Friction

by L. D. Davis

  Revulsion flooded my body. “You don’t have to tell me what she did if you don’t want to. I had to live with her, too. I know how she is. If you want to talk about it, you can. If you don’t, that’s okay, too. But just know this, Peyton, she doesn’t have a place with us, okay? We can be miserable and sad people because of her, or we can piss her the fuck off and be the most incredible, badass, awesome motherfuckers out there.”

  “I want us to be badass, awesome motherfuckers,” Peyton said, standing up a little taller.

  I stood up again, and put my hand on his back to guide him into the living room.

  “Good news then, bro,” I said with a grin. “We already are.”

  Someone must have really loved me in Minnesota, because the paperwork that should have taken days was finished by Friday evening. I wanted to give Peyton a chance to say goodbye to the few friends he had made, so we didn’t leave until early Sunday morning. I called Noa on the way to the airport.

  “Hey, we’re on our way home,” I told her after she answered. “When the fuck are you going to be on your way home?”

  “Is that your way of asking me to move in?” she asked groggily.

  “I’m not asking. I’m telling. Pack up your shit and get on a plane and meet me at home.”

  “I can’t move in with you, Alden,” she said on a sigh.

  “Why the hell not? We’ve been practically living together for weeks.”

  “That’s different, and you know it is. Our relationship is still very new. I don’t want to be put in a situation where I am completely dependent on a man again. It’s not because of you, but because of me. It just…it scares me to put myself in that place.”

  My heart was beating too fast. Peyton watched from his seat across from me. I put on a smile for him, though inside, I had that fucking feeling again. The feeling that something was wrong, that Noa was, I don’t know, hiding shit from me or something. That’s how I felt for weeks after that day in New York that she had lunch with Sahara. I knew something was wrong, that she wasn’t telling me something, but I couldn’t figure out what.

  “Okay,” I said patiently. “Okay, I get that, so what the fuck happens now? You don’t want to do that, but are you not…” Fuck. I almost couldn’t finish the sentence. I swallowed and said, “Are you not going to meet me in L.A.?”

  “Oh! No, no, no! I’m going to L.A., Alden, I promise. I bought my ticket after we hung up last night. I’m flying out tomorrow evening. I’ll text you all of my flight details so you can pick me up, you know, in the Bugatti,” she teased. Some of the tension in my chest loosened. “Do you really have a Bugatti or did you just say that to try to impress me?”

  “I’m Alden Motherfucking Badass Breck,” I said with a wink at Peyton. “Little Noa, that alone is impressive. I don’t need a car to impress you.”

  She snorted on the other end. “Yeah, you’ll need like an army of Bugattis to make up for my lack of being impressed by Alden Motherfucking Lameass Breck.”

  I laughed. I loved that my Little Noa didn’t make it easy for me. I didn’t think that she’d ever stop challenging me and I didn’t think I’d ever stop liking it.

  “We’ll talk about the future in a couple of weeks, after your meeting, after the gala, you know, after everything starts to settle down,” she said quietly. “I wasn’t really expecting to fall in love with a rock star that lives on the other side of the country.”

  “I wasn’t expecting to fall in love like ever,” I said.

  “Well, it’s because I’m Noa Harlow Motherfucking Kickass Eddington,” she said in a macho voice.

  “Fuck yeah,” I agreed. “I’ll call you after we land. Stay safe, Little One. You got one more day. Don’t let anything bad happen to you or I’m going to be pissed.”

  “I will be shipping some of my things out there today, just some little reminders of home, and then I’m going up to the penthouse since I’ll be flying out of LaGuardia. Once I’m there, I’ll stay there until it’s time to leave for the airport. Okay?”

  I liked the idea of her being in my penthouse, but she was still going too close to where Larson lived, worked, and played. Oh yeah, I learned a lot about that asshole since Noa told me about him stalking her.

  “Please, just be careful,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

  “Promise,” she said. “I love you. Tell Peyton I’ll see him soon. I can’t wait.”

  “I love you, too, little kickass.”

  She snickered and then the call ended.

  That went well.

  But the growing sense of doom hung over me like my own personal dark cloud.

  ***

  Early Sunday afternoon was the beginning of a shit storm. I should have already had my shit storm umbrella, since my instincts warned me a storm was coming.

  I was hanging out at my pool with Peyton, James, his pregnant wife, Linda, and their two kids, Hash, and finally, Doctor Greg, who had finally detached himself from Sahara. The only person missing was my girl, but she would be there later that night.

  “I still can’t believe you have a girlfriend,” Linda said, shaking her head. “A real girlfriend, like it’s mutual on both sides and not some delusional fan.”

  I had known Linda nearly as long as I’d known James, for well over ten years. She was one of very few female friends that I had.

  “I still think he’s using some kind of mind control,” Hash joked. “That girl hated him from the moment she laid eyes on him, and now she’s fucking in love with him? Definitely something wrong there.”

  “I really like Noa,” Greg piped in as he played with his phone.

  “You’re just saying that because you’re screwing one of her best friends,” I said with a snort. “By the way, are you done with that yet? Because my girl that you love so much doesn’t quite have the same bedside manner as you do.”

  “Like when you had the sniffles a few weeks ago and you were crying like a little bitch and she yelled at you to man up?” James laughed.

  I scowled. “I had a head cold! My sinuses hurt!”

  “I think I like her already,” Linda said as she laughed with everyone else. “She doesn’t take any of your shit, huh?”

  “Not even a little bit,” I beamed.

  Greg stood up suddenly, his face bleak as he stared at his phone.

  “What’s up, Doc?” I asked as I threw a wayward water football back into the pool. Peyton got along great with James’ kids, who were ten and eight. They played and splashed around in the pool as the rest of us talked.

  Greg’s eyes met mine, and I was suddenly aware of my personal doom cloud again.

  “I need to talk to you in private,” Greg said solemnly, and without another word, he went inside the house.

  The others looked on with curiosity, but they didn’t ask any questions or follow me inside as I followed Greg. I was surprised when he kept walking through the kitchen, through the living room, and then continued to walk.

  “Where the hell are you going?” I asked.

  “To the music room,” he said flatly.

  “Umm, why?”

  “Because it’s soundproof.”

  That wasn’t a good. That meant that whatever he needed to tell me was going to piss me off, bad enough where he wouldn’t have wanted Peyton and the kids to hear it. I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out my own phone to check the time. Noa should be getting on her flight in a matter of minutes.

  Once we were inside the music room, Greg closed the door and took several steps away from me before speaking.

  “Have you been on Twitter today?” he asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure why you needed to bring me all the fuck out here to ask me that question, but no, I have not been on Twitter today.” I usually tweeted a few times a day, just to give my fans something to read and retweet, and do whatever the hell else they do with it, but I had been just relaxing with my friends and family and didn’t care about social media, at least for a little while.

&n
bsp; “Go to your twitter app,” Greg said, and crossed his arms. He looked uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.

  I sighed and opened the app. “Now what?”

  “Look for hash tag Breck’s bed hopping boo.”

  “Is this another Trisha story?” I asked as I searched for the hashtag. “I haven’t even spoken to that chick since that night in the alley.”

  It took me a minute to see what was going on, to see why #brecksbedhoppingboo was trending on Twitter. There were several links to pictures and links to websites. I clicked on one, holding my breath. It led me to a gossip blog, a somewhat reputable gossip blog, if that made any sense.

  #brecksbedhoppingboo

  Whose bed has N.H. Eddington hopped into?

  N.H., or Noa, as she is known by her friends, has been traveling with Friction, pop star Jade Deeana, and a few other performers for a fundraising tour that raises money for the charity Packs for Kids. When Friction front man, Alden Breck, and Miss Eddington were first seen out in public together, Breck’s publicist had shot down any questions about whether or not the pair were dating. “Mr. Breck and Miss Eddington are just good friends that are pulling together for a great cause.” But after the second gala that took place in Manhattan, pictures of the “friends” hugging and kissing intimately began to circulate the internet. Soon thereafter, while in Miami, it was confirmed that they were indeed an item.

  Alden Breck is known for his philandering, flirting, and sexing up his fans. In the 2013 web based mini-series entitled, Friction, I’m With the Band, which had reached millions, Breck admitted in a candid, but rare and soft moment that he was incapable of falling in love. “There’s something hard and cold inside of me,” Breck had said, looking troubled. “No one can get in and get past that, and no one ever will. Maybe it makes me an asshole to admit that I’m incapable of falling in love, or that I don’t want to fall in love, and that I’m going to keep on fucking who I want and when I want. Maybe I’m an asshole, but I’ll take that. At least I’m being honest, with you, and with myself. I can’t love.”

  Wrong, Mr. Breck. You can, and you have. Alden fell hard for N.H. Eddington. Sources close to the couple said that Alden was hopelessly romantic and soft when it came to Noa, but that the bestselling author seemed a little cold and distant in comparison. It was suggested that maybe Miss Eddington wasn’t in it with a full hart, if with any heart at all. She had nothing to lose by hooking up with Alden Breck, and that has been proven in her book sales over the past several weeks. Her sales have spiked to an all-time high, just from the press she gets from being with a super star.

  Now we are all beginning to wonder if Noa ever had any real feelings for Alden Breck. There seemed to have been some, ahem, friction between the two at times, and just recently, Noa took off for the east coast while Alden returned to L.A. with a child, who is rumored to be either a brother or a love child from some random groupie. Many found this perplexing since Noa has said herself that she would be sticking with Friction throughout their charity tour, but it appears that Miss Eddington has found someone else’s bed to keep warm: married, U.S. Senator of North Carolina, Todd Canyon.

  Senator Canyon and N.H. Eddington were first spotted together in the early morning hours Monday leaving a townhouse that the Senator owns and usually uses as a guesthouse for his friends and family when they are in town. However, the source that spotted the couple did not realize it was Miss Eddington at the time, so no one cared to report it. Today, photographs are surfacing of the couple leaving a downtown D.C. hotel together Saturday evening, and climbing into the back of a waiting limo owned by the Senator. More photos have come out in recent hours of the two locked in an embrace inside the hotel’s lobby, and the senator’s lips were definitely on her face (see photos below).

  So, what do we make of this? What does Breck have to say? So, far, no one has heard anything from the rock star, but the evidence is pretty strong against Miss Eddington. Is it true? Has she given up the man who was recently voted one of the #sexiestmenontheplanet to be with a married, yet sexy in his own right, senator?

  With trembling fingers, I scrolled down to the posted pictures. There were eight or nine of them, but only two were really incriminating. His hands were on her face as he leaned in close to her in the hotel lobby, and her hands were on his hands as she looked into his eyes. I couldn’t read the look on her face, but it didn’t matter. Didn’t have to. The physical contact was enough.

  In the second incriminating photo, they were still in the lobby, hugging, and though from the angle the picture was taken, I couldn’t see exactly where his lips were, they were definitely on her – maybe her cheek or her ear. Her eyes were closed, but she was smiling. Smiling like she was enjoying it.

  Greg was right to take me into a soundproof room.

  My shouts of anger and indignation bounced off the walls like ricocheting bullets.

  Noa

  I don’t know what was wrong with my brain. I made it all the way to New York, got settled in at the penthouse, and as I was going through my pocketbook looking for Chapstick, I realized that I didn’t have my wallet. No credit cards. No checkbook. No ID. All of those things were needed for me to board my flight the next day.

  After I found some edible food in the freezer and cabinets, I decided that my wallet could wait until morning. I had EZ-pass for my car and fortunately, I had filled the tank just before leaving Philly, so at least I didn’t need money for that.

  I spent that Saturday lounging on the couch, even though I would have rather been out walking about the city, but I didn’t have any kind of currency on me, and I still harbored a small fear that I would bump into Larson.

  It was strange. I hadn’t heard from him in a few weeks. No random messages or anything. Even though I had told Alden that I didn’t expect him to show up at my apartment, I honestly wouldn’t put it past him, and worried that he would my entire time back in Philly. But he didn’t. I had to wonder if he had finally given up, but then again, more than a year had gone by before he had even contacted me. Another year could go by before he tried to contact me again for all I knew.

  I pushed Larson out of my mind. I was excited about going to L.A. Alden had Peyton! That happened much faster than I could have anticipated. I was expecting at least a few more weeks of bullshit, but I was more than pleasantly surprised by the quick turnaround. Alden was so happy, so ecstatic. He sounded like a little kid himself as he told me about it over the phone. I was sorry that I couldn’t have been there to see his face when he found out, but I was also glad that he and Peyton got to have those first few hours together, knowing that their lives were changing from that point forward.

  Sahara came by with dinner later that night, taking pity on my idiocy. We ate and drank a couple bottles of wine while chatting and laughing. I got the scoop on her Doctor Greg and told her my indecision about moving to L.A.

  I went to bed early since I had to drive all the way back to Philly first thing in the morning. I didn’t bother calling Alden to tell him. I would be back before my flight and that was all that mattered.

  Amazingly, there wasn’t much traffic going down. I parked on the street instead of using the garage I used to rent a space from. Since my car was going to be stored in Alden’s garage in New York, I canceled my account. Fortunately, there were a few spaces open almost directly in front of my building. I took the elevator upstairs, let myself into my apartment, and went into my bedroom where I knew I had left my wallet on the bureau.

  “Gotcha,” I whispered to it as I snatched it up.

  I was looking down, making sure everything I needed was in it and I wasn’t leaving anything else. The shades were drawn and only a couple of soft lights were on in the living room, so the burst of bright color coming from my small dining table drew my eyes up and away from my wallet.

  Sitting in the center of the table was a vase filled and overflowing with bright yellow daffodils.

  ***

  My first instinct was to wildly look
around to see if the deliveryman was still in the apartment. My heart was beating so loudly it was all I could hear, and I desperately needed to hear whether or not there was someone in there. Obviously, he wasn’t in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom, all places I was able to see from where I stood, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t in the powder room, the closet, or the master bathroom.

  “Hello?” I called out tentatively, hating the tremor in my voice.

  No one answered. There wasn’t a scuffle or creak or any indication that anyone but me was around. Shaking so badly I was barely able to walk, I walked slowly to the table. The scent of the flowers hit my nose and I gagged and just barely held back my coffee and bagel I had grabbed on the way down. Covering my nose and mouth with my arm, I stared at the clusters of flowers and the blue vase they were in.

  I was scared. Larson had gotten into my apartment. I had no idea how, but he did it. Not even locked doors could keep him out. I knew that I might have been able to get rid of him once I went to California, but I didn’t know for how long. I didn’t know if he would find a way to reach me there, or if he would be waiting for me when I returned.

  I was terrified, but…

  Something else was uncoiling inside of me and rapidly snaking its way through my veins.

  With a frightened and furious blood-curdling scream, I swiped the entire floral arrangement off the table with such force that it flew into the kitchen and shattered on the floor. I wanted to be sick as I looked at the water, pedals, stems, and glass on the floor. In my memory, I saw me on the floor with it.

  With another scream, I kicked at the mess and nearly fell into it as I smashed through it out of the kitchen. With my wallet and keys in my hand, I left my apartment, locking the door behind me, even if it was pointless.