Mo’s Place

His eyes were bigger than ever before, and his heart pumped, the loud roar of the restless crowd had my heart pounding hard against my chest as he looked from behind the curtain. Suddenly, the velvety red fabric slipped through his sweaty shaky palms and a loud, “CLICK!” fills the whole auditorium as a light shone on himself when the audience had let out a massive scream in excitement. Eric Lee was your typical 5’5 teenage loner from high school, unmotivated, bored with the simple things in life, and believing that he was wasting himself away in a classroom solving math equations because he was told to. He sat in a dimly lit classroom while the class went over a topic in his physics class. His teacher dressed in business suit and black slacks looked over at him while writing out equations on the board looked at Eric spacing off while one of his classmates had read from their textbooks, “Mr. Lee, could you please read?” Interrupting the student already reading. Like someone tased Eric, he jolts up and rips through his backpack, grabbing a thin yellow book and opening it up. Desperately flipping through it and remembering the word his classmate had last read, “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo!” He says with a clear voice yet stumbling over some of the words due to the pressure put on him when told to suddenly read. “I would agree, but that’s not the correct textbook Mr. Lee.” The physics teacher had said with a small smile while the class erupted in a laughter due to Eric’s careless mistake. Eric looked down at the textbook and a scarlet blush soon crept onto his cheeks when he realized that he grabbed his British Literature textbook. After that small incident, that final class period of the day was quite long and excruciating in the sense that it felt like it would never really end, like he was trapped in weird scientific nightmare. “BEEP!” The bell rung throughout the school and the students from the high school had scattered out of their classrooms to begin their adventurous weekend, Eric had pushed the two earbuds into his ears and the soft melody of a Spice Girls song had filled his head while he pushed his hands into his spacious warm Levi jeans pockets. He had begun to walk to the side of the school to locate his little yellow 1985 Volkswagen Beetle before a light tap on his shoulder made him jump slightly and spin around to meet the face that startled him; Eric’s face had went pale when Kimberly Rose, the well known popular girl that was known for her beauty and her intelligence, but also Eric’s old childhood friend had appeared right in front of him. Her voice was soft and full of color when she had said, “Hey! Long time no see, huh?”. “Yeah. What’s up?” Eric had responded a bit taken back at her presence, since they had not talked for years. “I was wondering if you were free tonight. I’d love to hang out at the Mo’s.” She said hopefully. Eric had felt a lump in his throat and his stomach got butterflies in it, knowing that Mo’s wasn’t the best place to be, especially at night. “Mo’s? Sure.” He had hesitantly agreed and fidgeted with the key to his car. Kimberly had smiled happily and nodded, “Perfect! I’ll see you there at 6:30! Don’t be late! We’ve got to get the seats up front!” She said and walked off in the other direction. Eric sighed slightly and sent his mom a call that he’d be a bit late coming home tonight, but to his surprise, she was quite accepting of this and gave him the approval to stay out. He had hopped into the yellow gumdrop of a car and made his way to the downtown area of the city of Austin, the rock capital of the United States. He looked around at all the billboards the 90s style adult advertisements around and took in the sight of the city before finding a parking garage and making his way into the concrete jungle on foot. He passed many bars and kept his head down; this setting was new to him and he wasn’t quite used to it. His knees were a bit shaky with every step and his eyes were glued to the pavement as he shyly walked through some people that were passing by, the area not yet busy because of how early it was. Eric had stopped and looked at a set of concrete stairs that went into the ground, he looked around anxiously for Kimberly and listened to the muffled melody of a guitar playing a classic rock tune. He didn’t pay much attention to it because of the adults passing by and the smell of cigarette smoke filling his mind as the afternoon transitioned to the evening. A girl dressed in a The Who shirt and blue jeans soon came into sight, and Eric’s mind began to calm down a bit more. He smiled and waved, exchanging greetings with each other before walking down the stairs into a dark tunnel filled with the echo of a rock song, they were greeted by a man with a box full of cash that reeked of pot. Eric pulled out a $10 dollar bill and payed for them both, making their way into a crowded venue while a band played a head banging tune. They sneaked their way to the front and got a clear view of the band playing their set, the music was loud enough to make his ears feel like he was on a plane ride. The feeling of the drums was a new sensation for him, the feeling of every single note and beat coursing through his body. The singer had gave him goosebumps and his heart began to pump when he began to cheer with the crowd; the lead guitarist had a black Gibson SG style guitar with two horns and an hourglass figure style body, there was a white pick guard that had followed one of the horns of the guitar and to Eric’s surprise, there were 7 bullet holes marked on that guitar. The lead guitarist raised up the beaten up guitar to his mouth and began to pluck the strings with his teeth while his fingers swiftly waltzed up and down the neck of the guitar before aggressively striking the guitar with the pick he pinched in his right hand. Soon the song came to an end and the singer of the band had pointed at Eric, “Get up here kid” he said and offered his hand to him. Eric took his hand and the singer had instructed him to go to the back of the stage behind the red curtain. He did as he was told and grabbed a cherry sunburst Les Paul guitar, the guitar tech getting him all set up before Eric took a peek outside of the curtain.