Authors: Heidi Hutchinson
“
I
smell like a bar floor, I have to shower. You guys need to get your
act together. Just because last night was rough doesn’t mean
you can slack off at your show.” She almost cringed at how
much she sounded like her father.
***
Lenny left the bus
and Blake swallowed another sandwich nearly whole and wiped his lips.
“That chick is a genius; this food is a miracle cure.”
He belched loudly.
“
She’s
a lot stronger than she looks.” Sway said, tearing into a
sandwich himself.
“
I’ve
never seen anyone so pissed,” Harrison agreed.
“
I
wonder what she did before joining us,” Sway mused.
“
Probably
UFC,” Harrison said, half-serious.
“
Regardless,
this should be a good lesson for all of you,” Carl interrupted
gruffly. “Don’t cross her. She will mess you up.”
They all nodded solemnly and he added, “She was mad when we got
there but she didn’t ‘Hulk-Out’ till she heard that
asshat talking shit to Blake. You all know Lenny to be level-headed
and focused. Turns out, her line is you.” Carl let his words
settle over them before he excused himself.
The guys chewed
quietly for a few minutes, thinking about what Carl had just said.
Blake cleared his
throat, “Um, Luke?” He said hesitantly.
“
Yeah,
buddy?”
“
I
don’t remember a lot from last night…but I’m
pretty sure I told your girlfriend to kiss me.”
Light laughter
erupted around the table. Luke rolled his eyes. “She’s
not my girl.”
“
Not
yet.” Mike replied quickly, causing more laughter.
“
Let’s
just drop that whole train of thought right now, okay?” Luke
was trying to look as serious as possible but the side of his mouth
kept turning up. “Lenny is off limits to all of us, remember?”
“
Why
ya smiling?” Harrison ribbed.
“
Go
to hell.” Luke picked up his coffee and left his band mates
laughing behind him. He went outside and stood in the warm sunshine,
trying to push their comments out of his mind. He knew they were
right; he couldn’t stay away from Lenny. He just didn’t
want them to talk about it so much.
He saw Lenny exit
the crew bus, her bag slung over her shoulder. She looked around,
taking inventory of her surroundings, having negligible eye contact
with Luke, and headed to the backstage area. Luke barely hesitated,
jogging to catch up with her.
“
Hey,”
he said falling in step beside her. She flashed a quick smile but
kept moving, clearly on business.
“
Scouting
for a shower?” He anticipated her destination.
“
I
can usually sneak into one.” She grinned at him and he fought
back the urge to hug her.
“
You
can use our shower.” He volunteered, already knowing what she
would say.
“
That
would be a bad idea,” she replied, “Besides, I like the
adventure of finding one. I feel like I earned my shower that way.”
“
I
just wanted to say thanks for all you did last night for Blake. I
know it couldn’t have been fun watching over him all night.”
Luke's words came out hurried and nervous.
“
It's
not like I was going to sleep anyway.” She held up her coffee,
“Thank God for caffeine, am I right?”
Luke shoved his
hands in his pocket, trying to figure out how to ask why she had
blamed herself for Blake’s actions last night. And why she had
gone to such great lengths to protect him.
“
I
know it wasn’t my fault that Blake acted like a colossal moron
last night,” Lenny said as if reading Luke’s thoughts.
“I just know that if I woulda been there, it wouldn’t
have happened.”
They rounded a
corner and Lenny stopped to face Luke. They had just enough privacy
so that no one could hear them but not enough for anyone to think
something else was going on between them.
“
What
about the Street Fighter routine, where’d that come from?”
Luke was genuinely curious. He saw the video on the news this
morning and couldn’t help but wonder at this mysterious woman
who had worked her way into their daily lives.
“
I
told you I have three older brothers, right?” Luke nodded.
“Nathan is a MMA instructor and he thought I should have a
basic knowledge for self-defense. I just let my temper get the
better of me last night.” Lenny shook her head with
embarrassment. “I guess you were right, I’m part of the
family now. I couldn’t stand to hear someone ridicule one of
my brothers. I wanted to take him out.”
Luke chuckled,
wishing he could have been there to see it in person.
“
Now,
I have to go find a shower and get this...ick off of me.”
Lenny made a face as she glanced down at her messy clothes. She
pointed her coffee at him, “Don't follow me, we can't have
people talking.”
Luke nodded and she
gave him a half smile and turned down a darkened hallway. He watched
her until she was completely out of sight. He knew she was right,
but that didn't stop him from wanting to be around her all the time.
She was completely amazing. And a little dangerous. And he couldn’t
get enough.
Lenny took up her
usual post in the sound booth with Greg, the sound engineer. Her
inability to do any laundry the last couple of weeks had left her
with a ratty pair of jeans and a vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt she
had stolen from her brother, Scott, years ago. Her long blonde hair
was in a loose mess around her shoulders due to Luke's 'request' that
she not wear the braid anymore. She hated to admit it, but her
headaches had gotten substantially better.
She found herself on
her feet, swaying her hips to the music and singing along with every
song. This band, their music, had always pulled deeply at her soul.
She found it difficult to keep up the depiction of stoic observation,
like a good employee should, when they took the stage. She could get
lost in the words, the beat, the melody... Something about Luke
Casey's velvety voice had an energizing yet calming effect on her.
It filled her senses like the fresh pine blowing through the trees
back home...
After the accident,
she had found little to no comfort in those around her. But Double
Blind Study on her play-list made her feel like she wasn't alone.
Someone out there understood what she was going through. Her friends
only added to the pain she was going through and DBS became her safe
place. And now, here she was, on tour with them, eating with them,
watching over them, taking care of them. They would never know how
much they had taken care of her over the past two years. When she
went into that interview weeks ago she never dreamed that she would
end up here.
The crowd was
insane. Bodies jumping up and down and slam dancing without stop.
Crowd surfers kept popping up and making their way from one side of
the pit to the other. The band played three encore songs and the
fans went wild. Lenny smiled with satisfaction, knowing that last
night’s incident had just drawn a larger crowd.
The band had a small
meet and greet after the show before they could get on the road.
They had limited the amount of after-show events because of time
restrictions so this was a rare occurrence. Less than ten people, a
few radio winners and some friends of Carl's that had driven nearly
ten hours from Hartford.
Lenny's eyes kept
being drawn back to the threesome that had arrived with Carl's
backstage passes. The tall, dark-haired girl was lively and
friendly, dragging the shorter brunette girl with her in happy
exuberance. The short girl seemed...detached. She looked
uncomfortable and politely irritated by her surroundings. Like she
had something far more important on her mind. The lone guy in the
trio chain smoked almost as much as Carl.
Lenny saw Sway zero
in on Tall Girl and she made her way that direction to intercept.
Sway had barely said a word and the girl's happy face changed to
annoyed in a second. Lenny quickened her pace. Sway was going to
get slapped one of these days. Why did he think he could hit on
anyone?
“
You're
feisty, I like it.” Sway's lip curled up and Lenny saw Tall
Girl take on a more combative stance.
“
Hi,
I'm Lenny.” Lenny stepped in between them and stuck out her
hand. “You must be Carl's friends from Hartford.” Tall
Girl shook her hand and turned her glare into a more pleasant
expression again.
“
I'm
E,” she introduced herself. “I only met Carl today,”
she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at the guy looking too
cool for school. “David got the tickets.”
“
Lenny,
I was having a conversation.” Sway leaned over her shoulder
and gave her a scolding look. E's glare returned and Lenny's smile
widened to an uncomfortable degree of fakery that hurt her cheeks.
“
Let's
get you guys a drink.” She turned E and her friends towards
the refreshments table. When they had taken a few steps she turned
and grabbed Sway with two fistfuls of his shirt.
“
She's
going to kill you, Sway,” Lenny warned in all seriousness, “You
have to back off.”
“
Take
it easy,” Sway's grin was adorably naïve. He really
thought he could get anyone. He brushed off Lenny's grip and headed
after E again. Lenny wanted to stop him but she also kind of wanted
to see what was going to happen.
As the evening
progressed and things began to wrap up, Lenny was amazed at E's
restraint. She would have clocked him by now.
Lenny found out that
E was a personal trainer and they exchanged different tips and
techniques. Sway's jealousy was apparent. E spoke to Lenny more
than him and he started to get huffy. When they were getting ready
to leave, E gave her number to Lenny to keep in contact. Lenny was
excited; she didn't have many friends who she could talk with about
fitness anymore.
“
Gimme
her number, Lenny.” Sway begged like a toddler after they had
returned to the bus.
“
No,
Sway. If she wanted you to have it, she would have given it to you.”
Lenny staunchly refused.
“
Please,
Lenny!” Sway dropped to the floor of the bus in a pleading
posture, “I have to talk to her again.”
“
Why
this girl, Sway?” Lenny raised an eyebrow at him. “You
didn't even talk to the two slutties drooling all over you. I almost
had to hose them down. What made this girl so important to you?”
Sway pulled himself
up off the floor and threw his body into a chair. “You
wouldn't get it,” he grumbled.
Lenny crossed her
arms and waited. He ran his hands through his long hair a few times
and sighed heavily.
“
I
met her in Spain awhile back. She turned me down then too.”
“
She
didn't mention that,” Lenny said thoughtfully.
“
She's
the only girl to turn me down,” he looked over at Lenny and
rolled his eyes, “besides you.”
“
So,
you just want what you can't have?” Lenny was disgusted.
“
No,
she's...aww forget it.” Sway waived his hand at her
dismissively, “I'm going to get some sleep.” He trudged
towards the back of the bus.
“
What
was that about?” Harrison asked as he handed Lenny a water
bottle and sat down on the floor.
“
I'm
not totally sure,” Lenny frowned down at her water.
“
You
wanna kill some zombies with me?” Harrison asked hopefully.
It didn't matter how late a show went or long they'd all been awake,
Harrison loved to play video games.
“
Might
as well.” Lenny smiled and tousled his hair as she sank to the
floor beside him.
***
The label had heard
that Travis Cline had tried to pick a fight with a girl at a bar in
Virginia Beach and pulled Juniper Highlights off the tour the next
morning. They didn’t have enough clout for the company to take
that kind of a risk. Lenny was pleased, it served them right. But
that meant Double Blind Study didn’t have an opener. Harrison
suggested they use local bands at every venue, giving new talent a
platform. It was an instant hit, increasing the band’s
reputation for staying true to their humble beginnings.