A Song For Us (Fallen Tuesday Book Two) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) by Karolyn James

“Isn’t it scary?”
    “Sure it is,” Gray said. “There are
a million things that could go wrong. And to be honest, there’s always
something that goes wrong for every show. But that’s how it works. The best
bands are the ones that can play through anything. It’s easier now because we
have fans. We have people who pay to see us and want to see us. We started out
on a stage just like the one behind you.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah. Probably a smaller stage. We
probably had two people for our first show.”
    “Now you have thousands,” Carina
said.
    “The magic of rock n’ roll,” Gray
said.
    The next band started to set up. It
looked like a woman and two men. Gray watched the look in Carina’s eyes as she
watched the trio set up their equipment. She had a look of hope in her eyes,
but her face had a slight frown. A regretful frown.
    “What are you thinking about when
you look at that stage?” Gray asked.
    “What?” Carina looked at Gray.
    “The stage. The way you were just
looking at it. Does it you that you’re not up there?”
    “Who said I want to be up there?” Carina
asked.
    “Nobody. I’m just making an
observation.”
    “I’ll tell you about that stage if
you tell me about your brother. But you go first.”
    “You have to promise me one thing, Carina.”
    “What’s that?”
    Gray put his hand out, palm up,
resting it on the table. Carina looked at his hand but didn’t take it.
    “I need you to promise you won’t
judge me from the actions of someone else.”
    Carina nodded. “Okay. I can do
that.”
    She placed her hand to Gray’s. He
smiled. His thumb caressed along the top of her hand, feeling her soft and
smooth skin.
    “My brother is in the hospital
right now in a medically induced coma. He overdosed and almost died.”
    Carina’s jaw dropped. “Where?”
    “Right in his apartment. In your
building.”
    “I always knew there were some bad
people there,” Carina said. “I mean, I’m not saying that your brother is bad.”
    “No, it’s okay. He is bad. He’s
sick. He can’t help himself for some reason. I got him to go through rehab once
and he made it. Then, I was in the studio, on tour, the band was taking off.
Part of me wonders if I should have stepped down from the band to take care of
Peter more.”
    “You couldn’t have done that,” Carina
said. “That wouldn’t have been fair to you.”
    “I’m not exactly sure what fair
means these days,” Gray said. “When he got out of rehab he moved in with my
mother. She tries to be a good woman, a good person, but she has enough baggage
to fill a skyscraper. I thought with Peter under her roof, he would stay put and
work through everything he needed to work through. I guess he was trying. He
went through jobs left and right, but my mother said one started to work for
him. Then he started to disappear for nights at a time. He eventually moved out
and into the apartment. I heard he paid for the entire year in cash, which
scares me a lot.”
    “You think he’s… making money off
drugs?”
    “I don’t want to think anything at
this point,” Gray said. “I got a key to the apartment and I walked through but
didn’t find anything. Right now, I’m just waiting and hoping he wakes up and
he’s normal. So I can talk to him and help him.”
    “You’re a good brother, Gray,” Carina
said. “I’m really sorry he’s going through this. That building is a bad place.
It seems to attract trouble.”
    “Like Peter,” Gray said. “Our
father died when we were young. We were old enough to know what it meant but
not old enough to accept it. I turned to music to heal and he turned to
something else.”
    Gray watched as Carina tightened
her grip on his hand. “I’m glad you turned where you did, if that means
anything. We wouldn’t be able to have this conversation.”
    “Then I guess we should thank Peter
too,” Gray said. He shook his head and ran his free hand across his face. “I’m
just glad I got the key