Rock All Night

11




As the opening act set up, we retired back to the dressing room to find Ryan’s family waiting for us.

Holy CRAP I felt old. Mara must have been 17 now, and Casey was about 13.

And they were still terribly in love with Derek.

They both screamed when he entered the room. He in turn yelled out, “Oh my gosh, it’s my girlfriends!”

He swept them up, one in each arm, and twirled them around like helicopter blades as they shrieked happily.

“Thanks for coming,” Ryan beamed at his parents as he bent down and kissed his mom on the cheek.

Mrs. Miller still looked pretty as always, and Mr. Miller looked tanned and handsome in his polo shirt and slacks.

“Thanks for the vacation, son,” Mr. Miller said happily, then leaned in and whispered, “You would not believe the mini-bar in the hotel.”

“Good – get anything you want. It’s all on me.”

Mrs. Miller fussed with Ryan’s hair. “Are you seriously going out in front of a thousand people with your hair like that?”

I wanted to tell her, More like TWENTY thousand.

“MOM,” he said, backing away out of her reach. Then he gestured at me. “You remember Kaitlyn, right? She had dinner with us one time while I was still in high school.”

Mrs. Miller looked over at me, and a light seemed to go off behind her smile. “Yes, I do. So nice to see you – how are you, dear?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

She looked between me and Ryan. “Are you two…?”

Ryan laughed. “Kaitlyn’s here for Rolling Stone, Mom. She’s writing an article on the band.”

“Ohhh, how nice.”

I could tell she didn’t really have a clue how big that was – but then, I don’t think she quite knew how big a deal her son was, either.

But she definitely remembered something else from that evening long ago.

“That… friend of yours isn’t here, is she?” she asked me, and looked worriedly at Ryan.

I had to stifle a laugh.

I’m sure Ryan had encountered a thousand Shannas by now. I wasn’t sure how many he’d slept with, but…

“No, she’s in New York.”

“Oh. Good,” Mrs. Miller said, noticeably relieved.

“Hey, how is Shanna?” Ryan asked. “Do you guys still talk?”

Suddenly Derek swept into the group with the two girls. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t think they could get any taller – hey, Mr. and Mrs. Miller!”

They greeted him happily, and proceeded to chat as Casey tried to keep Derek’s attention and tell him all about Disneyland. Mara was playing it much cooler… but it was clear she was just as infatuated. She had really blossomed, and was all made up for the show. As soon as she saw me, her face darkened, and I remembered the icy looks she had shot me years ago.

Apparently she remembered that evening, too.

I guess I was still competition.

She turned away from me and back to Derek. “Can I take a picture with you? Pleeeaaaase?”

“Of course – gonna send it to your friends and make them jealous?” Derek teased.

While Derek and Mara took a selfie, Ryan pointed out Killian and Riley to his parents. Killian walked on over, though Riley just waved from across the room. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were both polite in return, but it was clear that they were uncomfortable with Ryan’s bandmates – especially as Mrs. Miller kept backing away from Killian’s cloud of pot-stank with a wrinkled nose.

I wound up near Riley as the Miller family continued to chat and Derek clowned around with the two girls. I expected some snarky humor from her, but instead Riley just watched the scene with a wistful look on her face.

“You didn’t want to say hello?” I asked.

She looked at me like she had awoken from a daydream. “What? Oh, they know me from Athens. They don’t really like me too much.”

“Oh.”

She kept watching the scene play out, her expression blank.

Something odd was going on.

Time to play journalist. That’s what I was here to do, after all.

“Did something happen?” I asked. “Some kind of fight?”

Again, she seemed distracted. “What? Oh, you know… just that we kind of showed up and took over Ryan’s life. And, I mean… look at me, and look at them.” She said it without rancor – just matter-of-factly. “But it’s cool. They’re good people. They really love Ryan.”

The comment, coming from her, surprised me. Especially the offhand way she said it.

She watched them for a long moment, and said one more thing:

“It’d be cool if somebody came across the country to watch me like that.”

And then she walked away.