Just a Little Fun

Jo Spurgeon likes to play the drums, complain a lot, and have sex with her bands introverted bassist/synth player. Not in that order, of course, they’re all equal first in her list of favourite things to do. The others don’t know, of course, about her sleeping with Tom. They would flip a shit and probably start auditioning new drummers. Jo liked it that way. It was their little secret.

Plus, it’s not like they’re dating or anything. Just having a little fun.

- - -

There’s never any prolonged looks, never any awkward moments where they realised touches have lingered too long in front of the others, and there’s certainly never any moments where Jo thinks about herself in five years and see’s Tom and a child and god forbid, a puppy.

This is all because Jo and Tom are not in love. They’re just having fun.

- - -

Tom was incredibly shy the first time they met. Rhys introduced Jo to the group and Josh welcomed her with open arms. Faris was slightly more wary, but warmed up after he had a couple of drinks in him. Tom didn’t speak to her the whole night apart from the initial hello, nice to meet you, and Jo raged in her head that he was a fucking pompous asshole.

Uh no, Tom was just shy.

- - -

Jo decided she really wanted to sleep with Tom, maybe just once, after they’d been in a band together for approximately half an hour. Rhys sprang it upon everyone, the suggestion that they all do something musically together, and they all kind of just said, yeah, okay, sure. Well. Tom didn’t. Tom just kind of stood awkwardly to the side, apparently having no say in the matter. And Jo looked at him and thought, yes please.

- - -

They actually did sleep together for the first time after second third practise as a band. There was drinks courtesy of Faris‘ fridge, because apparently nailing one song, a cover no less, was somewhat of an achievement. Tom wasn’t drunk, and neither was Jo. They’d just had enough to let loose.

It wasn’t anything from a storybook. It wasn’t on a bed with candles and rose petals and loving kisses. It was in Faris’ bathroom, on the grimy counter and Jo bumped her head against the wall when Tom pushed in and bit down on his lip, hard. The metallic taste of blood filled both their mouths but they didn’t fucking stop.

The others were in the lounge room getting inebriated; they wouldn’t hear a thing.

- - -

It became a thing after that. Jo discovered quickly that Tom was good with his hands, and his mouth and took full advantage. Even after The Horrors recorded their first album and toured extensively for it, and went back into the studio for their second, they still did it. It was never a problem for the band because they kept those two components of their lives as separate as they could.

They’re just having fun, after all.

- - -

Of course, all good things must come to an end. They were eight weeks into recording their second album when the shit hit the fan. Not literally, that would be disgusting, but Jo and Tom were in her apartment, and he found her notebook. The Horrors as a band always wrote their songs together, so Tom was evidently shocked when he found song lyrics, with ‘I Only Think of You’ scribbled at the top of the page. He asked her quietly what they were, and she snatched the book away, slammed it shut and told him nothing, very forcefully.

They had possibly the roughest sex they’d ever had, that night.

- - -

The next morning, Jo woke up with Tom wrapped around her and snoring quietly in her ear. She wanted to cry, a little, but she brushed those feelings off quickly, slipped out from Tom’s warm embrace, grabbed her notebook and cigarettes and headed out onto the balcony off her bedroom. By the time Tom got out there, Jo’s lyrics were nothing more than a pile of ash by her feet. She threw her cigarettes at Tom’s chest and smiled.

They were just having fun, after all.

- - -

Three weeks later, when she’s at the studio, watching Tom play around on his synthesizers, she realises that she’s completely in love with her fucking band mate. She leaves the studio, feigning sick, and goes home. She curls up in bed and cries.

It was just supposed to be some fun.

- - -

Rhys comes around with a pack of make-at-home chicken soup and leaves it on the counter, heading into Jo’s room. He knows Jo isn’t ill, and Jo knows Rhys knows, when his eyes widen rather comically at the sight of Jo all tear stained and dishevelled. He asks her what’s wrong and she gasps out Tom’s name and it kind of clicks in his head, she guesses, but definitely not completely.

- - -

For the first time, when Tom asks if Jo is busy after their studio session, Jo says she is. She’d usually tell him that he wasn’t, and cancel any plans she might have had, because she has the libido of…something with a big libido. But she tells him she’s busy and leaves without another word, only a fleeting look to Rhys, who she’d told the whole truth to (and also made him promise not to tell either Josh or Faris, or let Tom know he knows.)

- - -

Rhys apparently told Tom that he knows. Tom shows up at Jo’s door, at eleven at night, holding a bag of Chinese. Not at all uncommon, but he’s more skittish than normal (and Jo really should have considered a profession that involved body language analysis), and looks slightly apologetic. And then he says, “Rhys told me that you told him.”

And Jo shrugs back, “Yeah.”

- - -

Tom left that night, just after they ate, and right before he was going to say something important (Jo just knows he was), and he doesn’t come back the next night, or the night after, and kind of avoids Jo in the studio. But on the third night, he comes over, and he doesn’t have a bag of Chinese, just his hands shoved deep in his pockets, and he speaks. “I’m done with this whole thing. I’ve…there’s this girl, and she’s brilliant.”

- - -

Tom and his girlfriend, a pretty blonde with a personality the size of a hot air balloon, break up six months later. Apparently having a boyfriend that’s on the road the majority of the time just isn’t good enough. Tom doesn’t really mope. Tom isn’t a moper. Tom deals with shit quickly and moves on. He has Jo pressed up against the side of their tour bus later on that week, where anyone could see them, and he breathes against the skin of Jo’s neck, “Please.”

And Jo finds the strength to push Tom away, because what used to be a little bit of fun, is killing Jo now.