My Side (5 page)

He cocked his head,
“You can drink from the carton but I can’t?”

I walked off my run,
pacing in the kitchen, “You kiss everything you meet. You probably have Hep C.”

He laughed, “Princess,
I get shots and regular checkups. Thank you for the judgment though.” His eyes
trailed up my legs. “Those are some short shorts.”

I sighed and started
to stretch and threw him another look.

He grinned, “I go to
hot yoga sometimes, you should come. You look like you could use a stretch in
the hamstrings. Why don’t you bend over and let me stretch you from behind?”

I groaned and walked
to my bedroom to stretch without being ogled.

He yelled after me,
“Wanna go to Costco?”

I looked back,
contemplating the offer, “Yeah, sure. I don’t have a card though.”

“I do.”

Nodding, I walked into
the bathroom instead of my room, “Give me ten to shower.”

He laughed, “Ha, you
mean twenty.”

I stuck my finger out
the doorframe, flipping him off again.

We left the apartment
an hour later. He had an arrogant look on his face, like he knew I would be
slow. The car out front was nice; it was a four door, black Audi in great
shape. “This is yours?”

He gave me a look and
pressed the unlock button. “The drummer, Gerry, is coming with us,” he said as
he climbed in. We drove a few blocks, stopping outside of a small brick
building, nowhere nice as ours. A thin guy with
nicely-styled
,
dark-blonde hair and a tidy look to him, walked towards us.

“Is the drummer gay?”
I asked.

He laughed, “No, he’s
always got ladies climbing all over him.”

The guy got in the back
seat, “You must be Erin.”

I looked back, “Hi.”
How did he know my name?

He put a hand out,
“Gerry.” His dark-blonde hair was cut like Justin Bieber’s. He had on a blue
and white striped tee shirt. His jeans were burgundy and he had on the cutest
loafers. He was gay. The kind of gay that made me INSTANTLY
want
to be his beard or his hag.

His hands were clean
and manicured and he had tiny pores. He did regular facials and
manis
. He wasn’t totally delicate though, he was strong and
handsome but in a feminine way, like a model. He gave me an appraising look,
“So, how are you liking the city, compared to the Midwest?”

I fought my frown,
“Great. Different. I mean the humidity is murder. I have to straighten my hair
everyday, that’s annoying. I get frizz really fast.”

He pointed at me,
“Aloe Vera will solve that right now. Run it through your hair after the shower
and then blow dry. It’s like magic.”

I frowned, “But my
hair is naturally curly.”

Lochlan gave me a
look, “Really?” he sounded funny. I sneered at him.

Gerry laughed, “Yeah,
it works like a hot damn.”

I looked at Lochlan,
beaming. He gave me another weird look and then looked back at Gerry, “You
gay?”

Gerry laughed, “Duh?
Though I will say, I haven’t ever been asked so rudely.”

I was about to defend
Gerry when a huge smile crossed Lochlan’s lips, “Dude, my brother’s gay. I
should tell him to come up. He always complains about Nashville and the
haters.”

Gerry sighed,
“Fortunately, I’m from Seattle; I’ve never had an issue. But I know a guy who’s
from Texas and his parents won’t even see him.”

Lochlan shook his
head, “That’s sick. How can you judge someone for being who they are?” He gave
me a look and continued to drive.

I somehow turned out
to be the bad guy in Lochlan’s eyes. Had I been judging people, besides him? He
deserved every bit of judgment he got.

Gerry laughed, leaning
forward, “If I had to be straight, I would be asking you for dinner.”

I looked back at him,
“I would have asked you first. I can tell you have manners. You’re probably a
great dancer, have incredible taste in red wines, love picking up after
yourself, and bringing home fresh flowers. I bet you’re even on time, all the
time.”

He smirked at me, “Me
to a tee.”

I grinned, “Me too. I
bet you’d even let me order for myself.”

I scowled at Lochlan
who rolled his eyes, “Yeah, so I don’t like red wine and other snooty shit, and
I don’t pick up crap in the living room. It’s a living room. It’s for living,
princess.” His grin turned into the smile that made the world stop and take
notice of him, “Besides, you like it when I order for you.”

I gave Gerry a knowing
look, “This is what I deal with.”

Lochlan snorted as he
parked and we went inside. Gerry took his own cart, “I’m going to wander.” He
winked at me and walked off.

I poked Lochlan, “Ha,
told you he’s gay.”

He nodded, “You called
it.”

I frowned, “Is your
brother really gay?”

He gave me a weird
look, “Yeah? Why?”

Shaking my head, I
followed him to the protein powder section, “Just curious.”

He glanced at the
label of the huge container he was holding, “You don’t think I’d be cool with a
gay brother, or you just think I lie a lot?” His tone tugged at me.

I answered casually,
“What?? No… I never meant that. I just thought, maybe you were being
open-minded… or trying to make him feel good, what with being a rock star and…
nothing,” I stopped. I was starting to sound prejudice or tolerant, which I
wasn’t. I didn’t believe in tolerance. That meant you saw the difference in you
and someone else.

He stared for a
second, “I love my brother and I hope no one ever tries to make him feel
accepted for who he is. That makes him different. He’s not. My sister and I are
straight and my brother is gay, and honestly, I think my parents love him more
for it. He’s the better kid for sure.” The way he said it, I could hear a small
amount of admiration in his voice, like his parents were amazing for being cool
with whoever their kids turned out to be.

I smirked, “They
probably just don’t love the starving-artist path you’re choosing.”

He cocked a dark
eyebrow, “Starving? Least I’m making money and not just costing.”

I sneered and crossed
my arms. He continued reading until I finally had to say it, “I’m not one of
those people. It came out wrong. I don’t believe in tolerance.”

The cocky grin slowly
crept across his face, but he kept his gaze on the nutritional information.

I shook my head,
“Asshole.”

He put it in the cart
and pointed to the one next to it, “You want this one? It’s for women trying to
lose some weight. The girl on the ads is tight.”

My jaw dropped. He put
his hands up fast, “Joke! Don’t mace me.”

I sighed and hated the
fact it was in my pocket. He glanced at it, “It looks like a cock. Everyone is
gonna
see Gerry in his burgundy pants, and then you with the
mace cock, and think we’re all gay. How am I supposed to pick up with that
going on?”

I
laughed,
brushing off the challenging look he was giving me, “You’d make a sexy lady.”

He chuckled, pushing
the cart to the dried food, “I did it once for Halloween with my brother, he
wanted to actually dress up as a girl, and if I did, no one would pick on him.
So I did and let me tell you…” His grin grew, “It was bad. It was like
knock-kneed, hairy, tattoo-on-the-bicep bad. I looked like Wesley Snipes in To
Wong Fu.
Alex, my bro, looked like John Leguizamo.
He
was sexy as hell and I was all muscled and gnarly looking.”

I liked this side of
him. I’d didn’t often see him put someone above himself. In front of other
people he was so self-important but in that moment, Alex was more important.

Looking past him, I
thought I saw someone I knew. I looked at the guy and tilted my head for a
second. He turned around to face me but I didn’t know him. I looked back at
Lochlan to say something. He was so handsome and funny. I had to give it to
him. The weeks we’d spent hadn’t been at all, like I’d expected them to be.
Just as the sweet smile crossed my lips, I caught him bending his head, staring
at the ass and tramp stamp of a girl about my age. His eyebrows rose as she
bent to pick something up.

Never mind, he was
scum.

It stung to watch him
do it. I walked away. I needed frozen veggies and fruit anyway. Mentally, I
coached myself. I was repeating that it didn’t matter that he wasn’t into me.
It was better. If he was hitting on me and being sweet, I might have been
fooled by his sweet brother stories. I might have taken the bait and let him
in. God knew I wanted to. I couldn’t deny the
attraction,
regardless of the fact that ninety percent of what he said was disturbing. The
other ten percent was the best and that was all my brain focused on. Not the
good brain though. Not the one in my head.

I caught up to Gerry
in the book section. He flipped up one with some hot, young actor on the cover.
I wagged my eyebrows at him. He laughed, “Crackers in bed would go unnoticed.”

I tossed my veggies in
the cart.

He gave me a look,
“You okay?”

I nodded, “Yeah. Just
getting stressed, you know. School starting and stuff.”

I grabbed something
with a sexy cover from the table and read the back of the book. Instantly
intrigued, I tossed it into the cart. He gave me a look, “Why read those, when
you have the real thing in your house?”

My eyes almost rolled
on their own, “Yeah, right.”

He gave me a serious
look, “He talks about you an awful lot.”

“Talks shit about me
and then sleeps with everything he sees, no thanks.”

The grin on his lips
was infectious, “Maybe he sleeps with them to make you jealous and he doesn’t
talk shit. He talks about smart, and clean, and organized, and Erin says this,
and Erin says that. Erin doesn’t like mushrooms unless they’re minced really
small, and Erin thinks she’s so brave, but I see the way she brushes her hand
against her mace. He likes you. You should give him a chance. He’s sweet when
he’s not trying to be the lead singer.” His words burned my insides with
fluttering and the hopeful possibility.

I glanced over at the
tramp stamp on the girl he was with and scowled, “Not going to happen, so quit.
He has a better chance with you than me.”

Gerry scoffed,
“Please. I don’t do baggage. I don’t date anyone in the band anyway. I can’t
focus on more than one thing at a time.” He pushed the cart over to where
Lochlan and the girl, with the tight ass in the skinny jeans, were laughing.

I snatched my things
from Lochlan’s cart and shoved them into Gerry’s. I passed him the cash, “I have
to go to the bathroom.” He gave me a look but I ignored it. I walked away and
hoped Lochlan would get a ride home with the tramp stamp girl.

I was just sliding the
lock when two girls started to talk from other stalls.

“Did you see Lochlan
Barlow is in here? He’s with Gerry Ronson. Like oh my God!”

“Oh my God girl, I
know. He was so hot on America’s Most Talented Stars. Seriously. I voted for
him every night. I couldn’t believe when he got kicked off the show.”

Had I been under a
rock? He was on a show? That was how everyone knew him.

They continued to
natter on, “He beat the crap out of some guy backstage one night.”

“I don’t give a
shit—that makes him hotter. What were they thinking? He’s smoking and
unruly. I heard that he’s single. I am so glad he joined Thin Ice.”

“I know, right. He’s
been with them for like a couple weeks. We should go one night to one of the
bars. My cousin Mandy went and said Lochlan kissed her after a show.”

My guts were burning.
I felt nauseous. He was such a pig; why did they care what he was doing?
Chasing celebrities made no sense to me. They were just people.
Usually sleazy people.

I flushed and walked
out of the stall. I wondered if he was an actual musician, like a good one? If
he was, that meant it was his first time in a band because he was an actual
singer …who could do the show alone. He was famous and I was mocking him
constantly and calling him a starving artist. Oh God. How had I not known?

I hated nothing like I
did reality TV. I hadn’t watched anything since the first season of The
Bachelorette. I liked crime dramas better. I washed my hands and looked up at
the perplexed look on my face.

I left quickly before
they saw me. I didn’t even know why. I just didn’t want to be the girl with the
guy in the band.

When I got back up to
Gerry and Lochlan, the sexy chick was gone and Lochlan had a weird look on his
face. He scowled at me and pushed the cart out to the car. I looked at Gerry
but his expression didn’t help either. They were quiet.

Had I done something?

We drove in silence. I
didn’t even dare to try to make conversation; something had clearly gone wrong.