by Mia Archer
Damn it. I’d gone to all this trouble to find a nice out of the way place to have a quick meal and now a fan managed to find me despite my best efforts. There really was no escape.
I looked up once I figured enough time had passed that the coast was clear. Got a really good look at this girl for the first time, and…
Damn.
Like, seriously. Damn.
This girl was hot. Sure I was only catching glimpses, but I liked those glimpses. She sparkled like your typical concert goer. Almost like there was an unspoken dress code for women at our concerts that included dressing up as a disco ball.
Aside from that, though, damn. Long hair flowed down past her shoulders, a killer body that filled out that sparkly disco ball outfit in all the right places, and when she turned in my direction I saw a pair of stunning blue eyes to go along with the shiny dark hair and a smile that immediately had me weak in the knees.
That was new for this tour. Sure I’d seen girls and thought they were hot, but I’d never been this taken this quickly looking at any of them.
No, that was the sort of thing that led to problems like the Incident, and that was the last thing I wanted on this tour. I wanted to make some money, have some fun reliving old memories, and go back to my nice house on the beach where I could enjoy all the advantages of hitting it big young and having the good sense to come up with a nice investment portfolio rather than blowing it all on parties and cars and drugs or whatever the hell it was people did to spiral out of control and provide some drama for the inevitable VH1 documentary.
Still. I’d only gotten one look at her, but already there was something different about this girl. I knew it was a bad idea, but I found myself wanting to go over and introduce myself. I always loved the look girls got when they realized who I was, but that wasn’t a look I’d enjoyed in quite some time what with the whole abstaining from hitting on fans and all.
Here was an opportunity to have that fun considering this was a girl who was here for the concert. Yeah, she’d know exactly who I was, and more importantly it was just the two of us. I could have a quick conversation and duck back to the arena before whatever she posted to social media had a chance to get very far, assuming anyone believed her in the first place.
It didn’t hurt that she was hot, or that she had a smile that made me feel warm all over for some reason. I lied to myself that a pretty smile had nothing to do with it. That I was just having some fun in a controlled environment where I couldn’t get too carried away and do something silly like what I used to back in the day.
There was a voice in the back of my head whispering that this was a bad idea. I ignored that voice. I was just going up to say hi. That’s all this was. Even if she was getting me turned on in a way that a fan hadn’t in a good long while, it’s not like anything was going to come of a brief meeting in some diner.
I’d have some fun with a fan, she’d get a thrill, and we’d part friends.
I didn’t care what that little voice was whispering. I was compelled by a more powerful force. Whether that more powerful force was the universe trying to push me towards this girl or just my lizard brain noticing a pretty girl and short circuiting the more rational thinking parts of my brain was anyone’s guess, but I was a slave to that force for the moment.
So I stood and made my way over to give one lucky fan the concert experience of a lifetime. This was going to be fun.
4: Pre-Concert Snack
"This is spooky."
"Tell me about it," Alice said.
"It's never like this during the day."
"No way," Alice said. "The whole place is packed with people."
It looked like a ghost town now. The only people in evidence were a couple of homeless people packing it up for the night. My stomach grumbled and I looked around.
"Is there any place we could eat that's open this late?" I asked.
"Sure! There's plenty of restaurants around here," Alice said. "Like…"
Only I didn't see anything that looked like it was remotely close to being open. We were on the financial side of the big arena rather than the night life side. Most of the restaurants around here were a breakfast and lunch type of deal. Everything in this part of downtown shut down around 5 o'clock, except for the arena of course when there was a concert or a game, and so why the hell would any of the restaurants bother to stay open if there were no customers?
"Maybe there's something behind the arena?” I said. “Surely places right there would stay open for games and stuff."
"I really kind of wanted to get to our seats. Can't you just eat at the concert?" Alice asked.
"And pay an arm and a leg for my food? No thanks. I'm not made of money!"
Alice sighed. "Fine."
I looked around again. It really was spooky how deserted this part of town that was after 5 o'clock. It was almost enough to send a chill down my spine. I could almost imagine people lurking in the shadows, lurking in the alleys, but there probably weren't even criminals down here. Criminals needed people to prey on. Even the muggers were probably off in another part of town where they could rob flesh and blood people rather than the ghosts.
"How about this?" I said. "You want to get to the arena. I want to have dinner without paying fifty dollars for a cheap hot dog. Why don't you go ahead and I'll catch up after I've found a diner or something and grabbed a quick bite to eat."
Alice regarded me skeptically. "This isn't some attempt to get out of this? You're not going to turn around and go back to our apartment the instant I lose sight of you, are you?"
I laughed and pulled Alice into a hug. A hug that seemed to surprise her from the way her eyes went wide. Then she wrapped her arms around me.
"Don't worry," I said. "I'll be there. I just need food. I had to skip lunch at work today."
Alice pulled back. "Fine. Have fun with your greasy food!"
I turned and looked around. There really wasn't anything open. There were no lights to be seen on the first level of any building. Sure there were lights twinkling in some of the towers, but that was to be expected. I was pretty sure none of the lights up there were hiding a diner or a restaurant or anything like that. Maybe a break room with some popcorn, but I needed dinner. I pulled out my phone and tapped. Tried to find something that was actually open this time of night in this part of town.
My face lit up. There was a small diner that was pretty close to the arena. More importantly it looked like the only place on my side of the arena that was still open.
So with phone in hand I started navigating towards it.
I stepped inside and the smell of burgers and fries hit my nose. That wasn't normally the kind of thing I'd go for, I had a figure to watch after all, but as far as I was concerned it was manna from the heavens tonight. I sidled up to the counter. An actual honest to God counter where you could order and eat.
The only other person in the place was some girl at the far end with her head down chowing down on a burger and fries. This seemed like a very burger and fries type of place.
I decided that sounded like just the thing and I put in my order with an older waitress with a sweet smile and a voice that sounded like she’d enjoyed one cigarette too many over the years.
The waitress had just put my meal down and I was about to bite into it. Only before I could bite down a shadow fell across me. I looked up and blinked. It was the girl who'd been sitting in the corner with her head down eating. At least I assumed this was the same girl. The hair color was the same and it's not like there was anybody else in here.
And holy shit. Good God damn.
This girl was hot! She looked like a girl who took care of herself. Spent plenty of time in the gym. She had curves in all the right places, but they were contained in a tight package that was shown off by some ridiculously over the top outfit that showed off everything while revealing nothing. I wanted to pull her down on the counter and …
Well then. Where the hell did that thought come from? I gave mys
elf a mental shake. Tried to come out of this funk. Only her gorgeous face with those distracting eyes, her tight body, the way she held herself, that cocky confident smile on her face. It was the full package.
I went weak in the knees. Weak to the point that it was a damn good thing I was sitting on a stool because otherwise I might be falling on my ass, and it wouldn't be a good first impression to fall on my ass right in front of this incredibly hot girl, now would it?
Talk about your all time terrible first impressions. That would probably beat out the time I went up to ask Grant Thomas to dance with me at a seventh grade dance back when I was still pretending I was into guys. Keeping up appearances. Incidentally it was a Sleepwalker song playing which wasn't winning any points for the group let me tell you.
I'd tripped on my formal dress, ripping it in several places and also face planting in the process. Enough blood came pouring out of my nose that night that anyone who saw probably worried I was about to pass out from the blood loss. Only they were all wrong. I knew what was really going to kill me that night. That was the night that I very nearly had the world's very first case of a clinically proven death from embarrassment.
It had all worked out in the end, though. I didn’t really want to danced with Grant and breaking my nose had been a convenient excuse to get out of it. I’d been terrified by the interest in his eyes as I approached him.
Of course I wasn't even asking the good questions here. Like why did this girl decide to come over from where she was sitting and obviously trying to avoid being seen? Why was she smiling down at me with that expectant grin on her face? What was she expecting?
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"So you're going to the concert?"
I looked down at my outfit and laughed. "Am I that obvious?"
"Well let's just say I've been to a few of these and you kind of look the part."
A laugh and a pregnant pause where it seemed like she was waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to do something. What the hell it was she was expecting was beyond me, but whatever.
This girl was obviously a little weird. Incredibly hot, but just a little weird.
"Wait a minute," I said. "Did you just say you've been to a few of these concerts?"
There was that laugh again. Followed by that same look. Only this time there was something else there as well. Confusion. Sh was expecting me to react in some way, but I didn't know what the hell she was expecting.
"Well yeah," she said. "I kind of follow the group around…"
“Really? Do you go with your girlfriend or something?"
Damn. Here I was going to a concert with my friend and I still couldn’t help but flirt just a little with the sexy fangirl I met at a diner before the concert. Though I figured flirting was about as far as this was going to go. If this girl followed the band around then she probably wasn’t even from around here or anything, which was a damn shame.
Whatever it was she thought I was going to say it was plain from the look of confusion on her face that what I said was the last thing she expected. It was plain from the look on her face that I might as well have opened my mouth and started speaking in Sanskrit for all that she could understand what I was saying. And then she laughed an easy sexy laugh.
"No," she said. "No girlfriend. I'm sort of unattached at the moment."
There was something about the tone of her voice that made me think she was holding something back. I could see the pain of a breakup there, and it must’ve been a whopper. I reached out and put my hand on hers. God I was being shameless, but I didn’t care. This was probably the only fun I was going to have tonight, after all, and she said she didn’t have a girlfriend. I felt an electric shock. Damn.
"I'm sorry," I said. "Was it a bad breakup?"
She took a seat at the stool next to me and leaned against the counter. She smiled that mysterious smile again. "You might say that."
"Well whoever she was, she doesn't deserve you!"
It occurred to me that it might be the person she was talking about was a “he,” but when she didn’t correct me I figured I was in safe enough territory assuming she played for the same team I did.
"You could say that,” she said. “So I take it you're not a big fan of the band?"
I blushed again. Damn, this girl had a way of making me blush. She had a way of making me feel like that schoolgirl going up to ask Grant for that dance I hadn’t been particularly interested in, but I still got a rush from the approach. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling.
"Am I that obvious?"
"Well let's just say it's pretty obvious to me when somebody isn't a fan of the group."
I sighed. "What can I say? They came along at a time when I was rebelling against anything popular. And they were the most ridiculously popular thing out there when I was in middle school."
She blinked. "Middle school?"
"Yeah? Why?"
"Nothing," she said with just the barest hint of hesitation that told me it wasn’t “nothing.” "Just suddenly feeling kind of old."
I laughed. "Are you serious? You don't look like you could be more than…"
It suddenly occurred to me that this could be a sensitive subject. Still, she didn't look like she was any older than maybe her late twenties or early to mid thirties. Not much older than me at all, in the grand scheme of things. Sure a few years ago it would've been an eternal gulf of years, but now that I was out in the real world my sense of scale when it came to age and relationships had adjusted.
Not that I'd had much chance to put that revised scale into practice.
"You can't be older than your early thirties," I said. I figured that was safe enough. Unless she was a very mature looking late twenties in which case I’d just stuck my foot in it big time.
"Younger than that, actually," she said. "I just hit the big thirty, and let me tell you it's been hitting me pretty hard. You're making me feel my age saying you were in middle school when the band first hit."
"You're being ridiculous. Besides, I'd kill to look as good as you when I'm getting to thirty. Most of the people I work with that age have really let themselves go."
She arched an eyebrow. "As good as me? You really think I look that good, do you?"
There was a mischievous twinkle to her eyes. A twinkle that sent a chill running down my spine.
"You know what I mean," I said. "Obviously you keep in shape. Besides, I work with a lot of people your age, not that your age is that old. You're only like seven years older than me…"
I was babbling. I needed to get control of myself. "The point I'm trying to make is you look damn good!"
I wanted to put my hand over my mouth. Why the hell was I acting like this? I was acting exactly like that girl who'd been babbling at that dance right before I tripped and fell and nearly broke my nose. I had the same feeling as though I'd tripped and fell all over again, the only difference being that in this case I was tripping and falling all over myself metaphorically rather than literally. Which was less painful, physically at least, but I still wanted to curl up and die.
Only she had that easy laugh. She had that easy look. "Well thanks for the compliment. Though I have to admit I have a question for you."
"Shoot," I said.
I was surprised at how easy conversation was coming with her. It was actually kind of weird. I hadn't hit it off with the a girl like this since getting out of college. It was a damn shame she was traveling the country following Sleepwalker. Because if she was local, watch out!
"If you don't really care about the band then why are you dressed up like that?"
"Solidarity. My friend Alice loves the band. She won a contest and got excellent seats close enough for the band to see us. She refused to let me go out in something frumpy. The last thing I wanted was to look like a groupie for a bunch of washed up former rock stars."
To my surprise she threw her head back and laughed. A long loud laugh that filled the diner and got the waitress looking over to
us. When she came down from that laugh she was wiping a tear from her eye and smacked the counter a couple of times. I blinked at that reaction. Definitely not what I was expecting, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to get a laugh like that.
I figured she'd be insulted if anything at my frank assessment of the group. Alice acted like it was the end of the world when I dared question the musical genius of Sleepwalker. It seemed like a girl who followed the group around would be more intense in her fandom, not less.
"Did I say something funny?"
"Oh it was nothing," she said. She wiped a tear from her other eye. "You just pretty much mirrored exactly something I was saying in a conversation just a couple of months ago."
"Oh. Well I guess great minds think alike and all that."
"That they do," she said. "That they do."
She glanced down at her watch and back up at me. She had a smile on her face again, but this time it was filled with regret. It really was too bad. She was fun to talk to. I had a feeling this was going to be the highlight of my evening. From here all I had to look forward to was being deafened by decade old girl pop rock music.
"It was very nice to meet you…"
I blinked. "Oh! I can't believe I forgot. I'm Jessica."
I held a hand out. She took it and I felt that electric shock again. Damn! She dripped with sexiness, and once more I found myself cursing the universe for giving that sexiness and that confidence to a girl who wasn’t from around these here parts. It wasn't fair!
"Nice to meet you Jessica," she said. "I'm Ivy."
I sighed. Ivy. I blinked. “Hey, just like the chick in the band! No wonder you like them so much!”
Ivy shook her head and chuckled. "You're funny Jessica. I think I like you."
I smiled and blushed. "I think I like you too!"
I was such a goofball. I thought I liked her too? What sort of idiotic stupid thing was that to say? Only miraculously she wasn't running for the hills. I figured that was a good sign. She searched my face. Once more I had the distinct feeling she was looking for something. What the hell she was looking for was beyond me.