own two feet.
She swayed a bit as she found her balance, tossing her hair back emphatically. She tried to scowl at the boys, but their laughter made it impossible to be angry.
“I think you owe me a drink.” She told Edge as she pulled out a chair, turned it backwards and straddled it, her arms folded and resting on the back.
“I think I do.” He agreed with a smile, sitting in a chair next to her.
“I think we all do.” Bono told her with a wink.
“What did I do?” Larry asked incredulously.
“You were looking at her arse just as much as the rest of us.” Adam teased, exhaling a long puff of smoke.
“Well it was right there, what else was I supposed to be looking at?” Larry replied, cracking up with laughter even as he said it.
“Alright, can we discuss something other than my ass?” Holly asked, hoping the dim lighting in the club hid the deep blush that had risen to her face.
“We can talk about mine, if you want.” Bono volunteered gleefully.
“Not again!” Larry exclaimed, setting everyone around the table laughing even more. Edge excused himself for another minute, and Adam slid into his chair beside Holly. The hair on the backs of her arms and neck stood up, she was so aware of his nearness. She kept her eyes on the table, trying to seem as if she were paying attention to whatever Larry and Bono were playfully arguing about.
“Hello, stranger.” She heard Adam’s unique accent in her ear, his breath hot and wet against her cheek. He rested one arm across the back of her chair, his other hand resting on the table, a smoking cigarette held between two fingers.
She glanced at him and then looked away quickly. She wasn’t about to let herself get sucked into those eyes again. Adam Clayton was the boy her mother had warned her about. She didn’t need another dose of heartbreak to tell her that.
“Hey.” She replied shortly.
“Where’ve you been hiding?” He asked, drawing in a long puff of smoke and exhaling it slowly. Was it possible to breathe sexily? Somehow, Adam had managed to do just that. Holly shifted in her seat, looking at him only out of the corner of her eye.
“I haven’t been hiding. Just working hard.” She told him, hoping she sounded sincerely disinterested in him.
“You know what they say about all work and no play.” He told her, offering her a cigarette, which she accepted. Adam held up a lighter for her and her heart skipped a beat. As she leaned in to touch the cigarette to the flame and drew in a superheated puff of smoke, she felt almost as if the smoke was Adam, touching her. There was something far too intimate about the simple act of holding the lighter for her.
“I don’t think I need to worry about that.” She replied, smiling at him, her eyes washing over his face and taking in every detail. She barely realized that she had been taken in again, feeling the strong desire to simply lean over and close the short distance between their faces, touching those sexy lips of his with her own.
“What’s this? Get yer arse outta my seat, Sparky!” Edge demanded as he returned with a drink in each hand.
“There’s an empty chair right there!” Adam returned, scowling up at his friend.
“So why don’t you sit in it?”
“What’s yer feckin’ problem?” Adam asked, his eyebrows drawing together as he studied his friends face.
“Just get out of my feckin’ seat and I won’t have a feckin’ problem.”
“Jaysus, I didn’t realize this was your throne, your majesty.” Adam said, rising and moving back over to the seat he’d been in earlier.
“Well, now you do.” Edge said as he settled back into the chair in question. He slid a beer over in front of Holly and took a long drink from the other. She heard Bono and Larry start to snicker and soon, the chair was forgotten and everyone was laughing again.
Holly couldn’t help but think that they acted more like brothers than just friends and bandmates.
*********************************************************************
“Bono, Adam, would you come in here, please?” Natalie called the two late arrivals into the tiny dressing room. It was their last day in England, for awhile. The next day they didn’t have a concert scheduled, because they would be traveling. They’d play in Belgium, the day after next. France after that. Then the Netherlands and West Germany.
Knowing they weren’t going to be on stage the next day seemed to have them wound even tighter than usual, Natalie noticed. She couldn’t help but worry a little what they had planned for after the show that night, considering their high spirits.
“This is Alyx McKinny, from ‘the Beat’ magazine.” She told them when they walked in to find Larry and Edge seated on the couch across from a pretty young punk girl with a camera and a tape recorder.
“Hello.” Adam greeted her politely, reaching out to shake her hand while quickly eyeing her from head to toe. She smiled politely and greeted him in kind, and then exchanged the same sort of pleasantries with Bono.
“I’ve seen you at a couple of shows.” Bono informed her, casting a sideways glance at Larry, who had actually been the one who pointed her out to him. Alyx smiled and glanced down at the notepad in her hands in an almost shy gesture.
“I reviewed your October first show and was… impressed.” She told him. “I thought maybe it was a fluke, so before I would submit my review I had to see another show.” Actually, it had been four. Of the seventeen shows they had put on during this tour, she had been to five. She would gladly have gone to more, if she could have worked it out financially and logistically.
“and?” Bono asked, sitting on the arm of the chair she occupied and looking down at her expectantly.
“And I did not submit my original review.” She told him with a soft smile. “I had to write a better one.” This, of course, made the charming young man grin from ear to ear.
“Alyx has asked to have the chance to interview and photograph you backstage. Paul and I have no problem with it, but it’s ultimately up to you.” Natalie informed them, conscious of the fact that time was running short. They should be dressed and ready to go on stage within the next few minutes.
“I don’t mind.” Bono replied, turning to the others. Adam was quick to agree, and Larry and Edge each simply shrugged. “Though, I should warn you, it’s often not a pretty sight back here after a show.” He told her with a conspiratorial wink.
“Alright, we really need to get moving now, guys. Alyx, I’ll make sure you’re back here after the show, but we really haven’t any time at the moment.” Natalie said, shooing the girl out of the dressing room and urging the guys to hurry.
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Natalie did, indeed make sure Alyx was backstage before the band finished their set. She had already filled three rolls of film with shots from the show itself, and was quickly snapping away as the sweaty, exhausted boys poured into the room.
Paul took the time to stop and chat for a few minutes, asking her what she thought of the show and making casual small talk while the boys showered and dressed in fresh clothes.
“You really wouldn’t want to be sitting in a closed room with the four of them in that condition.” He joked, and although Alyx was anxious to interview them, she suspected he was right. She hadn’t quite been prepared, however, for their casual demeanor upon returning.
Adam was wrapped in a simple white terry cloth robe, and Bono wore only a towel wrapped tightly around his square hips. Larry and Edge had taken the time to dress in jeans and a T-shirt, though Alyx wasn’t sure which was standard practice and which was for her benefit.
She couldn’t deny that it was an enviable position to be in. One of the two only women in a room full of handsome young men. She could practically see the testosterone in the air. She smiled and pushed the record button on her cassette recorded.
“As your road manager already told you, my name is Alyx. Let me check and make sure I have all of your names right, here. You go by the name Bono?” She started, directing the question, which she already knew the answer to, toward the impish lead singer.
“Right.” He agreed, taking a long drink from the sweating beer bottle in his hand.
“There has to be some sort of story or explanation behind this.” She said, looking around the room at each of the band members, gauging their reactions to the environment and the nature of the question. She was good with people, as far as that sort of thing went. Empathetic, able to get a feel for a persons general demeanor and mood at the moment.
Adam was playing it cool, waiting for his chance to impress her with some witty comment or joke. Edge was only half there, his head bent, his eyes studying his hands intently. His mind was on something that was a million miles away. Or, at least, not in the room with them.
Larry slouched in his seat, his eyes on the arm of the couch, the wallpaper on the wall across from him, or Bono’s wild hand gestures as he explained just how he had come by his name. Alyx could feel his eyes on her face as he studied her intently, but only when she was not looking at him. The moment she looked his way, he averted his eyes as if he had never looked at her in the first place.
Bono was quite comfortable in the spotlight. He had the ability to ramble on about a subject continuously until stopped by someone, the conversation being pointed in another direction. This was in no way a bad thing, in Alyx’s estimation. In fact, it not only allowed her to get the answer to the question she had asked, but the answers to several unasked questions as well. Including the reason behind the handsome, if somewhat awkward, young guitarist being dubbed with the name ‘The Edge’.
“How long have you been together?”
“Five years, now.” Bono replied, the others all nodding.
“So you must’ve been just kids when you started.” She asked, “I mean, you guys can’t be older than twenty one at the very most.”
“That’s right, Adam and I are twenty one, The Edge here is twenty, and Larry is the baby. He’ll be twenty in a week or so.” Larry remained silent but flashed a rude gesture in his mates direction. This only served to make him giggle to know he’d gotten under the boys skin.
“A lot of your songs have lyrics which some people find confusing. One person interprets it one way, another thinks the meaning is totally different. Is there a message you’re trying to get out there with your music?”
“Our music is about where we’re at in our lives. It’s, uh.. it’s about standing on a precipice and knowing we are about to jump. We have to jump, but we don’t know yet if we’re going to fly or plummet. It’s not necessarily that we’re afraid. It’s more…. Uh, it’s like… what is it The Edge?” Bono laughed, nudging his friend and urging him to help with the difficult explanation.
“It’s about learning what you can take with you, and what you have to leave behind. It’s about discovery. Finding out who you are. Not what your father or mother or uncle or teacher wants of you, but who you really are underneath all of the shite other people put on you.” Edge suggested.
The room fell silent for a long moment as everyone seemed to consider this statement seriously. Then Adam snickered, and Bono chuckled in response. It snowballed from there, chasing the contemplative mood of the room away and replacing it with good humored teasing and laughter. Alyx left her pad and pen sitting on the table in front of her and pulled out her camera, snapping several pictures of the boys as they joked and laughed.
“One last question.” She said finally. “Where are you going? Five years from now, if I come looking for U2, will I be writing a ‘where are they now?’ article? Or ‘What were they thinking with this new album?’”
“Shows you what she really thinks of us.” Adam teased.
“No confidence at all!” Bono exclaimed, clucking his tongue and shaking his head at her disappointedly.
“We’ll be around, still making music that we can honestly say is ours. Taking what we know, what we are and turning it into lyrics and chords and rhythms and putting it out there. If people like it, that’s great. Fuckin’ brilliant! But we won’t keep making the same record over and over again just because it worked once.”
“Good answer.” Alyx laughed, winking at Bono playfully.
“Better than what I was going to say.” Adam joked.
“And what’s that?” Alyx wondered, packing away her camera and tape recorder.
“We’re going to be bigger than the Beatles.” He told her with a grin. She arched an eyebrow at him and wondered how much of his bravado was for play and how much was real.
“I think I’ll hold off on using that phrase just yet.” She replied with a laugh. “At least in print.”
“And we all thank you for that.” Edge said, smacking the back of Adam’s head as he walked past him.
“What are you doing now?” Adam asked Alyx once most of the others had left. He took her heavy duffel bag and draped it over his shoulder casually.
“Going back to the hotel and working, I suppose.” She told him with a shrug.
“Why don’t you come back to our hotel? There’ll be a lot of people there. Good music, good booze, good company.” He dangled the offer in front of her as if he knew she would be unable to resist. She sighed and tried to think of the best way to cop out of going as he walked her out to her car. He put her bag in the hatchback and lit a cigarette, leaning casually against the car.
A horn honked from across the car park, and she turned to see the others waiting impatiently. Her eyes fell on the driver, the youngest member of the band, and she knew she could not pass up the chance to spend a few more hours with him. She’d barely had the chance to hear his voice during the interview.
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Natalie and Paul were seated in the farthest corner of the suite which had, as it usually was, turned into the party place for the night. She had loved this part of the job, when she was a little younger. She had loved it just three months ago when she’d been working with another band. She hated it, now though.
She hated watching him charming everyone in the room, every girl waiting for their chance to snag his attention. Tonight alone she had seen him kiss half a dozen women, whether or not they had boyfriends. She wondered just how long his luck would hold out before one of the boyfriends lost his patience.
She hated to think of it, but it at least brought her some distraction from the nagging feeling in her gut. It wasn’t the boyfriends who were jealous. It was her. Though she had no right to be. She was lost in her thoughts when suddenly she felt as if the world were closing in around her as the subject of her musings placed himself firmly across her lap.
“What…” She exclaimed, her eyes widening and the breath rushing from her lungs as he leaned in and kissed her directly on the mouth. Her heart was racing so fast that in all of her pulse points she felt a wild fluttering rather than a steady beat. *Oh god, his lips were soft!* she barely had time for the thought to register before his lips were gone as he leaned back and smiled at her.
“What the hell are you doing?” She managed to sputter, though she could hardly believe she put together enough words to pass for a sentence. Her mind was racing nearly as fast as her heart, most of her thoughts going in the same direction.
“You looked like you needed that.” He told her with a smirk, his soft blue eyes heavy, betraying how much he’d had to drink. As if his breath alone would not have told her that he was completely pissed.
*Needed that?* She thought. *You have no idea how badly I have needed that.* Before she could make the decision whether or not to let her better judgement fly and act upon the desires of her heart and body, Bono was moving off her lap and toward Paul. He grabbed Paul’s face firmly in his thick hands and kissed the man on the forehead. It was a loud, smacking kiss that was reminiscent of the one’s Bugs Bunny would bestow upon Elmer Fudd.
Natalie’s heart fell as she realized she was just one of the many people Bono had decided needed a kiss. She forced a smile as Paul shoved him away playfully and Bono tried to kiss him again. Everyone around them was greatly amused, and thankfully, for her sake, distracted by this. Natalie slipped out of the room while all eyes were on the playful pair.
She had come dangerously close to making a stupid mistake. So why wasn’t she more relieved?
Young Bono 
