Casey Barnes Eponymous (8 page)

Catherine and Sukh looked at Catherine’s nails.
 
They were bitten to the quick.
 
Catherine shoved them under her
thighs.
 
Casey yawned and looked out
the window.
 
The bell rang to end
the period.
 
Sukh leaned over.
 
“I like these bands too.”
 

“I had a feeling about you, kid.”
 

Sukh held up his index and pinkie finger in the ACDC sign.
 

Leigh was waiting for her in the hall.
 
“So did he come to the library
today?
 
You didn’t respond to my
text.”

“Many guys came to the library today.
 
Which ‘he’ are you referring to?” Casey
walked towards her locker.
 

Leigh fell into step alongside her.
 
“What do you mean, ‘which he?’ Alex Deal
of course.”

“Oh right.
 
That
guy.
 
Umm.”
 
They arrived at Casey’s locker.
 
She twisted the lock and opened it.
 
“Nope, don’t think I saw that guy in the
library today.”

“But,” Leigh began.
 
She looked around and brought her voice down a decibel, “didn’t he say
he’d see you at school today?”
 

Casey made a mental note to never, ever, ask a friend about
someone they liked who did not follow up the way he or she said they
would.
 
This was a straight path to
that netherworld that sat in between heaven and hell.
 
Purgatory, that’s what it was
called.
 
Of course Leigh was too
naïve to know this.
 
Or was
she?
 
Casey stopped what she was
doing and studied Leigh.
 
Was Leigh
in fact a pawn of the devil and Casey had just failed to notice it in three
years of friendship?
 
“I’m sure he’s
gonna call you,” Leigh said.

Casey decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
 
She sighed and turned back to her locker.
“What’s that thing they say?
 
Another day, another dude.”
 

“Who says that?”

“I just did.”

Leigh rolled her eyes and looked away.
 
Casey caught sight of something at the
other end of the hall.
 
It was Alex
Deal, in the flesh, with his bandmates.
 
They were walking out together.
 
Maybe they had band practice that day and that was why he had not come to
see her in the library!
 
Of
course.
 
Leigh saw him too.
 
“Oh my God,” she said.

Casey feigned a look of innocence.
 
“What?”

“Oh you know exactly what.”

“Be right back.”

Casey walked in the direction of him.
 
The only problem was that she did not
see the person directly in her path hunched on the floor getting stuff out of
his locker.
 
It was only when she
tripped on him and fell flat to the floor, in the process knocking one of his
binders and sending papers flying everywhere, that she realized that person was
Ben.
 
He frowned.
 
“You okay, Barnes?”
 

Casey was already halfway up off the floor. She stole a look in
Alex Deal’s direction.
 
If she was
ever going to start believing in God, it would have been if Alex Deal did not
see what happened.
 
But he was
looking at her.
 
She turned back to
Ben.
 
“There is no God.”
 

“No shit.”
 
He began
to pick up papers.
 
She bent down
and helped him.
 
Now that Alex Deal saw
her pull what was perhaps the biggest dork move of the school year so far, there
was no way she was going over there.
 
Leigh arrived, shaking her head in disbelief.
 
“Was that an
accident?”
 

“Either that or she was trying to get to my Spanish homework
again,” Ben said.

Leigh looked from Ben to Casey.
 
“Oh it’s him.”

Ben flushed and turned to put stuff in his locker.
 
Casey shut her eyes.
 
Leigh clamped her hand to her
mouth.
 
He turned back around.
 
“You guys wanna get something to eat?”

Suddenly Alex Deal walked over.
 
“Hey.”

Leigh and Casey froze for a moment.
 
“Why hello…
John,
is it?” Casey asked.

“Looks like you took a bit of a spill there.”

She smiled.
 
“Oh
that was for show.
 
Leigh here is in
a play and she’s trying to learn how to do prat falls.
 
I told her I’d do a demonstration.”
 

Ben mumbled something under his breath that might have included
the words “distortion” and “truth.”
 

Alex Deal, fortunately, was distracted by one of his bandmates
calling out his name.
 
He turned
back to Casey.
 
“We’re rehearsing
today.”

“Oh.”

“You can come if you want.”

“Great!”
 
She
paused.
 
“I mean…” She glanced at
Leigh.

“Go!” Leigh said.
 

“Okay,” she said.

“Meet at my car in five minutes.”
 
He walked away.
 
Leigh grinned and gave Casey a thumbs
up.
 
Ben’s expression was impassive.

“Let’s all get food after school some other time,” Casey said
to him.
 

Ben shrugged.
 
“Whatever.”
 
He grabbed his
bag and departed.

She turned to Leigh.
 
“Please tell me you have cherry chapstick today.”

Leigh reached into her bag and produced a stick of the magic
substance.
 
Casey grabbed it.
 
“Maybe you’re not a daughter of Satan
after all.”

“Huh?”
 

She patted Leigh on the head.
 
“I’ll call you later with a detailed
report on fornication with le Deal.”

12

Casey resumed position in the passenger seat and attempted to
summon yet another sonic stunner as Alex pulled out of the spot.
 
Something caught his eye.
 
She looked and realized it was none
other than Melanie Corcoran.
 
She
was with two other girls.
 
Casey put
a hand on her stomach.
 
He moved his
eyes back to her.
 
“Whatcha got?”

They drove to McDonald’s, where she met the other two members
of Alex’s power trio.
 
His drummer
was tall and blonde and fiddling with a phone as he waited in line.
 
He did not acknowledge Casey.
 
His bass player had a big head of red
hair and freckles.
 
She remembered
him from talent show the year before because he smiled throughout the whole
song and she thought it was cute.
 
She also recognized him because he had a girlfriend.
 
They walked around school hand-in-hand
and every time she saw them they were laughing.
 

“I’m Danny,” the red-head said, “You’re Yull’s sister?”

She nodded.
 
“Casey.”

Alex motioned to the blonde guy.
 
“That’s Peter.”
 
Peter looked at her and went back to his
phone.
 

The takeout from McDonald’s was consumed in Alex’s living
room.
 
The guys talked about their
set list and which songs to perform for the upcoming talent show
auditions.
 
Just as quarter pounder
wrappings were being crumpled into balls and last squeegees taken of milkshakes,
Casey decided to make an announcement.
 
“I forgot to tell you that I actually play guitar.”

“I thought you told me you didn’t,” Alex said.

“You must’ve misunderstood me.”

He gave her a funny look.
 
“Oh.
 
Well, I mean, cool.”

“How long have you been playing?” Danny asked.

Suddenly she felt self-conscious.
 
Alex’s reaction was not what she had
been hoping for.
 
“Oh, you know.”

“Actually he doesn’t,” Peter said, “That’s why he asked.”

Casey looked at the floor.
 
“Two years.”

“Nice,” Danny said.

“Let’s go,” Peter said.
 
They stood up and walked to the living room doors that led to the
basement.
 
Once they got there and
Peter saw that she was still following them, he frowned.
 
“You’re not gonna watch T.V.?”
 
He looked to Alex.
 
“Melanie didn’t--”

“Hey,” Alex said.

“It’s fine,” Danny said.

 
“Was there an
unfortunate incident with a Yoko-like character in your childhood?” Casey asked.

A moment of silence passed.
 
She wondered if she had committed one faux
pas too many.
 
But Danny and Alex
laughed.

The songs were better with drum and bass, but they still sounded
alike.
 
There was one moment towards
the end of their set when Alex looked at her and she wondered if he was going
to ask her to play.
 
But then he swung
into the next song.
 

Band practice ended not long after that.
 
Danny and Peter packed up their stuff
and said goodbye.
 
Once they were
gone and Alex was in the bathroom Casey went over to his Strat.
 
She didn’t want to play without an
express invitation, but she figured that if she positioned herself just so,
that invitation would be as good as issued.
 
He returned from the bathroom and sat on
the couch.
 
“Come here.”

As soon as she sat down, he went straight in for a kiss.
 
That time she let him take her shirt and
pants off before she started to wonder how far would be too far.
 
They were, after all, hanging out two
days in a row.
 
Now they were pretty
much a thing.
 
A couple.
 
An object of envy on the part of other
females.
 
Future progenitors of a
musical wunderkind.
 

Casey had a fantasy that, when they collaborated on
Stories from the City, Stories
from the
Sea,
Thom Yorke and PJ Harvey had an affair that left PJ
pregnant.
 
Despite Thom’s longtime
relationship with his college girlfriend, PJ kept the baby.
 
She gave birth in utmost secrecy at her
parents’ place in the English countryside, the baby was being raised by PJ and
an English nanny who wore a uniform, and it was guarded, zealously, as the
Adam/Eve of a rock and roll master race needed to be.
 
Casey and Alex Deal could do that
too.
 
They’d just have a manny and
live in Beverly Hills.

He did not ask any questions about her boyfriend that day.
 
Instead he began to explore beneath her
underpants.
 
She stood up.
 
“I have to use the bathroom.”

“You on the rag?”

“Oh no no no.
 
I’m
not one of those girls. Just have to use the bathroom.
 
Be right back.”
 
She grabbed her bag and, once inside,
ran water so she could call Leigh.
 

“What’s up?” Leigh asked.

“I’m at his house.”