I gotta believe, and this would prove true, in a way, if it wasn’t Preach, it would be somebody. Another rock star. A photographer. A painter. Someone would fall in the muse of Lyla’s eyes.

But as you know, it was Preacher.

Eventually, my girl said she had some coke hidden in her purse.

We went in, did lines, she went down on me, I went down on her, we smoked a joint to mellow out, and then we banged.

When we were done, everyone was either passed out or boning. It was late, nearly morning, she said she had to go home, so she took me back to our motel.

We were staying in motels then. Shitty-ass ones, but we slept in beds.

Yeah, battle by battle, Tommy was winning the war.

We could only afford two rooms, though, and Dave, Tim, or Josh had to take turns sleeping on the floor unless one of them passed out in a bed another one was in.

This was because, most of the time, I shared a room with Preach and Tom always slept in the camper.

It just was what it was.

My band (at the time).

Preacher’s talent.

Though, a lot of the time, I’d end up in the other room or hanging with Tom in the camper because Preacher had company.

I thought for sure he was back at the party house tangled in girls.

I was looking forward to crashing and a shower, or the other way around.

So, when I opened the door to our room, I was not prepared for what I saw.

Not even close.

It didn’t rock my world.

It changed it.

After what I saw, it’d never be the same.

I’d never be the same.

And Preacher would never be the same.

Not again.

He had Lyla with him.

They were both on his bed, legs twined, and she was tall too, model tall. So, between the two of them, they had a lot of leg to twine.

Lyla’s head was on his chest, her arm around him so tight, it disappeared around his back because he was lying on it.

No shoes for either of them, but each fully clothed.

Preacher had both his arms around her.

She was asleep.

He wasn’t.

No lights, just the dawn coming in through the door I’d opened.

He looked at me when I was in the opened door, didn’t say a word, just shook his head.

He didn’t need to do that. I was already backing out.

I closed the door, hit the motel’s diner, ordered coffee and waited for the others to join me.

We did that by then, after every gig, no matter what we got up to.

We had breakfast together in a diner close to or in our motel, if it had one.

Just us six.