K is for Kid Chapter 7

I did not forgive Jason. I was way too hurt. He had the "skank", as Trent put it, call me and try to "put things in perspective" for me. But it wasn't helpful. She basically said all the things I said:
"You weren't exclusive right?"
"I mean he did tell me about you, so that is something."
"You know you are younger than him, and that can be hard. He is going to be 18 soon, you know what that means"
"In the alt(ergative) lifestyle, nobody is exclusive. It's lame."

It wasn't easy listening to her, but I couldn't hang up.
What if she was right?

That was the last I heard from Jason for a while. I started spending all of my free time either at Kronos or at Kris's house. Him and his wife started having spaghetti night once a week, and invite people from the gallery over. It was usually a mix of local artists and musicians, and us kids. Mandy, Mae, Myself, and who ever we brought with us.

One night after dinner we sat around watching an episode of the X-files, and I started thinking. Why isn't there a venue for music in our town. I mean sure we have restaurants that occasionally host live music, but there isn't a music spot. Harrisonburg had a few, Charlottesville certainly had more than a few. But not Staunton, which is between the two places. So if anyone in Staunton wants to see live music, they have to drive 30minutes to an hour to do so. There are bands in this town. There is a lot of talent. I thought through out the entire episode, and when it ended I spoke up.
"Kris, have you ever thought about hosting a live band in Kronos?" I asked.
"Well, I mean I have open mic sometimes, and the occasional acoustic act." He said.
Oh yea, I thought, that's right. But that wasn't what I was talking about. Open mic nights usually end up as just another poetry night with the occasional kid with a guitar. I was thinking bigger.
"Yea but I mean like bands. Like they do at the Crayola house in Harrisonburg. Do you know how many people come out to shows like that?"
"Keep talking..." Kris said.
"uh, I mean, I don't know. Mandy and I just went to see a show in Harrisonburg, two bands, $5 at the door, there had to be at least 100 people there right?" I asked Mandy.
"Probably more." She said nodding.
"$5 a person?" Kris's wife, Chelle said. "You know, the gallery has been struggling to make rent. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try and pull in more money." She nudged Kris a little.
"Yea ok. You know any bands Charley?" Kris asked.
"Totally!" I said with excitement.
"Rock and Roll!" Kris said grabbing his guitar.



I immediately sent a text to a friend of mine, Brian, who had just been telling me about his band. I had taken some photos of them for their EP they were working on, so they owed me a favor.
"Dude, want to play a live gig?"
I received a text back with in seconds.
"Uh.. really? Where?"
"Kronos, it's an art gallery down town."
"For real? Like a real gig?"
"Yes like a real gig. Are you down?"
"Yea totally!"
"Great! I'll get the details and get back to you!"

I spent the rest of the night planning the event with Kris. It was going to be a sort of rough, garage style show. But we didn't care. We were going to make it happen.