My Melody (Downtown Book 3) (17 page)

“Not all of them,” I remind him. “Learned that I am nothing to them. Don’t wanna be nothing. Not gonna go down that road anymore. No more getting used by groupies. I’m done.”

“You want Melody.”

“Fuck, I do. More than anything.”

We get called out on stage, so we both stand and start walking out. “Well, I’m rooting for you. I hope she gets her crap together. I don’t like seeing you not being your cocky, obnoxious self.”

“Douchebag,” I laugh. “Thanks, bro, for caring about me.”

He lays an arm over my shoulders like a brother would do. “I’m always gonna be here for you.”

“Same here,” I reply.

We get on stage and do our thing. Another great show goes down in the history books.

More partying and interviews happen once the show is over. We’re drinking, having a good time, celebrating another show gone well. The green room is overcrowded with bands, reporters and groupies. It’s a crazy house full of chicks. I don’t mind making them smile, but what I won’t be doing anymore is fucking any of them. I’ve had a few try to get down my pants, but I shove them away the second I feel them coming on to me. I won’t have it anymore. There is only one woman who has the pleasure of going down my pants, and it isn’t any of these women. I start to miss her more and more every time I get some chick wanting to blow me. I want it to be Melody. I need to feel her mouth around my cock, stroking the length as she sucks me dry. These chicks have nothing on my woman. That’s right…
my woman.
Whether or not we’re together right now, she’ll always be mine.

“Thanks for comin’ to the show. Means a lot,” I say to a fan. I’m signing a t-shirt for her and a concert program.

“You’re my favorite! Are you single?”

Her question shouldn’t have caught me off guard. I get asked that question every day, but this time I hesitate before I say, “Yeah, Baby, I am.”

“Oh, my God!” the chick squeals, jumping up and down. She seems like a sweet girl, and doesn’t try to ask me into another room to fuck.

She almost walks away without the program I just signed for her. “You may not want to forget this,” I chuckle.

She turns bright red. “Thank you!”

I chuckle again, “No prob.”

Being single. Am I single?
Should I start telling people that I am off the meat market? My heart belongs to someone else, so why should I consider myself single? Fuck. I can’t wait until I know for sure if that is true or not. Wish Melody would just hurry up already and give me the answer I’ve been waiting for.

I get a tap on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Wayne?” I turn around to find a small chick, with big blue eyes, short brown hair, cute figure, staring up at me.

She looks familiar. “I’ve seen you around before. You a reporter?”

“Yes I am. You don’t recognize me, do you?”

I cross my arms, confused. “Don’t know what you mean. Recognize you from hanging around.”

“It’s me,” she laughs nervously, “Scarlett. Scarlett West - well now, Scarlet Donahue.”

“Scarlett?”
No way.
Scarlett West, my ex-girlfriend from high school - the girl I knocked up, the girl my parents helped get an abortion for. I am fucking stunned right now. “You’ve got to be shittin’ me!” I pick her up and swirl her around. She laughs from my sudden outburst. I put her down, completely shocked I didn’t recognize her. “You don’t look the same.”

“Yeah. I got rid of the glasses, straightened the hair. Slimmed down.”

“Shit. Can’t believe this.” She looks amazing. I can’t believe she’s standing in front of me after all these years. I’m sure Slim will be just as surprised, so I holler out to him. “Hey, Slim! Slim! Look who’s here!” He’s talking to a group of chicks when he finally hears me. I point to Scarlett. “It’s Scarlett!”

When he finally realizes who the girl next to me is, he comes barreling in our direction. “No way! Hey, it’s so great to see you,” he says, hugging her.

“It’s great to see you too.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask.

“I work for the New York Times as the entertainment journalist.”

“No shit, that’s cool!” Slim exclaims exactly what I was thinking.

“It has it’s perks.”

A journalist. She’s been here all this time and hasn’t once approached us, so I ask, “Why’d it take you so long to approach us?”

“You know, work got in the way. I was doing a ton of interviews and stuff. Plus It’s been a challenge trying to get in to see you. You guys are heavily popular.”

“Yeah, it’s been a crazy couple days.” I see Lucky heading our way. He must have just gotten off the phone with Faith. She couldn’t come on the tour this time, due to her mom and Gary going on their honeymoon. “Lucky, dude, this is Scarlett West. Went to highschool together.”

Scarlett is a little overbearing, and envelops both of Lucky’s hands with her own. “Lucky Jones, it’s a pleasure.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“She’s a journalist from the New York Times,” I inform him.

“Sweet. Glad to have you around. We love New York.”

“Thank you. And what about Danny? Is he around by any chance?” She looks around for him.

Jason comes up and says, “He’s on a call right now.”

Scarlett’s eyes widen. “Oh, and you must be Jason. I’m Scarlett Donahue, entertainment journalist for the New York Times.” She sticks out a hand.

“Hey,” he shakes her hand. “Cool to meet you.”

“Thanks. Same here. I’m really glad to have you guys in the same room. Can we sit for awhile for a small interview? I’ve been making my rounds on all the bands. You’re my last one before I head back to New York, tomorrow.”

“Sure, no problem. We’re honored to take part on the tour, so thanks for being here,” Lucky says.

During the middle of the interview, Danny makes his way back into the crowded room and joins us for the remaining of Scarlett’s questions; she’s very punctual, professional and comfortable with each of us. She assures us that everything we tell her will be put in her article as the truth. I believe her. She doesn’t come off as the typical, trying to dig up dirt, type of reporter. I’m actually quite impressed with her. In high school she was really shy and didn’t have an ounce of drive in her. Her parents were fucking strict; she came from a very wealthy family, so trying to see each other was a challenge. Getting her pregnant was the lowest of lows in my life. I wish I could take it all back. After the abortion I never saw her again. Seeing her after all these years bring back a lot of memories. We had a sweet relationship. I wouldn’t say we fell in love or anything, but I cared about her a lot.

Once the interview ends, the guys make their rounds to meet more fans and talk with the other bands on the tour. Scarlett gathers her things from the chair she was sitting in and gives me a quick hug. “It was really great seeing you,” I tell her.

“Same here.” We stare at each other for a second. I don’t like the thought of her leaving. I want to talk some more, find out what happened to her after the abortion. She beats me to it before I get the chance to ask her to stick around. “Hey, I don’t have a lot of time, but….would you like to go some place quiet and talk? I mean, we could go to your bus, hang out, catch up?”

“Yeah sure, let’s go.” I guide her out by placing my hand on her lower back, ignoring the looks from Slim and Jason. They can think all they want. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for her. They already know how I feel about Melody. I am done sleeping around or trying to replace her with a skank. My dick is in control now.

When we step onto the bus, Scarlett is intrigued. “Wow…nice!”

“Thanks. You like a beer?”

“No, thanks. I don’t drink.”

We both take a seat next to each other, on the long, narrow couch. I kick my foot on top of the small ottoman in front of me, pop open my beer and take drink. “So…damn, it’s been a long time.”

“It really has been. Honestly, though, I was really nervous about seeing you again. We left things so…” she pauses, unsure what to say next.

“Unfinished?” I answer for her.

“Yeah…unfinished.

“Where’d you go? Tried for a long time to find you.”

“My parents found out about the abortion. After all these years I still don’t know how they found out, but after everything happened they sent me to a boarding school, in Europe.”
Shit.
How the hell did they find out about the abortion? I thought my parents kept the situation clean. This is totally fucked up. I’m surprised her folks didn’t come pounding on my front door, wanting to kill me. “I wasn’t allowed to write to you. They pretty much had me isolated from everyone.”

“Shit, Scarlett, that’s messed up. Real sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt.”

“Me too. I missed out on so much. That damn school was like a prison. It was awful. I got into drugs, drinking and almost died from an overdose. Yeah, not good,” she scoffs.

“Wow,” is all I can say back. There are no words to describe how guilty I feel.

“What about you? You seem to be doing really well. A band, my God, I never saw it coming! A very popular band, I should add.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty fucking crazy. Taken us a long time to get here. Dreamed about it since high school.”

She crosses her arms and smiles. “I am really, really happy for you. The women are nuts about you, but I can tell you love it.”

I dismiss that comment. “It’s all a show.”

She lightly pushes my leg with her foot. “Oh, come on, Wayne,” she teasingly chuckles.

“No, it’s true. A lot has changed this past year.”

Her eyes light up, knowing I am keeping a secret. “You have a woman in your life.” I, again, dismiss her accusation by taking another drink of my beer. I am not so comfortable her knowing about Melody. I don’t know Scarlett like I did in school, so I am not going to spill every little personal detail about my life to her. Unfortunately she’s still a reporter and can’t be totally trustworthy. “I’m sorry, not my business. It’s the journalist in me, trying to dig up some goods. My bad.”

I’m glad she admitted that, but I’m still not going to budge. “It’s cool, no worries. You married?” I ask, wanting to change the subject.

“Was. I still use my married name for business. We went to the same college, worked at the same newspaper.”

“How long were you married?”

“Six years. We were just too young and drifted apart. He lives in LA and I moved to New York last year. I am in love with the state.”

“Really glad you’re happy. I’ve thought about you a lot.” I haven’t thought about her in a sexual way, just curious to know how she’s doing.

“Me too - I mean I’ve thought about you too. And I think about our baby all the time,” she quietly mentions. “What he or she would have looked like. That sort of thing.”

“Yeah,” I say, swiping a hand through my hair. It’s weird bringing up the baby. It’s almost like it never happened. “That goes through my head a lot. Brought it up to someone a while back, and it was almost surreal talking about it, cuz I hadn’t told anyone before. Slim and my parents are the only ones.”

“It was such a lifetime ago.”

I nod my head, agreeing. “We were just kids back then. Crazy to think we would have been parents with an eleven year old right now.”

“Totally.” We remain quiet, lost in our own thoughts when she looks down at her phone. “Shit, listen, I have to get going.” She digs inside her small purse and hands me her business card. “Here is my card. Let’s keep in touch.”

“We’ll be in New York in a few days. We can meet up?”

“I would so love that, yes.” We give each other a hug. I lead her over to the door and open it for her. Walking out, her foot gets caught on the step, almost causing her to fall. “Agh!” she screams out.

I quickly grab her before she hits the pavement, catching her from behind, under her chest. “You okay?”

“Yes, so clumsy.” She starts laughing hysterically leading me to join her.

I’m aware that I am still holding her when out of nowhere we get bombarded by a flash from the paparazzi. I quickly let Scarlett go. “Hey! Who the fuck allowed you back here!” The punkass runs off, leaving me to believe he’s going to sell off that picture and make up a story for the world to see. Not only that, Melody will see it.
Fucking hell
!

“Oh no, I am so sorry!”

“Motherfucker,” I snap. “This is not going to be good.”

“Wish there was something I can do.”

“It is what it is. Nothin’ anyone can do.”

“Hopefully they didn’t get anything.”

“Doubt it.”

I can’t believe I was stupid enough to keep my arms around Scarlett. Why didn’t I just let her go after she said she was okay? What will Melody think when she sees that picture?
Shit
! What an idiot I am.

After I’ve had the chance to calm down, Scarlett says goodbye. “Well…take care, Wayne. See you soon.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

Once she disappears from my sight, the guys come into view. I run up to them and update them on the latest scandal, waiting to erupt.

“You have got to be shittin me!” Slim shouts, obviously just as furious as I am.

“This is not gonna look good for me in the morning. What if Melody sees it, huh? What the hell am I gonna do?”

“Bro, calm down,” Jason advises me. “If she happens to see it, you will explain to her that it was nothing. She knows you would never lie to her.”

“Might be getting her back. Don’t want anything like this to come between us.”

“Look, she knows all about this kind of stuff,” Lucky cuts in. “It’s part of the business, whether we love it or don’t. She’ll understand. Take a breather. There’s a small gym set up next to us. Go workout.”

“He’s right man,” Danny agrees. “Go blow off some steam.”

“Yeah, right. Cool. Okay, I’ll be back.” I’ve been so busy I had forgotten about the gym. I’m aching to lose some anger with the weights.

“Wayne,” Lucky says, catching up with me. He plants a hand on my shoulder. “Just keep it together. I know this is all new for you, since you’re involved with someone, but for the sake of the band and yourself, tough it out. Things like this will happen…a lot. You just gotta know how to deal with it.”

“How do you do it Luck? You’re always in the tabloids with some other girl, with some crazy ass story. How does Faith handle it?”