Davy answered the knock that came at the door.
"Oh, 'ey, Petah," he said before he'd even opened it all the way. Peter looked confused for a moment.
"Hi Davy," he replied, remembering. "Is everybody else ready to go yet?"
"MICKY? Are you coming?" Mike's voice interrupted them as Mike came out of the downstairs bathroom. Micky didn't answer. "We're gonna be late," Mike added to Micky. "Oh, hey Pete," he added.
"Hi Mike. Hey, why are you using the downstairs bathroom?" Peter wondered.
To respond, Mike just pointed a finger upstairs. "He's been in that one for an hour," he replied. "Didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to get clean."
"Oh."
Before Peter could say another word, Micky exited the upstairs bathroom and slid down the banister to the downstairs.
"Hey Pete," Micky grinned. "Ready to go guys?"
"What were you doin' in there?" Mike asked. Micky just shrugged.
"Just making myself look nice for the gig tonight, Mike," he replied. "Is that a crime?"
The others looked Micky up and down. He was dressed in the same charcoal gray pants and red shirt that the other three were wearing, and his overall appearance didn't look any different than usual. But no one commented, and they got their instruments packed and ready for the gig.
"Micky's startin' to act like you," Peter remarked to Davy as they drove to the club. "I wonder if he's in love."
"Probably," Davy replied. "And quite a bit, too, I think," he added, gesturing to Micky. He was sitting in the front seat, next to Mike (who was driving), and examining himself in the rearview mirror.
Peter chuckled to himself. "I wonder who she is," he wondered aloud. Davy shrugged.
"Maybe 'e met her last night," he commented. "Either way, she'll probably be there tonight, judging from the way that e's actin' now."
Soon after that the group reached the club. The sun was starting to go down as they unloaded their instruments and headed into the building to set up.
Peter and Davy, watching Micky carefully, noticed that he seemed to be distracted. It took him a bit longer than usual to set up his drum kit, mostly because he was distracted and couldn't concentrate on the project as well as he might have. Eventually, he got the set assembled, just in time, since they were about to start.
As the set started, Micky found it difficult to concentrate on his singing and playing, which the others noticed. When they stopped halfway through for their break, Mike announced to the others that they would rearrange the second half of the set so that Micky didn't have to sing as much. As a result, the second half was sung mostly by Davy and Mike, with a couple selections by Peter that were only put in because they didn't have much else to put in.
When the break ended and the guys were about to go onstage, Mike informed the others of the changes.
"What for, Mike?" Micky asked. "Why'd you make all these changes? I thought the way it was was just fine. I mean, now we're leaving out a couple of important songs."
"I know," Mike replied. Apparently Micky hadn't noticed his distractedness. He'd skipped a couple of verses altogether and sang others twice. It was getting annoying to the others.
"Well what for then?" Micky asked, demanding an explanation.
"Just because, okay?" Mike replied with a no-nonsense tone of voice. "Now come on, we've got to start."
Micky didn't object to the changes as much as he might have. The guys had obviously noticed his distractedness, for all his attempts to hide it weren't working. And he didn't really mind. Because then he could concentrate more on the crowd. And her.
From up on stage, even though he was in the back, it was easy to survey the crowd below. And one girl had caught his eye.
She was a feisty looking redhead whose name, he knew, was Margaret. Maggie, actually. And she was just the girl he was trying to spot.
Last night she'd opened up for them as a comedienne. Intrigued by the gorgeous girl with a sense of humor, he'd fallen head over heels in love. She'd left right after her act, and he hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her. But he was determined to talk to her tonight.
He'd spotted her sometime in the middle of the first song. Which was probably when he'd made his first mistake. The poor song had probably gotten butchered up, but he'd recovered enough to save it (at least he thought) because the audience hadn't noticed. The guys had, though, especially Mike. Which must have been what had prompted him to change the list for the second half.
After the second half was finished, the guys began to clean up and pack up to head home. Micky (the others noticed) ran off almost immediately after they'd sung the final song. It was Davy who spotted him in the crowd nearby, chatting with a redhead. And heading out the door.
"'Ey, Micky!" Davy called out, trying to get his attention, but Micky didn't hear him over the din of the crowd. Shaking his head, Davy turned to the others and reported the news. "'E just left!" he informed Mike and Peter with some amount of annoyance in his voice.
"Yeah, I noticed," Mike replied from where he was behind the drum set.
"Mike, what are you doing?" Peter asked, placing his bass neatly in its case.
"Takin' the drums apart," Mike replied. "Since our drummer skipped out, we'll have to do it ourselves. "
"Are you sure you know how?"
"No. But if Micky wanted it done right he'd do it himself," Mike replied. As evidence of this, a cymbal came crashing off its stand, hitting Mike on the head with a loud crash.
Davy bit his lip to avoid laughing, and helped Mike disassemble the instrument while Peter took care of the rest.
Needless to say, it was nearly three in the morning when they arrived home, and Micky wasn't there.
