“I figured you might have.”
He nodded. “It’s good.”
I blinked and looked at him weirdly. He liked it? The song about what a cheating dirt bag he was?
“Don’t get me wrong – it’s cold. But it’s catchy, good rhythm, the lyrics are hardcore and I like them, you know, when I can forget they’re about me. I’m proud of you.” Then he let out a frustrated breath. “It’s all bullshit though, you know that right?”
“…What?” I said.
“The song. It’s not true.” I couldn’t believe he was saying this. I stood up to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist. “I didn’t cheat on you, Poppy,” he said. “And you know it.”
I shook him off and strode back onto the dance floor, swallowed up by the crowd.
A hand landed heavily on my shoulder, clearly Cam wasn’t finished and he was ready to lay into me some more.
I spun around and faced him. “What do you want?” But it wasn’t Cam, I found myself staring at a bemused-looking Vanya. “Oh, hey!” I said, giving her a hug. “Sorry!” She shook her head and shrugged, put an arm around my shoulders and her face next to mine. She pointed out a couple on the dance floor.
“Is that Mads?” she yelled into my ear. I squinted, trying to see her better in the darkness. It was. It was Mads, hips swaying, legs parted, just about grinding against her dance partner. And her partner wasn’t Dev.
“Is Dev here? What is she doing?”
I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times, but in the end, I simply grimaced and shrugged. I didn’t have an answer.
***
Chapter Nine
The music stopped and my ears rang and when I said something to Vanya, my voice sounded hollow. Everyone had stopped dancing, Mads stopped kissing the boy, blinking and squinting around her. Her eyes settled on me and I gave her a very clear WTF look. She turned to the guy who was still draped all over her, and pushed him off before stumbling through the crowd toward the couches. Van and I managed to squeeze through and go and hang with the boys. Dev was looking pissed off as he swigged his beer. He gave me a tight smile. I decided not to pry. He watched Mads go, and after a couple of seconds followed after her. Ooooh boy.
“Listen up listen up,” the DJ said, his voice reverberating around the room. The crowd closed in toward the stage. “Here we go, what you came here for, give it up for Academy of Liiiiiiieeeeees!”
The crowd screamed, cheered, hollered, clapped and all around went sick as the band walked on stage casually, oh so cool like performing to a full club so wasn’t a big deal. Ty strolled out toward the microphone at the front of the stage, his Gibson hung around his neck. He took a sip of water and gave the club a wave. The three other boys from the table at Luigi’s Pizza found their places on stage, the one with the long orange hair sat behind the drum kit, twirling his sticks as he waited and the other two stood behind the other microphones, one with a guitar and the other on the bass. Nothing was said, they just waved, looked at each other, the drummer counted them in and they started the show. Can I officially say, on the record and everything, that I am now officially an Academy of Lies fan girl. As of that moment, that first song. Their music was so hot, you could jump around and scream and carry on, I didn’t think I had the energy but the crowd was writhing and jumping and dancing and shouting along with the music and it was 100 per cent infectious. We danced like complete maniacs. Drew was head banging with me and Cam looked like he wanted to join in but Nikki was acting like she was too cool for it and was the only person not jumping and dancing in the whole crowd so she made him make out with her instead.
Anyway, they played heaps of songs, and then like half an hour into the show, my boy Ty, the lead singer of my new favorite band announced that they were singing a new song called ‘The Kiss Off’, which was written by Poppy Douglas.
“Where is she? Poppy, you out there?” he asked, shielding his eyes from the bright lights that lit up the stage. Everyone who knew me started cheering and pointing, Drew even ruffled my hair (so not cool when you’ve spent hours styling it, by the way. Boys.). I went bright red, but it was dark so it wasn’t like it really mattered. Plus I was wearing makeup so you probably couldn’t even see the blush staining my cheeks.
Ty gave me a big smile. “Poppy has her own YouTube channel with heaps of great tracks. PoppyLongStocking, people. You should check it out.” He had totally just pimped my channel to a roomful of people. Whoa. I was definitely checking my hits and comments tomorrow, this…everything…it was insane!
“Okay,” he continued. “Here it is, hope we do you proud.” And they launched straight into The Kiss Off Song.
It was freaking amazing.
I’d been proud of my dinky little acoustic version, but with all the instruments and the red head pounding the bass drum and that electric guitar solo that Ty threw in? I screamed and danced and was singing along to the chorus which people were laughing at – not laughing at me though, they were laughing at my lyrics because they were funny, and the way Ty and the other guys were singing it was so cheeky and cool!
That was the last song in the set, my heart was in my throat, and my whole body was swollen with happiness. That was my song. That was what my music could sound like.
Vanya hugged me tighter than anyone had hugged me ever before. “Not bad for angry writing, huh?”
I grinned and swayed a little on my feet as the room spun. Ravi grabbed me before I could hit the sticky floor.
“Whoa,” he said. “You alright?”
I nodded and put a hand to my forehead, closing my eyes but that made everything worse so I blinked them open again. “Maybe?”
“You gonna be sick?”
I shook my head and winced as everything whirled around. “Whoa…” I said.
“Come on,” Ravi said, putting my arm around his shoulders. “Let’s go outside and get you some fresh air.”
We weaved our way to the toilets and found the delivery entrance. I took a deep breath as the chill night air hit my skin. Already I was starting to feel better.
“You just sit down here,” he said, lowering me down onto the loading dock.
“I’m alright, Ravi,” I said. “I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yep, the air’s nice.”
“I’ll go get you some water. Be back in a bit.” He disappeared back inside.
“Thank you!” I called after him, the heavy outer door slamming behind him. I took some more deep breaths, ignoring the faint whiff of trash from the dumpster further up the alley. It was pretty clean, as far as alleys go. A couple of cars parked back here, and a van which I assumed belonged to the Academy of Lies. I couldn’t believe what they had done to my song, how they had transformed it from something average into something epic. I also couldn’t believe how the world was spinning.
“Hey, what are you doing out here?” I twisted to look behind me and my stomach fluttered when I saw it was Ty, smiling down at me, looking amused. “You hiding from me? Was it really that bad?” he asked, taking a swig from a can of Mountain Dew.
“Hey – no!” I said. “Of course not, I just, you know, it’s hot in there,” I said, fanning myself.
“Okay, good,” he said.
“What are you doing out here? Why aren’t you on stage? Isn’t the band missing their front man? You didn’t tell me you were the front man.”
“Didn’t I?” he said. “Well I am. We’re between sets.”
“Oh.”
“That song,” I said, shaking my head.
He stiffened. “Yeah?”
“Words cannot describe how much I loved it. You made it awesome.”
He grinned, clearly relieved, and sat beside me on the dock. “No, you made it awesome.” He nudged me with his shoulder. “We just did our thing.”
I smiled at him.
“It’s going pretty well, don’t you think?” he said. “Good crowd.”
“It’s going great,” I agreed. “I’m having the best time
.”
“So, how many guys have tried to pick you up yet?”
I grimaced.
“Clearly no one’s succeeded, since you’re sitting out here by yourself.”
“Or maybe you scared him off,” I shot back.
“Maybe,” Ty smirked. He did have a subtle glance around though. I caught him. He totally liked me!
“If you must know,” I said, “I’m a little bit drunk.”
“Oh,” he laughed.
I held my thumb and pointer finger together and squinted at him. “Only a little bit.”
“Are you going to hurl everywhere? Is there going to be projectile vomit? Do you think you could hit the Mazda over there? No, how about that crate, can you see it?”
“I’m not going to projectile vomit, jackass,” I told him with a grin. “At least I don’t think so.”
He held up his can of Dew. “Cheers.”
“What are you cheersing to?”
“To there being no projectile vomit in our immediate futures.” Ty sculled his Mountain Dew, snorted and started coughing. And kept coughing. I slapped him on the back a couple of times.
“Urgh,” he said between wheezes and gasping breaths. His eyes were streaming and he rubbed at them and his nose with the back of his hand. I giggled. I couldn’t help it.
“It went up my nose.”
I totally laughed then. Anyone would have. Even he did.
“Stop laughing,” he told me. “The bubbles, it burns.”
“You are such a dork.”
“I am not!”
“Oh, shut up you big baby.” I ruffled his hair. And then he started ruffling mine and I started squealing and slapping his hands away, horrified because it was just going to go frizzy, but at the same time he was trying to be playful and then I was tickling him and he was tickling me and then he tackled me and I fell onto my back. He’d fallen with me and there we were, on the cement of the loading dock in the darkness of the alley behind The Hill, Ty lying on top of me. We’d both stopped laughing. He brushed a lock of hair from my face and looked at me again. I found my eyes drawn to his lips, the hint of a smile curling them up at the corners. Then slowly he leaned forward and kissed me.
We lay there for what felt like hours, hundreds of thousands of glorious hours just wrapped around each other, his warm body pressed to mine, one of my legs that somehow automatically snaked around his, his fingers curling and stroking my hair (which I so didn’t care about ruining anymore) until he snaked his fingers under my neck and cradled my head, lifting it up from the solid, icy concrete. What a gentleman.
The heavy door banged open somewhere up there behind us.
“Hey – get off her!” someone yelled and the next thing I knew, Ty was hauled off me and he slid backward off the loading dock down a couple of feet into the alley. He looked up at us, surprised. I sat up and peered around, Ravi stood back, holding a couple of bottles of water, and beside me was Cam. Cam.
“Take it easy, punk,” Ty said.
“What are you doing?” I demanded of Cam, standing up. Then the loading dock tilted sideways and I collapsed into Ravi’s outstretched arms. How had he gotten over here so fast? I stood up again, steadied myself and then with one hand to my head, I shoved Cam in the chest. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You’re wasted and Ravi said you were out here all alone and I come out to make sure you were okay and found this guy pawing all over you.” He turned to Ty with a furious glare. “Get out of here, rapist!”
“I’m not-”
“Dude,” Ravi said.
“He was taking advantage!”
“He was not taking advantage of me, God!” I said. “You don’t own me, Cam. You get out of here.”
“Dude,” Ravi said again, nudging Cam. “Dude, it’s the guy from the band.”
Cam looked from Ravi to Ty in the shadows down in the loading dock. He squinted at him and then his eyes widened, before looking at me.
“He wasn’t hurting you?” he said. “You’re okay?”
“Yes, I was okay!” I was more than okay. I had been so completely more than okay.
“Oh.”
“So um,” I said, as Ravi and Cam continued to stand there. “Do you mind?”
“Right,” Cam blinked rapidly, spurred to action. He hurried back over to the door, looking at his feet, the ground, the wall. “Ravi, you coming?”
Ravi handed me a bottle of water and gave Ty an awkward wave. “Sorry, man,” he said. Ty shrugged, but stayed where he was.
“You’re feeling okay, you going to be sick? Should we get you home?” Ravi asked.
“No, I’m fine. Promise,” I said. “Thanks for the water.”
Ravi nodded, glanced back at Ty and they disappeared inside, the door banging shut behind them.
I looked at Ty. He gave me a weak smile. “Who was that douche?”
“I’m sorry about him,” I said, sitting back down. “He’s a bit of an ass. You know that song I wrote, ‘The Kiss Off’?”
Ty smirked, climbing back up onto the platform. “Sounds familiar.”
I pointed toward the door back to the club. Then I kissed my hand and blew the kiss at the door.
“Whooooaaaaa, no way,” Ty said.
“Way.”
“He even has your back after you wrote that? After I sang that? Hmm…” he said, thoughtfully. Suspiciously.
“What ‘hmm’?” I said. “There’s no ‘hmm’ here.”
He smiled at me which made my tummy squirm – in a good way – and moved toward me, like he was going to kiss me again. I had no objections to that. But then he stopped, his eyes widened and he fished his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Shit!” Ty dashed past me for the door back inside. Halfway in, he turned back. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m due back on stage, so…”
I waved him away. “Of course,” I said. “Go go go.”
“You’ll be okay? You coming back in?”
“Yeah, in a minute,” I said.
He smiled at me. “I’ll call you, yeah?”
My insides started to swell inside me, swelling with excitement, the excitement wanted to be free. I controlled my face though. I mean I tried really hard to.
“Yeah,” I said, suddenly shy. I bit my bottom lip and nodded. “Okay.”
He smiled again and disappeared inside. As soon as the door closed behind him my face broke out in a cheek-hurting grin, the sort of grin that you can’t stop, you have no control over, the grin that is in control of your face, not the other way around. I giggled to myself and lay back down on the loading dock. Okay, so Mads called it. Maybe I did like him.
As I lay down, my body remembered that only moments ago I had been making out with him, in that very spot. My knee arched to entwine around his, but he wasn’t there. I sat up with a sigh and took a sip of my water. Stupid Cam. He ruined everything. As I sat there scowling, my mind swirled and wandered with images. Images of me and Cam in happier days. The time we went to the beach, just the two of us, it had been the best day. I mean, sure it had taken four buses (one of which took us a half hour in the wrong direction) and two hours to get there, and by the time we did, it was packed with families and screaming kids, toddlers running around with no pants on, and the sand had been so hot that we both ran across it, screeching like monkeys because our feet were on fire. And he got so sunburnt that day. But it had been great. We had wandered under the boardwalk, picked up pretty seashells and thrown gluggy sand at each other, running straight into the water to wash it all off. We had our first kiss on that beach, in the ocean.
And three weeks later he had visited me at the Steak House and I had introduced him to Nikki. I took another sip of my water. I wondered how long it had been going on, Cam and Nikki. How long I simply hadn’t seen it. Had it been the whole four months we were together? Well, minus three weeks. I thought about Cam and me making out at parties, ignoring the world even existed. It couldn’t have been then, because Nikki would tell me about her hook
ups with other boys the next day as she had rubbed concealer on the bags under her eyes.
Images of Cam and Nikki making out at Ravi’s party flashed before my eyes and I grimaced and took another sip of water. Nikki was very handsy, the way they were always touching Cam, roaming all over him. I wondered if they’d done it yet. Wait, stop – ugh! I didn’t want to know if they’d done it yet! But my brain took me there, anyway. To Nikki’s bedroom – her parents were hardly ever home – and Cam would be sitting on the end of the bed, watching as Nikki pulled her tank top over her head and tossed it at him with a laugh. She would step forward and kneel in front of him, and slowly unbutton his shirt. They’d pull it off together, staring into each other’s eyes. They’d start kissing, and, with eyes closed, she would expertly undo his belt and-
Stop. No. None of that sounded like Nikki. What sounded more like Nikki was that as soon as they entered the house she would jump him. She’d slam the door and start pulling his shirt off as they walked, she’d rip hers off and throw it at the floor. She’d be laughing and kissing him and they’d probably both be naked by the time they got to the stairs. He wouldn’t know what had hit him. Except he would, because he knew Nikki, he would have known what he was getting himself into. And probably by now, he was an expert, with Nikki. He was probably the one tearing off all of her clothes before they reached the stairs.
I threw the bottle of water into the alley just as the door slammed open again.
“Poppy,” I turned around and it was Nikki, of all people. I couldn’t believe it, like somehow my thoughts had summoned her. I made a mental note to never, ever think of her again.
I glared at her and she looked a bit startled at my blatant animosity. “What do you want?” I said.
“It’s Mads, she’s wasted. You might want to get her home.”
“Oh.” I hauled myself slowly to my feet. As I wobbled a little, Nikki rushed to steady me. “Back off!” I said, and she did. She backed right off.
“Fine, jeez,” she muttered. She backed right off through the door. Whatever, I thought, following her slowly back inside to the club. Screw her. Who needed her or Cam, anyway? I sure didn’t. Because Ty was going to call me.
The Kiss Off Page 7