“Get the fuck away from me.” I waved her away, disgusted with myself for every single choice I’d made that took me away from CC, disgusted at how easily she and Jay had cajoled me into taking a drug to get me through the night, disgust for the drummer now kissing a girl who used to be mine.
“Jesus. I’m just trying to make sure we stay on time.” Katrina’s voice, high and whiney, grated on my nerves.
“Leave me alone. I’ll be there in a little bit.” I glanced over my shoulder and gave her a glare. “Go give Jay a blowjob, or whatever you specialize in.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes. “You’re a son of a bitch.” Pouting her bottom lip, she twisted and stalked through the cords and equipment in her high heels.
I pressed myself into the shadow and narrowed my focus on the only girl worth my attention.
CC continued kissing him while watching me, as if daring me to break it off.
Without even realizing it, I’d taken one step toward her, the stage lights falling onto my arm and leg. I stilled.
She closed her eyes, then Kyle released her long enough to toss a drumstick to the grabbing, screaming crowd pressing her against the railing.
One guy next to her, wearing a ballcap and shades, swung around and began yelling at the people, shielding a smaller woman between him and Terri.
My eyes met Cotton Candy’s once more.
Never before had I experienced such a driving need to throw myself onto the ground at her feet and try to explain my bad choices, to ask for a second chance.
I’d had a few relationships over the years, but not one of them had ever felt right, not like it had felt with Terri Kingston. She had been the only person I could bare my soul to, and I’d severed that tie on the day I’d made the deal with her devil father.
I’m sorry, I screamed inside my head.
She frowned, then gave her head a shake. Hate or something close to it twisted her mouth into a sneer.
The keyboard solo was wrapping up, and Kyle—with one last, quick kiss to Cotton Candy—jumped back on stage, a wide grin turning splitting his face.
Terri’s attention never followed her boyfriend, or whoever the hell he was. It plastered to me, the anger and hate seeming to pulse toward me in waves.
“Hey, we need to go.” Jay’s booming voice finally pulled me out of my trance with Terri, and I shrugged off his palm from my shoulder.
“Yeah, coming.” I didn’t want him to know who I’d been looking at. For some reason, it felt like I should keep Cotton Candy a secret, as if it would also keep my shame and guilt tucked away for no one to see. I felt nervous and high-strung.
I’ll never be able to sleep on the bus tonight thinking about her.Was she dating Kyle? I had no idea Terri was involved in the rock scene. If I keep running into her…I shut down the thought.
“Yo, Jay.” I shoved a hand into a pocket. “Do you have any more of those pills? I think I’m going to need them if I want to get any sleep tonight.”
With a hearty chuckle, Jay pulled a bottle from his jacket pocket and tossed it to me. “They’re all yours. Legally. Dad’s always got the hookup.” He winked.
Relief ran through me knowing they were legitimately prescribed.Unlike my dad, who would take anything to get high.
I stared at the orange bottle and read the label, which had been made out in my name by a Dr. Anderson with the instruction to take one pill up to three times a day for anxiety. Twisting off the cap, I dry swallowed two.
“You were awesome, bro.” He grabbed me around the neck as we walked the back hallway toward the bus parking. “Did you see how those chicks were practically ready to tear their shirts off for us?”
I nodded, grimacing at the bitter taste in my mouth.
“In a few months, if everything goes well,we’llbe looking for an opening act.” He clapped me on the back as I looked back the way I’d come, wishing I could get one last glimpse of Cotton Candy.
Somehow, she’d become even more beautiful than I remembered. Growing up seemed to have made her stronger and dependent, everything I’d hoped she’d be.
That flare of hatred shining from her stare tempered the nervous beat of my heart and I shook my head, digging out a pack of smokes and lighting one up, hoping the pills and nicotine would kick in soon.
Chapter twenty-six
Terri Kingston
