A right

Kyle sighs deeply, but he did respect Karla's response. "Yeah... I know it. It's just kinda hard when it's always a one-sided conversation." He purses his lips and shrugs. "I can try again though."

"And if he still doesn't give you an answer?" It was Erik who spoke this time.

Kyle looks his way, then back to Karla for a long moment, then back to Erik. "Then we continue with the forward momentum we've been provided."

Russ frowns. "I thought we weren't going to leave him behind."

"There's a difference between leaving a man behind when he's down, and moving on when a man refuses to make a choice." Kyle didn't want to be harsh, but to him, it was the truth. He was staring at a group of people whose futures were riding on this band's survival, and they were looking to him as their leader. If he held back because of Kip, he would potentially be holding back the futures of the entire band, and he couldn't do that.

"But if he doesn't come and we leave him in the dust, where's that leave us?" Russ shakes his head. "Where's the bass player then?"

"Well, it could be you, Erik or Twila, really. Or we find someone else. None of us want that, but Wayne and Jackie aren't gonna take "no" for an answer. If we back out of the gigs they line up because we don't have it together, they're gonna drop us. And if they drop us, then we all better start looking for jobs."

The final note is a grim one. Band meetings usually ended with laughter, so tonight, it felt strange. But as the gang splits up until the next day, not much more is said. Perhaps Kyle's own words didn't set right with him, but nobody argued or accused him of being too harsh. Tonight, they had begun to face reality.


Kip sits out on the back porch at Gram and Gramp's - his usual perch on the middle step with his legs stretched out across it. Leaning his head back against the railing, he could make out a few stars, and the moon shone brightly tonight. Things seemed a little dimmer than that in his soul though. If asked to describe the days lately, he might have said it was like wading through mud. It was slow... hard... and he seemed to be getting nowhere.

Readjusting his weight so his leg didn't fall asleep, he keeps his hands in his hoodie pocket and his hood up around his head to thwart the chilly night air. He didn't know what time it was, but he didn't really care. Time didn't seem to matter much lately.


An old man... Jason hadn't thought much about that until now when Katie mentioned it. He'd never had much use for looking that far into the future. Now though... it seemed ironic that he would want to become old.

Sighing, he lets his arms wrap around Katie and just hold her close. It was strange - it was almost as if he felt her tears more now than he could have when they were connected. Perhaps without feeling so many emotions all the time, his instincts had room to breathe again.

It was only a few more moments until Jason had drifted to sleep.


"Got a call from Reese today..." Eli hands a bowl of ice cream to Ryan and one to Tal on the couch. He picks up his own and settles into his chair before turning the movie back on. Scarlet was busy tonight, so it was the threesome again, which was growing more and more normal.

Eli eyes his sister but remains casual. "I guess Alec's got a hearing this week that'll probably help determine whether he'll walk or be put in the slammer for life."

Tal sucks on a spoonful of ice cream, remaining outside of the conversation, even though the corner of his eye kept watch on Ryan. Even if she and Alec weren't an item anymore, it probably didn't feel very good to her to hear about all this. Not that he blamed Eli - Ryan had a right to know.