Free Bad Storm by Jackie Sexton Page A

care if I disturbed everyone in the shop. I was about
to loose my mind. “But it can’t be…I didn’t even think they were signed yet…”
    “Bailey, calm
down,” Sierra hissed, eyeing the customer behind me. She loved when I freaked
out in public, but when she was at work she was always conflicted about my
outbursts. No matter how hip Dan tried to be, he was definitely not cool with
us disturbing the elderly clientele of Cafe Doomsday.
    “Sierra, Aamir is
the lead singer of Fun Aim.” Her mouth dropped open and if I hadn’t caught her
wrist, she would have kept dripping the caramel on the drink until their would
have been a strange, disgusting blob of gold goo in the middle of the cloudy
white foam.
    “Are you serious ?”
    “Yeah, I’m
serious. I mean, I knew they were getting big but Jeez, I didn’t know they were
top forty!”
    “They totally
are!” Sierra squealed. “Everyone is getting excited about their music video. Apparently
it’s still in post-production, but stills of it keep being released and people
are going nuts on blogs and stuff.”
    I shook my head in
disbelief. “Am I really this out of the loop?”
    “Apparently,”
Sierra laughed, snapping the white lid over the paper cup. I always wondered
why we had to bother with fancy designs on hot drinks when we just covered them
up anyway, but Dan insisted that customers could taste our hard work. Yeah,
whatever.
    “Monica?” Sierra
called out, and I moved out of the way as she smiled and politely slid the cup
across the counter towards an elderly woman. The woman gave me a suspicious
look, clearly disturbed by my outbreak, but I couldn’t even pretend to care.
    Once she left I
rushed back to the counter. “I know Dan’s going to yell at me so I’ll quit
pestering you in a minute. But what else do you know?” I asked.
    “Um…I mean, not
too much, the single was just released not too long ago. I think they have some
EP on their website people really like that’s free. It has a bunch of different
indie rock bands on it.”
    “Dammit!” I slammed
my fist on the counter. The older woman harrumphed in annoyance. “We were
almost on that E.P. Sierra! Bad Moon! But then I had to go ruining everything
by sleeping around…ergh!!!”
    Sierra giggled. “I
mean, also isn’t he potentially really dangerous or something?”
    “Right, I forgot
you’re in the loop now,” I sighed.
    “Yeah, we’ll have
to talk about that later. But for now…” she nodded her head behind me and I
turned to see a disgruntled looking man in scrubs with his arms folded across
his chest.
    “Sorry,” I mumbled
before scurrying out of Cafe Doomsday and to my purple moped in the parking
lot. I hurried home so that I could look them up on the computer, and sure
enough, I found a wealth of promotional pictures. Fun Aim was dressed up in
matching black and white clothing and had chains hanging from their pants, in a
mainstream kind of new-punk way.
    There was an
interview too. I must have watched it like three times in a row, my heart
pounding furiously. I felt pretty guilty, because we had a shot to record with
them. This could have been Bad Moon—they could have made it.
    ‘ Stop thinking like that ,’ I scolded
myself and forced my laptop shut, deciding after what must have been an hour of
being a creepy internet stalker that I needed to stop. Bad Moon could still
make it their way. And it looked like Fun Aim was selling out a little. Not the
worst thing that could happen, since their music was still really good, but I
knew it wasn’t Bad Moon. They liked things a little bit raw, and that’s how
they should be.
    I made some lunch,
a turkey sandwich on rye and potato chips, and set to work drafting up a set
list, even though I hadn’t confirmed a booking. Thirty minutes later, however,
I got an email from Jim inviting Bad Moon to play. I did a little happy dance
in the living room before responding.
    I was nearly finished
updating the website and all social