After the tour of his “bedroom”, Sebastian offered Hannah and I a drink. Chuck walked up and told us our options were Jim Beam with Coke, or red wine.
“It’s vintage 1992, called Chateau de Borracho,” Sebastian said as he pulled the cork out of the wine bottle and waved it under Chuck’s nose.
“Ahh that’s a very good wine. It must have set you back a whole two dollars,” Chuck said. A brunette with olive skin and long, dark curly hair emerged from the bedroom holding a black cat. Sebastian introduced her as his roommate Angela, and her black cat was Scooby. She was really sweet and welcomed me to her apartment, then left a short time later.
In a matter of minutes, the apartment went from a handful of people to semi packed. Sebastian’s bass player, Jack, came in with his girlfriend Susie, and Vaughn, the singer of Beautiful Destruction, walked in with Strange. One after another, people starting piling in. I was having a great time getting to know everyone until I saw Mark and Charlie from Electric walk in.
I happened to be standing near Sebastian’s living quarters, so I leapt behind the tarp and fell onto his bed with Hannah in tow.
What the hell were they even doing there? They were the last people I expected to see. Neither of them were friends with the guys in The Kids or The Glamour Punks, at least not that I knew of. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when Sebastian had called their band a bunch of heshers.
Apparently Sebastian’s opinion hadn’t changed because a few minutes later, I heard the word “hesher” being thrown around by Sebastian and Chuck. I peeked out from behind the tarp and saw Charlie and Mark standing near the kitchen. Charlie had just put some type of wallet down on the counter and was digging through his pockets for some reason. Mark and Charlie weren’t there more than five minutes before they were heckled out of the apartment. I felt bad because they were nice guys, but the last thing I needed to deal with was being caught in a love triangle involving Charlie and Sebastian.
When Hannah and I emerged from behind the tarp, I noticed Charlie had left his wallet on the counter. I walked over to grab it and quickly realized it wasn’t a wallet. It was a personal phonebook. It was divided into two sections, “Dudes” and “Girls”. I flipped through the “Girls” section, and by each girls name was a star rating and comments like, “cute face”, “nice tits”, and “boneable if really drunk.” I happened to see Faye’s name and phone number in there with a 5 star rating. His commentary? “Hot, but only 15?”
I was curious to see what he’d said about me. When I looked myself up, the only items written by my name were my phone number and the address to my house. No stars, no comments, no nothing. Story of my fucking life, baked squash strikes once again.
I closed the phonebook, went to the bathroom, and threw it right in the garbage. Needless to say, after reading Charlie’s colorful commentary about everyone but me, the decision came quite easily to stop returning his calls indefinitely.
When I came out of the bathroom, Angela had just walked in the front door with Faye, Pixie, and Spazz, the drummer of The Glamour Punks. Angela and Spazz went straight to her bedroom while Faye greeted me with a big drunk hug. Faye told Pixie I was the girl that took care of her on The Strip a few weeks earlier, and Pixie thanked me profusely. She wanted to stay but said she had to leave. So she made herself a quick drink and walked out with Faye.
Over the course of the night, people freely walked in and out of the apartment. A few mentioned they were popping over to Mandie’s and would be right back. I asked Sebastian where he lived and he said right down the hall.
About an hour or so later, Faye burst into the apartment and jumped on top of me. She was wearing a jacket that Mandie had been wearing earlier in the evening.
“Hi Marisa! I just came back to say bye!” she said still holding onto me.
“Ohh…uh bye. Are you going home?” I asked.
“No, just back to Mandie’s apartment down the hall,” she
said smiling. Faye was pretty tipsy when I’d seen her earlier with Pixie, but now she was straight up drunk. I didn’t want her stumbling around the building by herself, so I told her I’d walk with her over to Mandie’s.
We’d only taken a few steps out of Sebastian’s when Faye stumbled and fell down in the hallway. I picked her up and told her to put her arm around me, which she did. She took off Mandie’s jacket and let it drag in her other hand. I asked her where his apartment was and she led me down the hall. Right before we reached the door of Mandie’s apartment, he opened the door.
“Why are you dragging my fucking jacket?” Mandie asked then snatched the jacket out of her hand. Out of nowhere, Sebastian popped up right behind us. Mandie invited us into his apartment, so we strolled in and made ourselves a drink. His place was just as packed as Sebastian’s. Mandie mentioned that that Sunny and Chris, the guitarists from Swingin Thing, lived on the same floor too. The third floor of the Martel building seemed to be a never-ending party and they referred to it as “The Martel Estates”. If you got bored at one apartment, you just walked down the hall to someone else’s.
CHRISPENKETH( Swingin Thing):Sunny andIweredropped off on Martel with our bags and had nowhere to live. The car took off, welookedateachotherandsaid,“Where tonow?”
I kid you not , a few minutes later, a car pulled up. It was a Japanesegirl,Iforgethername,butshesaid,“Chris!Sunny!Whatare you guys doing?” I said, “We’re looking for a place to live.” And she said,“Youcanlive withme!” Westayedwithherfor about aweekor so, thenweranintoourfriendsCarrieandMonicawhooffered usa placeto stay,whichwasonthe3rdfloor of the Martelbuildingwhere Sebastian andMandiewereliving.
I rememberweusedtolooteachothersapartmentslookingfor change because we’dgodownto Rockand RollRalphsnearLaBreato getthe25cent burritos.Ifyouwerereallyrichyoucouldget the 35 cent burritos, which were bigger, but you’d have to find that extra dime. If you found loose carts at Rock and Roll Ralphs, you could return them and get a quarter too. Michael Michelle and I saved a few hookers from some cops one day by hiding them in the Laundromatbyabagelplaceonthecorner. Theygaveusadollarfor helpingthem,butwedidn’twanttospendthat dollar because it was ourfirstdollarthathookersactuallygaveus,sowe thought we were pimpin.
SUNNY PHILLIPS (S wingin Thing): Chris and I were living with the Japanese girl,butshe hadtogobacktoJapan,sowe hadtoleave herplace.I thinkwewerethereforafewweeks.Whensheleft,we literally had nowhere to go. We were walking down the street with ourbagsand ourguitarswhen wesawourfriendsMonica andCarrie, whoofferedusaplacetostay.Thewholethinghappenedinlikefive minutes.
About an hour or so passed at Mandie’s when I suddenly remembered I’d left Hannah back at Sebastian’s. I could only hope she was having such a great time and hadn’t noticed we were missing for so long. But when Sebastian and I walked back to his place, she was long gone. I couldn’t believe she left me stranded in Hollywood.
Sebastian said it was no big deal and that he would take me home a little later. We went behind the tarp and passed out for a few hours, then woke shortly before sunrise and hopped into his black truck, which didn’t have a passenger side window. He gave me a jacket to wear on the ride home, but I still shivered my ass off all the way back to Rosemead. When I got home, I had a long message from Hannah waiting for me on my answering machine. It was basically her yelling about how I ditched her. She also said some random girl was being a bitch to her and that some of the guys were hassling her to walk down to the corner liquor store and buy them more booze.
After sleeping for a few hours, I called Hannah to apologize. I told her I had lost track of time at Mandie’s and in no way meant to ditch her. I even offered to pay for her Disneyland ticket if she was still up for going with me, Sebastian and Chuck. She accepted my apology and the Disneyland ticket but said she didn’t want to go back to Sebastian’s apartment ever again.
A few days later, The Rodney King beating trials began. The Rodney King beating was a huge police scandal that took place in early 1991. L.A.P.D officers pulled Rodney over following a
high-speed chase and proceeded to beat him in the middle of a residential street, not knowing that a nearby resident was filming the entire thing.
A few days into the trial, I was sitting in bed watching the courtroom footage when my buddy Joaquin called, who was the drummer of a band called Smile. He invited me to his show at the Troubadour, where he was opening for a KISS cover band called Cold Gin. Since I hadn’t seen him in months, I told him I would go.
While I was getting ready, Sebastian called and asked what I was doing that night. When I told him I was going to the Troubadour, he mentioned he was going there too to see Cold Gin and would meet me there.
When I got to the Troubadour that night, Smile was about to go on and the club was getting fairly crowded. I found a spot near the stage next to a hefty guy who introduced himself as Billy. He asked me if I was there to see Smile, and I said yes. He said he knew all the guys in the band, and we chatted about how I knew Joaquin.
After chatting with Billy, I glanced around the club looking for familiar faces. A few minutes later, I noticed Sebastian walk in with Chuck, Bam, Mandie, and Harley. His once platinum blond hair was now black, and he had gotten dreadlocks. I barely recognized him.
Sebastian and crew went straight to the bar, but I decided to wait until Smile’s set finished before I’d walk over and say hello. I continued to look around the club and noticed some of the guys from Bullet Boys and Tuff walking around. Chris and Sunny from Swingin Thing were there too, along with Jack from The Kids and some of the guys from The Glamour Punks. I also saw Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley sitting on the first bench of bleachers upstairs, overlooking the club.
During Smile’s set, someone kept throwing ice at them from the back bar. Although I couldn’t see exactly who it was, I had a pretty good idea that Sebastian and his crew were responsible. Billy was getting really agitated and told me if he found out who it was, he was going to beat the shit out of them after the show.
Smile finished their set, and I was about to turn around and look for Sebastian when he popped up beside me, drunk off his ass. He said the band that just played totally sucked and that he and the guys were throwing ice at them to get them off stage. I felt Billy looking in our direction, so I quickly changed the subject and asked Sebastian about his hair. He said he had wanted to get dreadlocks for a long time. He also said he originally died his hair burgundy a few days earlier but that it looked like shit and decided to dye it black earlier that day.
When Cold Gin went on, Sebastian put his arms around me as we watched the show. Although I appreciated the nuzzling, he was being really loud and obnoxious. I could tell Billy was getting pissed off, so I planned on getting Sebastian out of there immediately after the show finished.
The moment Cold Gin left the stage, I tried to drag Sebastian away, but he said they were coming back for an encore and wanted to stay. The entire club was chanting, “We want KISS! We want KISS!” Chris had jumped up on the shoulders of someone and started chanting with the rest of us when he suddenly fell off and hit the ground. Sebastian and I started laughing.
Cold Gin came back out and finished the show with “Rock and Roll All Night”. As the song was finishing, I managed to pull Sebastian into the lobby. I tried to continue dragging him out of the club, but he told me he had to go back inside to get Mandie and the rest of the guys. Just moments after he left to go back inside, Billy came out to the lobby with a drink in his hand. He walked up to me and asked where my loudmouth friend was. I lied and said he already left, hoping that would send him away before Sebastian could make his way back outside.
Just then, Sebastian walked out and headed right in my direction. He was with Bam, Mandie, and some of the other Glamour Punks.
“We’re all going back to my place for drinks. Did you wanna,” Sebastian began to ask me.
“Yeah, lets go now!” I said cutting Sebastian off as I tried to push him out the door.
“Hey, what’s your rush?” he said laughing.
“Were you the one throwing ice at Smile?” Billy asked Sebastian.
Before Sebastian could answer, Billy poured a drink over his head, put one hand around his throat, and pushed him against the wall. The guys from The Glamour Punks immediately jumped Billy, security jumped on them, and anyone who was in the vicinity swarmed in to see the fight. Joaquin popped up from out of nowhere, pulled me out of the mess, and asked me what happened. When I told him, he didn’t seem bothered by the ice throwing. He actually thought it was funny and apologized to me for Billy’s behavior towards Sebastian.
Security threw all the guys outside. When I finally got through the crowd to try and find Sebastian, he was already far off down the street walking with Mandie and the guys. Billy, who was still out of breath and a bit disheveled, walked over to me.
“You’re hanging out with the wrong kind of people little girl,” he said.
I shot him a dirty look, said goodbye to Joaquin, and went home.
I had just turned off the light in my bedroom and climbed into bed when my neon phone lit up the room and nearly scared the crap out of me. I answered, and it was Sebastian.
“How come you didn’t come to my apartment after the show?” he asked.
“I didn’t think you’d be in the mood after what happened. Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” he said completely unfazed. “So when are we going to Disneyland?”
10
CRAZY? DON’T MIND IF I DO!
The day we chose to go to Disneyland started out as a beautiful, sunny day. Hannah picked me up in the early afternoon, and we darted off to Hollywood to get Sebastian and Chuck.
When we pulled up outside of Sebastian’s, I noticed Sunny and Bam hanging out with Mandie on his balcony, which faced the street. Sunny told me the intercom for Angela’s apartment wasn’t working and that he’d run down the hall to let Sebastian know I was there.
A few minutes later, Chuck walked out followed by Sebastian who was holding a plastic cup. After taking a good sniff, I realized it was with Jim Beam and Coke. Chuck flipped the passenger seat forward to let Sebastian and I hop in the back. I jumped in first. The moment Sebastian sat down next to me, Chuck flipped the seat back, which hit Sebastian’s cup and caused his drink to spill all over him. He was pissed.
Sebastian got out of the car and went upstairs to change. When he came back down a few minutes later, he had on a fresh set of clothes and a new drink in hand. He complained about not having any ice cubes left for his drink. Sunny popped into Mandie’s apartment and came back out a few moments later with a trey of ice cubes. He dropped a few cubes down to Sebastian for his drink while Mandie grabbed a few and threw them right at Chuck’s head.
“That’s for wasting a perfectly good drink asshole!” Mandie yelled. We had a good laugh at Chuck’s expense, hopped back into Hannah’s car, and finally made our way out to Disneyland.
On the drive there, Sebastian talked about what a big Dodger fan he was. He and his bass player Jack were leaving in a few weeks to see their spring training in Florida. We got on the subject of money, and he mentioned how he was going to pay for lunch that afternoon since we were all pretty broke at the time.
“You guys are on your own,” Sebastian said to Hannah and Chuck. “I’ve got me and Marisa covered,” he continued.
“Aww thank you,” I said.
“Yeah, just stop by an AM/PM on the way. Two burgers for a buck, I’ll sneak them in.” he said.
Well it’s the thought that counts I told myself.
Once we crossed the Orange Curtain and entered the city of Anaheim, the clouds rolled in and the sun slowly started to disappear. By the time we parked Hannah’s car at Disneyland, black clouds had completely shrouded the happiest place on earth. It was almost as if Mother Nature herself was trying to repel us, the evil heathens who dared to cross it’s innocent pixie covered gates.
It began to sprinkle when we walked into Disneyland, and people started running past us in droves as
they covered their heads. I didn’t care about walking around in the light mist. Chuck, Hannah, and Sebastian didn’t seem to mind either. So we continued on our way through the park and stumbled upon the Star Wars ride. By the time we got off the ride, the sprinkles had turned into a light rain. Lines for all and any rides were basically nonexistent. We had a blast running around the park, getting on and off of rides like The Matterhorn and Space Mountain multiple times in a row.
Since our clothes were fairly wet by then, we decided to get on Splash Mountain. Sebastian and I sat in the back, with Chuck and Hannah in the front. When we reached the top of the mountain, I looked down at the long drop below us. Sebastian put his arms around my waist, pulled me towards him, and we shared our first kiss. Then the four of us collectively screamed our way all the way down the mountain. Sebastian and I only got hit with a light mist when we hit the bottom while poor Chuck and Hannah got completely drenched.
“Chuck what’s up with your pelo?” Sebastian asked as he laughed at his hair.
“My pelo isn’t pelo anymore,” Chuck said.
“Your pelo is muy malo!” Sebastian said.
After Splash Mountain, we got on The Haunted House ride to dry off for a bit, then hopped in a little boat that took us through the It’s a Small World ride. The boat was riding way too slow for Sebastian, and the constant loop of the “It’s a Small World” song was making him crazy. He yelled for the puppets to shut up and kept trying to jump out of the boat so he could walk his way out of the tunnel through the shallow stream. By the time we got off the ride, it was pouring outside. The temperature had also dropped about ten degrees. We were freezing our asses off, so we decided to call it a day and head back to Sebastian’s.
On the way to his place, we picked up a fifth of Jim Beam and a liter of Coke. We were watching an MTV show called 120 Minutes, and I had barely finished my first drink when Hannah whispered in my ear that she wanted to leave. She complained she was getting sick, but I knew it was because she was still bitter about what happened the last time we were at Sebastian’s. Since she had driven that day and Sebastian was feeling lazy about giving me a ride home, I really didn’t have much of a choice. So Sebastian walked us to Hannah’s car, gave me another kiss, and told me to call him later.
Rock and Roll High School: Growing Up in Hollywood During the Decade of Decadence Page 20
