by Amber Nicole
I race to Lindon Hall, and find my class. The teacher has just shut the door, and turned his back, so I quietly reopen it, and slide in the back row.
“I see you Ms. Matthews, I’ll let it slide this time, don’t make it a habit. Yes?” he says, spinning to give me a glare. Crap, busted.
“Yes sir, I’ll be here early tomorrow with bells on,” I say with a bright smile. How the heck does he know my name? Some girls in the middle row snicker, and complain that I’m distracting them in a mimic of my deep south accent. Great. You would think being in Texas, my twang wouldn’t stand out so much.
A cute boy leans over and whispers, “Ignore them. I happen to be happy you were late. Since you had no choice but to sit next to me.” I give him a beaming smile, and shrug lower in my seat, giving the professor my complete attention. “Okay, now that interruptions are over,” Professor Bourne says, giving me a pointed look. Great, day one and my professor already hates me.
“This is Fine Arts 303. We will meet here twice a week, and the auditorium on Mondays and Saturdays for rehearsals. This is a small class, you all were hand chosen for your talents in the Arts. That being said, this first month will be a test to see who will make it. Don’t expect to stay if you don’t want to work for it.”
Oh right, my video. Another glare thrown my way and I blush. Out of all the classes I had to sign up for, this one I thought would be my favorite. I love performing. I had to send in a demo of a school performance, plus a USB of some of my own songs I’d written and recorded. This was a tough spot to get, and I won’t be giving it up.
He moves back to the podium in the front, and a pretty redhead asks him a question that makes him laugh.
“So tell me, what does ‘with bells on’ mean?” The cute guy asks, leaning closer so Professor Bourne can’t hear. I softly chuckle and ignore him. He nudges my elbow gently and says, “I’m just curious if you will really be wearing bells tomorrow?” That gets a louder chuckle from me. I place my hand over my lips to muffle it, and turn to give him a glare. I open my mouth to scold him but pause. Wow. He is wow. Yeah, even my thoughts are mesmerized by this adonis beside me. I took a small, cursory glance earlier but now that he’s all up in my space, I can’t believe he’s real and what is that delicious smell? I stare for a moment taking him in and he smirks. Crap. He totally knows I’m checking him out. But I mean, how can I not? Tall, dark and handsome, has nothing on this guy. Yes he’s gorgeous with dark brown hair, and some stubble on his chin, that I want to rub up against like a cat on a scratching post, but it’s his eyes that pull me in. I have never seen anything like them. Hazel, but instead of green and blue, they are green and grey. He turns his head, snapping me from my trance, and I see the small gauges in his ears and a small tattoo of an infinity sign just below his ear. I feel flushed, and tear my eyes away before I embarrass myself more. He turns to look at me and I know I’m bright red at this point.
“I’m sorry to stare, it’s just your eyes are incredible.” I glance back his way and he’s biting his lower lip. A chuckle escapes and he shakes his head. “I’ve never had a girl, albeit a pretty one, compliment my eyes, before my body. That’s a first.” He holds out his hand to me, “Easton, but you can call me East,” he says, I run my sweaty hand over my dress, before gently clasping his, then firming my palm, because my dad taught me how to give a proper handshake when I was six.
“Carson, but you may call me Cara. And to answer your question, no I won’t be wearing bells, it's an expression,” I say with a wink. Still holding my hand he rubs his thumb over my palm in small circles. My breath hitches, and I pray he didn’t notice. His eyes heat and he gives me a small tug, pulling us closer together. “Ah I see, but I bet you look adorable with bells on.” He lowers his tone. Tingles run down my spine and my cheeks heat more. I squirm a bit and he lets me go. I pull my attention back to the teacher and try to calm my body down. What the hell was that?
“It may be the first day, but your test starts now. Pick a partner and come down to the front for your assignment. You will have no opportunities to complete this assignment during class. You’re all adults here so figure out how to do it on your own time. This will count for twenty percent of your grade, and may show who is too weak for this program.”
Wow this guy doesn’t play. I gulp and glance over at Easton. He’s biting his lip, while looking at me.
“So what do you say, partners?” he asks and I bob my head like an idiot. He laughs and hands me his phone. “Put your number in, and we can find a time and place to work. I’ll grab the assignment.” He leaves and I input my information. I send myself a text so I have his number, then push the button on the side. It buzzes in my hand, and I glance down. The screen is unlocked and the message is right there to see.
P: How’s it going? Have you met the bitch yet?
Wow. I don’t know who P is, but they sound like a real peach. East jogs back up the steps and I press the button on the side again.
“Hey so we got lucky. How does ‘Songs about exes’ sound?” I laugh and bite my lip.
“I’ve never had an ex, so you may have to help me there.”
He pauses and gives me a critical look before agreeing.
“Okay class, that’s it for today. I want a rough draft of your lyrics and paper by next class,” Professor Bourne says. Some students groan and he rolls his eyes. “Welcome to college. Now grow the fuck up and get out.”
My eyes bug out and East laughs. “What’s your next class?” I ask him, and he takes my hand, helping me stand. Tingles run up my arm and I smile. “Thank you.”
He gives me a smirk then glances at someone a few rows down. His demeanor changes and he drops my hand. “Yeah, don’t mention it. I’ll catch ya later,” he says before dismissing me and walking out the door. I glance the way he was looking and the pretty redhead from earlier is there giving me a smirk. I give her a smile in return and wave. I think she’s one of my new sisters. She flips her hair and walks out the door. Well okay then. I grab my bag and rush to make my next class.
Easton
“Yeah, we are going to have a fucking problem here,” I tell the guys after jogging home. I slam the door and groan. They jump apart and move from the couch as I give them a look, “Really? You guys are worse than bunnies I swear, screwing all the damn time. At least I know you can’t get my brother pregnant,” I quip and they roll their eyes. Jase gives Layton a kiss and chuckles. “But our kids would be so cute.” Gah they are incorrigible sometimes. Layton pushes him back and gives me his full attention. “You said something about a problem?”
I toss my bag on the floor and move to the kitchen for a drink. Footsteps sound, so I know they followed me. I open the fridge and pull out a beer, popping the tab, and chug half of it.
“Whoa! This must be bad, it's not even ten a.m. man,” My brother states. I slam the can on the counter and give him a glare. “She was so nice. She was funny and polite. Totally innocent. Why does Penny have such a hard-on for her again?”
Jase moves closer and grabs my beer, before dumping it down the sink. My eyebrows raise and he groans. “You promised East. We all agreed no more drinking and drugs to handle our problems. Remember?” I snort and shake my head, laughing at the absurdity. One beer is not going to do me harm. “Plus we have football practice later. I don’t need Coach riding our asses because you're a mess.” Ah now the truth comes out. Has nothing to do with my well-being, it’s always about him. I go to say something hurtful but Lay cuts me off. “J, one beer won’t hurt him. East, why don’t you tell us what happened?”
I take a seat next to him at the counter.
“I did everything like we planned. Made sure she had to sit by me, had a conversation with her. I even got us partnered on a project, which I’m kinda looking forward to.”
Jase drops the can in the recycle bag and takes a seat next to Lay. “Okay, what’s the issue then?”
I groan and cover my mouth with my hand, mumbling my words. This shit is embarrassin
g. “I don’t think I can ruin her life, like I’m supposed to. We need to find another way to get the tape back.” Lay places his hand on mine, pulling it away from my mouth so he can understand. “Okay, I caught maybe a fourth of that. How about we try again?”
I slouch my shoulders, avoiding their eyes. “I thought I could do this. I know I’m the asshole out of the group. This should be easy for me, but I don’t want to ruin her life. We need to come up with a new plan.” I glance their way and pause, instead of anger they seem relieved. “Wait, you guys are okay with this?”
Jase stands up and moves to the fridge. “How out of it were you when we had this talk? Lay and I don’t want to hurt someone again. We’ve been thinking about other ways to please Penny and not hurt Carson and I think you can help.” He grabs the eggs and cheese, shutting the fridge with his hip, then moves to the stove. I lean back a bit and give them my full attention.
“Whatever it is, I’m in.”
Fifteen
Memphis
When my one night stand from last week turned out to be Dolly, I thought for sure my career was over. But she surprised me and played dumb. I should have known that was too good to be true.
“Babe, are you ready to go?” Think of the devil and she shall appear. I glance in the mirror fixing my stupid-ass bowtie, that I just have to wear because I’m being dragged to a black tie event as her date. Oh, sorry, not dragged, coerced.
“Yeah, let’s get this dog and pony show over with,” I growl, watching as her lips purse in a non pleased manner, but when I spin, her fake mask is back in place. “Great! Uncle Ron will just be so pleased to see us.”
I internally roll my eyes and offer her my arm. Right, Uncle Ron. The same Uncle Ron that got her this job and controls my contract. Dolly may seem sweet as sugar on the outside, but underneath she's a conniving, rotten, spoiled bitch. If it wasn’t for my career on the line, I’d tell her to eat shit. I hold her arm all the way from my penthouse, to the lobby, to the limo. She slides in first and I follow. As soon as the driver shuts the door she’s on me.
“You look so fuckable in that tux. I could just. Eat. You. Up,” she says, walking her fingers down to my soft cock and biting my earlobe. I glance at the driver, and he meets my eyes in the mirror. I give him a shrug and he winks, before pressing the button for the partition. I haven’t fucked Dolly since that night, and she’s becoming so needy. According to her, I awakened something inside her she never knew she liked. Yeah, America's Sweetheart Dolly Ray is a closet pain slut. Too bad she’s only out for herself, and what benefits her. Her lips move down my neck, while her hand squeezes me tight, almost to the point of pain. “Please Memphis,” she whines, “I’ll do anything you want.” I grab her wrist, moving it from my hard cock, then grip her throat, pulling her face close to mine, til she's only a hair's breadth away. Her panting breaths hit my lips, and I lick mine with just the tip of my tongue, watching as her eyes flare with heat. I laugh in her face, and toss her to the other side of the seat. She lands in a heap, breathing hard.
“You may have me by the balls Dolly, but you will never manipulate my dick.”
Her face reddens and her fists tighten for a moment, before she wipes it and puts her mask back in place. Sitting up properly, she crosses her legs at the ankles and places a hand to her hair, pulling out a small compact mirror and checking her appearance. See, totally fake. I roll my eyes and pull out my phone to get lost in a mindless game.
We don’t say another word until the car pulls up to the venue. I wait for the driver to open my door, then slide out to a hoard of people and paparazzi. My bodyguard, Daniel, pushes his body against mine as Mitchel does the same to Dolly, blocking her until we reach the red carpet where they move off to the shadows. I offer my arm to her and she gives me a smile just for the cameras. Great, top page news tomorrow: ‘Memphis and Dolly in love.’ Can’t wait. I internally roll my eyes and give her a smirk in return. “Memphis, Memphis over here,” they shout as we move down the line of photographers. I give polite nods and smiles, but never stop. This event doesn’t call for interaction or interviews. We walk through the entrance, and I immediately drop Dolly’s arm and head for the bar. Her heels clack behind me with impatience. I turn to softly snap at her when my eyes catch a bundle of gold tulle and sparkling diamonds. Ron and his wife make their way to us, so I sigh and place my mask back on. I glance over at the bar and I could cry. I was so close.
“Memphis, my boy. It’s good to see you outside of the board room or studios,” Ron says when he reaches us, smacking me hard on the back in greeting. I hide a wince and give him a nod. He moves to Dolly, placing a small kiss on her temple, before going back to his wife. Fuck, I can’t remember her name. Dolly moves closer to me, gripping my arm tight with her claws and placing her head on my chest. Ron’s eyes widen, but he nods his approval. Great, no way to get out of this charade now.
I spend the night listening to a bunch of pompous assholes talking about business deals, or complaining about the gardener who ruined their prized petunias, or bitching about their kids. I’m about to slip away to the bathroom to get away from this hell when Dolly leans over to whisper in my ear. She’s been loving the attention she gets with me here. Touching me at every chance and playing up the ‘relationship’ for anyone she can. According to her, we met a few months ago, but didn’t realize we would be working together. Yeah, complete bullshit, but the monkeys eat it up as if it's thousand dollar caviar, instead of a pile of horseshit.
“Let’s get out of here.” I don’t wait for her to say more. I drop my napkin on my half eaten plate of I don’t even know—but I do know that I’m starving for a cheeseburger dripping in grease, and I’ll be having the driver swing by a burger joint— before leaning back and meeting her eyes, she bites her lip and nods. I stand, and like the gentleman I am, hold my hand out to help her from her chair. All eyes at the table glance our way, I paste a fake salesman smile on my face and offer my other hand to Ron, shaking it firmly, then moving to kiss his wife's cheek. “This has been a lovely night, but Dolly and I agreed to get a few drinks with the band to celebrate,” I announce then glance at Dolly giving her goo-goo eyes, while internally rolling mine. I should quit the band and become an actor for the award winning performance I’m giving here tonight.
Ron pushes his chair back from the table and stands. “Ah spectacular, have a great night you two. It was great to see you again Memphis,” he says, before giving Dolly a kiss on the temple. I take her hand and place it on my arm, leading her out the door. People try to stop us on the way, but I just tell them we’re late for another function as politely as I can. I need to get the fuck out of here before I explode. This is not me. I don’t wear expensive tuxedos and meet and greet with the fortune 500 club. I just want to create music and live my dream. If it wasn’t for the woman on my arm’s ultimatum, I wouldn’t even be here tonight. I’d be at the club, sitting in our VIP section, drinking beer and bullshitting with the guys. We make it outside to less of a crowd and I toss her arm as if she burned me. I rip the bow tie off, and unbutton my shirt. The panic slowly washes away and I can breathe again.
“So, we’re meeting the guys to celebrate?” Dolly asks, as I walk over to the waiting driver. She places her hand on my arm and flutters her lashes, “Because I thought maybe we could have a celebration. Just us two,” she finishes in a sultry voice, biting her lower lip. A flash catches my eye and I spot two paps taking our photo. I shake my head with a low chuckle. She almost fooled me, should have known it was for show. “Get in the car Dolly,” I softly growl so only she can hear. Her eyes brighten with excitement and she rushes through the door onto the seat. I follow, then move over to the other bench seat. She gives me a look of confusion and I smirk. The driver gets in and the car starts a slow crawl, as other press take our photos through the windows, or try to, but the tint is too dark. I knock on the partition since Dolly is near the button, and Gerry lowers it. “Did you grab what I asked for?” He nods and hands me a small du
ffle bag, through the window, keeping his eyes on the road the whole time. I take it gratefully and sigh with relief. “Thank you man.” He gives me a nod then places the window back up. Dolly leans closer to see what's in the bag, but I ignore her. Opening the zipper, I remove my change of clothes. I rip the rest of my clothes off and shove it into the bag, not caring it cost more than a car back home. I pull up my worn blue jeans, and wrap my belt around my waist, before slipping a flannel over the white tank I had on under my dress shirt. “So you are going out then.” Dolly scoffs with a roll of her eyes. I nod and put my boots on. “Yep,” I reply, not giving her any more information.
I shoot my boys a text letting them know I’m on the way, and they send me a pic of Alex snorting coke and Mikey getting a lap dance from a hot-as-fuck blonde in a string bikini. I take a closer look and pause. She looks too similar to my shortcake. I wonder how Cara is? I’ll have to give her a call this week. Check in. I miss her and her sassy attitude. I pull up her Insta feed and groan. Seriously, why does she have guys surrounding her lately? I scroll a few pics down until one of us pops us. It’s from her eighteenth birthday, right before I left for Nashville. She’s sitting on my shoulders in the lake, playing chicken with Sam and Lee. A grin hits my lips and Dolly huffs. I hit the home button and search my name, afraid of what will pop up. Immediately photos of Dolly and I together swarm the page. Fucking vultures. I toss my phone in my bag and look out the window the rest of the ride.