"Is it trouble at home? Maybe some family issues that are making you not able to participate in the group work?"
If I were at all a good liar, I might've taken that as my answer and ran with it. "No, nothing like that. I've just been distracted lately. But that's behind me, and I really want to do whatever I can to make up the work."
"First you need to apologize to your team face to face. You really left them in a lurch, and they were depending on you to complete your part of the project. As for your grade, I'm going to have to give you an F for that project. If you do well on tests and presentations the rest of the semester, you could still come out with a passing grade in the end. It won't be an A or a B, but it could be passing."
I bobbed my head as she talked, determined to make things right, no matter how nervous I was about confronting my teammates. I had a day to decide how I was going to accomplish that since that class only met twice a week. For now, I had to focus on business law, one of my most skipped classes. I trudged into the classroom and tried to find a seat near the edges or in the middle where I could blend in. As the professor lectured, I realized how behind I was. A tort? What the hell is a tort? I resolved to catch up on the reading that night if it killed me.
Things didn't go exactly as planned. That night I found myself drawn into some TV drama Haley was watching. With business law book on my lap, I sat in the living room, spending 90% of my time staring at the TV and the other 10% reading the same paragraph over and over again. When my roommates went to bed at 11, I stayed up until 3 to catch up on my readings. But at least I was finally caught up.
On the other hand, I was still beyond groggy when I had to face my teammates at my eleven o'clock communications class. I got to the classroom early and stood outside, pacing and sweating far more than I was before my meet-n-greet. I could've been on my way to Florida right now and avoided this problem. I could've dropped this class and just tried again next semester. I'd probably fail anyway. I considered this option and was about to scurry back to my apartment until both my teammates rounded the corner. I pulled them aside before they could enter the classroom.
They didn't look very receptive, but I dove into my apology anyway. "Guys, I am so sorry. I was being so irresponsible, and I shouldn't have left you hanging like that. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"
My female teammate crossed her arms. "There really isn't. You completely flaked out with no good excuse. You skipped school work, endangering your future really, just for a couple stupid concerts. It's just immature, is what it is. Immature and inconsiderate."
My male teammate tried to smooth things over. "Listen, we appreciate you apologizing, but it's just too little too late. You did a great job on the paper. We got an A, so thanks for that, but we just can't trust you anymore. Sorry."
I bit back tears. My lack of sleep was making me emotional. "No, it's OK. I understand. Thanks for hearing me out, and again. I am so sorry. I'll leave you guys alone now."
The girl continued into the classroom, and the guy shot me a look of pity and followed behind her. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief. It was over. I still had to sit in the same classroom as the two of them for the next couple months, but at least I couldn't disappoint them any more than I already had. They were rid of me and my "stupid concerts."
The topic in class that day was grammar, something at which I excelled. Whenever my professor asked a question, I made sure my hand was the first one up to answer it to show her and my classmates that I was there to make an effort and that I wasn't a complete delinquent. Sure, I was a bit of a slacker, but I was far from stupid.
After class, I felt even better about my situation. I had all but forgotten about the Florida trip until my phone beeped. It was a text from Alex "Just landed in Orlando. Going to Magic Kingdom for a couple hours, then off to the Towners show. More details to come."
In a way, I was relieved not to be with them. Besides my laziness quirk, I also had an unfortunate fear of flying. Of course, I would've gotten on a plane to see The Out of Towners, but I was glad I didn't have to in this case. It was almost a welcome break. I couldn't help being somewhat jealous, though, especially since I had a sneaking suspicion that things were going to heat up even more that night.
Back at my apartment, I rendezvoused with my roommates for dinner. We ordered a pizza and huddled around our phones, waiting for more news from Florida. In the meantime, Haley flipped on the TV, and Kim and I pulled out some homework. Not that I could concentrate on it, but I figured I was making an effort just by having the book open on my lap. Every time one of our phones beeped, we all sprung to attention. Kim's beeped first.
"Ugh, just the boyfriend."
When all three of our phones went off at once at around seven o'clock, we knew something exciting must be happening.
"Anyone want a concert call?" Shelly's text message read.
We each shot back with our song requests so that the girls could hold up one of their phones if The Out of Towners happened to play one of those songs during their show. "Any Jacob solo," I texted back.
"Jacob?" said Haley and Kim in unison.
"Yes, I'm a Jacob fan now."
Our phones beeped again.
"Still bitter, Rach?" texted Alex.
"No, just a Jacob fan now. We're buddies. Don't worry, I'd still marry Gabe if I got the chance. Ha. But you still have my blessing."
"Awesome, I'll keep you posted."
Kim and I both abandoned our homework neither of us were really working on and focused our full attention on our phones. Haley's phone was the first one to ring about 45 minutes later. She put the phone on speaker, and we sang along with the scratchy music until the crowd screamed and the call ended. The next call that came in a little while later was mine. Jacob's song he had picked to solo that night wasn't one of my favorites, but hearing his voice brought me right back to that loveseat in that house in Indianapolis. It was more of an unknown B-side, so all of us listened instead of singing along. The very next song was Randy's solo, and Kim got her call. We all sang along again.
The waiting game recommenced. The concert would go on for at least another hour, then the Towners would sign some autographs, then maybe something interesting would happen. Kim went back to her homework to distract herself, but my eyes glazed over in front of the TV while I tried to get into whatever show Haley was watching. When 10:30 came, Haley and Kim gave up and went to bed. I couldn't do it. I had to hear something before I fell asleep. I logged on to my computer to check out The Out of Towners messageboards to see if anyone had posted anything about the show tonight. There was one post with a few replies under it, saying how it was the best concert of the tour, and that the guys were on fire, and they stayed out longer than usual to sign autographs. That explained why we hadn't heard from Alex or Shelly yet. At around 2 a.m., I had to give up. I had a full day of class and work on Friday; I couldn't justify staying up any longer.
That night, when I wasn't awake tossing and turning, I was asleep having all sorts of random nightmares. In one of them, both Gabe and Jacob said they hated me and that they wanted all my friends to come on tour with them except for me. Perhaps even more troubling, in the next dream, Randy of all people was in love with me, but then he died in a freak stage-diving accident where he was attacked by rabid fans. I awoke in a sweat when my alarm went off at eight o'clock. I reached for my phone on my nightstand, causing my phone to rattle to the floor in the process, and found a text that simply said, "OMG."
I jumped out of bed and opened my bedroom door to see if either of my roommates were up. Their bedroom door was closed to my right, and the shower was going to my left. At least one of them was up then. I crouched on one of the kitchen chairs and leaned on the table while I texted back. "What happened?"
"So much to tell you guys," came the text back from Alex. "We're going to come over tonight." Great, now I had to wait until seven o'clock when I was done with work to find out what happened.
"Did you get
laid?" I popped the battery door of my phone off and back on again while I waited for a response.
"Yeah, you could say that."
So it happened. Alex had had sex with Gabe. I didn't know how to feel anymore. I waited for some emotion to come, but I was just left hanging with a bit of tightness in my gut. Envy was the first thing that came to me after I let the thought marinate.
Kim came out of the bathroom with a blue towel wrapped around her head. "What's up?"
"Alex got laid last night."
"Oooooh, with Gabe? Did she give you any details?"
"No, but she and Shelly are coming over tonight."
"Ah, OK. Can't wait for that!"
I couldn't either. My morning classes dragged like they never had before. I kept my eyes glued on the clock through all three classes, and then I went to work and kept my eyes on the clocks there. My 6-hour shift from 1–7 felt more like a 6-day shift. I almost wanted to hug my boss when at 6:40, he said, "Go ahead and count out your drawer and go home. It's pretty dead."
I counted as fast as I could, which only caused me to have to recount most of it, but I somehow ended up balanced. I gathered my things, almost forgetting to punch out, and hurried to my car.
When I got home, Alex and Shelly were there, and I could tell by Kim and Haley's captive expressions that they had already started the story. "Start over please!" I threw my purse and jacket at the kitchen table and sat on the ground in the living room, facing the chair where Alex sat.
"Shelly, do you want to take this?" asked Alex.
I turned my attention to Shelly. Did she get some action last night, too?
"No, I'm good. You go ahead."
"OK, this show was near a beach, so after the show we were kind of hanging out on the beach, just walking around waiting for the Towners to be done signing autographs. Like an hour later, Gabe walked over with another girl, and we just kind of waved and walked away. It was pretty awkward since they clearly were about to get it on. We kept walking further down the beach for a little while, but we didn't want to miss seeing Randy and Jacob, so we walked back. Gabe was just sitting on the beach with the girl, but we saw Jacob by them, too. We went over to say hi and save Gabe from his cock-blocking bandmate. It was a little weird seeing Gabe again when he was right about to do someone else, but whatever. He's a man-whore. That's common knowledge. Jacob walked down the beach with us a little, and all three of us sat down.
"We told him how great his show was that night, blah, blah, blah, and then we mentioned how we were the Jacob lovers of our group. He was pretty flattered. Very flattered actually. Visibly flattered if you know what I mean." She pointed to her crotch. My jaw went slack and my mouth gaped.
"I don't even remember how exactly it started, but he started kissing Shelly, and I was about to peace out, but he took my hand and put it on his pants. Figuring it was an invitation, I took him up on the offer, reached down there, and started giving him a hand job. Before you ask, I can tell you that Jacob is even bigger than Gabe. When I unzipped his pants, it was like I was seeing the most perfect dick ever created. Then he took off his pants and pulled Shelly on top of him. While she was doing him, I was kissing neck and then his lips. Then he started slowing down and said, 'You next.' He held onto my chest as I grinded him, and Shelly took care of his lips that time." She cast Shelly a knowing look. "With more than just her lips."
Our heads snapped in Shelly's direction, and her cheeks colored.
"Then he came inside me."
I stopped her. "Was he wearing a condom?"
"No, I didn't have one, but I wasn't going to stop. It was Jacob. Anyway, I took care of it today already. It's fine. It was easily the best sex of my life. I wish it was just me and him and not Shelly." She laughed. "But it was still so good."
"Yeah, I wish the same!" said Shelly.
"I have sand in places I never thought I'd have sand."
The three of us sat in shocked silence. What could we say to follow that up?
"So like, what happened after that?" I asked.
"He was sharing a room with Randy, and he didn't want anyone to know about it, so he just went to his hotel, and we went back to ours."
"Did he say anything?" asked Haley.
"Not really afterwards. But during, he kept saying over and over again, 'I've never done anything like this before!' Like, he really wanted us to know that this was not a usual occurrence for him. And we were like, 'We haven't either!'"
"Well, that's good," I said. "At least we know he's not having threesomes with different girls every night."
"No, he's not," said Shelly. "He was pretty adamant about that."
Alex spent the rest of the night recalling more details every so often, and I continued to be in awe of what had happened. Two of my friends had sex with a Towner...and it happened at the same time! I couldn't wrap my head around the notion; it felt imaginary like something that might have transpired in a fan fiction story, but it was real.
"Oh he also told us that they were adding another leg to the tour with a Chicago show," said Alex. "But they haven't announced all the dates yet. So I'm definitely going to that, whenever that is."
We all agreed. Kim disappeared into her bedroom to check the website to see if any new tour dates had been posted. "It's up! The show is in about two weeks, and it's on a Sunday night. There's no way I can go to that."
"Hey, that's my birthday!" said Haley.
I didn't really care whether I could or should go or not. I was going. Haley and Shelly were on the fence; but with some convincing, they were in, too. I jumped on my computer and ordered tickets for the four of us right away using Haley's credit card since I didn't have one.
"Face Rake is still opening for them. That's cool." I clicked on the band's name, and the link brought me to their website. "Hey, they're headlining a show in Milwaukee the Friday before. We should totally go to that."
"We should. I'd like to see them again," said Alex.
The other girls passed since they had never seen the band live, but I was excited. I myself wanted to see Taj again to see if anything would come from our flirtatious glances. Gabe was a lost cause, after all.
Chapter 8: Milwaukee Again
Without the distraction of concerts, the next two weeks were some of my most productive. I tried not to think about my two impending shows while catching up on all the schoolwork I missed. At work, since I was scheduled to work the day after the upcoming Out of Towners Chicago show, I tried to find someone to switch days with me and ended up taking two of his days for one of mine. I was satisfied with the trade although it meant more work for me. It also would mean a little bit more spending money come payday. I tried to be vague when he asked why I needed off. I told him I had plans Sunday night and that I wouldn't be home until late. Then a customer appeared in my window and spared me from explaining that I was headed to yet another concert. However, I wasn't spared from giving an explanation when my mom called me up the day before the Face Rake show to ask if I wanted to come over for dinner Sunday night.
"Sunday night won't work. I already made plans that night. I could probably do Saturday, or maybe even lunch on Sunday." My parents only lived a half hour away from school in one of Madison's many tiny suburbs, so day trips were a convenient perk, as was visiting them whenever I had laundry to do and didn't want to lug it down to the laundry room in my apartment complex.
"Lunch on Sunday will be fine. What are you doing Sunday night? Don't you have class the next morning?"
Of course, but that's why I was doing all my homework so that I could afford to skip my classes that day. But I didn't tell her that. "The girls and I are going down to Chicago."
"Why?" My mom's tone dripped in accusation as if she already knew the answer.
"Take a guess."
"Rachel. Another Out of Towners concert? Is that really necessary?"
"It is! I can't skip a Chicago show! It's practically my backyard. Besides, it's Haley's birthday."
"A two-ho
ur drive away is not your backyard. I really don't think you need to be driving out of state in the dark on a school night. Can't you just go to a show on the weekend?"
"No, Mom. It'll be fine. I took off work on Monday, and I'm getting ahead in my classes, so I won't have to worry about that." Catching up, getting ahead, close enough.
"OK, so you're getting a hotel down there, so you won't be driving back tired?"
I didn't know the exact plan, but that probably wasn't it. We'd probably be driving back tired, but I didn't want to divulge that detail to her. "I think that's the plan."
"Well, I don't approve, but just be careful, and I'll see you Sunday for church and lunch. Love you."
"Love you, Mom. Bye."
I hung up the phone checked if I needed to do any laundry before class, work, and the Face Rake show the next day. I located a pair of jeans that would be passable, but I was all out of work pants, and I couldn't decide on a top to wear. After flipping through the hangers of clothes in my closet, I found a bright pink tight-fitting scoop-neck sleeveless top that would work. Now if I could only find work pants, I could get out of doing laundry. Looking around my room and fishing around in the laundry bag, I realized that was going to be a lost cause. My choices were to do laundry or wear a skirt to work for once. I located a black A-line skirt from the depths of my closet and some black tights I didn't even know I had. I could wear my white cardigan over everything. Score, I could put off laundry for a little while longer. My underwear choices left a little to be desired, but I didn't think I would need cute underwear tomorrow. If anything, my not-so-cute panties would keep me from doing anything I would regret later.
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