Authors: Ashley Johnson
"Yea sure sounds like a
plan. You guys have fun.” My brain was racing with about a thousand things to say to Trevor but I couldn’t think straight to formulate any response with Halley right there and she sensed it. Crap.
"You ok? Are you pacing?" She stifled a laugh. I’m glad someone found humor in the situation.
I rolled my eyes as she walked into the room and stood there, watching my every move. Making herself comfortable and making it known that she wasn’t getting ready to leave anytime soon.
"Don’t laugh! I’m fine, I swear!" I gave her an annoyed look tr
ying to make her leave the room, but she just couldn’t take the hint.
"Haha ok because if I didn’t know any better I would say you look all giddy like you met someone." She so knew. I was never going to live this one down.
She caught me in the act. I may as well throw in the towel and begin begging for forgiveness and ask her how to fix this mess. Yeah right. That’s what she would want me to do.
I shot her another look
and rolled my eyes. She knows I don’t date anyone much less look in any guy’s general direction. And if I do happen to notice a guy, it’s never anything more than a simple hey he’s cute. There’s no talking or exchanging of names or numbers. I set my phone down, let my hair down, brushed it and placed it back into a ponytail. The phone went off again. I tried my best to pretend I hadn’t heard it so that maybe she wouldn’t realize another text came through. Too late. She heard it and she was onto me.
"Ohmigod someone’s texting you who is it?!" Little Miss Nosy grabbed my phone before I could stop her. I grabbed a pillow and threw it at her head
. I actually hit her with the pillow but it didn’t faze her. And I thought I threw it really hard. She always reminded me that Best Friend rules supposedly state that the best friend can invade your privacy at any time without a warning. She had actually told me that for the first time when we were just texting before we ever met face to face. I guess she already knew we would be best friends from that moment. She was right but that wasn’t the point. The point was that my phone was being invaded for sure right now. This was crap. She wasn’t giving it back anytime soon. Who the hell made these rules because I needed a talk with them now and at least find out if there were some sort of clause or anything I could throw in her face to turn these rules around. There had to be a fine print somewhere I never read before.
"H
alley, come on give me my phone, please." I was jumping around my tornadic room like a maniac trying to get it back. How I never tripped over anything was a miracle.
She sprinted across the room and ran into the kitchen
practically almost running into the counter. Her eyes suddenly bugged like mine had before when she finally stopped and she let out a huge "Macy ohmigod!!! Why didn’t you tell me?!" For a split second I thought the phone was going to fly across the room. That would have definitely worked to my advantage. I stood there praying it would instantly hit the floor and explode. Then there would be no text messages, I could live with that. No proof of anything. Then Halley seriously began pouting. Lip out pouting like you do when you’re five years old and your mom tells you that you can’t have the baby doll you want, because she didn’t know. "Does your Uncle Gary know?" Now her eyes were wider than before. She already knew the answer she just wanted to hear it from me.
Time stood still as her eyes met mine.
The ultimate stare off and I felt trapped in a maze that I couldn't get out of. I thought about lying and telling her yes. She never talked to Gary so she would never know anyway. I wasn’t sure what was getting into me. I normally didn’t lie. I don’t believe in it, it does nothing but get you in trouble and here I was thinking about doing nothing but lying. Instead I truthfully replied, "No he doesn't know. And I didn't tell you because I have no memory of giving him my number! I mean really if I can’t remember what they sang or what I sang then how the hell am I supposed to remember giving him my phone number? He has to stop texting me which is what I was getting ready to tell him before you deliberately took my phone," I replied with an accusatory tone. I stood there tapping my foot with my hand extended waiting for her to hand the phone back.
"You know he's been watching you for quite a while now. Marcus thinks he likes you
too." No captain obvious really? I thought we already had the conversation about the way he looks at me. She stood there smiling so smugly. I wanted to smack the smile off her face, almost as bad as I wanted to pour her coffee out earlier. She knew as well as I did that no man would ever be in my life. I was nowhere near ready to tear down my walls. It would take a hell of a lot and a hell of a good man for me to even consider. Seriously, I wasn’t sure if Trevor was that man.
All my emotions hidden
and hidden well I replied, "Well good for him. I don't have time for him or anything like that."
Halley looked at me with sympathetic eyes. She knew I hated bringing this crap up. I didn't care if it was childish, it was my life.
I didn’t have to talk about it if I didn’t want to. She placed the phone back down finally, smiled and told me, “Look Mace, I know you still think about that time but someday you have to try to move past it and let someone in. I know you hate hearing this, trust me. I just worry about you. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time, really I am. I really just walked in your room to tell you I was leaving. So here I am now, telling you I’m leaving. I'll be home later ok?"
Halley embraced me in an unexpected hug
, watched to make sure I was really ok then picked up and handed me the phone. I walked back into my room. I knew the coast was clear when I heard the deadbolt lock. I glanced at my phone to see the message she intercepted.
"You should sing with the band sometime."
I laughed so hard I practically snorted. This was the biggest joke I’d ever heard.
"No thanks. Oh and Trevor I think you shouldn't text me anymore."
Ha! I grinned and tossed the phone back on my bed kicking a few things out of the way to semi clean my room to where I could at least walk without stepping on anything and went to shower. I always got the last word in most of my conversations and I felt at ease knowing the Trevor issue had been resolved.
Chapter 3
My body was still exhausted from the night before. My hangover was slowly beginning to ease up a little. After finding Trevor had my number, I decided I needed to take it easy from now on. Besides I hated feeling this way the day after. I set my clothes and things in the bathroom and turned on the shower. I was glad Halley finally broke down and bought a new shower curtain. Our old was so old and rigged, it wasn’t even funny. It was hers originally and she kept saying it was perfectly fine so when it ripped this past time and she continued to duct tape it again, I informed her she needed to go shopping. She actually did it and we now owned a brand new, no rips or duct tape pink shower curtain. I don’t know if she just had a major attachment to that thing or if she just didn’t want to spend any money she deemed unnecessary. I climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash the bar smell off of me and any traces of Trevor. It felt good to be clean and I felt more than refreshed by the time I was done. All I needed was for the aspirin to finish working so I could be at my best. After my shower, I sauntered back towards my bed and flopped down on it. I was still racking my brain trying to get any information from last night. Nothing was coming to mind. My head was beginning to hurt from trying to think so hard. The aspirin was pretty much having to work double now.
Trevor James was a bad idea for me. I knew this. He would probably turn out to be nothing more than a big heartache. I didn’t need
any more heartache in my life at all. My heart couldn’t handle it. He fit the rock star cliché. Yeah he only played in a little bar, but technically he was a rock star. Women were always fawning over him like he were some huge superstar. It was disgusting. He was just a super sexy guy who got on stage and played a guitar and sang a few songs a few nights a week. Big freaking deal. The band didn’t even have a name for crying out loud. My mind started racing again. Suddenly I didn't know if I'd even kissed him or not. Yes he had my number but did we kiss? Did anything else happen? I wanted to know but Trevor was not getting a text from me. I had already shut that operation down and I'd have to avoid him all night. And seeing as how I didn't have to work tonight, that should be rather easy. He'd have no chance to even approach me with Gary there and we could both forget that last night ever happened.
Somewhere in all my thoughts I drifted back to sleep. Trevor was in my dreams. He sang the most beautiful
love song to me and I melted like butter in his arms. He told me how much he liked me and how he’d been waiting to make me all his. He also told me he’d been watching me ever since I first walked into The Lounge a few years ago. His hair hung perfectly in front of his eyes like it always did. I loved it. You could still make out the bluish gray color and it was absolutely mesmerizing to look into them. I was totally mesmerized by him. I believed everything he said. This was the perfect moment. Like something in the movies kinda moment. I’m talking cue the lights and action! Instant silver screen moment. The kind that gets nominated for an award and we were sure to win. He leaned in to kiss me and as our mouths opened to meet, I lost my balance and fell.
I woke up
in a panic sweating and glanced at my phone. Shit! It's 5:00 in the afternoon. Uncle Gary called three times and Halley texted. I frantically grabbed the phone and called Uncle Gary back.
He answered right away as if he were waiting by the phone to try to call one more time.
"Macy, I have a favor to ask. I know this is your night off but just hear me out." Any favor he asked, I typically didn't hesitate to help out. After all he helped me.
"What you got?"
"I already made plans to go out of town tonight you know and..."He paused. I had a bad feeling where this was going and my stomach got queasy. I had forgotten he had mentioned this to me last week. "I forgot the band was playing tonight. Would you mind staying there and keeping an eye on things? You know, make sure the guys get their money and you and Halley can drink on me." He let out a small chuckle, “Just make sure the place doesn’t burn down alright?”
Instantly I replied, "Sure thing.
I’ll take care of it for you. I mean if anything happens I know where the fire extinguishers are. Have a safe trip." I prayed he couldn't hear anything in my voice that would give me away and know something was up. I even threw in a laugh at his little joke to keep him off.
I cursed under my breath and threw the phone
after I hung up. There would be no avoiding Trevor now. He was going to walk up to me and I would turn into a puddle of a giant hot mess with everyone around. Part of me wished I could call Gary back and tell him no, that I had already made plans of my own and I had forgotten he had already told me, but he was probably half way out of town already when he had decided to call. I would have to come up with a plan tonight, one that involved absolutely no liquor. Yeah right, who am I kidding that wouldn’t happen. I had to laugh under my breath at that suggestion. I would definitely need to drink just to keep my composure around him. I stood there trying to devise anything, any kind of plan to help me when the door turned.
Halley and Marcus came walking in empty handed.
That was a shock. She usually came in from a day of shopping with at least one bag in her hand. Guess she just couldn’t find anything today. I tried to greet them as chipper as I could so they wouldn’t catch onto anything. "Hey guys how was your day?"
"We had fun. We tried that new Mexican restaurant
, I can’t remember the name though, but it was pretty good. They had deer enchiladas, talk about amazing! How was your time alone?" She batted her eyes at me as if I would tell her something magical had happened between Trevor and me. I rolled mine in return.
"Wonderful I slept til
just a few minutes ago. I feel so much better now. Oh when are you going to be ready Hales? Gary forgot the band was playing tonight and he's going out of town so I have to work but we get to drink on him." I flashed a big grin to win her over. She needed to be in my corner tonight anyway.
"Just give me a few."
She winked at Marcus and I wanted to flip her off. I just realized that she already knew that the guys were playing tonight and she never told me. I guess that was payback for me not telling her that Trevor had my number. I wanted to throw something at her at least but nothing was around for me to even grab.
Marcus
made himself comfortable on the couch and began flipping through channels. He was a sweetheart. Halley got lucky finding him. When I first met her she had just broken up with some guy named Alex that she had dated for like a year and a half and she enjoyed her single life she was entitled to. Good thing she had me there to help her through it, not that she was really that torn up over it. She always told me it was something she had been wanting to do for a while then and finally just decided to make it happen. We spent many a nights at The Lounge following that time. Many bar dances, shots and, a year later she and Marcus began talking a little more than just a mere conversation here and there and she'd been smiling since.
Halley came out wearing a blue je
an skirt and a pink blouse. Marcus whistled when she walked out and she made her way to him for a kiss. Gag me. This was just the beginning, I’d have to see this all night. The simplest outfit was always flattering on her. You could tape Popsicle sticks to her and she could still pull it off like it was this years’ hottest fashion trend. I didn’t have that kind of luck or maybe I was just a little more self-conscious. Popsicle sticks really weren’t my style anyway. I had my blue jean skirt on too but with my new cowboy boots I’d been saving for, and my favorite pink sweater. Halley and I both liked pink, sue us. We just so happened to be wearing the same color at the same time. Actually it happened rather often. People that didn’t know us and saw us together in person thought we were really sisters in real life. We did bare a similar resemblance but