The Best Is Yet to Come

“Are we sick of crappy band stuff yet?” Chris asked me when they finally took five from their rehearsal.

“Crappy? I fucking love it!” I insisted eagerly, and I really was. I loved this stuff.

“Good,” Matt said but Dan cut across him before he could carry on.

“Sometimes I think you’re more enthusiastic about this band than the rest of us.”

I just shrugged and threw a water bottle at him which he caught.

“I dunno, I’d love to be in a band but I suck at music, what you guys got is totally awesome-”

“So what you’re saying is you’re using us,” Josh intersected with a wicked grin on his face.

“Yes Joshua, that’s exactly what I mean,” I said, soaking my tone in sarcasm. “You honestly think of me like that? I just think you guys are going to be great and I want to help you and push you in any way I can. I can tell this is something to be a part of.”

“Okay, let’s stop with the cheesiness,” Matt said harshly to silence anyone else intending on changing the subject. I glared at him but surprised when he turned back to me. “But we are glad you’re not sick of this stuff just yet because we want to take you on tour with us.”

“Oh yeah!” Max jumped up from the small platform where he’d been sitting with his guitar. “We need you to film our new video! Well some stuff at least. We scored ourselves a director.”

“Seriously?” I asked incredulously. “You’ve got yourself a director?”

“For someone so into this band you really lack faith sometimes,” Josh muttered and came to sit next to me.

“But will you do it?” Matt asked seriously. Everyone turned to look at me.

“You mean the Fightstar tour right?” I asked cautiously.

“Yeah and some of the Elliot Minor gigs,” Chris added. I chewed my lower lip – I started college next week. Then a thought struck.

“How the hell are you guys fitting in college?!” I demanded, jumping to my feet in shock. “You’re up and around the bloody country.” I whirled around to glare at Josh with intense fury. He sunk down in his seat and stared at the floor guiltily.

“Well… It’s only a small tour and starts before we start back, missing a few days won’t hurt…” Dan said casually as if it didn’t matter.

“You cannot be serious?! Your parents are allowing this?” I cried out with disbelief. They all shrugged and nodded. I sank back down into my seat, staring at the wall opposite, because my legs couldn’t hold me anymore. “Shit…”

I remembered asking Jack and Josh to make sure that no one threw anything away on this band. If this band didn’t play out they’d missed out on their education… Oh crap.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Max added after a moment, they were letting me adjust to this idea.

“No, I will… but I won’t be able to make every date, I won’t be able to get to the ones too far away.”

“That’s fine,” Josh said simply. I turned my head sharply to shake my head disapprovingly.

“I cannot believe you’re chancing your fucking future away on this!”

“You just said how awesome it is!” he defended animatedly. “That it’s something to be apart of. You’re always telling us how we’re going to make it!”

“That’s a lot to gamble!” I cried out angrily, more to Josh than anyone else.

“We’ll just step outside for the domestic,” Max muttered slyly from behind me.

“Fuck off,” Josh swiped but seemed to instantly regret it when Max recoiled with a wounded expression. “Sorry mate.”

I sighed, closed my eyes and collapsed backwards until my head hit the wall with a thud. It hurt but I really didn’t give a shit. I couldn’t control their lives so I just had to sit back and pray this all worked out for the best.

“Faith,” Josh whispered so only I could hear and squeezed my hand. I opened my eyes to glance at him and he was smiling softly. My expression softened and I smiled back.

“Faith,” I repeated. “Well come on then. Another go! It’s not quite right!”

“That’s our girl,” Max hurried forwards to ruffle my hair.

“Thank you Max,” I huffed and straightened my mess back out whilst the guys took up their positions again.

They had been tweaking and playing around with ‘Save it for the bedroom’ for the past three hours and it almost sounded right. Dan was as new to the song as I was so it was taking longer than normal. Hats off to Joe it was a good song. It was upbeat despite the darker and spiteful tone that didn’t come across in the music.

“Did Joe write this on his own?” I asked curiously before they started. Josh grinned at me and shook his head.

“No, actually, I helped with the lyrics but he came up with the concept and the music.”

“Then you won’t be needing this,” I got up and snatched the crinkled paper from Josh’s hands. “I’ll test you.”

“Oi!” He made forwards to grab it back off me but I held it behind my head with an innocent expression.

“Josh, I’m not being funny, but you possibly have the easiest role, you just have to remember words!” Matt laughed.

“Fine,” Josh said dramatically in his best diva impersonation before taking his place behind the microphone again. “Five, six, seven, eight.”

I really did love this song. It was freaking amazing! The guitar intro sent tingles down my spine – this was my new favourite.

“Keep your hands to yourself, these lips belong to someone else,
And you know that you, you’ll never get one in,
Keep your lies to yourself, every lie I've heard from someone else,
And you know that you'll never keep with it.”

I mouthed the words as Josh sang, reading them off the paper, trying to memorise them. He still sounded American but it didn’t matter because it was his thing – it made them unique. People liked it at least.

“Well I sussed you good, you knew I would,
Oh haven’t you heard your just another mark on my shirt,
Another night and another girl.”

I looked up at those lines, Josh was the only one watching me, the others were too concentrated on their instruments, especially Dan, bless him.

“Oh I taste so good.” Josh winked at me and I stifled a laugh. Memories from yesterday flooded my mind. “You knew I would.” He ran his tongue along his upper teeth with an evil grin. I narrowed my eyes briefly at him but couldn’t help but smile back. Was I actually blushing? Oh God, yesterday had been…

After our failed attempt over Josh’s we went back to his after the photo shoot but Elissa was still in the house with a few of her friends so it ruled out anything too intimate. It gave us a better chance to take a breath and slow things down. Everything we’d missed out on yesterday, because of our mad, desperate need for one another, we’d accomplished that evening.

I’d missed the chorus as my mind flashed back to his room.

“Go home and wash those jeans, 'cause there’s dirt on the knees.”

His lips on my neck…

“Yeah jealously doesn’t sit with me.”

…His hot breath on my bare collar bone…

“You love, I love you too, below the waist I’ll start charging you.”

…His tongue on my waistline…

“'Cause that’s just how the players play the game.”

…Going lower, dipping beneath my-

I scrunched the paper in my hand and let out a heavy breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding in. Oh God…

“And my winning streak is missing.”

I glanced back up at Josh who was watching me with great and smug interest.

“Git,” I mouthed at him and stuck my two fingers up at him. He chuckled lightly into the microphone before continuing.

“So who's keeping score on who is a whore.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me meaningfully so I threw the scrunched up lyrics at him which, unfortunately, he dodged. Chris shook his head laughing.

“With you by my side, that look your eye,
I hope you know,
So who's keeping score on who is a whore,
With you by my side, that look your eye,
I hope you know.”

“You Whore,” he stretched out the word, leant forwards towards me and nodded with another wink.

I knew he was only playing but still, I wasn’t going to let him get away with an insult like that. I got to my feet and started forwards, hoping to intimate him without having to actually do anything. Unfortunately, he only backed up slightly. Max and Matt moved out of the way for me as they continued the song. It was Josh’s cue to start singing again when I started hitting him.

“Too far, save it for the bedroom.” His singing was distorted by his snickering laughter as he dodged me the best he could. He fought back by aiming light shots to my ribs and tickling before he caught me in a weird headlock. He finally couldn’t speak the repeating words because he was too choked up with laughter. The end of the song failed and Max tried to help me beat up their singer after removing his guitar. He jumped on Josh’s back and almost pulled them both over into the drums. I wriggled free from the wires and grabbing arms to back up with Chris just as Matt joined in. I flattened my hair and watched as Matt, bass-less, wrap his arms around Josh’s head so they didn’t topple over.

“Alright!” Josh gasped, seeking for air when he’d finally stopped laughing. Matt let him free and Max jumped off his back just before he kissed his cheek. Josh wiped his cheek on the back of his hand with a wrinkled nose.

“Max, gay, sorta makes sense,” Chris contemplated with a shrug. Max turned around to scowl at the other guitarist who just burst into laughter at the reaction.

“No more brawling in the practice room please!” I shouted and held up my hands before Max could launch into a full scale attack. “Remember your precious guitars.”

That seemed to do it. Chris’s hands clutched around his guitar defensively and he took a step back. Max actually seemed to yelp. He stiffened only for a moment and his head turned around desperately, searching for his guitar as if it was his child. I rolled my eyes. Josh unwound himself from his own cable and started wrapping it up around his arm and elbow to clear some floor space.

“I think we’re done for the day,” Matt said when Max started stroking his guitar. “Oh dear God.”

“Shut up,” Max murmured.

“Let’s give Max and his guitar some private time,” Dan announced in an uneasy voice that was coloured with teasing.

“Yeah, we better leave before he starts touching himself.” Josh mussed Max’s hair as he passed him still winding the cable. Max seemed unbothered by the comments or maybe he just didn’t hear them…

***

“You won’t believe who I passed in the park on my way home,” I muttered into the phone which was pressed to my ear using my shoulder to allow my hands to type. I was sat at my desk, opposite my bed, with the lights off. The laptop on the white wood illuminated my entire room with a pale glow that was edged with a cold metallic feel. I frowned at the page was I scrolling down.

“Who?” Josh responded as distractedly as my voice must have sounded.

“Katie.”

There was a silence and I leant back from my laptop, finally taking my eyes off the page. I dropped the phone from my shoulder to my hand, leant back as possible in the black cushioned chair and spun around slowly to face my bed.

“And…?” he asked slowly.

“She came over and talked to me,” I said simply, although there was a rather bitter edge to my voice as our meeting replayed in my head. “Alone.”

“What’d she say?”

I rolled my eyes and crawled onto my bedcovers before collapsing onto the cushy duvet.

“That she was sorry.”

“Okay.” He wasn’t paying attention.

“You don’t really care do you?” I asked bluntly.

“Huh? No I do, what’d you say?”

“I told her to get lost.”

“You told her to fuck off didn’t you?”

“No. Well yes, in so many words,” I said stiffly. I heard him chuckle down the other end.

“That’s not the point. She started spewing all this shit about how wrong she’d been and missed me. She told me that she’d gone on your MySpace and listened to the songs and to tell you how good they were.” I shook my head in disgust. “She’d listened to ‘The Rumour’ and it made her feel bad-”

“Good. It was supposed to.”

“Your songs have vindictive purposes now?”

“Course they do, my next one’s going to enslave man kind.”

I almost laughed.

“Josh - seriously.”

“Ninety nine percent of what I write, what we write, has a purpose or meaning, either that or a brainwashing method to capture a female audience who’ll sneak on our tour bus and hide in our bunks naked.”

“Be careful that doesn’t work on Max, you’ll be sorry if he ends up in your bunk naked,” I muttered sarcastically, keen to ignore the comment he’d just made. I was sure I wasn’t going to handle the female attention well. I pushed the thought from my mind.

I thought I heard him shudder and that made me smile.

“Just don’t worry about her okay? What she did was bad. You don’t want a friend back like her.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t need her. She betrayed me- Speaking of, have you spoken to Jonzey since…?” I chewed on my lip and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for him to respond.

“Nope,” he almost growled.

“There’s going to be a song out of this isn’t there?” I asked dully with a sigh.

“Not about him.”

“Urggg, you’re writing a song about skank bitch?”

“Well…”

“Oh Joshua!” I sat up onto my elbows in slight anger.

“Half written. I had a LOT of negative feelings the night after – I put them to good, constructive use.”

“Great.”

“But now I have a lot of positive feelings,” he added in a ‘please-forgive-me’ tone. I smiled and brushed my hair backwards and out of my eyes. I shook my head with a laugh.

“No, you have a lot of horny feelings.”

“No!” he defended sharply. He knew I was raising my eyebrows. “Well… partly.”

“You are unbelievable.” I grinned and sank back down onto my bed.

“But you still love me,” he said and something changed in his voice. It was lower, deeper, rougher. My breathing hitched. It was the first time we’d ever spoken about…

“Yeah,” I said quietly and glanced down at my fingernails – I’d been subconsciously picking the nail varnish off.

“Good,” his gruff voice sent an involuntary shiver through me. I swallowed hard.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I yawned pointedly and rubbed my itching eyes. I’d been staring at the computer screen too long. Maybe I was going to need glasses. Urggg.

“No wait.” Did he gasp that?

“What?” I asked, not noticing my hand slide down to my stomach. I lifted up my top slightly and gently ran my hand over the skin there.

“Don’t go.” His seductive and enticing tone caused my toes to curl and I gnawed on my lower lip.

Then I realised what he was doing and before I knew it, my hand slipped down under my waistline to satisfy the itch Josh had built.

Fucking hell. We had issues. All teenagers were like this, right?

“Jasey,” he breathed. I sucked in a sharp breath as a small wave of pleasure washed over me at the sound of my name. My head buried itself into my pillow as my back arched off the bed.

“Oh God.”

Three sharp taps on my door sent me hurtling back down to reality and the phone slipped from my grasp.

“Shit,” I gasped and my hand shot back up out of my pants.

“Jase?” Josh’s voice issued from the phone the same time Erin opened the door. I scrambled the pick up the phone and glared at Erin with intense fury.

Were we NEVER going to catch a break?!

“Sorry, annoying sister-” I threw my pillow at her in pure anger. “Sticking her fucking nose in.” I sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Night.”

“What was that for?” Erin threw my pillow back. I sunk down with a groan.

“Never mind. Sorry.” I rolled over. “What’d you want?” I whimpered miserably into the material.

“Can I borrow your computer?” she asked carefully and edged towards my desk. I ground my teeth together and it took all my strength not scream and attack her.

“Yes,” I said through tight lips.

“Thanks. Night.” And she left, taking the light from my room, plunging me into unsatisfied darkness.

***

“You have Busted on your iPod?” I asked Matt incredulously. Matt snatched back the black gadget with a disapproving glare.

“What you’ve never listened to Busted?” he asked me dubiously. I opened my mouth to reply but paused at the thought of my previous playlists. Huh…

“We are going on tour with one of their singers,” he added and scrolled down the iPod to stick some New Found Glory on. We were sharing headphones since mine broke eight o’clock this morning when the end had got caught around a door handle. We’d been in a bit of a mad rush today.

Chris, Dan and Josh were taking the equipment up in the van whilst the rest of us drove up behind.

I was sat in the middle with Shannon to my right and Matt to my left. Max was in the front next to Lewis, who was driving. A few cars back was Ashley, Charlie, Harry, Lucy and Jessica. Erin, a mega fan of Fightstar, was driving ahead of us with Mr Barnes, Tom, Emily and Summer. The first date of the tour wasn’t that far away - Reading. We’d planned it all out and most of us were going to be able to attend this one, Birmingham which was the next day, Portsmouth which was on the weekend after we’d all started college, and the last date on the tour - London. The boys promised me they were going to attend college the best they could.

Josh had a few days off to start college with me before he headed up to Sheffield the next week. Although, we’d worked out, the boys were going to miss a few days of school.

I offered the earphone back to Matt and turned to Shannon.

“You’re starting college next week right too? First time?” I asked politely.

“Yeah.” She smiled tentatively.

“Nervous about it?”

“Yep.” She popped the ‘P’ and her mouth twisted into an uncomfortable grimace.

“You’ll be fine,” I said kindly.

“Max how was your first week?” But he was asleep with his face pressed against the glass. “Lewis?”

He glanced at me in the rear view mirror and flashed a grin.

“It was alright,” he shrugged. “You do sod all. So don’t worry about these, you never miss much your first week back. They like to get you settled in n’all.”

I smiled back in thanks.

“Why’d you move down here?” I asked curiously and leant forwards to talk to him. Lewis had a Northern accent but it was slowly being diluted the longer he stayed down South.

“Parents split up.” I watched him stiffen and he kept his eyes on the road. His hands flexed on the steering wheel.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Dad’s fault, stupid drunk,” he murmured darkly. “We wanted to get away as far as possible. We couldn’t leave the country because the rest of our family.”

“Where is he now?” Shannon asked and leant forwards with me. Lewis glanced briefly in the rear view mirror again.

“Prison.”

I recoiled and could to nothing but stare at the back of Lewis’ head with sympathy. I wasn’t sure what to say… I couldn’t imagine how he must feel. I’d always under appreciated my family - my fussy snobby mother, my hard working dad and my sister that no matter how annoying she could be, I loved dearly. I couldn’t imagine having a family so sorely ripped apart. Poor Lewis.

I squeezed his shoulder and leant back.

“How much longer?” Max asked sleepily and instantly the tense atmosphere vanished as if he’d flipped a switch. I smiled fondly at the boy in the front seat. I loved Max – my extended family.

We arrived in Reading half an hour later. Luckily, the venue was close to the hotel we were staying in. It was relatively cheap. We were taking up six rooms. Josh and Max were sharing a room.
Chris, Matt and Lewis were in the next room over. Summer, Emily, Jessica and Shannon were together opposite. Ashley, Dan and Harry were next to them. Tom and Mr B were in the room next to us. I was sharing with Erin and Lucy. I knew there was only one room I’d want to be sneaking into tonight…

***

Fightstar were amazing. They were so lovely! - Even when Erin hyperventilated and almost fainted after shaking hands with the guitarist, Alex Westaway. Jessica got equally as excited when meeting Charlie Simpson – although, I guessed it was more to do with his Busted tag than his Fightstar one. They were genuinely nice guys.

The guys show went down brilliantly with the Fightstar hyped audience. Most of us, excluding Tom Mr B and Jessica, decided to get right there with the crowd. Tom was at the font taking photo’s whilst Mr B and Jessica stood towards the back. It was awesome. We weren’t the only one’s in the crowd who knew the songs. Then they played a song I’d never heard before.

I hadn’t been to rehearsal’s in a while. The only one I’d been to in the summer was the one where we’d played around with ‘Save It For The Bedroom’. Evidently, I’d missed them creating this song. I paused from the fun I was having with Lucy, Emily and Summer.

My stomach dropped at the words.

“I'm so glad that your lipsticks on,
Back seat of your best friends car,
Well we were onto something here,
Oh no wait you will call it off and space is on the cards,
Who'd drink to that, I wont drink to that.”

Memories from that night flashed painfully across my eyes. Tash and Jonzey kissing. The car. The lipstick. I looked up at Josh in disbelief, then I remembered the phone conversation we’d had last week. He’d told me he’d written a song about her. Looks like they finally finished it.

“Oh over hill will you teach me the games that you play so well,
And I'll drink to that, who'll drink to that?”

Josh seemed to be searching the audience through squinted eyes. Then he found my gaze and held it as he carried on.

“You've made your bed, so sleep in it, but never call me again,
You've made your bed, so sleep with him,
But know I'm the best you'll get.”

And a smile split out over our faces at the exact same time. Josh bounced back off the speaker he’d been resting his foot on and jumped into the air.

“I wrote this song so you would know why I look up to everyone.”

He rested his hand on a concentrated Max’s shoulder and I thought I saw him squeeze it. This was partly for him too.

“Can’t blame a girl for trying, even though she keeps on lying more, more.
Here's a list of the things you said and I won't get over it,
You want to know, you, want to know and.”

He looked back to me again.

“The games that girls will play,
Makes me move away so I can train,
Train myself to trust again.”

He smiled softly and I winked at him with a grin. He grinned back and moved backwards again to the centre of the stage.

“Oh over hill will you teach me the games you play so well and,
I'll drink to that, will you drink to that?
You've made your bed, so sleep in it, and never call me again.
You've made your bed, so sleep with him,
But know I'm the best you'll get.
I wrote this song so you would know why I look up to everyone.
Can’t blame a girl for trying, even though she keeps on lying more, more.”

This was an awesome get back song. I just hoped I never earned one like this.

“Are you on or off? You on or.” Josh moved to lean on Matt who was saying the words with him.

“Are you on or off? You on or.
I wrote this song so you would know why I look up to everyone,
Cant blame a girl for trying, even though she keeps on lying more, more.”

Then he looked very uncomfortable. He looked at the floor instead of the audience and played with the collar of his t-shirt before moving up to his hair.

“These words will convince you to never love me again,
You want to be friends, but I won't do it.”

What? What had I missed?! My upper lip curled in a snarl.

“These words will convince you to never sleep with me again,
And you don't, and I don't do friends.”

Sleep with me again!? What?! My mouth dropped open at the same moment as my heart. He’d lied to me? Tash and Josh had slept together?

Then he looked at me and shook his head discreetly and meaningfully – for me only.

“Filler,” he mouthed before turning his back on the audience and I rolled my eyes. My chest eased up slightly but a million things raced through my mind – disturbing images, thoughts, emotions. I turned around and saw Emily watching me warily. My jaw tightened and I pushed past her to get out of the crowd. I felt a few people follow me.

“Are you alright Jasey?” Summer asked and put a hand on my arm. Emily and Summer had followed me out, Lewis was coming out after them curiously.

“You girls okay?”

“Yeah we’re fine Lewis,” Emily sighed, not taking her eyes off me.

“I’m going to go backstage. You guys enjoy the show,” I insisted meaningfully. Summer nodded and pulled Emily away with her back into the crowd. I shook my head, running my fingers through the locks and left the sweaty room. I flashed my wristband at the security guards and climbed the stairs to their dressing room.

The guys set was almost over so I waited in the dressing room on the small sofa that was covered in bags and hoodies. Open packets of food, plastic cups, cans and bottles dotted the small table in the right corner. I was amazed they’d managed to mess up the room so quickly.

The final song ended and they bounded back into their dressing room vibrating energy. Josh stopped suddenly at the sight of me and Max bounced into him knocking them both forwards and almost falling over. I got to my feet, my arms still folded, and their happy energy vanished. Dan was the first to taste the atmosphere. He was the mature one.

“Why don’t we go outside a minu-”

“No it’s alright,” I said with a sigh, holding one hand up to stop them leaving. I grabbed Josh’s arm and pulled him from the room. The gazes burned me as we left the room.

“Okay, you’ve been talking to Tash?” I asked, my thick throat threatening to give away my tears that were chocking me. I wasn’t sure exactly why I was so upset.

Josh took a moment to answer me. He was staring at the floor, scuffing his shoe against it, with his hands in his pockets. He took a deep breath and looked at me.

“Yes. I saw her last week. She wanted to apologise. She blamed it on alcohol and said she only wanted me… She said Jonzey was a mistake. She wanted me back.”

He held my gaze and just I nodded stiffly.

“I refused her, of course.” His fingers found mine and wound them together. “I said I’ve got you now and I couldn’t be happier.”

That made me smile.

“She was rather bitter about that but asked if we could still be friends.” His eyes flitted between mine. “You were right about her. She was utilizing us for our rising positions.”

“So you wrote a song about it,” I said with half a smile.

“I told you I did,” he defended and laughed.

“Josh… the one but last line-”

“Filler,” he said firmly, squeezing my hand. “It never happened, I swear.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, chewing what he’d just told me and my mood lifted. I had nothing to worry about. “Nice revenge song by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“But I thought your next one was going to enslave mankind?”

“It still had a vindictive reason, just not the right one,” he chuckled with a shrug. I laughed and kissed his cheek.

“Great show by the way.” My nose wrinkled and I shrunk back. “But you stink.”

I wiped my mouth.

“And are very sweaty.”

He laughed and cornered me against the wall with an evil glint in his eyes as he raised on sweaty arm.

“Eww! Josh! EWWW!”

***

I felt slightly woozy as I pressed my hand to the cold handle to my hotel room. It was gone midnight, we’d managed to get into a few bars and thanks to our old appearance had had a few drinks. We were evil criminals, I know, but I didn’t care. Less than a year and I could buy anyway.

Lucy followed me in, slightly unsteady. Erin was still out partying with Tom at a bar Fightstar were still at. There was something going on between Erin and Tom. There was this… spark. Matt’s brother and my sister, huh… I didn’t expect her back until the early hours of the morning.

I disappeared into the bathroom as one thought sobered me up with excitement. I brushed my teeth thoroughly, washed my face before reapplying a thin layer of make up and ran brush through my hair.

There was a knock at my door and I beat Lucy to it.

It was Max.

“You guys coming across? Everyone’s in Chris, Matt and Lewis’ room. We brought some beers up and gonna play a game of poker.”

“Strip poker?” Lucy asked, placing a hand on her hip. Max laughed.

“Only if it’s me and you playing baby,” he said cheesily. Lucy shook her head and pushed past him, heading for their room.

“You coming Jase?”

“Max where’s Josh?” I asked when my excitement was burnt out by disappointment.

“Having a shower, why?”

My face lit up and my hammering heart picked up again.

“Max can I have your key?” I asked quietly. I didn’t actually want to have this conversation with Max, but I guessed he’d understand. I watched him roll his eyes with a grin.

“He was going to kick me out anyways,” he said and dropped the key into my open palm.

“Thanks Max!” I squeaked and kissed his cheek.

“I want my room back by three!” he called as he backed into the room where everyone was. I shut the door and vanished back into the room. I changed out of my clothes, changed my comfy underwear for my pretty lacy set and put my clothes back on. I opened my door, pocketing my own key, and creeped across the hotel landing to Josh and Max’s room. I bit my lip to contain the smile that wanted to escape. I slid the key into the slot and withdrew it. My stomach fluttered with exhilaration and anticipation. The green light flashed allowing me entry…