I can’t think of anything else to do but help him. Somehow, I manage to get him across the road and prop him against his house. Then I dig around the flowerpot for the Black family’s hidden key before I unlock the door and push it open.

“Memphis.” I shake him awake because he’s sliding again. “Memphis, you’re home.”

He slurs something at me then, some inaudible gibberish. I grab his arm and throw it over my shoulder as I half walk, half drag him inside. We make our way to the couch, and I try to help him sit on it.

His eyes roll back in his head when he tries to look up at me. “You’ll sleep here?”

“I really have to go.”

“I like the way you smell,” he mumbles. “I want you to sleep …” His eyes close, and he starts falling to one side.

I help him lie down, then pull his boots off, lifting his feet and placing them on the couch. I watch him for longer than I should, but he is just so beautiful I can’t help myself.

Finally, regretfully, I turn and walk out the door, making sure it locks behind me. Then I put the key back and run across the street, hoping my parents never noticed I was gone.

I look in the mirror one last time. I have on a black hat, white tank, black jeans, and boots. With no time for a fucking haircut as the crazy-ass opening act for the Burning Souls tour, the hat is a must.

It’s been like this for a year. Roll out of bed and over whatever piece of ass I snatched to bring back to the bus or hotel room the night before. Roll my ass to the gym because—let’s face it—I need to look good naked. Even though there is a no cell phone or camera rule after one of the bitches posted my morning wood on social media, shit could still happen. Thank the stars my dick is impressive, and that mighty oak held that sheet up like a boss. Next, we roll to wherever we’re rehearsing, roll to sound checks, roll to an interview or two, roll back to the stage and rock and roll for an hour. There’s not nearly enough time to play everything we have.

“Hello, New Jersey!” I hold the mic out for the crowd’s roar, and hell yes, they give me exactly what I want. “I am Memphis Black, lead singer and guitarist extraordinaire for Steel Total Destruction!”

Still can’t explain the buzz I catch off the roar from the crowd. It’s like a spiritual erection, a transcendent orgy to my soul, a divine intervention within every cell of my body.

“You ready for some STD? You ready to get rocked so hard you can’t walk straight for a week?”

There’s that noise again: the screams, the shouts, the lust for our music … and for us.

“I like the way you sound.” I look off stage to see Xavier pointing and scowling. Aw, for fuck’s sake, I growl inside. “Get ready, ladies—”

“Prepare yourselves,” Finn interrupts, and then the fucking condom cannons jizz all over the crowd.

As they scramble around, screaming and grabbing the fucking condoms like little crack whores, River spanks the drums. The crack and pop of the snare proceeds Finn’s finger banging the G and L Tribute, and I begin singing our first hit song, “Going Down.”

The crowd screams, and the girls in the front row dance, trying to gain my attention. I see a blonde with a nice rack, and I wink. She freaks and points to herself, so I wink again as I continue singing. Then I turn my attention elsewhere; she needs to work for it, and by work for it, I mean show me some damn titties or I’m gonna look elsewhere.

An hour later, I am sweating balls, quarter chubbed, and we are heading off stage.

“No shit.” I hear a smile in Finn’s voice, must be Christmas. I look up as he says, “Maddox fucking Hines.”

“No shit,” I say, just as shocked.

“Which one? Big tits at two o’clock or tiny titties, big ass at four, or the others? ” our road manager asks, nodding to the group of girls lined up like a dessert buffet.

“Thanks, Sleazy D, but I think I’m gonna hang out and watch the show. Maddox never plays with his Dad’s band anymore. I wanna see if he’s as good as his old man.”

“Are you serious?” he gasps.

Finn pats him on the back and points. “A fucking legend has returned to stage; do you think he’s kidding?”

“Great set, gentleman,” T, the drummer for Burning Souls, says as he pats my back while walking by. “Let’s hit this shit, Hines,” he yells back.

“That his wife?” River asks as we all stand, watching Maddox pull a blonde chick hard against him.

“Yeah, fucking hot, too.” I shake my head. “But why the hell get bogged down at the beginning of your career, then walk away?”

“Everyone has a story, man,” Finn says. “Google it. Unreal.”

River snickers. “I’d bang her like a fucking bass.”

Maddox Hines’s head snaps right, and he steps back, but his wife catches his hand and shakes her head.

“Sweetness,” he growls.

“Get out there and show me you haven’t lost it.” She blushes.

He smirks. “You know I haven’t.”

Then she whispers something in his ear, and his eyebrows shoot up.

“It’s on.” He pulls back and then walks at us. “Say one thing about her, and I’ll hear it, even on that stage. I will—”

“Maddox.” His wife is next to him instantly.

“Mine,” he growls at us before kissing her, then walking on stage.

“Hello, New Jersey!” Maddox yells to the screaming crowd. “This is one hell of a crowd to end the Burning Souls US tour. Thanks for coming out tonight! Feels like déjà vu. It was only three years ago I stood here on this very stage at Bader Field, doing the same damn thing: ending one hell of a tour!”

The crowd screams. They love it.

“Did you miss me? Of course you did. I missed you, too!”

“Sorry about that.” His wife smiles at us, then quickly walks to a stool that is obviously purposely set just off stage and sits.

A dark-haired chick almost skips past us to her side, and they hug then begin singing.

I notice Maddox look at her, and apparently, he likes that her friend is present. I kind of like it, too. She has a nice, round ass.

“Squats.” I nod.

“Definitely.” Finn, River, Billy, and Sleazy laugh.

Being backstage, watching the Burning Souls, is different than being on stage myself. There is electricity, a current surging invisibly in the air, connecting everyone together, including us. I felt that same electricity when I went to my first concert as a kid. Hell, I was only, like, ten. Pearl Jam.

The crowd didn’t come to see us; they came to see them. They got us as a little added bonus.

As Burning Souls play their asses off, I’m having fun, even singing along. I know their sets just like I know my own. Don’t get me wrong, Steel Total Destruction is better. Well, okay, maybe different is a better choice of words.

“I wanna end tonight with a song that changed my life, a song I hope will change yours, too. When you find that one person who can make you want to spend the rest of your life with them, hold on to them. When you feel that pull, that force that is greater than you, embrace it, follow it. Life changing events can happen when you finally let someone in.”

“Fucking pussy whipped,” I mumble.

“Did you see his wife? I’d let that pussy whip me.” River grabs his dick. “Any fucking day. Her and that little piece next to her.”

“To each their own man,” Finn says as Maddox Hines begins to sing “Stained.”

Waves crash like thunder.

I run.

Inside my mind,

I run.

The sea’s grand reflection opens the warmth,

Undone, undone,

Reflecting the love, my soul.

Burning inside my soul,

The sea whispers softly, no longer hide.

Don’t hide, don’t hide, don’t hide, don’t hide.