by Mia Archer
I felt an elbow in my side. I looked over and Alice was looking at me with her brow furrowed.
"Something's wrong," she said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I've seen the pay-per-views from this tour," Alice said. "Ivy's breaking the script. She's not supposed to come out on the catwalk for this number."
I looked back up to the stage. No. She couldn't possibly. Surely she wouldn't risk screwing up the show just to get a chance to test my hint? And yet here she was running along the stage, grasping hands as she went along. And as she was grasping their hands I felt a chill.
She wasn't just giving a little one-on-one time with the girls lucky enough to be in the front row. No, she was looking at every one.
She was on the hunt.
Apparently she did get my message, and she was going to make her way to us soon enough. I decided I wasn't going to hide this time though. No, I'd let her see me. I still planned on playing a little hard to get, it seemed like that was something this girl wasn't used to what with her star status and everything, but I wasn't going to hide from her entirely.
"It's a good thing this is one of the few songs where Ivy is the lead!" Alice shouted as Ivy got closer. A wave of screaming women followed her. Some were crying, all were screaming at the top of their lungs. And then she was on us.
My breath caught as I stared up at her. As she locked eyes with me and there was instant recognition. She finished with the girls next to us and then she was on to me and Alice. Alice was reaching out eagerly, but I stood with my arms crossed looking up at her with an eyebrow cocked.
I realized all of this was being caught on camera. We were being projected up on the big screens. The girls all through the arena were screaming, and it sounded like they were screaming at me rather than Ivy. I could just imagine what was running through their heads. The girl with her arms crossed not acknowledging the great and sexy Ivy.
Meanwhile she stared down at me with a goofy grin on her face. She adopted the same posture as me, a serious pout with her arms crossed and one leg stuck out. The crowd roared in delight and I could hear girls laughing around me. I rolled my eyes and she did the same.
She did look stunning up there. Lights reflected off of her creating a halo effect. She was in a shirt that was really more of a tube top under a leather vest. It showed off plenty of her flat and toned stomach. I found myself idly wondering what it would feel like to run my tongue along that stomach. I shook myself and tried to regain control.
Yeah, she looked every bit the rock goddess as she stared down at me. I melted. Just a little. To the point that when she got down on her knees in front of me and put her hand out, with the arena screaming around us encouraging me to take her hand, I reached out and did just that.
For a moment it was just the two of us. The entire screaming arena surrounding us disappeared. We were just two women, our arms clasped together as she stared down at me and smiled. My heart fluttered. I felt butterflies in my stomach. I felt weak in the knees as I looked up at this gorgeous woman.
Then reality reasserted itself. The screaming came back first, then the pumping music, and then I was back in reality surrounded by thousands of screaming women. All of them screaming for her. Some of them screaming at me too, now.
She winked and she was gone, moving down the catwalk. Though I noticed that even though she was stopping to make some contact with the women she passed, she didn't stop for nearly as long for any of them as she did for me.
I suddenly felt an odd emotion as I watched Ivy getting a little bit of one-on-one time with other fans in the front row. An emotion that was completely irrational, but I couldn't help it.
Jealousy.
Why should they all get a chance with her when she was obviously interested in me? Why couldn't I have a little more one-on-one time? Maybe some more quiet conversation like we had in the diner, away from all this screaming and noise? Away from her element where she was a sexy rock goddess, though I was starting to warm up to seeing her in her element.
Ivy made her way back up to the stage proper where the band shot her confused glances, but then they were back into the number. The lights went down again and the band disappeared backstage.
As soon as the lights went down I felt an elbow jabbing me in the side. I looked over to Alice staring at me. Suspicion was written plain on her face.
"What the hell was that about?"
I fixed my best friend with my most innocent look. Granted it wasn't very innocent. I was always a terrible liar, at least face-to-face, and Alice had an uncanny ability to tell when I was bullshitting. Still, I wasn't going to tell her the truth. I was still hoping I could figure out a way to explain all of this away by the end of the night.
"I have no idea!" I shouted over the crowd.
I glanced through the crowd. I was definitely getting some very interesting looks from the women, and a few poor misguided men, surrounding us. Some were looking at me with obvious jealousy. Others were staring with outright hostility.
I suddenly felt very uncomfortable being surrounded by all these women who would kill to have the experience I'd just had. And once more I found myself reflecting on the irony that it was probably precisely because I wasn't willing to kill to have that experience that I'd had the experience in the first place. It was as though she was drawn to a woman who didn't immediately see the rock star.
Interesting. Very interesting. Not at all what I would have expected from a woman who'd probably had women throwing themselves at her for years because of who she was and what she did.
"You're not telling me the truth," Alice said. "Out with it. Do you know Ivy or something?"
"I don't know Ivy! I swear!" I held my hands up in a defensive gesture.
What I was telling her was the truth. Mostly. I didn't know Ivy. I'd just met her briefly in that diner. So what if what I was feeding Alice was only the truth from a certain point of view? The fact stood that everything I said was one hundred percent the truth even if it wasn't exactly the truth she was looking for. She just wasn't asking the right questions, and that wasn't my fault.
"There's something you're not telling me," Alice said.
I cocked an eyebrow at her. Let her have her suspicions. It's not like anything else was going to happen. Ivy'd had her fun. She’d found me and embarrassed me in front of my friend and thousands of people in the arena. I figured that was where it would end. I hoped that was where it would end.
And yet, deep down there was a part of me that desperately didn't want that to be where it ended. I kept thinking of how wonderful her eyes looked as they stared into mine. I kept thinking about how delicious her ass was in that tight miniskirt. I could watch that woman walking away all day long and never get tired of it.
"I'm watching you!" Alice said.
I couldn't help but laugh. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Of course she was watching me. She was standing right next to me! She couldn't very well not watch me.
I shook my head and sat down as the next song started. I figured the excitement was over, and to be perfectly honest I needed to have a seat and rest for a minute. I was still feeling a little shaky, a little wobbly, a little weak in the knees, from that brief perfect moment of contact.
Not that I was swooning for Ivy. No way. I just needed a quick rest. That's all.
8: Star Struck
I thought it was over. I was lulled into a false sense of security because my phone stopped buzzing in my back pocket. After that brief hand hold she would glance down and smile at me in particular every time she passed by, hell I even got a couple of weird looks from the other girls, and one guy, in the band which got me an elbow from Alice every time, but there were no more over-the-top performances with her going down on one knee and begging me to acknowledge her.
And as the concert went on I felt a sense of disappointment that there were no more repeat performances. I was kicking myself for feeling that disappointment, but I suppose the heart wants what
the heart wants even if the mind is screaming that this is a notorious band that I'd hated my entire life and what the hell did I think I was doing betraying myself by mooning over the lead singer like one of those silly girls I used to make fun of?
I stomped down on that voice. It could shut the hell up. I was finally starting to see some of the appeal that Alice saw in the group. At least I was seeing the appeal in one member of the group in particular.
I thought back to all the guys who thought she was so hot when we were younger. Who continued to pine over Sleepwalker even after it came out that everyone in the lead group was into girls and not just the lead guitarist. “Girl on girl is totally hot,” as I’d overheard from more than one horny teenage guy back when the band was at the height of their popularity. I thought of all the girls who were head over heels for Sleepwalker in general and Ivy in particular because of her star power.
And yet still I only saw her as a cute girl who was fun to talk with. Sure I had that brief rock star moment, that brief time when it seemed like there was a halo of light surrounding her and for an instant I saw what everyone else who saw the rock star must be seeing, but mostly when I looked at her I just saw the hottie who could carry a random conversation in a diner, as crazy as that sounded considering her current surroundings.
But like I said, that sense of security was a false one. That disappointment that she wasn't paying any attention was silenced in a major way as they launched into one of their first really huge hits that signaled the concert was coming to an end. I’d been on the edge of my seat every time she walked past, but at this point I figured nothing was going to happen. I felt safe enough getting right up against the stage, separated only by that small fence and a lazy security guard, with the rest of the screaming girls.
I told myself I was still just playing along for Alice. It had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to get closer to Ivy. With wanting to have even a small bit of that magic I'd felt when she was right in front of me both in the diner and onstage.
No, it had absolutely nothing to do with that. Yeah, right.
I actually found myself smiling as the song started. It was a slow one. Something I recognized from dances back in the day. I shook my head and pulled myself back into the present. Back to where the band all appeared on stage with four spotlights shining down on them. Ivy stepped forward and started walking down the catwalk crooning to the crowd.
I glanced away from the stage and saw cell phones up in the air all through the arena. People swayed back and forth singing or mouthing the words. I had no doubt that if they turned the music off there'd be an entire arena full of people singing right along with the song, word for word.
Amazing. Their music wasn't my cup of tea, but I couldn't deny the effect it was having on all these people.
"I'll join you in forever…"
Sure they were cheesy lyrics, but the way the women in the arena were squealing it seemed to be working for them.
"So what do you say? It’s not exactly forever, but want to join me up here?"
Huh. Granted I wasn’t too familiar with their songs, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t a part of the lyrics. I realized some of those women I was staring at were staring right back at me with some of the same looks I'd seen earlier. Some looked jealous. Some looked angry. Some had huge smiles on their faces as they pointed behind me.
Behind me.
There was only one thing behind me. The stage. What the hell…
Then it hit me. Those words. She was talking to somebody. I felt a chill run down my spine and I squeezed my eyes shut as I turned around. When I opened them Ivy stood right there in front of me, light streaming down around her, and she had her hand out. Everyone around me was absolutely silent. Alice stared dumbfounded as I reached out.
I didn't have any control of myself in that moment. She was so gorgeous, and she was asking me up on stage. How could I say no to an invitation like that?
I glanced behind Ivy to one of the giant monitors and realized that once more I'd embarrassed the hell out of myself by completely ignoring the show while she came up right behind me. No wonder all the women I'd been looking at were staring at me like I was crazy.
I looked at her hand. Looked at the monitors. Listened to thousands of fans who suddenly found their voices again as they screamed. I couldn’t be sure whether they were screaming in jealousy or screaming because a fan was living the dream, but I didn’t care.
I felt giddy. I couldn't believe it. This rock star was reaching out to pull me up on stage. In that moment I was every bit the giddy girl who couldn't believe her luck. Not because this was the lead singer of Sleepwalker, no not that. But because this was Ivy, and she was so hot. Because of our little flirtation. Because she'd seemed so interesting when I met her in the diner and I'd thought how nice it would be to go on a date with her. Maybe get up close and personal with her.
I just never realized that getting up close and personal would involve getting on stage in front of an arena full of screaming women who’d love to take my place. Well, eat your heart out ladies, because this was the Jessica show right now. I reached up, my fingers brushed against hers and it was as though there was electric magic dancing between our fingertips. Then she reached out to clasp my hand and I was climbing up.
It's odd the sort of things you notice in a moment like that. I noticed how smooth the catwalk was under my feet and I wondered how they were able to move on the thing. The arena erupted around me. I saw jealous faces in the crowd. I saw ecstatic faces in the crowd as women looked up at me with pure joy. No doubt projecting themselves into my impossible dream moment.
I glanced over my shoulder to Alice who had neither of those expressions on her face. She stood there with her eyes open wide and her mouth hanging open. Staring up at me in disbelief as I looked to Ivy. Yeah, there was definitely going to be no explaining away this one. I was going to have to come clean. She was going to hate me for it, but I didn't care. Because all I could concentrate on was Ivy.
Beautiful Ivy with her tight body that looked absolutely delicious. I wanted to run my hands all over her right here and now, only that definitely wouldn't be appropriate up on stage. I had a feeling she'd be more than happy to let me do that, but at the same time I also had a feeling it would incite a riot.
That was the last thing I wanted. To have my obituary read that my cause of death was being torn apart by a bunch of rabid fangirls.
So I just stood there on the stage with my hand in hers, staring in disbelief as she got down on one knee. Ivy never missed a beat as she sang looking up at me and staring deep into my eyes. And as I locked eyes with her, deep brown eyes that were so intoxicating, I found myself losing control. I found myself riding a wave of giddiness. A wave of pleasure that was sending a fire burning through my body and a chill running down my spine at the same time.
My entire body shivered as I looked at her with a huge goofy grin that I couldn't control. As she stared at me with those beautiful eyes and I felt weak in the knees. The only thing keeping me upright was her hand on mine holding me steady.
In short, it was one of the most magical and romantic fucking moments of my life, made even more so because it was completely unexpected.
I found myself mouthing the words right along with Ivy. How did I even know the words to this song? Oh, right, because I couldn't avoid hearing the damn thing when I was younger. Still, I was surprised the song had imprinted on me to the point that I could still remember them word for word all these years later. I also felt something funny around my eyes. Almost as though they were burning. As though my vision was blurring. I moved a hand up to my cheek and realized a tear was rolling down my face.
Damn it. Not only was I being serenaded in front of an arena, but I was also about to lose it in a major way in front of an arena. This was all too much for me. It was too overwhelming. It was too much of an incredible experience. An experience I couldn't believe and yet it was happening.
Who thought when I
met a cute girl at the diner behind the venue that I'd be getting serenaded by one of the most famous singers in the world? An international sex symbol!
Finally the song started to wind down and she did something that very nearly set me on fire again. She pulled my hand out and her lips brushed against it. It really was the perfect moment. My body was on fire where her lips made contact. I imagined her lips brushing against other parts of my body, and my lips were only the very beginning of that list. I allowed myself to get completely lost in the moment. Stars danced in front of my vision and for a moment I worried that I was in very real danger of losing consciousness.
I swooned. Damn it. I fucking swooned in front of a crowd of thousands of people! Thankfully Ivy was right there. She caught me in her arms and looked down at me as the crowd went wild and the last strains of the song faded. I looked up at her, not quite believing this moment could get any more magical than that kiss on my hand, but then it did.
Ivy leaned forward. Shit. This was happening. This was actually fucking happening! Butterflies danced in my stomach and felt like they were in very real danger of ripping free and going from cutesy butterflies to a scene straight out of some scary scifi movie. And yet I was powerless to stop myself. I was powerless to stop her. Fuck, it's not like I wanted to stop this from happening.
I got my wish about feeling her lips against another part of my body. At least one of the parts of my body that I'd been fantasizing about feeling her lips brushing against.
The kiss was soft, almost hesitant at first. As though she was unsure how I would take it. And why not? I'd admitted to her and that I wasn't a fan. I wasn't the kind of girl who'd swoon just because she was the lead singer of a famous band. If anything I was the kind of girl who was likelier to slap her for that, at least as far as she knew.