Lean toned muscles stretched beneath the skin of his tattooed arms. One perfectly sculpted hand caressed the mic stand; the other ran through his perfect hair. His husky voice whispered its song. It silenced the crowd as if he was a god.
What use is a tomorrow?
I’ve endured forever
There’s little hope.
I drown my sorrow.
His voice slowed and stopped; a sad melody began on a piano. He stepped back from the mic, never taking his eyes from the crowd, leaned back and reached for a jet-black guitar.
A fast drumbeat broke through the silence, followed by a bass and his soul retching guitar rhythm took my breath away. His voice entwined with an anguished piano chorus and the crowd roared to life. They sang along with the words, as if it was the most popular song on the radio.
Lea nudged me, “They’re mind-blowing, aren’t they?”
It took a moment for me to find my voice. “Yeah, mind-blowing.” Just listening to that voice was sending shivers through my body, and the way his hands moved over that guitar, holy crap!
She gave me a knowing smile. “Yeah, the first time Conner brought me here and I heard Shane play, I thought of you. Inspiring, isn’t he?” She understood how much music could move me. How many nights did I play for her to go to sleep when we were younger, for every heartbreak and every tear?
Stretched in front of us, the crowd seemed to double. Girls sat on top of their date’s shoulders. People danced on top of tables and a long line of scantily clad females were writhing against each other on the bar, vying for the band’s attention.
Lea and I looked at each other and fell into each other laughing. “Come on, Grace, let’s take our shirts and bras off and show these girls how it’s done!”
I shook my head and laughed even harder, “Girl, you take your bra off over here, and those puppies of yours will knock your friends off the stage!”
She smiled with pride, “Hey, you’re just as boobilicious as me! Come to the bathroom with me. The room is spinning and I don’t wanna ask Conner to carry me in!”
Boobilicious? I nodded my head and helped her down. We passed Conner and all his friends, who were sitting around a table at the edge of the crowd. He waved me over and handed me two icy cold frozen margaritas. Lea stumbled ahead of me through the crowds, wobbling through a hallway towards what I guessed were the bathrooms.
I tried to follow her, inching my way through the crowd, and carefully holding on to the two drinks. Of course, I lost sight of her and was stranded in the middle of a crowd of hot, sweaty dancing strangers. Great.
Before I knew where I was, I heard a loud commotion in the crowd behind me. A fight had broken out among a group of extremely drunk guys. I continued to move forward in the direction I thought Lea had drunkenly walked. She had to be even drunker than I thought to have lost me and not realized it.
As the brawl got more out of control, I found myself smack in front of the stage. A smaller blonde haired girl and I found ourselves trapped between the stage and the fight, when an elbow from one of the guys rammed into her and she bounced off me, causing both of the ice cold drinks to spill down the front of my very white tee shirt.
The crowd was chanting and screaming at the brawlers, but all I could look at was the icy cold fabric clinging to my skin. Of course, there was the fact that I had a lacy red bra on which now could be seen through my now very wet tee shirt. I threw the empty plastic cups down to the floor. “Crap! Son of a...”
Black leather motorcycle boots jumped from somewhere above me and landed at my feet. Startled, I stepped back. The lead singer, Shane, had jumped off the stage and was now staring down at me with a flirty smile on his face. “Wow,” he smirked.
I rolled my eyes, backed up another step, only to be shoved from the fight that was going on behind me, right into his arms. I pushed off him as if I landed on fire. His eyes were ice cold blue.
He pulled me away from the group of guys who were wrestling with the bouncer now. I covered my wet shirt with my arms, feeling completely naked.
One of the other guys from the band, the drummer, jumped off the stage next. “Come on, Shane!” He grabbed Shane by the shoulder and pulled him towards the fight.
“Yeah, one sec, bro,” he answered his friend, but never took his eyes off of mine. He grabbed his tee shirt from his waist and pulled it over his head. He was all smooth muscle, as if he was painstakingly chiseled from marble. Oh my, I hope I’m not drooling.
He shoved his shirt into my hands and smiled a wicked smile. “Sorry your drinks spilled...but not really.” Then he winked and dove into the fight behind me to help the bouncer and he disappeared into a crowd of flying fists and legs.
As everyone around us continued to cheer on the fight, I headed for what I hoped was the bathroom and found Lea on the floor of a stall hugging a toilet. When she heard the door close, she lifted her head and gave me a half smile of embarrassment. “Gracie. I’ve been chemically inconvenienced and I don’t think I can ever leave this toilet. Take a picture of this so I remember never to do it again.”
“Lea, I have a huge file folder of those pictures on my computer. It won’t stop you.” I knelt down next to my best friend and pulled her blonde hair from her face. I grabbed a ponytail holder from the front pocket of my jeans and tied her hair back.
Her big brown eyes looked into mine and I saw tears fill the edges of them. “Jake’s really gone?”
I nodded. Saying anything would make me start crying again.
She moaned, heaved into the toilet again, and I just rubbed her back. “How do you do it, Gray? How can you watch people die over and over again? I can’t even imagine him not in this world anymore.”
I sat back and leaned against the door of the stall. My eyes flitted over the small space, amazed at how clean it actually was for a bar. I didn’t want to talk about this; about anything. I didn’t want to feel anymore. This was hell. “Lea. He suffered. He was too good for this world; no one should feel that pain. I wish it were me, Lea. I don’t know how I do this. I don’t know anything. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t want you to say you wished it was you. I almost lost you once, you were my miracle.”
I hugged her tight. “Let’s get off this floor, okay.” I helped her up, took her to the sink, and helped her wash up. I hoped she would drop the subject, but I knew she had to grieve somehow for Jacob. After all, we were closer than family.
We grew up next door to each other, born the same day, she five minutes before me. Our families said we were destined to be best friends; like sisters. Our mothers and fathers were best friends. When I was fourteen, I lost my parents in a horrific car accident and I almost died. I did, actually. For two minutes, I clinically died. Months later, when I opened my eyes, I was a different person. I remembered Grace’s childhood, I knew all her friends, her crushes, her pains. However, the real Grace moved on, her beautiful spirit evaporating like raindrops into the heavens. Only I stayed behind, stuck here, as if I was super-glued to the earth. My soul’s punishment for something that happened so long ago.
After my hospital stay and my rehabilitation, Lea’s parents took Jacob and me in, not that we needed for anything. My parents had a life insurance policy that was astronomical, so Jacob and I would never want for anything. Ever.
Jake didn’t live with us long though. He was eighteen, used some of our inheritance to go to Cornell University in Ithaca, and lived on campus. Lea and I visited him as much as we could and he came home every holiday. We were a family.
I knew she needed to grieve.
“Hey, what happened to your shirt? You’re sopping wet! Nice bra.”
I looked down, remembering the spilled drinks and I laughed. “A fight broke out in the middle of the bar and I kind of got caught in it. I spilled our drinks all over myself.”
“Ah, man, our d
rinks spilled? Were they margaritas? Did you kick their asses?”
Leave it to Lea to think that I should kick someone’s ass over a spilled drink. I stripped off my wet shirt and put on Shane’s dry one.
“Where did you get a shirt? Did you come with extra clothes? Did you go shopping without me? What the...”
“The singer, Shane, right? He took off his shirt and gave it to me.” I cut her off before she asked anymore of her dumb drunk questions.
“Shane gave you the shirt off his back?” Her expression was sheer confusion. “Be careful of that one. He’s slippery like a fish.”
I wrapped one arm around her waist and helped her drunk-walk out of the bathroom. “I think I can safely say that you have nothing to worry about there, because he’s definitely not my type.”
She leaned her head against mine as we exited the bathroom and she giggled. “Gray, there’s no such thing as your type, that’s for fairytales. You gotta just hook up with a bunch of wrong guys for a while and have fun.”
I missed her drunken soliloquies. It hadn’t been the same being so far from her and listening to her being a mother hen to me over the phone.
Conner was obediently standing outside in the hallway and looked beyond relieved when we finally emerged from the bathroom. He grabbed her and helped her walk over to the table where the rest of the people he was with were sitting. The crowd in the bar seemed to have thinned out and the stage was empty. I wondered how long we had been on that bathroom floor.
We sat around the table and Conner gave Lea a bottle of water that she sipped continuously. Lea politely introduced me to Conner’s friend Tucker.
Conner worked in a large accounting firm; Tucker had just finished law school and he was working in his father’s firm. The two of them and all the members of the band had known each other since high school.
To confuse me even more, Conner and Tucker were explaining to me that most of them were roommates and they all lived in the same apartment building. It all sounded like a bad episode of Friends to me.
“Hey, how’d you like the brawl?” a voice called from behind us.
We all turned to see Shane, pulling a chair to the table between Lea and me, with a confused looking blonde who stood next to him. The blonde looked around and seemed to wonder if she should sit or stand, then decided to sit on his lap and start nibbling on his ear. He was still shirtless and the blonde had the biggest set of silicone breasts I had ever seen in real life. They were so enormous, I wanted to see if they’d make a big pop if I poked them with a fork.
“Ugh, Shane, get a kennel for your lapdog. The sounds of her slopping your ear is making me wanna hurl again,” Lea muttered.
The blonde stopped and looked at Lea. “Jealous much?”
I watched Lea’s knuckles turn white with the force of her grip on the table. “Yeah, I’m always jealous of Shane’s conquests. They are the equivalent of a blow up doll with the brains to match.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Blondie snapped.
“See, you just proved my point.” Lea looked at me and smiled. “Maybe if we use big words, it will leave?”
I shrugged and laughed. “Lea, you know you should never have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.”
“Shut up, skanks! You’re both just jealous.” Blondie yelped, puffing her giant silicone chest out at us.
“Slut,” Lea smiled.
I gave the blonde a serious face. “Yeah, listen you should really stop now, because I’m betting on the smartest thing that ever could come out of your mouth is a penis.”
Lea lost it and the water she was drinking burst from her mouth and landed all over blonde Amazon breast girl. She jumped off Shane’s lap and scrambled to her feet. “Shane! Stick up for me! She just got me all wet!” she whined and then she stomped her foot like a kid having a tantrum.
Lea and I bumped heads laughing. I tried not to, but I looked at Shane and he was staring right at me. I held his gaze. His eyes were crystal clear blue and breathtaking. I wasn’t used to seeing people with eyes so piercing. Usually people mentioned it about my eyes, which were light gray, almost silver.
He smiled at me with what I guessed was the smile he used to make most girls act as if they’d suddenly dropped fifty IQ points. I felt nothing. Truthfully, I felt bad for the blonde.
The muscles of his chest flexed, but I pretended not to notice it. He wore his sex appeal like a medal, mentally undressing me. I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. “Hey, thanks for the shirt before. Would have been cold walking home like that.”
Blondie stomped her foot again to get his attention, but he didn’t seem to notice. “This is the one you gave your shirt to? I want a shirt too!”
I looked to Lea and gave her the let’s get outta this bad soap opera signal and stood up. I turned to blondie and smiled. “Just think of it like this, I got him half-naked for you already. Try to enjoy yourself. He looks like someone who has a land mine in his pants.”
“Huh?” She gave me a really confused look.
“You know a land mine; small, hidden, and explodes on contact.”
Shane’s eyes widened for a split second, and then he stood up and leaned against the table blocking my way past. “So you must be Lea’s best friend, the one she grew up with and talks about all the time, huh?”
“Must be,” I snapped.
His grin became wider. “Do you have a name?”
“Yes, I do,” I replied, but not telling him.
Lea started laughing at our standoff. She folded her arms and watched. “Conner, watch her outwit him, just watch.” Her slurred words made her sound like a cartoon character.
Shane glared at Lea and back to me and smiled devilishly. Ice cold eyes. “I’ll just call you Red then, since I can’t get my mind off that sexy little bra I saw you in before.” His smile lifted up in one corner challenging me.
I leaned in really close to him and slowly lifted my eyes to meet his. “Why not Lacy? Or, did you miss out on the soft silk and lace material it was made from? Too bad, you’ll only get to see the color. You know, if you’re going to be a smart ass you should start with being smart, otherwise, you’re really just an ass. Enjoy the rest of your night.”
I held my palm up to his face when he tried to talk. “Please, save your breath, because you might need it to blow up your date later.” I walked past him and out the front door.
Lea was giggling behind me. “Gray, I think you made history in there, as the first girl ever not to jump into bed with Shane Maxton after he gave one of his Coochie Award winning smiles.”
Chapter 3
Conner and Tucker walked Lea and me back to our apartment like gentlemen. The conversation between the four of us never strayed from Shane’s antics of the night or the fact that he paid an interest in me. The warnings to stay away from him from the two guys made me feel like a sixteen year old.
When we reached our apartment, I wasn’t surprised that Tucker and Conner came inside with us.
Conner draped himself over the couch as if he owned the place, and Lea curled up next to him, moaning about the room spinning. That left Tucker and me on opposite sides of the couch sitting in our two side chairs. Tucker leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and hands dangling between them, watching me.
Tucker had a young boyish face - and he was attractive, very attractive. His dark copper colored hair matched the exact shade of his eyes, which were still staring at me. “Can’t say I blame Shane though,” he smiled. “Grace was the prettiest girl in that whole bar.”
“Grace and Lea,” Conner added.
Lea moaned in response and lifted her head. “Thanks, babe,” she muttered.
Conner turned to look at me and regarded me with a serious expression. “You should steer clear of Shane, though. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s one of my best friends and I love the guy.
You know, like a brother, but he’s got some major baggage with women and I just don’t think he’ll ever be capable of having more than a quick sexual relationship with a girl.”
Lea snorted and laughed. “Um, yeah. Well, gentlemen, thank you for all the warning labels you just plastered all over Shane, but there’s definitely nothing to worry about with Grace. Without a doubt, Shane is not a thought in Grace’s mind; definitely not her type at all.” She started giggling uncontrollably. “Although, I think a great one night stand here and there might be good for her, but trust me, boys, Grace is a nut that’ll never be cracked!” She gave me a wink and stumbled to the bathroom.
I smiled and settled back into my chair more. It felt comforting that I had Lea in my life. She knew me; she knew who I really was. To everyone else, I was just a regular twenty-something; indistinguishable from anyone else, and that’s what I wanted. No one but Lea and Jacob knew about my past and my secrets. Now Jake was gone and Lea was the only person in the world who knew who I really was. I sighed in relief. “I appreciate the Shane warnings, but I’m really not interested in being a notch on a bedpost, so I’m really not interested in him.” Like a narcissistic little boy would get under my skin. I had to be honest though, Shane was insanely attractive, but looks fade and they are just a covering. Even if the outside of a building looks beautiful and structurally sound, it doesn’t mean that once you step inside, the building wouldn’t be rotten and crumble down around you; crushing you. I was way beyond that. I had been broken so many times, no one needed to remind me of getting hurt. I just smiled and reassured them the existence of the possibility that I was just an ordinary girl.
Lea wobbled back into the room. “Really. Like, how much did I drink, and why can’t I get a normal hangover like everyone else? Why do I have to suffer the puke until you’re sober situation?” She plopped the bathroom wastebasket on the floor next to her and collapsed back unto the couch.
Conner bolted upright seeing the bucket. “Sweetie, if you puke in front of me I’m gonna blow too. I can’t stand the sight of someone vomiting!” He eyed her nervously.