was
feeling.
I was singing it directly to her, even if she
didn’t know it. The crowd ate it up. The older group was singing along, and the
younger kids were embracing it as an anti–love song. By the time I was done, the
entire place was electric and the guys in the band were done worrying about me
going eruptive and messing everything up.
We blazed through the rest of the planned set and I
knew it was a good show. When I threw my guitar pick in the audience after our
last song, I saw three girls wrestle each other to the ground to try to collect
it, and that was a sure sign of success. We went backstage and I was instantly
bummed that I had trashed a perfectly good bottle of whiskey in my rage earlier.
I had to settle for doing a shot of tequila with Von and Catcher, while Boone
stayed steady and chugged a Red Bull.
Von clapped me hard on the shoulder and looked me
straight in the eye. “Want to tell us what the oldies were all about?”
I couldn’t meet his gaze so I picked up my guitar
case and shrugged. “You know that I like to mix it up every now and then.”
“True, but why do I get the feeling that was
directed at someone specifically? It’s not like you to throw a dedication out
there like that.”
He wasn’t wrong. I never dedicated a song to
anyone, ever, but tonight I was feeling turned inside out and I couldn’t get a
handle on it so I shrugged.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Normally, we had a huge after-party when we played
a weekend show, but with Rule and Shaw being all coupled up and Nash and Rowdy
surely hooked into whatever girls it was for them tonight, I knew no one was
going to be lingering around. The idea of trying to pick up some girl, or more
than likely letting some girl pick me up after what had happened with Ayden,
made me kind of queasy. I didn’t really want to go to the house, but after
killing as much time as I could backstage, I finally had to go. There was no one
left to hang out with or tell us how wonderful we had been, so I left and made
my way across town to Wash Park, dreading a confrontation with my sexy roommate
the entire way.
It was dark when I walked in the front door, but
there was a light coming from under Cora’s door. I tried to be quiet as I made
my way down the hall to my room, but my combat boots sounded like a heard of
buffalo on the old wooden floors. Ayden didn’t stick her head out of her room,
which I was both grateful for and seriously annoyed at. After stripping down and
showering off all the sex and sweat that clung to me, I went to my room and sat
on my bed, rubbing a towel over my head and staring at my closed bedroom door
until I couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled on a pair of black sweats and walked
barefoot across the hall to tap on her closed door.
“Ayd? We need to talk.” I waited for a second and
frowned when I got no response. Granted we had crossed a major line tonight, but
we lived together and were just going to have to figure it out so things weren’t
weird or weirder than they already were.
“Ayden, come on. Don’t be like this, open the door
so we can talk.” I pounded the door with the side my fist and was seriously
contemplating taking the damn thing off the hinges to get at her if I had to,
when I heard Cora’s door open and saw her blond head poke out. She was glaring
at me, but the effect was kind of lost, considering she had on hot-pink fuzzy
pajamas.
“She isn’t here.” She sounded surly and I didn’t
like the nasty gleam in her eyes.
“Where is she?” The idea that she might have gone
home with that jackass and his idiotic sweater vest made my blood start to
explode in my head. I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides and had to
concentrate to keep from putting a fist all the way through the door. Cora
crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a pale eyebrow at me.
“Do you care?”
I gritted my teeth and counted to ten to avoid
shaking her tiny frame like a rag doll. “Of course
feeling.
I was singing it directly to her, even if she
didn’t know it. The crowd ate it up. The older group was singing along, and the
younger kids were embracing it as an anti–love song. By the time I was done, the
entire place was electric and the guys in the band were done worrying about me
going eruptive and messing everything up.
We blazed through the rest of the planned set and I
knew it was a good show. When I threw my guitar pick in the audience after our
last song, I saw three girls wrestle each other to the ground to try to collect
it, and that was a sure sign of success. We went backstage and I was instantly
bummed that I had trashed a perfectly good bottle of whiskey in my rage earlier.
I had to settle for doing a shot of tequila with Von and Catcher, while Boone
stayed steady and chugged a Red Bull.
Von clapped me hard on the shoulder and looked me
straight in the eye. “Want to tell us what the oldies were all about?”
I couldn’t meet his gaze so I picked up my guitar
case and shrugged. “You know that I like to mix it up every now and then.”
“True, but why do I get the feeling that was
directed at someone specifically? It’s not like you to throw a dedication out
there like that.”
He wasn’t wrong. I never dedicated a song to
anyone, ever, but tonight I was feeling turned inside out and I couldn’t get a
handle on it so I shrugged.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Normally, we had a huge after-party when we played
a weekend show, but with Rule and Shaw being all coupled up and Nash and Rowdy
surely hooked into whatever girls it was for them tonight, I knew no one was
going to be lingering around. The idea of trying to pick up some girl, or more
than likely letting some girl pick me up after what had happened with Ayden,
made me kind of queasy. I didn’t really want to go to the house, but after
killing as much time as I could backstage, I finally had to go. There was no one
left to hang out with or tell us how wonderful we had been, so I left and made
my way across town to Wash Park, dreading a confrontation with my sexy roommate
the entire way.
It was dark when I walked in the front door, but
there was a light coming from under Cora’s door. I tried to be quiet as I made
my way down the hall to my room, but my combat boots sounded like a heard of
buffalo on the old wooden floors. Ayden didn’t stick her head out of her room,
which I was both grateful for and seriously annoyed at. After stripping down and
showering off all the sex and sweat that clung to me, I went to my room and sat
on my bed, rubbing a towel over my head and staring at my closed bedroom door
until I couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled on a pair of black sweats and walked
barefoot across the hall to tap on her closed door.
“Ayd? We need to talk.” I waited for a second and
frowned when I got no response. Granted we had crossed a major line tonight, but
we lived together and were just going to have to figure it out so things weren’t
weird or weirder than they already were.
“Ayden, come on. Don’t be like this, open the door
so we can talk.” I pounded the door with the side my fist and was seriously
contemplating taking the damn thing off the hinges to get at her if I had to,
when I heard Cora’s door open and saw her blond head poke out. She was glaring
at me, but the effect was kind of lost, considering she had on hot-pink fuzzy
pajamas.
“She isn’t here.” She sounded surly and I didn’t
like the nasty gleam in her eyes.
“Where is she?” The idea that she might have gone
home with that jackass and his idiotic sweater vest made my blood start to
explode in my head. I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides and had to
concentrate to keep from putting a fist all the way through the door. Cora
crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a pale eyebrow at me.
“Do you care?”
I gritted my teeth and counted to ten to avoid
shaking her tiny frame like a rag doll. “Of course
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