Time Out

TIME OUT

Time Out

(A Foolish Games Series)

LEAH SPIEGEL

And

MEGAN SUMMERS

 
Also by Leah Spiegel

FOOLISH GAMES

NIGHT CROSSERS

Also by Leah Spiegel

and
Megan Summers

             
SOUTH HILLS SIDEKICKS: UNINVITED

SOUTH HILLS SIDEKICKS: CONFISCATED

SOUTH HILLS SIDEKICKS: COMPROMISED

FAE NOT

Edited by Geoff
Wolak

Cover © 2012
Nino Cavalier
at
Shutterstock
images

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or
dead,
is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited

For information
about the authors go to

http://www.leahspiegel.com

Copyright © 2012
Leah
Spiegel & Megan Summers

All rights reserved.

DEDICATION

To my high school crush
,
you’re my Hawkins.

“
If you stay with me baby you and me will change the game
.”

The Riff by Dave Matthews Band

Chapter
One

I thought I had seen my fair share of drama go down in an elevator, especially after J.T. Hawkins, the lead singer of the Grimm Brother’s Band, announced to the world that he ‘preferred blondes’. So I can’t say that being in an elevator brought back any fond memories for me as I tugged at the flaming red halter top I was wearing that sucked to my chest like a pair of
Spanxs
. Leave it to Lizzie to own something so suffocating and uncomfortable I sighed to myself when the doors to the elevator dinged open half way through its ascent to the top. 

A blonde (I mean a
real
blonde, with hair that was kissed by the sun and not straight out of a bottle like Lizzie’s) stepped onto the elevator. She was dressed in an understated outfit that I might have preferred if I wanted to look put together without trying too hard. She had on a loose white top which verged on what some might call hippie, paired with khaki shorts and brown leather Birkenstock sandals. When she looked me up and down with a flash of scrutiny in her gray-blue eyes, it reminded me how ridiculous I
looked,
and I found myself fidgeting with my top again.

“Getting out?” She sounded hopeful.

“No,” I answered flatly, and instantly dropped my arms to my sides. I literally had made a living out of denying I was with the band when I really was, so it was crazy that I now wanted to rub it in this girl’s face for whatever reason. Maybe it was the patronizing look she was still directing my way.

“So I take it you’re here for the band?” The blonde managed to sound
pretty
condescending for someone who appeared to be heading up to the penthouse, where the rest of the band was staying as well.

I was just about to say, ‘I don’t see how that’s any of your business’ when she sighed, “Warren,” and shook her head with almost a laugh. Glancing down at my fire engine red top, I understood all too well why she assumed the bass player of the band, who had a thing for trashy girls, had invited me up. But according to Lizzie, ‘if I was going to date the lead singer of a notoriously famous band, I was going to have
get
out of my sweats eventually’.

“Will he ever learn?” the blonde added under her breath almost as an afterthought. 

“Excuse you?” I cocked my head back, because I didn’t let anyone get away with talking to me like that, when the elevator doors suddenly flung open again.

I waited for an
apology,
or at the very least an explanation, but the girl looked like she had completely forgotten about the rude side comments with the arrival of someone quickly approaching the front of the elevator.

Following her gaze, I turned to see Hawkins’ piercing blue eyes dart back and forth between the seriously deceiving angelic face of the girl, and me, like he had been blindsided by the sight of the two of us together. I couldn’t speak for the girl, but I knew he had at least texted me to visit. We were supposed to have dinner together before meeting up with the rest of the band at the venue. Though I could tell something about the situation had literally rendered him speechless, as he leaned back on the heels of his solid 6’3 frame. His expression was growing tenser by the second and I felt my face pinch when Hawkins finally asked gruffly, “What are you doing here?”

The girl turned to look at me as if also waiting for an explanation, and for a second the
self-conscious
, irrational part of my mind thought, ‘
Was he talking to me?
’

He then added icily, “Gwyneth?”

“
Me?
” The mysterious blonde repeated, clearly surprised to have the tables turned on her as she pointed to herself. “What am
I
doing here?”

“Yeah,” Hawkins nodded curtly as he rammed back one of the elevator doors before it could close on us again.

“Wow”—the blonde let out an uncomfortable laugh. “That’s what you say to me, after two years of not seeing each other,” she smiled in utter amazement.

“Real nice, Joshua.”
Said the rude blonde next to me.

Glancing at her again, I realized that there was no way she could be old enough to be his mother, but no one called Hawkins by his first name, not even me. Judging by his harsh reaction, when I knew him to be incredibly kind to his fans and people in general, it made me start to wonder who this girl was to him. 

And just as the thought popped up in my mind, she continued, “Is that anyway to talk to your fiancé?”

“
You’re what
?” My mouth dropped open wide in astonishment as my eyes snapped from her to him.

“
Ex
-fiancé,” he sighed as he ran a hand over his face in disbelief.

“You never told me that you were
engaged
to be
married
,” I squealed in protest wishing, I didn’t sound nearly as childish as I did.

“I didn’t see a reason too,” his blue eyes pleaded with me to understand.

“So
this
is Joie,” the blonde said coolly, and I didn’t like her tone any more than when she assumed I was just a trashy fan here for Warren. My eyes darted over to her as if egging her to open her mouth one more time, when I noticed she was still wearing what looked like a two carat diamond ring on her ring finger. The girl didn’t seem like someone who just put on airs for no reason. If she was still wearing the ring; she probably thought she had a reason too.

“So you’re the reason his reputation has been dragged through the mud.” She stabbed the last painful blow.

My mind was swarming with too many thoughts to think rationally, let alone justify that comment with an answer. All I wanted to do now was flee to the safety of my hotel room, where I knew Riley, my best friend, was waiting for me, but the blonde didn’t look like she had any intention of leaving the elevator any time soon, or the penthouse for that matter. Shaking my head, I rounded the entrance to the elevator and made a beeline for the nearby stairwell.

“Joie, wait—” Hawkins chased after me. “I can explain.”

“Just give me time to think,” I exhaled as I pushed through the door to the steps. “
Joshua.
”

Running down thirty-something flights of stairs was more strenuous than I had prepared myself for, but what I lacked in oxygen I made up for in pure determination fueled by rage. I stormed through the door to my three bedroom suite and proceeded to rip the leech like top off of me so I could do a serious I-hate-you-
mfer
-shirt-from-hell dance on top of it.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Lizzie moved in to intervene by yanking the material from underneath my feet. “That’s knock-off Versace.” She hissed like that really meant something as she shook out the shirt.

“Well I’m glad that it doesn’t
sound
cheap,” I sighed as I grabbed up my usual white tank-top and pink rolled up Victoria Secret sweatpants and got dressed.

“Some of us aren’t dating millionaires anymore,” she informed me like I didn’t already know that she dumped Warren, the bass player of Hawkins’ band, who had a thing for trashy girls (a particular sore spot for me at the moment). She broke up with him for Ryan the drummer of the opening act; The Larks.

Though Lizzie didn’t look like trash. More like a breath of fresh air with the kind of Brazilian model looks that stopped men dead in their tracks. Men salivated at the sight of her goddess figure; with her long legs, tight abdomen, and enough boobs and hips to shake what the god Lord gave her at every concert night after night. It was kind of sickening really, to have Bar
Refaeli
as your wing girl. That was until she opened her trucker mouth, which some guys found even more endearing, go figure.   

“It went that well, ah?” Riley cracked a grin as he came out from the bathroom dressed in just a towel wrapped around his waist. I took a moment to shamelessly enjoy the view, a kind of weird habit, that I noticed I did less and less now that I was dating Hawkins, but then again who didn’t stop to look at Riley?

If Lizzie was Barbie then Riley was Ken (with the questionable sexuality included.) His taunt tan chest made girls and women alike salivate. I should start calling him ‘Abercrombie and Fitch’ because he looked just like those guys in the black and white pictures plastered across the store. His sandy blonde hair was slicked back from the recent shower, making his chiseled jaw pop even more.