When Rita finishes her story about a haunted toad and a demonic crow, we all clap.
“Bravo! Truly horrifying,” Marigold says. “I especially liked the part about the toad jumping into that woman’s bedroom.”
“Not me,” Amber says. “Too creepy.”
A cool wind blows past, howling through the trees.
Marigold looks up at the sky. “The clouds sure are coming in quickly. Our full moon celebration might be cut short.”
I look up at the sky where dark gray clouds are starting to obscure the moon. The wind is strong enough to push a sleeve of graham crackers into the fire.
“No!” Rita jumps to her feet in an attempt to save them.
“Don’t touch that!” Marigold gets up. “There are more inside. Give me a few minutes.”
She starts to walk back to the house.
“Maybe when I get back, Amber will play a song for us!” She calls out before disappearing inside.
Rita and I look at Amber. She smiles shyly.
“Oh, I don’t know… I’m still not done writing my last two songs for the Rock Heart Festival. I’m still not sure I’m ready.”
“Oh, come on,” I say. “We hear you sing all the time. You’re great.”
“I want to hear it now!” Rita sandwiches a marshmallow between two crackers as she not-so-gracefully licks the melted marshmallow that oozes down onto her fingers.
“Then I guess that’s settled.” I give Amber a smug smile.
She playfully rolls her eyes. “Fine. You win this time. I’ll play one song.”
Marigold walks back to the campfire with another box of graham crackers.
“It’s divine intervention!” She says. “Just as I entered the house, the phone in my office started to ring. A phone call!”
Amber and I exchange a glance.
Damn. It’s my father again, ruining the moment as always. I’m not going to be in the mood to talk to Amber after this, I can feel it.
“Thanks.” I start to get up but Marigold puts out her hand.
“Not you.” Marigold’s gaze lands onAmber.
“Me?” Amber looks bewildered.
Marigold nods.
“Oh my god!” Amber looks at me. “The Festival!”
She gets up and disappears into the house.
Just like that, my window of opportunity closes.
17
PHOENIX RISING
Amber
Heart racing, I rush to Marigold’s office. The Festival. They probably like my song enough to put it on the waiting list! This is fantastic. Being on the waiting list means I have a little glimmer of hope. When I arrived at Marigold’s office, I see the phone resting on the desk. Clearing my throat, I pick up the phone and smile as I speak.
“This is Amber Sweet!” I say in a chipper tone.
“Babe?” The sound of that familiar raspy voice paralyzes me. I feel like I just swallowed an ice cube.
“Chuck?” Just saying his voice feels gross. “What the hell?”
I sit down on Marigold’s chair. The leather is cool against my skin.
“Where are you?” He asks.
“Where am I? Where the hell are you?” I try to stay calm but the shaky restraint sounds in my voice. “You left me on the side of the abandoned highway, remember?”
He sighs. “Listen, babe. We didn’t do that on purpose. When we realized you weren’t in the back, Bob swerved onto the side of the road. You know, to turn around. But he hit something—an animal trap of some kind. It popped the front tire and we forgot to pack the spare. I would’ve called you but the reception out there was… well, you know… it was shit. Bob walked five miles before he got a single bar. When he tried to call, his battery died. Days went by before we got any help. We’re just finally getting our shit together.”
“You hit an animal trap?” I have to laugh. “It’s been a fucking month, dude. You left all my stuff on the side of the road! Don’t pretend it was an accident.”
“It’s Bob’s fault for taking a stupid detour.” He ignores the fact that just told me a long ridiculous lie.
“Where are you now?”
“New York City,” he says.
“New York City?” I exhale sharply. “What are you doing all the way there? Why didn’t you come back for me?”
“We had to be picked up! The van was towed. Every time we tried to fix something, we ended up farther and farther away. My phone broke so I had to wait to buy another one. Look, I’m calling you now, aren’t I?” His raspy voice is becoming increasingly annoyed as he speaks.
That familiar stress tightens in my jaw.
“So, according to you… you guys didn’t leave me behind on purpose. You just happen to be highly incompetent? I’m not sure that makes me feel better.”
“Come on, babe…”
“No! You expect me to believe this bullshit? You left my stuff on the side of the road!”
“Oh, come on. I had to move it out to get new clothes. I forgot to put them back in!”
I take a deep breath and try to find some sense of calm.
“Have you been playing any gigs?”
“Of course,” he says defensively. “I wouldn’t have bought my new phone without the money from the gigs.”
“So, are you coming to get me? Is that why you’re calling?”
“Um, sure. Tell us where you are.”
“You already know where I am. I told you a hundred times in all those messages I left you.”
There’s an unnecessarily long pause. Something feels wrong. I can just feel it.
“You’re going to come and get me, right?”
Another pause. I can hear whispering on the other end. I press the phone against my ear to hear what they’re saying.
“Is that Bob?” I ask. “Are you guys having a vote to let me back into the band?”
“No, it’s just that… I don’t have the address.”
“But you still remember where you left me, right? At the gas station near the old abandoned highway.”
“Fuck, Amber. How am I supposed to know the directions back there? I was sleeping when we found that highway and Bob is a stoned loser who can’t remember shit.”
My nostrils flare as I take a deep, slow inhale. I forgot just how much this douchebag could test my patience.
“Tell us where you are. Come on, Amber, the band needs you.”
Something strange swirls in my belly. The thought of leaving Marigold’s to be a band-slave for Chuck again makes me feel ill. All those new songs I wrote would be wasted. There’s no way Chuck would want to play them. And I’d have to leave Gabe… The thought of it makes my heart break a bit.
“We need you,” Chuck continues. “Can you imagine it? Us sitting on stage playing to tens of thousands of new fans.”
I laugh. “You need me? That’s not what you said back at the gas station before you abandoned me.”
“Yeah, but I’ve had a change of heart.”
A slow smile spreads across my face. “You guys are bombing your gigs, aren’t you? How many times have you been booed off stage since you abandoned me? Four, five times?”
“That’s not funny.” The anger jumps out. There’s the familiar Chuck I know. “Come on, tell us where the fuck you are.”
I don’t respond.
“Come on, babe.” His tone completely shifts to something soft and loving. “You’re my everything, babe.”
“Don’t start that with me.”
“We’ll play your music,” he says. “What’s that song you wrote? Bored? We’ll play that at our next gig. Even better—we’ll open with it.”
My ears perk up. “You know the name of my song? You read my blog? I thought you said that type of music was electronic pop garbage.”
“Well yeah, the lyrics make me sound like a dick…”
Smiling, I bite my tongue.
“But I listened to it again and decided it’s a good song.”
I narrow my eyes. How the hell did he find that
song? He never visited my blog.
“Babe? What do you say? You and me playing at the Rock Heart Festival. Tens of thousands of screaming fans. A record deal. It’s what we always dreamed of.”
The energy he’s giving off is way too strange. He’s being too nice. He’s never this nice. They must really be doing horribly to want me back this badly. But on the other hand, if he truly wanted me in the band, he would have come back a long time ago. There’s no way it took them four weeks to fix a tire and check their messages. Something’s wrong. He’s hiding something from me.
“Chuck?”
“Yeah?”
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“Huh? What do you mean, babe?”
“Why are you calling?” I stare out the window at the dark forest. The dark gray clouds are rolling in faster. Lightning flashes in the distance.
“Amber—” He lets out a frustrated sigh. “Just help me find you. We can practice all that shitty music that you love and that way we’ll be ready in time for the Rock Heart Festival.”
I can hear people giggling in the background—women. They sound half-drunk or half-stoned, I can’t tell. He hushes them. All the bad memories flood back.
“There it is.” I shake my head. “You’re once again deceiving me. Using me for your own selfish reasons. What are you gonna do? Make me fix the band again in time to get a recording deal? And then what? You’ll destroy the band again?”
He lets out a heavy sigh. “You know, this is why nobody likes working with you, Amber. You’re just a stone-cold bitch.”
I stand up. “Excuse me?”
The line goes dead and I hang up with a bit too much force. My hands are shaking. The tightness in my throat grows stronger. There’s no way that Chuck is playing at the Rock Heart Festival and I’m not. Staring at the phone, I pick it up again and aggressively dial a number.
“Hello, you have reached the Rock Heart Festival. Our operating hours are between 10 AM and 4 PM—”
I hang up. The walls of Marigold’s office feel awfully small and they feel like they’re closing in around me. I want to scream. How can Chuck be playing at the Rock Heart Festival, but not me? How is this happening?
Pacing Marigold’s office, I grab a pillow off the small loveseat and scream into it.
“FUCK!”
***
The house is completely dark by the time I compose myself enough to leave Marigold’s office. As I make my way to the parlor, I look outside at the roaring campfire. I stand in the shadows in solitude as I process the situation. My eyes blur in and out of focus as I watch the flames lick the sky. Mesmerized, I watch the flame grow, letting the fire pull me into a hypnotizing trance. Focusing my vision, I catch the eye of my reflection in the window. I don’t look like myself. There’s something different about my eyes. The fire is shining in them.
“Hey, are you okay?” Gabe’s voice startles me as he enters the parlor. He stands in the dark shadows with me. “We’re missing you out there.”
“Oh.” I shake my head. “I don’t feel like being social right now.”
He takes a few steps closer.
“Are you okay?” The dim light gently illuminates his face.
“Not really.”
“Was it the Rock Heart Festival?”
I shake my head. “It was Chuck.”
His eyes widen. “What happened?”
Taking a breath, I look back out the window.
“He’s just an ass like he’s always been.” I shake my head. “I’m just so disappointed in myself for still having faith in him.”
“Oh, Phoenix.”
I look up at him. “Am I a bad person? Did I do something wrong to deserve this?”
“You’re not a bad person, not at all!” Watching me with those dark eyes, he steps closer. “Come here.”
He pulls me close against him. I press my cheek against his shoulder as he gently strokes my hair. I can smell the scent of musk and campfire smoke on his shirt.
“He’s missing out by not having you around.” His voice is deep and the vibrations in his chest are comforting. “They messed up by not treating you right.”
Pulling back, I look at him. “Why do you care about me so much?”
“Because I know how awesome you are. And I don’t like seeing you like this. You don’t deserve to feel this way.”
I smile slightly. “I think they’re struggling without me. That’s the only silver lining in all this.”
He pushes a strand of hair behind my ear.
“They need you,” he says. “But maybe you don’t need them.”
I look at him. “Why is it that I’ve spent months on that stinking van with Chuck and Bob and barely ever got to know them—you know, really know them. But only a few weeks here with you, and I feel like we get each other. It’s like we’re best friends, you know? Why is that?”
A slow smile plays on his lips. “Because we are friends, Phoenix.”
His glittering eyes linger on me. There’s electricity in the air between us as thunder rolls in the distance.
“What were you going to tell me?” I ask.
“What?” He asks.
“Earlier… you said you had something to tell me.”
“Oh.” He shifts in his spot. “It’s just—”
More thunder booms in the distance while someone yelps outside. We both rush to the door to see big drops of rain coming down. Marigold and Rita scramble to collect everything before they get soaked. Gabe and I rush outside to help them.
“Rita! The marshmallows!” Marigold is already running into the house with the hot dogs and condiments while Rita is right behind her with the marshmallows and cookies. “Hurry you two!”
I grab my guitar while Gabe grabs the blankets and chairs. The humid wind starts to howl as large drops of rain pour down on us, each drop heavier than the last. With a crack of lightning, the sky opens up and begins to drench us.
“Oh, fudge!”
Gabe and I both start laughing as we run back inside. When we finally make it back into the dark house, we see a trail of wet footprints on the floor leading to the kitchen.
“I’m drenched!” Rita calls out.
“Bathroom, now. Let’s get you a nice hot shower before bed.” Marigold wraps Rita in a towel as they head upstairs.
Gabe and I are still standing in the dark hallway, dripping a puddle onto the ground. We start laughing as lightning flashes outside followed by a loud crash. The thunder shakes the dark house.
“Oh my god, I’m soaked.” I look down at my wet dress. I continue laughing but I realize I’m the only one.
“Amber.” Gabe steps closer. I look up at him. Another flash of lightning illuminates his serious face and stunning dark eyes. My smile disappears.
“Yeah?”
He reaches for my hand.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“I really like you,” he says. He lifts his other hand to push the wet hair out of my face.
“Oh.” I smile. “I like you too.”
“No,” he says. “You don’t understand. I’ve never liked anyone like this. And the thought of you leaving—”
“I’m not leaving.” I place my hand on his chest. “Not yet.”
Drops of water trail down his face, his lips. His eyes look down at my lips.
“Phoenix,” he whispers. His hand finds my waist. “I want you.”
A bolt of heat shoots through me as his lips get dangerously close to mine. He cups my cheek, tracing his calloused thumb over my bottom lip. I can taste the sweetness on his skin—the chocolate, the honey from the graham crackers.
“I think about you all the time,” he says. “I didn’t think I’d meet someone who would make me feel this way but you do…”
Outside, the thunder roars, vibrating in my chest. His electric eyes search mine.
“I want you, Phoenix.”
My heart is racing. The rain is coming down harder, rattling against the windows. Reachi
ng up, I run my hand through his wet hair.
“I want you too,” I whisper.
A subtle smile plays on his lips. God, he’s beautiful. Leaning in, he presses those beautiful lips against mine, kissing me slowly, purposefully. He tastes like strawberries and cinnamon. As we kiss, his fingers find my waistband, pulling me hard against his body. The simple act sets my insides on fire.
“We’re making puddles,” I whisper.
“Then let’s make puddles.” His voice is low and sexy.
He continues kissing me as his hands find my waist. He pulls hungrily at my top. Drops of water are dripping down my neck and chest. When we come up for air, his lips find my ear.
“Fuck, I want you so bad.” His voice is full of need.
Smiling in the dark, I bite my lip. “Show me what you’d do with me.”
Pulling back to look into my eyes, he smirks. In an overly intimate gesture, he interlaces his hand with mine.
“Come with me.”
I follow as he pulls me into the parlor. It’s dark and rain is crawling down the windows, throwing giant shadows on the walls. Low, booming thunder rolls in the distance. Although it’s dark, I can see his hungry eyes. He hasn’t taken them off me all night. He pushes me against one of the windows and starts kissing my neck. Heat sears my skin even though I’m drenched in rain.
“We’ll get caught,” I whisper. The rain is pounding against the windows so loudly that it’s drowning out my voice.
“No we won’t,” he murmurs into my ear.
I vaguely hear him say the words ‘dark’ and ‘hiding’ as his lips explore my neck. Closing my eyes, I let him take the lead. When he comes up for air, he’s breathing heavily. His thirsty gaze lingers on me, drinking me in.
“I want to do things to you, Phoenix.” His dangerous tone pushes adrenaline through my body. “Things I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
My heartbeat pounds in my ears. My head swims with lust.
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