4 Chapter 4

One song ended and he completed the final flourish with a rattle of sticks on drumhead and a tap on the cymbal. All at once, an itchy sensation danced along his nerves from scalp to toes, making the ragged rainbow of short hairs along the back of his neck lift and quiver. He usually felt himself invisible to that unnoticed crowd beyond the edge of the small stage, but right now, he sensed the intensity of someone’s gaze, as keen and unsettling as a stranger’s touch. He sat at the back of the group, virtually walled off by the rest of the band as they moved forward and back for solos and featured riffs.

So who could be staring at him now and why? Stubborn to a fault, he refused to turn his head and look. Let the dumb fucker stare if that was what he or she wanted to do.