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“Shit,” Trent drew the word out and laughed. “We probably see more venues than any real places since we'd been on the road. We didn’t even see the Eiffel Tower when we toured Europe, and we were in France for a week,” he added dryly.
Mason jumped in. “Truth. When we were starting out, we wanted to see lots of places. Way the hell more than we ever saw in that beater VW van that used to take us around. Never did do it, though. Did a lot of traveling but not a lot of sightseeing.”
Trent laughed. “Yeah, fuck that VW.”
I silently agreed. The van never started when we wanted it to.
But Katy’s eyes brightened.
“A VW van? Really? I think those are so hysterical, like what hippies drive.
Mason chuckled dryly. “It was a piece of shit, but it got us around most of the time.”
“Good enough for a bunch of fifteen-year-olds,” Trent noted.
“Wait, you were driving at fifteen?” she gasped. “I didn’t realize you guys even knew each other back then! Isn’t that illegal? Or did you have an adult with you?”
The guys and I exchanged sharp, electric blue gazes. It was just like Katy to turn the conversation back to us. She had a knack for listening and making you feel comfortable. We were already halfway in love with her. Every day, she reminded us why.
I jerked my head at Trent. It was his story to start.
“I met these bozos when I was in foster care,” he said. “We grew up in the same town—Nick and I even had the same foster parents for a bit.”
“Oh my God! Really?” Katy's big brown eyes flooded with sympathy. “That must have been so hard.”
“It was no picnic,” I agreed. In foster care, we barely had anything to call ours, and when we did, the bigger kids made it their mission to beat the shit out of us and take it. The years of bruises and scars and nightmares made Alpha Prime stronger. Resilient.
The terror never stopped, though. Nightmares would always haunt me.
“But the good part of all that was us getting together,” Mason said. His mouth turned down at the corners, probably from remembering all the shit we went through. “He was only in the system for a little while, maybe a couple of months after his folks died.”
“My sister turned eighteen not long after I was put in the system.” Trent kneaded Katy’s foot like he needed the distraction from his own memories. “After a lot of struggle, she got me out and brought me to live with her. Because of my sister, I was able to get these guys out too. Mason had it the worst. His parents—well, I’ll let him talk about them if he ever wants to.”
Mason shook his head. Trent was not lying. Our drummer had had it far worse than the two of us.
“We found out that we were all good at music,” I continued. “Really good.”
Mason nodded and ran his fingers through Katy’s curly hair. “Trent's sister got us all instruments on her tiny salary. She saved our lives.”
“Yeah.” I turned to Trent and saw the love he had in his eyes for his sister, Helena. Our rescuer. It was the same love we all had for the woman. Alpha Prime couldn’t exist without her.
“She got us out of that hellhole together, and then she let us go.” Trent pursed his lips. It had been a while since we’d seen Helena in person. FaceTime didn’t count. From the look on his face, we were probably gonna make a trip up to New England to see her real soon.
Because Helena deserved a bouquet of flowers for finding Katy for us. Giving them to her in person sounded like the proper and gentlemanly thing to do, even if none of us were actual gentlemen.
Trent cleared his throat. “We toured in that shitty little VW for a while. Helena found it in the newspaper and booked all our gigs, making the arrangements.”
“We only had about thirty bucks between us.” Mason started to smile. “It was enough for gas to make it to the next gig, and maybe get some food. Maybe.”
“It was a struggle...” Trent started.
“But damn, it was fun,” I finished.
Those had been some of the best times for me. The nostalgia was making all of us feel old—geriatric even. Reminiscing was not something that we often did.
“Yeah, it was the shit, wasn’t it?” Mason’s blue eyes glimmered. “You could be on stage, nice and low, and see everybody. You saw the sweat on their faces and the excitement in their eyes. It wasn’t just a ton of craz
ed girls on drugs.”
