Sticks | Page 7

by the size of them, were headed toward him. Stan held up his hands. "Okay," he said. He put his sticks in his back pocket and pointed at his drums. "Just let me..."
"No way," Rosen said. "Leave them here. We'll get them back to you. Right now you're trespassing and I want your ass out of here."
On the other side of the road was a tall, grassy hill. Stan could see Keven and the blond kid halfway up it. "Okay," he said. He walked past Rosen and got in his car, started it, and got back onto the road.
Past the first switchback he pulled over and started up the hill on foot. He was still a hundred yards away from Keven when she spotted him and sent the blond kid down to cut him off.
"Don't even think about it," Stan said. The blond kid looked at Stan's face and swerved downhill toward the jungle set at a run.
"Keven!" She stopped at the top of the hill and turned back to look at him. The blond kid would be back with the bikers any minute. Stan didn't know what to say. "You're killing me," he said. "Rosen won't let me work. Did you know that?"
"Go away, Stan," she said.
"Goddammit," he said. "How was I supposed to not to fall in love with you? What the hell did you expect? Do you ever listen to the words of all those songs you sing?"
A hand appeared on his shoulder, spinning him around. Stan tried to duck and ended up on his back as Rosen's fist cut the air above him. No bikers then, Stan thought giddily. Not yet. He rolled a few feet, off balance. One of his drumsticks fell out of his pocket and he grabbed for it.
Rosen's looked more annoyed than anything else. "You stupid piece of shit," he said. Stan scuttled around the hillside on his palms and his ass and his feet, dodging two more wild punches. The slope made it tricky. Finally he was up again. He kept moving, letting Rosen come after him. He outweighed Rosen by at least 40 pounds and had the reach on him besides. And if he actually hit Rosen he might as well throw his drums into the Pacific. On the other hand, if he waited around long enough, the bikers might just beat him to death.
It was what his grandfather would have called a classic no-win situation.
Kill me then, Stan thought, and to hell with you. He stepped inside Rosen's next swing and tapped him, very lightly, on the chest with his drumstick. Then he stepped back, smiling, into Rosen's roundhouse left.
*
"Hey, Sitting Bull," a voice said. It was Keven, kneeling next to him. "I think Custer just kicked your ass."
Stan propped himself up on his elbows. He could see Rosen walking down the hill, rubbing his knuckles. "Who'd have thought the little bastard could hit so hard? Did you call him off?"
"I wasn't going to let him kill you. Even if you did deserve it." She took his face in both her hands. "Stan. What am I going to do with you?"
Stan didn't have an answer for that one.
"This doesn't change anything," she said. "It's over. It's going to stay over."
"You never called me."
She sat back, arms wrapped around herself. "Okay. I should have called. But you're a scary guy, Stan. You're just so... intense, you know? You've got so much hunger in you that it's... it's hard to be around."
Stan looked at his hands.
"I wasn't like, just playing with you, okay? What there was, what happened, it was real. I just, I changed my mind. That's all. I'm just a person, you know. Just like anybody else."
She believed that, Stan thought, but it wasn't true. She wasn't like other people. She didn't have that fist in her stomach, pushing her, tearing up her insides. Not any more. That was what made her different, but there wasn't any point trying to tell her that.
She stood up and walked away from him, breaking into a run as she moved downhill. Rosen was there at the bottom. She took him by the arm and talked to him but Stan couldn't hear any of it. He watched the clouds for a while then headed down.
Rosen walked over, holding out his hand. "Sorry I lost my temper." Keven was back at the jungle set.
Stan took his hand. "No hard feelings."
"Keven says she wants you to do the video." Rosen clearly didn't like the idea. "She says nobody else can really do that drum part. She says there won't be any more trouble."
"No," Stan said. "No more trouble."
*
The worst part was hearing her voice on the radio, but in time Stan even got used to that.
Her album was out just before Thanksgiving and that week