“Doing some cleaning. Raptor puked
up here after we got back last night.” I must’ve missed it. I had
slept like a newborn baby, tuning every bit of noise out while I
was in dreamland.
“You, cleaning? And to country of all
things?” I questioned, never knowing he liked to listen to country.
I loved country. I was one of those girls who could listen to any
kind of music, heavy metal, cheesy pop songs or country music and
never get tired of it. But I imagined Cale to be one of those guys
that despised everything about every other genre of music.
“Remember I was the only guy in the house
back at home? I helped my mom with a lot of the heavy lifting and
dusting in the places she couldn’t reach. And I happen to love this
song, Bryn. ‘ You make me wanna roll my windows down and
cruiseeee…’ ” He started to sing in a fake twangy voice. I threw
my pillow down at him and fell down laughing as if it was the
funniest thing in the world. “Even better, I could impersonate
Nelly. I mean he did do a remix of this song.”
Cale as a rapper? That was pretty funny.
“Please no!” I pleaded. “I’m still trying to wake up, even though
that would be quite hilarious to see.”
Cale looked best in the morning. I
can’t believe I actually admitted that ! The way his hair stood
in all directions, his plaid pajama pants hanging loose on his hips
and completely shirtless. I’d seen him without a shirt dozens of
times by that point, but for some reason I paid more attention to
the tattoo I saw at my audition. Along with the music notes that
were displayed on his side, trickling down past where his pants
began. Feeling like a pool of jelly at that moment, I had to think
of something distracting before I went crazy. Maybe I could call
Gina. Yeah, I’ll do that.
Cale went back to his country music and deep
cleaning while I dialed her number. I was probably waking her up,
but I wanted a distraction from Cale and his perfectly muscled
body.
By the third ring Gina answered “Hello?”
“Heyyy best friend, did I wake you?”
“No of course not. Bethy and I have a
modeling gig in a little bit so I just got done taking a shower.”
Gina said in her bubbly voice. It immediately put me at ease
hearing a voice from home. “So how is the road? I watched you on
YouTube the other day.” I was ready for someone to tell me that. It
was bound to happen. I had been so worried about what people were
going to say about me; if I was too fat for the stage? If I was too
young to play with the other members?
“Alright, tell me how crappy I am, Gina.
I play like shit don’t I?” I asked honestly. She giggled and
I heard Bethany yell in the background about losing her car
keys.
“I have no words, B. Beth and I never knew
you could play like that! And what’s the lead singer’s name
again?”
“Cale,” I answered.
“Holy moly, Cale is smokinggg hot, Bryn. Not
lying, but I mean that guy with the red hair too isn’t too
shabby.”
“Luke, the red haired guy is Luke.” I
whispered, so no one else could hear me.
“Yeah him. When you guys finally come
our way, I want to meet them. Bethany says she wants to too.” I
smiled, thinking those girls were absolutely crazy, but I loved
them to death.
“I know, I know.” I assured her. “I’ll make
sure you have front row and backstage passes, okay?”
“Eeek!” Gina squealed. I heard her tell
Bethany about what I just said. Then there was the double squeak.
Where were my ear plugs when I needed them? “Oh now I can’t wait.
We better go before we’re late.”
“Alright, love you girls!”
We were headed to St. Louis. According to
Raptor, we were already halfway there. He had family down there,
and was giving me a brief history of the city. The only thing I
knew about St. Louis was the giant arch.
In the middle of eating my peanut butter
sandwich, I put my headphones in. That was when Cale sat down
beside me, startling me. I didn’t see him at first since I
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