Chapter 26

Wednesday, Sydney invited me to sit with them again. Her friends had started getting used to me, so the entire time wasn’t spent being grilled by them about my music and everything, which was a lot better. Mostly, I listened to them gossip about whatever was going on, who was wearing what, who was seen kissing who, and basically all of the things sophomore girls found interesting.

It actually wasn’t that different from listening to Rhonda’s friends, except they’d been meaner about everything. Sydney’s friends were much more easygoing and didn’t seem to be so focused on using anything they could to get a step up on the rest. It made sense, considering who Rhonda and Sydney were, that their respective friend groups would be more or less the same.

Sydney, for her part, didn’t participate that much. She was much too busy making it clear she was interested in me. While she sat there, seemingly listening to what her friends were saying, she was constantly bumping her foot or leg into mine, at first touching for a few seconds, and then leaving it there for several minutes at a time. She must have been as unsure as I was, because it wasn’t brazen, at least not at first. most of the contact could be written off to being an accident, just a side effect of her swinging her leg back and forth. When I started copying her movements, she seemed to get the message, because she made things explicit when she put her hand on my knee, and left it there.

Neither of us made eye contact, although I’m not sure how stealthy all of this was. I was about to reach down and take her hand in mine when the lunch bell rang and we all started gathering our stuff together. It was weird, really. I’d dated Rhonda, and even made it to second base, so this wasn’t new for me. And that didn’t even count Kat setting up a naked girl in a venue basement for me. Yet, I was nervous, all the same. I, however, wasn’t going to wait and let her make all the moves. Hanna might mock me for not listening to my two female best friends, but she was wrong.

I had listened, and I had learned one critical piece of information when it came to girls. They liked confident men. It’s why they ended up with jerks so often, because it was easy to confuse arrogance and narcissism with confidence. What they really wanted was someone who wasn’t arrogant, narcissistic or mean, but was sure of themselves. While that was a pretty tall order for kids in high school, or at least for me, I could at least fake it.

“Hey,” I said, lightly grabbing Sydney’s elbow, indicating I wanted her to hang back from her friends.

“Yeah?” she asked, looking up slightly at me with her big brown eyes.

“What are you doing Saturday afternoon?”

“Uhh, nothing.”

“Do you want to go out?”

“Like, on a date?”

“Yes, on a date. I know going out in the afternoon is weird, but I play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, and I know you have a curfew, so I didn’t think you could manage a date that started at eleven pm.”

“No, the afternoon is great,” she said, smiling.

“Awesome. Do you want me to pick you up at your house? I can drop you off before I have to go to the Blue Ridge for practice.”

“Could I go to practice with you, after our date? I really enjoyed listening to you guys play, and I could maybe catch a little bit of your show that night. I can get a ride home from there, so you don’t have to go out of your way.”

“It’d never be out of my way to take you home, but if you really want to come hear practice, sure, why not. I’ll pick you up at around eleven?”

“That early?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll feed you lunch.”

“I wasn’t complaining, I just thought your practice wasn’t until like four.”

“It isn’t, but I’m selfish and want a lot of time to hang out, just the two of us.”

“Ohh,” she said, a small smile escaping. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

“Good. We won’t be doing anything super fancy, so dress comfortably.”

“So you have something in mind?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Nope.”

“I like a mystery man,” she said, hip-checking me before heading to class.

I had a stupid grin on my face, at least until I turned around and saw Kat staring at me, a slight frown on her face. I frowned in return and started to head her way, hoping to stop whatever foolishness she was thinking, but she turned and disappeared into the crowds before I could get to her. I could only shake my head. I’d have to deal with her eventually, but I wasn’t going to let whatever bug was up Kat’s butt ruin how I was feeling right now.

After last weekend, I really needed this!

Since our Wednesday practice had been canceled because a water pipe had broken in the guys’ rented house, I hadn’t been able to ask them about Cameron’s request to interview everyone yet. Because of practice with Chef, I was, as usual, the last one to start helping set up for that night’s show. We had to have everything in place before the dinner service started, so we wouldn’t be a distraction, which meant we had to be completely done setting up by four-thirty, so the window was usually pretty short.

“Hey guys, I have a favor to ask,” I said, hopping up on the stage to begin setting my guitar in its cradle and getting it plugged in.

“What, another newspaper planning on singing your praises,” Marco said snarkily.

Normally I would have ignored him, but it was weirdly on the nose enough that I couldn’t just pretend he didn’t say anything.

“They said good things about everyone. I didn’t think it was that one-sided.”

“Of course you didn’t,” he said.

“Marco, you need to let this drop. I’m not actively trying to exclude anyone. Anyway, yes, this is another newspaper thing, but it’s just for my high school newspaper. A friend of mine wants to do a profile about us and asked if he can sit in on some of our practices and interview everyone. That’s everyone, Marco, not just me.”

“Yeah, I...” he started to say, before stopping short when Lyla set her bass case down hard and started to move towards him. “Hey, I wasn’t going to complain. It’s fine. It’s fine.”

He was holding up his hands in surrender, and I think they may havehad words beyond what Lyla had said the last time Marco complained, because he seemed genuinely worried. For her part, she just gave him a look and went back to setting her stuff up.

“You’ve actually met him. It’s my friend Cameron. He was at a few of our practices, back when you guys used to drive up from Asheville for the show.”

“It’s fine with me,” Lyla said, giving Marco another look.

“Yeah. Fine,” he said, trying to play it off like he didn’t see her.

“Good. I know it’s a pain, but he promised he wouldn’t get in the way. He might be around for a week or so at practices and at some weekend shows, and he’ll interview us as a group, and that’ll be it. It’ll be fine. I promise.”

That being said, I made a mental note to talk to Cameron and make sure he featured the band and not just me. While I wouldn’t normally think it likely that Marco, or any of the rest of my bandmates, would find a random high school newspaper, knowing they were in this one meant they’d probably ask for a copy.

When I got home from the Blue Ridge, Hanna’s car was in the driveway, as promised. I knew she had classes well into the afternoon, so she must have hustled to get here so soon. I hadn’t expected her until very late, or possibly Saturday morning.

Either way, I was excited to see her as I pulled up in front of the house and hurried inside. She was at the dining table, eating when I rushed in, and almost choked as I threw my arms around her and hugged her and the chair from behind.

“Gahh,” she said, setting the fork down and patting my hand. “You know killing me is a hell of a way to welcome me home.”

“Sorry. Sorry,” I said, letting go. “I’m just really happy to see you.”

“Yeah, me too,” she said, getting up from the chair and giving me a big hug. “Mom went to bed right after Kat got back from your show, since they have her meeting with the UNC coach tomorrow, which is something I think you and I also need to talk about at some point.”

Kat had been at practice and at my show, as usual, but she wanted to get a good night’s sleep before her interview with the coaching staff. So, she’d left early to come back and get to bed.

“Your mother already raked me over the coals. I still think it was the right decision at the time, and I know it’s going to cause problems. I just thought this was too big of an opportunity to waste,” I said, going around the table and sitting across from her.

“I know,” she said, reaching over and patting my hands. “I wasn’t going to ‘rake you over the coals.’ I just wanted to make sure you’d thought through the repercussions.”

“At that moment; no, not really. I have since, and I still think I did the right thing.”

“Okay. I’ll drop it then. Tell me what’s been happening, and not just the new manager stuff. I want to hear about everything that’s happened with your dad since we talked last weekend. We only got to talk for few minutes when you called to tell me I was being evicted.”