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              I laugh and wish for the best.

~CHAPTER THREE~

BREE

              I don’t know why I am nervous. I am just going to watch my neighbors play music. But, my stomach is in knots. The effort I made in to looking decent was way more than I ever do for work. In the end, I decide on a red and white polka-dotted peplum top with white skinny jeans and pointed toe flats. My hair falls below my shoulders in loose waves. I dab a bit of blush on and layer my lashes with mascara, finishing up with a coat of lip-gloss.

              Sofie, on the other hand, is decked out in her “spoiled rotten” clothes. Nothing touches her skin unless it’s designer. She eyes my outfit up and down. Clearly, she doesn’t approve. “You are wearing that?”

              I glance at myself. Funny, I didn’t think I looked half bad. “Something wrong, Sof?”

              Huffing, she combs her fingers through her hair. “I suppose it’s okay if you are planning on staying the whole time. I just assumed since I am only here until tomorrow that we might hit one of the piano bars after we swing by the neighbor’s place.”

              Didn’t I already have this conversation with her? “Sof, I am not going anywhere but across the street.”

              She rolls her eyes and grabs her purse off my dresser and turns to me. “For the record, let me just say, this is a bad idea. Seriously-you can do way better than this.”

              I’m so angry with Sofie for ruining this for me. For the first time, in a long time, I am excited. For whatever reason, I am looking forward to seeing Josh. In many ways, this night is when my new life begins. Sure, I have been commuting to my new job while training. But, to finally integrate myself in to starting over feels liberating. And, right now, Sofie is killing my buzz.

              “For the record, let me say, your intolerance stuns me. I am going to this party tonight, Sofie. It’s been years since I have any kind of social contact with anyone other than you. Nick took that from me. I like Josh and Eric. They were kind enough to help us yesterday...even kinder for inviting us to their party tonight-in spite of you making Eric your bitch,” I grab my purse and head for the door. Sofie catches up with me half way across the street.

              Music bellows through the air and a light scent of beer and alcohol wisps through the air. People spill out from the fenced yard socializing and smoking cigarettes while red cups adorn their hands. Sofie and I push our way through the crowd searching for Josh or the keg-whichever come first.

              To my disappointment, we find the keg. I fill our cups and search the crowd of people for Josh or Eric. In the far corner of the yard, pair of green eyes meets mine. Josh is helping the rest of his band mates set up their remaining gear. He pauses and puts his finger up signaling to me that he is coming over. My stomach churns in a strange twist of excitement and nervousness, maybe even a bit of yearning.

              Josh jumps down from the platform and pushes through a sea of people to get to me. As he tussles through, I see many girls trying to get his attention by pushing their cleavage up or obnoxiously smiling and brushing up against him.  I feel a twinge of jealousy and little insecure. After all, I didn’t wear anything remotely sexy like these girls. He handles each woman politely by shyly smiling or nodding. Finally, he is standing in front of me. It could be my imagination, but he looks pleased to see me.

              “Hey. You made it,” he kisses me on the side of my cheek.

              I shudder from the close contact and breathe in all that is Josh. He smells like pure sex. A faint smell of musk and Cool Water tickle my nostrils. He pulls away to greet Sofie as he did me. She turns her cheek so he can barely touch her. I think he notices but turns his attention back to me.

              “I’m stoked you’re here and you get to see us play.”

              “Yeah...me too.” My voice sounds way too high and enthusiastic. But, I can’t help it. He looks so damn delicious. His gray Henley outlines his chest as it lazily hangs above his belt. A white t-shirt peeks out from underneath his jeans. He bites his lip ring as he talks and in this moment, I could die from visual satisfaction.

              “Are you planning on sticking around after I’m done? We can grab a drink together.”  Those damn green eyes are twinkling.

              I turn to evaluate Sofie’s body language. Evidently, she is not thrilled with the idea but I don’t seem to care at this moment.  One last twirl of his tongue over his lip ring and I was done. “I’d like that.”

              Josh bit his lip as he smirked. “I’m definitely looking forward to that drink. But, I’d better get back up there before they kill me.”

              I playfully push his chest to shoo him away, “Go on. Get out of here. You promised me some good music.”

              Josh laughs at me while he hesitantly makes his way back to his band. “Hey, Bree?”

              “Yeah?” I yell over the crowd of people.

              “You dropped a dot.” Josh yells back with a playful look.

              Like a dope, I immediately look to the ground as if I dropped something. Puzzled, I meet his gaze again. His teasing look is haunting me. And that’s when I hear the voice of doom and gloom. “He’s teasing you, dumb ass. You have dots all over your shirt. Ugh.” Sofie rolls her eyes and sticks her face in her cup. Josh is simply amused at my lack of common sense when he finally realizes I get it.

JOSH

              Damn, Bree has to be the cutest chick on the face of this earth. Really. I couldn’t resist teasing her. But, if we are being honest here, I’d much rather tease her in my bed. She’s so darn sexy with her conservative little outfit. It leaves me aching to see what’s under there. More than half of the girls here tonight are seventy-five percent naked. I don’t get it. By dressing like a porn star, it doesn’t leave much for me to explore later on. These girls are showing their cards way before they won the hand. Not, Bree. Her cards are hidden well. And, I love a good card game.

              I finally make it back to the band and it looks like we are ready to go. I glance out at the crowd as I swing my guitar over my shoulder mounting it to my body. Bree has moved further up through the crowd dragging the Ice Queen behind her. I’m nervous...not because I am about to play but because Bree is here.

              By now, Eric has his bass guitar strapped to his chest. “She came, bro.”

              My eyes meet hers as I tune up. “How could she resist this?” I quip.

              Eric chuckles. “I see she brought Ms. Bitch with her.”

              There are only so many solids you can ask of a friend. The fact that Eric has dealt with my psycho ex-fuck for the past year has really put me at a disadvantage in the favor department. On the other hand, anything he asked for, I would do it. So here goes nothing. “I want to hang out with Bree when were done tonight. You cool with distracting Sofie?”

              He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Fuck no.”

              I knew that was coming. “C’mon, man. Please?”

              “Dude, you fucking suck. There’s a cute little blonde with a nose ring over there that I was gonna work later tonight,” he points to a stubby girl with a bleached pixie cut who is sucking down a Jell-O shot.

              Sick. I know he can do better. Shit. Even Eric knows he can do better. “You seriously want to tap that?”

              Eric shrugs me off and smirks. “It’s a sure thing with her. Hell, it’s a sure thing with half of the chicks that are here tonight. With Sofie, it’s a surefire way to get my dick bit off if I even try anything with her.”

              He had a point, “Then, don’t try anything with her.”

              The drummer signals it’s time to go on. “One...two...a one...two...three...four!” And for the next hour I pour everything in to it for Bree.

BREE

              I can hardly wait to hear Josh play. Music had been a huge part of my college life before I met Nick. I spent damn near every Friday and Saturday night hunting down local bands in run down bars. Once Nick and I became a couple, my weekends were consumed with attending socials and fraternity parties. God, I missed this.

              The drummer counts down and the band begins to play. Josh starts off with a raspy version of  ‘I'm Not Okay (I Promise)’ by My Chemical Romance. He is totally at home on the self-constructed stage. His charismatic presence is swoon worthy. Too quickly, I feel the heat build from just below my stomach and it travels down between my legs. Just. By. Watching. Him. I can’t imagine what I will feel if he touches me. When he starts to play ‘Living in the Eye of the Storm’ by Trapt, I lose it.

              I’m pushing my way to the front of the crowd leaving Sofie to claw her way around the girls trying to get anyone in the band’s attention. That’s when I feel something fly by my head. Then, I see it...red and lace. It was someone’s thong. It hits Eric as he plays. He keeps going but smugly grins. Josh barely notices the undergarment, which bothers me a little. It’s almost like he’s immune to the attention. Then, our eyes meet and I feel like I’m the only one standing before him.

              The band stops for a few moments to catch their breath. One by one they introduce themselves with the sound of introductory drums in the background. “Ladies and Gentleman...please give it up for Eric Parker on bass and lead vocals,” the drummer croons in the Mic and Eric shows the girls how his fingers work. “Girls...that’s not all he can do with his fingers...” The screams deafen me. “Next, we have Maxwell Wang on the keyboards.” Max uses his digits jokingly playing the beginning of Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ again prompting the girls to lose it. “On lead vocals, guitar and our token white boy rapper...we have the one...the only...Josh...Manigliaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Josh plays a little ditty on his instrument but appears bashful by the earsplitting shrieks. It dies down just enough for Eric to chime in, “Last but not least...on the drums...Brandonnnnn McCormick!”

              Brandon completes his drum solo. ”Ladies and Gentleman...we are Paperless Story!” He immediately leads the band in to ‘Nookie’ by Limp Bizkit. Josh takes the lead again rapping his way in to the panties of every girl there including mine.

              Josh sends me in to a frenzy of sorts. My body is rejecting my attempts to stay calm. My conservative personality wants to run away to regain the control she was trained to have. The uncultivated personality, that has resurfaced, wants to stick her tongue down Josh’s throat and rip his clothes off.

              Sofie hasn’t said a word. I can tell she is miserable. My guilt takes over and I make the mistake of asking her if she is okay.

              “Does it look like I’m okay, Bree?”

              “Sofie, if you want to go, I’m perfectly fine by myself,” I hand her the key to my house.

              “I was hoping you would say that. I’m going to go to bed. I have a long drive back in the morning. I might be gone by the time you get up.”

              “Wake me up to say ‘goodbye’?”

              “We’ll see.”

              I doubt she will wake me up. Something tells me this is goodbye.

              Josh visually checks in on me between songs. Part of me wants to bail. Maybe I’m reading way too much in to this. Josh and Eric are probably just neighborly people. But, there is just something between us I can’t ignore. I have never felt so sexually charged for any guy in my life. 

                            Paperless Story is officially done for the night. I carefully place myself against the house next to the keg thinking Josh will need a beer. Silly me, I didn’t realize people were passing drinks up to him the whole night. I’m on my fourth beer and feeling no pain. To be quite honest, if I didn’t have the alcohol in me, I would have chickened out.

              An attractive guy makes his way over to me. He pumps his beer and then pumps another. He’s very clean cut with cropped blonde hair. His crisp buttoned down shirt is pressed to perfection. He screams ‘frat boy’. Blue eyes question me as he hands the beer to me and I reluctantly take the beer. “You’re a pretty, little wallflower.”

              I look to the ground to avoid eye contact. “Thank you.”

              Attractive, preppy boy puts his arm against the wall, above my head, caging me in. “So, what’s your name?” He smells like beer and he is making me nervous.

              “Bree.”

              “You’re the shy type. I dig that.”

              A familiar, comforting smell swarms all around me. Suddenly, I feel calmer.

              “Beat it, Mark. This one’s taken,” Josh threatens.

              Mark takes one last look at me. “Damn, I was going to have fun with this one,” he sneers. He trots pass Josh with a drunken swag.

              Josh’s antagonistic stare stays until Mark is a safe distance away. “He’s an asshole. Stay away from him.”

              “I wasn’t planning on being near him,” I inform Josh. No way near him. I know the type.

              “Good. He’s not very nice to girls.”

              “Trust me, I had my fill of heartless guys. I’m not interested.”

              I feel like I’m being tested and reprimanded all at the same time. Does he think I like Mark because the guy handed me a beer?

              “Many?”

              “One is enough. Don’t you think?” What’s he getting at?

              “This one...he is out of the picture?”

              “Completely,” I answer.

              Josh’s cold demeanor melts away. He moves in closer and whispers in my ear. “Let’s go some place private.”

JOSH

              I’ve kept my eye on Bree the entire night. But, I’m not the only one. My asshole neighbor has been stalking her the whole night as well. The sweet little thing is oblivious. I watched him corner her and it sent me right over the edge. Normally, I’m pretty chill with all of the dudes in the development. But, Mark has a reputation for being a little forceful with the ladies. I’ll be damned if Bree gets caught up in that shit.