"I can't spend my life
Waiting to get hurt"

• "Velveteen" (Transmission Vamp,1988)

Christian Velveteen: The Real Short Fiction Collection
Chapter Ten: "Because They're Also In A Band!"
https://thev.locals.com/upost/5504877/chapter-ten-because-theyre-also-in-a-band-jack-always-saved-velveteen-s-room-for-last-because
Jack always saved Velveteen’s room for last, because he always had to wash off his ASICS Game Point white tennis shoes afterwards, even with the Zoro Select disposable white polypropylene shoe covers he wore.
As usual, Velveteen’s assigned target zone was eeriely quiet, as if all the strobe-y blue police lights and static-y radio transmissions outside were but a dream.
The only sounds were those of trickling water from the bathroom, and the tick-tick-ticking of an old-fashioned analog alarm clock. On the other side of the grimy, spattered window, dry leaves blew in the wind.
He could only half-hear Vel and Sar's voices.
As he stepped forward into the room, ...