First Times: Megan by Natalie Deschain Page B

the sun. I knew asking her to excuse herself was futile, so I toweled myself off, keeping as covered as I could. Something about her presence melted all my wannabe bad girl bravado and made me feel a hot itch on my skin whenever she looked at me. By her face, she was amused by the show.
    “Put on your sluttiest outfit.”
    I swallowed, and pulled on a bright pink thong, hip huggers, and a belly shirt. She nodded her approval.
    “Not bad.”
    “So where is this place?”
    “We gotta get my car. Come on.”
    Jessica’s ride was pretty plain, to be honest, but it got us there. For all its size our school was in a pretty small town, so I got a bit nervous when she took a turn and veered away from civilization, out into the sticks. The fringes of town quickly gave way to corn fields.
    “Where did you say we were going?”
    She had a wolfish grin on her face and didn’t look directly at me. “I didn’t.”
    It was maybe a half an hour drive. Jessica paid for us to get in and gave me a glow-in-the-dark armband to put on, and we were admitted entry to, well, a corn field. Or a space between corn fields, anyway. The ground was hard packed and dusty from lack of rain. A crude pavillion was set up in the middle, and surrounded by tents. The extension cords from the stage ran to a generator. The longer we were there, the more people showed up, parking all up and down the highway. Jessica lost me in the crowd and I stood there frozen and terrified until she found me again and handed me a plastic cup. The beer tasted like tin and stung the back of my mouth, but I was thirsty and after I downed one she handed me another. I felt myself loosening up, and silently thanked her for not pushing a third on me when the buzz hit.
    As it neared dark, the show started. The clearing filled in with people. Jessica pressed tightly against me, holding my hand tightly in hers.
    The group she knew was called The Remainders. There was nothing particularly remarkable about their music, a lot of covers. The lead singer had a throaty voice and the bass from the amps shook its way up my legs.
    It was full dark by the time the show was over. The world was a flickering cascade of lights from all the glow sticks and bracelets. I danced in place with Jessica, rubbing against her as we bounced up and down and cheered. I lost myself in it. The next couple beers helped.
    By the time it was over, I was feeling pretty good. Jess took my arm.
    “Where are we going?”
    “To meet the band. I know these guys, they’re great.”
    She led me to a big tent at the far end of the field. I had to duck to get under the flap. Jess turned and zipped it up behind us.
    There were five guys inside.
    I recognized the singer from the stage. He was in jeans, no shirt. Pretty well built, pale with a light, coarse dusting of honey blonde hair on his chest that matched his head. Feeling loose as I was, I imagined how it would feel rubbing on my tongue and blushed beet red. His hair was darker, long, about shoulder length, and the most intense thing about him was his eyes, dark blue eyes that immediately felt sad and lonely to me. I felt a silly urge to rush over there and hug him. Jess grinned and introduced them to me, one by one. The singer was Jason. The drummer, a heavier guy in ripped up jeans, was Kevin. The bass player had his long hair in a ponytail and sat against a cooler, puffing on a rolled up cigarette that smelled weirdly sweet and tomato-y. The guitar players lounged on sleeping bags, a tall dark-haired one and a shorter guy with a shaved head.
    Jess told me all their names, but I was too busy making a bee-line for the singer. I sat down next to him, folding my legs under myself.
    “Hi.”
    “Jessica told us about you. You’re her, ah, lab partner, huh?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Let’s do an experiment. Here.”
    He handed me his cigarette.
    “I don’t smoke.”
    “First time for everything.”
    They were all staring at me. I shrugged and took it from his fingers,