The Kaleidoscope Album Box Set

by Bryce Oakley

  Collins turned to Meg, who had a knowing grin on her lips.

  Meg laughed, looking around. “You can’t be serious,” she said.

  “I’m very, very serious,” Collins said, but even she could barely keep her smile contained.

  “What if someone sees us?” Meg said.

  “Sees us doing what?” Collins asked, feigning innocence.

  Meg rolled her eyes, reaching for Collins shirt again. “This is wild,” she murmured, her eyelids heavy with desire. She pulled her close, seemingly just as into the makeout session as Collins was.

  Collins pressed Meg back into the wall, one hand supporting her weight while the other explored just how soft Meg’s sweater felt under her fingertips. She palmed Meg’s breast and Meg arched into her hand.

  Her lips traced Meg’s jaw and neck, dipping until she could scrape her teeth against Meg’s collarbone. Her vulnerable skin was soft and felt so good beneath her tongue.

  As her hand ventured lower, she broke the kiss to look down into Meg’s eyes. “Is this okay?” She asked, her voice barely audible.

  Meg nodded. “Yes, please,” she said.

  Collins’ hand slipped beneath Meg’s sweater, feeling the goosebumps along the skin of her stomach and hip.

  Meg arched into Collins’ again, her hands grasping the fabric of Collins’ shirt tightly. “Fuck,” she said. “This is… I don’t… This is fast.”

  Collins paused, looking up. “You don’t? Too fast?”

  “No, dear God, don’t stop,” Meg said. “I’m just kind of…” She took a deep breath. “Stunned this is happening.”

  “In a good way?” Collins asked.

  Meg nodded. “In a very good way,” she said.

  Collins tenderly kissed Meg’s lips, wanting Meg to be sure before Collins went any further.

  As Collins’ hand reached under the waistband of Meg’s jeans, Meg bit down on Collins’ shoulder to keep quiet.

  Collins moved her hand, watching Meg’s reactions to see what she liked and needed more of. She found a steady rhythm, surprised by how turned on she was just from watching Meg.

  “Fuck, I’m going to,” Meg whispered, and then tensed as she tried her hardest to stay quiet through her climax.

  Collins watched with a mixture of curiosity and pride, thrilled that she could make Meg find her release so quickly.

  After Meg came back down to earth, Collins’ kissed her cheeks and Meg kept her arms wrapped around Collins’ for support.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” Meg said, giggling.

  “Yeah, watching that was unbelievably sexy,” Collins said, grinning.

  “Well, you always do get some of my best work out of me,” Meg said with a wink.

  Collins laughed, rolling her eyes.

  Footsteps interrupted the moment and Collins jumped away, blocking Meg so that she could straighten herself out. She bent down, as though she was looking at the ground.

  “Honey, I don’t think your earring went all the way over here,” she said loudly, then glanced up as though startled to see a server nearby. “Oh, gosh, sorry, my girlfriend lost her earring and thought it might have rolled over here. It’s gold, do you see anything?”

  “It’s like a tassel, babe, it’s not gold,” Meg said, rolling with the story easily.

  “Oh no, I’ll keep an eye out for it,” the server said, walking around them to walk through the door into the back supply area.

  Meg looked at Collins with wide eyes and looked as though she would explode with giggles at any moment.

  After ducking into the bathroom to clean up, they left the bar hand in hand and walked back to their hotel together. Collins’ cheeks hurt from smiling.

  “Do you want to stay over in my room?” Meg asked as they stood between their two doors. “Not to like, do anything. Just to sleep.”

  “Uh,” Collins hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck as she considered it.

  “Oh, it’s okay if not,” Meg said, holding up her hands quickly.

  “No, no, I do,” Collins said. “Let me just grab my toothbrush.”

  They fell asleep holding hands, and Collins was pretty sure they stayed like that all night.

  Wednesday

  The next morning, Collins woke up early and headed downstairs to get two coffees from the coffee shop in the hotel lobby. Her head was reeling from the night before.

  Meg was incredible. Being with Meg was incredible.

  They had been reckless as hell, but she grinned at the memory.

  Collins had never really wanted to stay the night with someone after hooking up with them before. She had, of course — she wasn’t a monster, but this was the first time that she wanted to sleep next to someone just to feel near them. As she grabbed them both coffees, she grinned to herself and headed back upstairs.

  She knew they needed to talk about what this meant and how they should proceed since they were working so closely together. Was it a one night thing? Was it a casual thing? Were they… dating? Would they tell everyone that they were dating? What did this mean? What did she want it to mean?

  It was a whole new situation for Collins. Her usual relationship was dating someone that was happy to be just a little ditzy with little to no ambition, they usually tried to hide their desire to become a trophy wife with some pretend pipe dream of becoming a model or maybe some vague music aspirations.

  Meg couldn’t be more different from the norm.

  It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. But she thought she wanted to move forward — that was one thing she was sure of.

  She just hoped Meg felt the same way.

  As she was heading back to Meg’s room, she was shocked to see Micah was knocking on her door, across the hallway from Meg’s room.

  “Whoa! Hey! You’re better? Not contagious, right?” Collins asked, standing an appropriate amount of contagious-distance away while juggling the two coffee cups.

  “Not contagious,” Micah said, and when Collins got a good look at her, she understood that Micah had never had the flu at all.

  Micah’s lips were gigantic — it was like they had gotten stuck in the end of a vacuum, and then the vacuum had somehow been worse on one side. They were practically melting off of her face.

  Collins stared at them, unsure what to say.

  Micah rolled her eyes. “I wanted to make sure I looked good for the special just in case I got on camera, but my lip fillers didn’t take quite right. Just a little lopsided is all. That’s why I took so long getting out here, I had to wait for it to calm down a little before I could have them fix it for me.”

  “This is fixed?” Collins said before she could stop herself. Micah’s lips were so cockeyed, Collins would have paid good money to have seen how it looked in the “before” pictures. No wonder she sounded so funny on the phone.

  Micah scowled at Collins.

  “You’d better sue that doctor,” Collins said, still unable to look away.

  “What’s with the two coffees? One for me?” Micah eyed Collins suspiciously.

  Collins decided not to answer that question. Luckily, she had about 700 of her own. ”So, when did you get in? How are the arrangements coming along? When do the cameras arrive? Did you receive word that the band has decided to support me as director? What’s the plan for today?” Collins asked in rapid succession, knowing that she was bombarding Micah with questions. She needed all of those answers, but she was also trying to distract Micah from the fact that she was playing coffee fairy.

  “Settle down, tiger. I only just got into town. I’m going to need to get myself a cup of coffee and we can go over everything, but yes, I did get all of your updates. All five hundred of them. It sounds like you really got through to her, and thus, the band. Meet me in the coffee shop downstairs in…” Micah checked the time on her phone “Fifteen?”

  Collins nodded.

  Micah strode away from Collins towards the elevator.

  Collins stood in the hallway for a moment,
waiting to be sure Micah was gone before knocking on Meg’s door. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she had seen a shadow move from behind the peep hole just before she knocked.

  “Hey, I wondered where you’d gone,” Meg said, rubbing her eyes sleepily as she opened the door. She looked adorable with her bedhead and fuzzy pajama pants slung low on her hips.

  Collins held up the two cups of coffee in response. She handed a cup to Meg and sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “I ran into Micah in the hallway and I didn’t know what to say to her about why I was carrying two coffee cups, so I just asked her like nine thousand questions,” Collins stared hard at Meg, trying to read her reaction. “I didn’t know how you felt about people knowing we…” She waved her hand in the air. “You know.”

  Meg fiddled with her coffee cup for a moment before she responded.

  “Do we know what we’re doing about… you know?” Meg asked, her face a mask.

  It was the perfect opening for Collins’ to be honest with Meg. But that was… scary. And a little hard to say. So instead, she shrugged.

  “I’m not sure if we know exactly what we’re doing, but I would like to keep… you know,” Collins said. She watched for any sign of Meg’s feelings, but wasn’t able to decipher anything. She knew she was probably doing that creepy stare thing, but she didn’t care.

  “Yeah, of course you do! Why wouldn’t you, I’m a rock star, after all,” Meg laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

  Collins blinked in surprise.

  “I’m joking. I would like to keep seeing where this goes, too,” Meg said, a sheepish grin on her face. She moved to sit next to Collins on the bed, leaning her head on Collins’ shoulder.

  “Did I do the wrong thing to leave Micah in the dark? I didn’t know what to say,” Collins said.

  “Fuck if I know,” Meg laughed.

  “Are you going to tell the band?” Collins asked, not sure whether she was hoping Meg would say yes or no.

  Meg laughed. “Those nosey women? No way,” she said quickly.

  Collins turned, startled by the reaction.

  “I will eventually, I’m sure, but I’m not sure when or how. Is it alright if we kind of play that by ear? We get a little all-up-in-each-others-business sometimes,” Meg said. She seemed nervous again.

  “Yeah, of course,” Collins answered. “So, let’s just kind of go with it, and if either of us feels the need to share, then we can. Deal?”

  Meg looked a bit unsure, but she nodded her head anyway.

  “I’ve got to get downstairs to meet Micah, but I’ll see you later on,” Collins said, leaning to give Meg a quick kiss on the nose.

  “Oh yeah? For more… you know?” Meg teased.

  “Oh yeah. Lots more of that,” Collins said, and her giddiness bubbled up inside of her. She cleared her throat, putting on her game face, and headed downstairs.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Meg

  Meg watched as Collins bounded out of the room, clearly excited and amped up. It was far too early for that shit.

  It wasn’t that Meg lacked enthusiasm about it — in fact, she was extremely enthusiastic. There was just something that seemed a little… off.

  Everything had been perfect that morning when she woke up, the delicious memories of the night before flooding back to her as soon as she opened her eyes. She had lounged in bed for a few minutes, just enjoying how excited she was and couldn’t help but giggle — yes, giggle out loud — at the bizarre fact that she was totally into this secret fun, spontaneous, fucking sexy side of Collins.

  She had just finished brushing her teeth when she heard people talking right outside her door. Something about hotels made her extra nosey, so she went to watch and listen from the peep hole in the door, obviously.

  When Meg realized it was Collins and Micah having a conversation in the hallway, she nearly threw open the door to greet Micah, but something stopped her.

  Unashamedly spying, she listened to everything that the two women said, only moving away from the peep hole when she realized that Collins was about to knock.

  She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something she was missing. Nothing about the conversation she eavesdropped on was strange in itself — why wouldn’t Collins and Micah be talking? Maybe Collins had seemed a bit dodgy, but that was because she was trying to keep Micah off the topic of her sex life. Right?

  What did Micah mean by the remark about Collins getting through to someone?

  As Meg dressed for the day, she made a mental note to be more observant today to see what went on between Collins and Micah.

  Not accustomed to being awake so early but unable to go back to sleep, Meg decided to order some room service breakfast and text Isla. She knew that she was an hour ahead of LA in Denver, and Isla was probably sleeping, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Meg: So. I did a thing.

  Isla: Do tell.

  Meg: We spent the night together.

  Isla: Seriously?!

  Isla: Well, how was it??

  Not normally shy about recounting the details of her sex life with Isla in graphic detail, Meg found herself in the unusual position of not wanting to share too much about her night with Collins. She opted for the fireworks emoji. That sent the right message.

  Isla: Don’t think you’ll get away with sending fireworks and no details. I’ll have the whole story when you’re back. How did you leave it?

  Meg: We actually talked about it and both want to see where it goes. What the fuck am I doing?

  Isla: You’re asking some good questions.

  Meg: I do kind of think I might potentially someday like her.

  Isla: So you’re like dating this woman you previously referred to as the world’s only living heart donor?

  Meg: NOT dating.

  When her breakfast arrived, she set up her tray full of greasy goodness on the bed and set to work devouring her hashbrowns and breakfast sandwich. Her phone dinged and she assumed it was Isla, but was surprised to see it was Domino.

  Dom: Yo. So. You and Collins are like a *thing* now?

  Dumbfounded, Meg stared at her phone. How did Dom know so quickly? Had she run into Collins? Or had Radio Isla alerted her best friend slash Dom’s girlfriend Sabrina that quickly?

  Meg: Wow. Good morning to you, too.

  And then she sent another text to Isla.

  Meg: What the fuck, dude?

  Isla: *shrug emoji*

  She knew she was being cagey, but she was allowed to be however she wanted about her own damn personal life.

  She switched her phone to silent and focused on her breakfast for the few moments she had before the pounding at her door would start. She knew it was just a matter of time.

  Like clockwork, exactly three minutes later, she heard the very loud and insistent knocking. How had Domino perfected the cop knock? If she wasn’t pissed, she’d be seriously impressed.

  Meg considered calling security for a fraction of a second, but she conceded to opening the door without having to look to see who was outside.

  Domino walked in past Meg with authority, like it was her room.

  “Might as well leave the door open, Billie and Zoey will be here soon,” Domino ordered as she sat down on the bed and grabbed a piece of toast from Meg’s tray.

  “You need to cool your jets,” Meg glared at her friend. She stood next to the door with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “It just so happens that I don’t want to have to get up and answer the door again, so I’m doing this because I want to.” She flipped the latch lock so the door wouldn’t close.

  Domino smirked but said nothing.

  “At least shove over,” Meg sat on the bed next to Dom and watched her finish the toast in uncomfortable silence.

  “Jesus, Dom, did you sprint here?” Zoey said, then greeted Meg cheerfully, which was surprising since none of them were really what could be classified as morning people. The only thing guaranteed to make Zoey perky thi
s early was gossip.

  “When your girlfriend gets a text that Meg is dating Collins, you can tell me how quickly you make like a bread truck and haul buns to find out what’s going on,” Dom answered with her mouth full of food, spraying crumbs all over Meg’s bedspread.

  “Gross, dude. Clean up after yourself,” Meg scolded, giving Dom another death glare.

  “Good morning kids!” Billie said, sauntering into the room with a coffee and a huge grin.

  Meg groaned, covering her face with her hand. She was so not ready for this.

  “How’s it going?” Billie asked Meg in a falsely sweet voice.

  “It was going just fine until my friends forgot about the concept of boundaries and barged into my room. But how are you?” Meg said, imitating Billie’s tone.

  “Cut the shit, Meg. What are you doing?” Domino wasn’t hiding her irritation.

  The most frustrating thing about the situation wasn’t even that Dom thought she had a right to some sort of decision making in Meg’s life, but that Meg really wanted to talk to her friends about everything. Unfortunately, she would have to be pissed and clam up instead.

  “Nope. Don’t talk to me like that,” Meg said, crossing her arms over her chest in protest.

  “Knock it off, Dom,” Billie chided.

  “I thought I was coming in here for some gossip, not to watch you two bicker,” Zoey said, giving Dom a pointed look.

  “How am I the only one worked up right now?” Dom looked from Billie to Zoey.

  Meg’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline, getting angrier with every word Dom said.

  “We all know Collins is an asshole. So, what does she want with our Meg?” Dom’s voice was getting higher and faster. “Can we all at least agree that one of us should talk to her?”

  Billie and Zoey exchanged a look, then stared at Dom as though she had lost her marbles.

  Dom’s eyes got wider, clearly not finding the support she had hoped for.