Rubbed Raw (29 page)

Jon shouted, “Vince, come down here.” When he did, Jon added, “He used to play violin with the symphony until Sam convinced him this paid better. I need you to do your thing for this song. It’s gonna be a fucking hit!”

I awoke without having one nightmare. My therapist’s plan to take me off sleeping pills worked. I lifted my head to see Giovanni watching me, no surprise. We had been together again for about two weeks, and it was incredible.

I smiled. “Did I wake you up at all?”

“You cried in your sleep a few times, but didn’t wake up. I just put my fingers through your hair, and you stopped.”

“Maybe I should take the pills, then.”

“It’s OK. I don’t mind soothing you.”

I put my head back down and hugged him. “What would I ever do without you?” Then I looked at his chest and traced the cross, tattooed over his heart. “Who’s this for?” I had not asked in a long while.

“Someone who died,” was his quiet response.

I sighed, wanting details. “I figured that out. Who though?”

Suddenly, the bedroom door burst open and hit the wall. “I’m home!”

I screamed, terrified.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, Crystal.” Rosario came closer to the bed. “I got leave and wanted to surprise my brother.”

I clung to Giovanni tightly, shaking and crying. “I can feel him again. Please, Giovanni make it stop, ple-e-e-ase.”

Giovanni held me close to him and rubbed my bare back. “It’s OK. He’s not coming back. I promise.”

“Why’s she so scared?” Rosario sounded worried.

“She was attacked at her place in May,” Giovanni explained. “Some guy followed her home from one of our shows and tried to rape her.”

Rosario sat on the bed near me. “I’m so sorry. No one told me.” He touched my shoulder and I jumped away.

“You can’t touch her when she’s like this. She only lets me and Chad hold her,” Giovanni told him. “She called Chad and he heard it all. She just kept screaming. He got there just in time. Bro, he tore her clothes off her.”

I started crying harder. “No more, please. I can feel his fingers...” I clutched Giovanni harder.

“Where is he?” Rosario asked angrily. “He’ll wanna die after I’m done with him. Nobody puts their hands on our Crystal.”

“He’s in jail. Relax, man. You’re makin’ it worse,” Giovanni replied. “He’s gonna go away for a long time. She wasn’t the only one.” After I was calmer, he got out of bed while making sure I was covered.

“Dude, you could’ve asked me to get you clothes,” Rosario said. “I have no desire to look at you like that.”

Giovanni laughed as he got clothes from his drawers. “You fucked two girls in the living room, and me being naked bothers you? Anyway, you busted into my room. Good thing we weren’t fucking. That would’ve been a bit awkward.”

“I didn’t know you guys were together,” Rosario admitted. “I thought you’d be alone.”

“Sorry, we’ve been so busy,” Giovanni responded, as he got dressed. “She moved in the day after... it happened. I told her how I felt, and we were together by the end of the night. Did you know she was in love with me, too?”

I had sat up by then, the sheet over my chest. The fear was gone, but I didn’t know what to say.

“Yeah, I knew.” Rosario smiled. “It was so obvious. The last time I was here, you and Chad kept touching her. It was hysterical. She looked so torn between you two. I always thought she liked Chad too, though. Guess not.”

Giovanni let a look of anger cross his face for just a few seconds. “We gotta get dressed.”

When we were ready, Rosario came with us to the recording studio.

Jon walked right to him. “You gotta be Rosario. You guys look so much alike. Wow, nice to finally meet you.” Jon put his hand out.

“You, too.” Rosario looked stunned as he shook Jon’s hand. “I can’t believe they know you. I been buying your CDs for years.”

Dominic was next to him and offered his hand. “Your brother can really wail, you know. He’s almost as good as Jon here.”

Jon smiled. “You got a talented bunch of friends you know. Hey, “Leatherneck” would sound awesome with you and Chris both on vocals. What’d you say?” It was close to thrash metal, so that sounded perfect.

“The song Giovanni wrote? Hell, yeah! He sent me a demo of it. I loved it.”

Tommy came to me and kissed my cheek. “That solo you wrote would sound great as an intro for it.”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea,” Jon agreed.

Tommy winked at me, which made me smile. “I’ll be back in a few.” Then he walked away.

Giovanni was already at the drum set, adjusting cymbals. Most everyone else was getting ready also.

I suddenly felt hands on my shoulders. I exhaled loudly, “Tommy, stop.”

“He does like you. I thought so,” Rosario commented quietly. “You obviously like him, too. You’re not gonna cheat on my brother…” He squeezed my shoulders harder. “Right?”

I closed my eyes. “It’s not like that.”

“Then what is it?” he whispered in my ear. “He’s a famous rock star, is that it?”

“Kinda… well… it’s hard to explain.”

“You fucked him, right?”

He and Chad were the only people I knew that could do something like that. Rosario was the most perceptive person I ever met.

“Crystal, I’m right, ain’t I?” He kissed my cheek. “It’s OK. Your secret’s safe with me. But, please tell me you didn’t cheat on my brother with him.”

I sighed. “I didn’t.”

“Hey, babe, you ready to uh, play?” Tommy looked at me slyly, sideways, his sexiest look.

I bit my lip and leaned back a bit, “Um, almost.”

“I’ll be waiting.” He had such a sultry voice.

I took a deep breath as I watched him walk with his blue bass to where I normally played. I tried hard to quell my desire, but it was like he just gave off irresistible pheromones.

“Holy crap, that guy is good,” Rosario stated. “He must get so many chicks. I have to say, he is handsome. It’s too bad he’s a friend now. Maybe Giovanni wouldn’t mind you…”

“Mind her what?” Giovanni said as he walked towards us.

Rosario breathed on my neck, “Um, her playing with Tommy. He has his bass here, too.”

“That’s nothing new,” Giovanni informed him. “They got pretty close. It must be a bass player thing.” He winked at me, knowingly.

Rosario let out a short laugh. “Yeah, that must be it.”

“Gotta go,” I kissed Giovanni on the mouth and Rosario on the cheek. Then I went straight to Tommy, with a huge smile.

“Hey, babe,” he greeted me. “I got something special for you today.” He smirked. “Damn, I wish I could… let me stop before I get a hard-on again.”

I looked around as I put my bass on. Everyone was almost done. Strangely, Dominic was putting a guitar over his shoulder.

“OK,” Jon spoke up. “You guys ready?”

Rosario had a piece of paper in his hands, probably the lyrics, and Dominic was adjusting sheets of music on a stand. I looked up at Tommy who was in position to play just like me. He winked at me again. Like a reflex, I smiled again.

I took a deep breath and started when Jon said to. After a few seconds, Tommy started to play notes that were a little higher, but blended well with mine. I kept going, and my smile widened.

Soon Chad began the original intro with Tommy and me playing identical bass lines, but an octave apart. Then Dominic came in, providing rhythm, which we didn’t normally have. Chris sang better without a guitar in his hands.

Giovanni started to tap on a bass drum, four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and then he slammed his sticks down and started pounding away. Tommy and I as well as Chad and Dominic picked up the tempo with him.

By the time the song had turned pretty heavy, Rosario screamed. He looked so comfortable with it. Just after Chris’ first line, Tommy shouted, “never surrender” into a microphone in front of him. It made me smile that his deep, sexy voice would be on the CD. Then after he cried out, “Oo-rah!” along with the rest of us, he grabbed my ass. I got flustered and hit the wrong note.

“Stop!” Jon’s voice boomed into the room.

“Damn, sorry,” Tommy whispered as he came up behind me. “I couldn’t help myself.”

Chad came over to me. “You OK, baby?”

“Yeah,” I smiled and nodded my head towards Tommy.

Then Chad laughed. “Dude, now is not the time to try and get in her panties again. We gotta make up for lost time, you know.”

“I know.” Tommy sighed. “But you know exactly why it’s so hard.”

Chad sighed. “Yeah, but you don’t see me all over her, right? Don’t make me separate you two.” He smirked then left us.

As soon as we had played the entire song, the control room door opened. “Damn, that was good, but it needs something,” Jon said loudly, while he walked over to Chad. “Play the original intro for me again.”

Chad complied, fingers sweeping across the frets with ease.

“Crystal, Tommy, play the end of yours.” We did the same “Chad, one more time.” Jon picked up an extra guitar and donned the strap. Someone handed him a pick. “OK, Tom, Crystal, do it again.”

I watched Jon as we played again. He had his eyes closed and just before we got to the end, he started to play notes that were not part of the intro, but led into it. Tommy and I kept going and so did Jon then Dominic joined. Chad was smiling. None of us knew Jon played guitar, especially so well.

When we all stopped, Jon looked to Chad again. “You get what I want?”

“It flows better your way,” Chad admitted.

Jon put a hand on his back. “You’re on your way to be in our place one day, you know. You have amazing fingers, man.”

I bit my lip at that comment. Chad looked right at me and winked. I felt he had amazing fingers too, but I wasn’t thinking about music.

After spending the entire day on the song, without finishing it, we needed a break. We decided to go to the pool hall we frequented. It was only Chad, Chris, Rosario, Giovanni and I. Everyone else had plans already.

We gave up on playing pool when everyone started getting a bit antsy and headed down to the bar. “I bet I could drink you under the table,” Rosario suddenly blurted out. He didn’t know Chris was a heavy drinker.

Chris laughed. “You can’t out-drink me.”

Rosario laughed also. “Drinking’s like a sport in the corps.”

Chad chimed in with, “You guys suck. I can beat you both.” Chad already had a few, so he had beer balls.

“I ain’t sitting back and looking stupid,” Giovanni added. “I’m in.”

I shook my head. It was ridiculous, but they were determined to crown a drinking champion. They all handed me 20 dollars. Smart move; give it to the sober one. I wasn’t drinking with my medicine again.

Rosario ordered 20 shots of whiskey; five each. I shook my head, hoping I didn’t have to try and carry them all to the car. I was glad we took the SUV Rosario rented.

“Go!” yelled Rosario.

They downed shot after shot, until all the glasses were empty. They sat back and watched each other. After a few minutes, only Giovanni seemed affected. He drank so much less than the rest. Chris got up to buy more.

I followed him. “Don’t give any to Giovanni, please.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Giovanni shouted.

I huffed and went back to my chair. “I have to go home with you,” I reminded him. “You better not do anything stupid.”

Giovanni put his head on my shoulder. “I’m not drunk.”

“But you will be,” I told him, slightly annoyed.

He moved his chair closer and kissed my lips. “You’ll love me anyway.”

I smiled and touched his face. “I will, but you get a little aggressive when you’re drunk.”

“So do you and them.” He turned to the other guys. “Oh, that could be interesting. You sober and all of us drunk.” He smiled and laughed a little. “Talk about Triple Threat; we’ll all attack you in the car.” He laughed again.

He was well on his way to drunkenness. If he was sober and someone came onto me because they were drunk, he’d be furious, not laughing.

Chris gave each of them three more shots. They were gone in seconds.

Giovanni soon stood up then fell back in his chair before yelling. “I gotta fucking pee!”

“Shut up!” I admonished him.

Rosario laughed. “Bro, you lost.”

“Fu-ck y-you,” Giovanni slurred then stood up again, but grabbed my shoulder before he fell again. He pulled me up. “Come on. I need you to hold my dick.”

We all laughed at that. I put an arm around him and walked to the men’s room with him. Then he yanked me in there with him, “Giovanni, stop.”

“I’m gonna fall if you let go. No one cares.” He walked to the urinal and tried to stay steady, but it was hopeless. He put his hands on the wall and said. “You gotta help me, or I’m gonna be on my ass. How the hell did I get this drunk?”

I sighed, “Because you don’t listen to me.”

“Sorry, now take my dick out and point.”

I looked around and saw a man staring at us. I asked, “You wanna help him?” I laughed when he quickly left. Then I stood behind Giovanni and opened his pants.

“Don’t drop them.”

“I won’t.” I pressed my body against him and pulled his cock out. It instantly started to harden. “You can’t wait till we get home?”

Giovanni moaned. “That’s it, baby.” Then he laughed. “Come on, point it down, I gotta piss.”

“Are you really holding it for him?” I heard Rosario say from behind me. Then he was next to us, urinating also.

“You guys are so modest,” I commented.

He smiled. “You saw my dick before, why should this bother you?”

“It’s funny how you guys are all different sizes.” I smiled, knowing Rosario’s cock was almost as big as his little brother’s, just not as wide.

“Really?” Rosario looked at me. “So you seen Chad and Chris’ dicks too? Boy, you get around. What about Phil and Mark?”

Giovanni’s flow stopped, and I helped him get dressed again. “She seen all of them. Everyone wants my girl, but she’s all mine.”

“Come on, big guy.” I helped him away from the wall.

When we got back to the table, I got Giovanni into a chair then sat on his lap to keep him there.

Chris leaned over the table. “You gotta tell us if you really had to hold it for him. We got a bet going.”

“She did,” Rosario answered. “He couldn’t even stand up. It was funny.”