Livin' the Dream

“Jordan kissed me,” I blurted.
Renae, Alice, Adriana, and I were watching “Hannibal Rising,” in mine and Celeste’s hotel room. ’Cause SAR doesn’t do chick flicks, much to Ali and Cel’s dismay. Alice and I were laying on my bed in front of the TV with a quart of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream between us. Adriana and Renae were leaning against the bed with their quart of Ben and Jerry’s between them.
All three girls turned to me in an instant. Alice paused the movie; and Adriana dropped her spoon. Renae just looked up at me curiously, her mouth rimmed in chocolate.
“Raerae, baby, you’ve got chocolate all over you,” I laughed, gesturing to my mouth. The younger girl blushed and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Alice slapped my leg.
“Don’t change the subject!” She scolded.
“Jordan kissed you!?” Adriana asked excitedly.
“Yeah, after our date, he-” I started to say.
“DATE!? What date?” Alice interrupted me. “You went on a date and you didn’t tell us? When did you go on a date? Where did you go? Did he pay for it? Did he-”
“Well, shit, Lis, if I could get a damn word in,” I laughed, shaking my head at her. She pouted and zipped her lips shut with her fingers. “Thank you. Since all of you ditched me this morning, I ended up hanging with Jordan. And he ended up taking me on a date to Fiesta Texas.”
“That’s so cute!” Alice squealed at the same time that Adriana stated, “That’s expensive.”
“He even won me a big stuffed toy,” I continued, picking up my octopus from the floor. “It was all very teen-movie cliché. Except for the part where I cursed him out on every roller coaster he made me get on.”
“Wouldn’t be you if you didn’t, babe,” Alice laughed. Renae and Adriana shook their heads and grinned.
“And some crazy fangirls were taking pictures of us when we were getting on The Rattler and cursing my name. They couldn’t tell who I was from behind, but they probably figured it out when we were getting off the ride…” I sighed.
“Bitches,” muttered Adriana. “Do you think they got pictures of your face?”
“Maybe. I hope not. But I have partially PINK hair and I’m one of the only single girls on this tour. It wouldn’t take them long to figure it out, even if they didn’t see my face.”
“Rae, you always keep an eye on the band’s tumblr and each of our tags, right?” Alice asked.
“Yeah, but I haven’t checked it since yesterday,” responded Renae. “But I’ll keep an extra close eye on Lynn’s for now.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, shuddering at the thought of the heinous things the fangirls were sure to come up with to say about me.
“More importantly,” Alice changed the subject. “How was the kiss?”
***
I woke to the rather annoying beeping of the alarm clock. I groaned and rolled over, squinting at the offensive object. I reached across Celeste, who was still fast asleep, and pounded my fist against it until it shut up. Renae sat up in her bed and nodded gratefully at me, yawning. To my surprise, Adriana walked out of the bathroom then.
“Riri, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you with Xander?” I asked, yawning.
“Ali and Damon were fighting so we decided getting a bed to ourselves wasn’t worth it. He went and stayed with some of Jordan’s crew members and I stayed here,” she explained.
“I’ll do something about that next time we get a hotel night,” Renae promised. “We could get Alice and Damon a single, I could sleep with Cel and Lynn, and you and Xan could have my bed.”
“But no sexy times!” I said pointedly.
“Bitch,” Adriana threw a pillow at me.
“Whore.”
“Slut.”
“Fucker.”
“MUDBLOOD!”
“Do you even know what that means?” I asked, Renae and me roaring with laughter.
“No, but I know it’s insulting to you!” Adriana retorted, sticking her tongue out.
“What the bloody hell is happening?” Celeste asked sleepily, finally having been awoken by our idiocy.
None of us answered, giggling to ourselves instead.
“C’mon, let’s go get Lis and the boys and head down to breakfast,” Renae suggested, ignoring our groans of: “But I’m sleepy!”
***
After much time spent fighting over hoodies and trying to find slippers, we managed to make it to breakfast. Alice was wearing Damon’s hoodie, Renae was wearing a GK hoodie that I was pretty sure was Ali’s, Adriana was wearing my pink hoodie, Celeste was wearing Adriana’s purple hoodie, and I’d grabbed Cel’s blue one. Apparently our band was incapable of wearing our own clothes this morning.
We were met with wolf whistles from the other bands. Damon frowned and wrapped his arms possessively around Alice, whose shorts were shorter than her jacket. Cel and Renae self-consciously pulled at the hem of their shorts. Xander just laughed and put an arm around Adriana like, “Yeah, my girl’s hot.” I made a show of “seductively” pulling my hoodie off, leaving me in a tank top and shorts that barely came to my mid thighs.
“Damn, girl,” Alex laughed as I walked past, pulling my jacket back on and shaking my head.
I got a donut and made some coffee. This hotel had one of those individual coffee cup makers, with a million choices of brand and flavor. I found a little packet of Starbucks Columbia Medium and did a happy dance as my cup was pouring.
Still dancing and giggling, I turned toward the tables and found Jordan recording me with his phone. His eyebrows were quirked up and he was smirking, his blue eyes shining with laughter. I stuck my tongue out at the camera and blew a kiss at him, making him blush and put the phone down.
The band sat together, squeezing at a table meant for four. We accomplished this by Ali sitting on Damon, Adriana sitting on Xander, Celeste sitting on me, and Renae sitting in her own chair. Our manager shook her head and laughed at us, snapping a picture on her phone.
Adriana, Alice, Damon, and Xander were all talking about something, but I tuned them out. Celeste, Renae and I ate quietly; we weren’t really morning people. I finished my donut and picked up my phone, finding several notifications from instagram and twitter.
someassemblyrequired took a photo of you.
thereadyset tagged you in a video.
@thereadyset mentioned you on twitter.
The rest of the notifications were comments from fans on both posts.
The photo on the band account (run by Renae) was the one we’d just taken, captioned, “Who needs more chairs? Not us.”
The video was 15 seconds of my happy dance, including the part where I turned around and stuck my tongue out at the camera. It ended before I blew the kiss, thankfully. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the fans to see that. It was captioned, “@someassemblylynn really likes her coffee.”
Jordan had sent the video to twitter as well. I opened the tweet and typed a response, attaching a photo of my shirt, which read “Coffee Buzz,” my left hand in front of it with my middle finger up.
@thereadyset: @SARLynn really likes her coffee instragram.com/faskjfYE6
@SARLynn: @thereadyset no fucks given pic.twitter.com/qenfnwqo
Jordan laughed out loud and we both looked up from our phones and grinned at each other across the room.
Celeste, still in my lap, looked between Jordan and me and gave me a knowing smile, raising her eyebrows at me.
I stuck my tongue out at her.
****
A few hours later, we were all sat at the park behind my aunt’s house on the north side of San Antonio. We were waiting for two of our high school friends, Belle and Aliza, to meet up with us so we could go for a late lunch on the river walk. They were driving down from College Station, a few hours away, where they attended Texas A&M University.
My aunt and uncle, both well into their 70’s, were sat at the picnic table, my uncle happily snapping pictures with his new camera. I was seated next to my aunt, talking to her about tour, how well the album was selling, and thanking her profusely for buying us the van we’d been touring in for the last year.
Alice and Damon were sitting on one side of the tire swing and Adriana and Xander were sitting on the other. The boys were kicking the swing back and forth, making the girls squeal. Celeste and Renae were both hanging upside down from the monkey bars, facing each other and playing patty cake.
Just then, a red 1967 Mustang convertible pulled up and two girls got out. Both were dark-skinned, brown-eyed, and curly-haired brunettes, but the one who’d exited the driver’s side had more of a golden tone to her skin, eyes, and hair. She was wearing a floral crop top, exposing her toned stomach and arms, with skinny jeans that hugged her muscular legs, paired with white wedges. I’d met Belle in the eighth grade, and she became close to the rest of the band over the course of high school, particularly Adriana, who was basically her soul mate. The other girl was reaching into the backseat of the car. She was wearing a black Star Wars crop top and high-waisted red shorts, revealing just a tiny bit of mid-riff, and a whole lot of leg, (not that anyone was complaining) as she bent over the car and worked on the buckles of the car seat. She had black Vans on and a Marvel Superheroes messenger bag thrown over her shoulder. Aliza had befriended Alice in seventh grade and had been “one of us” since then. She got close to me, in particular, during our sophomore year in high school. She pulled the baby from the car seat and set her on her hip, walking over to us. The baby was wearing a teal tutu and mismatched tennis shoes. Kinza Bellatrix was born last October, five months after we graduated high school. She would be a year old next month.
There were squeals and shouts as my band mates noticed our friends. Alice screamed and fell off the tire swing, Adriana narrowly avoiding the same fate. Damon picked her up, Xander and Adriana jumped off the swing, and the two couples crowded around Aliza and Bellatrix. Adriana stopped to hug Belle, of course, and I went over to the monkey bars, where Cel and Renae seemed to be stuck. Belle came over and together we managed to free them both without severely injuring anyone.
Once that was over, everyone went around and hugged everyone (multiple times in most cases), then we bid adieu to my aunt and uncle, piled into our van and Belle’s Mustang, and headed toward downtown.
***
I bounced the baby on my hip and laughed as we walked up to the venue. As per usual, Aliza and Alice were screeching at each other about something no one else could follow, while Adriana and Belle were talking similarly, whispering animatedly about who knows what. Xander and Damon were behind us, arguing about video games. Renae, Celeste and I were watching amusedly.
“Please tell me you didn’t kidnap a small Asian baby while you were gone,” a voice said apprehensively. Jordan was leaning against the brick wall of the venue, smirking. I rolled my eyes.
“Jordan, this is my goddaughter, Bellatrix,” I explained, kissing the top of her head.
“KINZA Bellatrix. And she’s not Asian. She’s mine,” Aliza explained, not missing a beat.
“I see the resemblance,” Jordan mused, looking between the mother and child. He’d have to be blind not to. Kinza was a perfect copy of Aliza, from the almond shaped eyes to the olive toned skin. Aliza was pure Mexican, but she looked like she came from some Asian Pacific island.
“Jordan, this is Aliza and Belle, two of our best friends from high school,” Renae explained, gesturing to the two.
“Aliza, Belle, this is Jordan Witzigreuter, also known as The Ready Set,” I said.
“Oh, like we don’t know,” Aliza scoffed.
“Yeah, isn’t he one of the ones you wanted to marry?” Belle laughed. I elbowed her. Jordan laughed.
Alex and Jack walked up then. Taking in our friends, Jack whistled.
“What have you brought for me, young ones?” Alex looked each of them up and down appreciatively. Belle raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Aliza just rolled her eyes and took Kinza from me.
“I wouldn’t go there if I were you, guys,” I said, nervously stepping in front of Belle.
“Dibs on the muscular one,” Jack called anyway. I winced.
“Lynn,” Belle said calmly. “What does he do, exactly?”
“Guitar. Watch the hands. And the face. He’s sort of important,” I sighed, knowing what was about to happen.
“What do you mean watch the-fuck!” Jack yelped as Belle delivered a swift punch to his gut.
“Warned you,” I muttered.
“I am not an object to be claimed. Do I make myself clear?” She asked calmly.
“That was kinda hot,” Alex admitted. Instantly, she raised her fist in his direction and he jumped away.
“I said, do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Both boys nodded quickly.
I grinned and shook my head. Way to make a first impression.
***
“Thank you, San Antonio!” Damon said into his mic, smiling widely.
“This is our last song,” I said. “Maybe you know it. We just released it as the first single from our new album. It’s called Addict’s Personality and it goes a little like this!”
I walked slowly over to Adriana, our fingers flying over our guitars. We faced each other but neither of us looked up from our instruments. We’d written some really complex guitar parts for this song.
Damon started singing the first verse and I mouthed the words. I’d written all the lyrics myself, but we’d decided it was better if I didn’t have any singing parts in it. I couldn’t trust myself to keep it together during such a personal song.
We got through the song perfectly and we all ran off stage, grinning like mad. I gave Adriana double high fives.
“WE DID IT!” I yelled.
“WE DIDN’T FUCK IT UP!” She agreed, pulling her guitar off.
I pulled off my own and set it in the rack next to Adriana’s. Celeste put her bass on the other side of my guitar. The guitar case held six guitars between racks. There was duct tape above each guitar, our band’s in pink, reading, ‘Adriana, Lynn, Cel.’ The others read, ‘Deryck, Andy, Cam,’ in blue. There was a cylinder on either end for drum sticks. One was labeled ‘Alice’ in pink, and the other ‘Travis’ in blue. I smiled at the now full rack and snapped a photo with my phone.
Aliza, Belle, and Jordan walked up then, Belle carrying the baby. Bellatrix was wearing bright purple noise-cancelling headphones, courtesy of Flyzik. Jordan immediately pulled me into a hug and said something I couldn’t hear.
“Say again?” I asked. He shook his head and pulled out my sparkly pink ear monitors. Oops.
“I said, ‘You did great out there,’” Jordan repeated. “You wrote that all by yourself, right?”
“Thank you,” I blushed. “Yeah, I wrote the lyrics back in high school and Adriana helped me with the guitar parts when we were home before this tour.”
“Lynn! Take your fussy goddaughter!” Aliza pushed the baby into my arms, effectively shoving Jordan away from me. I stuck my tongue out at her but took the baby into my arms nonetheless.
I held her up in front of me and cooed at her.
“And what did you think of the song, mi chiquita princesa?”
***
Belle and I were sat against the wall of the venue after the show, watching our friends and the other band and crew members milling about.
“So, how’s Sandi?” I asked, turning toward her. Her face immediately lit up and her eyes brightened. Sandi and Belle had started dating when we were juniors and had only gotten stronger since.
“She’s fantastic, as always. She’s so sweet, Lynn. She offers to babysit Kinza when Aliza and I can’t even though she knows she doesn’t have to. She just…I…I think I wanna marry her.”
I grinned at her and nudged her shoulder playfully.
“I’m happy for you,” I said.
“And you? ¿Es tu novio?” She asked, slipping into Spanish so the people around us wouldn’t understand her. She, along with Aliza, spoke fluent Spanish. As for my band and I, well, our Spanish was pretty remedial, especially mine.
“No. Not yet,” I answered her, preferring to answer in English. The only person who spoke less Spanish than I did was Damon, and he was the only one who wasn’t at least partially Mexican.
“¿Te gustas?” She asked. I nodded. “He likes you, too.”
She blew a kiss at me and I made a show of knocking it off. She gasped in mock hurt and turned away from me. I shoved against her shoulder and cooed ‘I love you’ at her in various languages but she just huffed.
Aliza came over and plopped down across our laps. Soon were shoving each other around, laughing hysterically, and yelling at each other.
“Get off me!”
“No, you love me!”
“I hate you, fuck off!”
“How rude!”
“Where the fuck is Bellatrix?”
“Alice has her, dumbass!”
“Ouch! You fucking hit me!”
“Get the fuck off me, then!”
“NEVER!”
“Hey, don’t hit my girl!” A new voice said and we all looked up to see Sandi standing there, just as tiny and adorable as I remembered. She was pale and extremely skinny, though she was capable of eating her bodyweight in pizza. She had short brown curls and chocolate brown eyes.
“Hey, Sandi-with-an-I! How goes college?” I asked. Belle was already scrambling up to hug the shorter girl, with a little squeal of, “baby,” under her breath.
“It goes. It’s very…interesting, with these two,” she said, gesturing to Belle, who was curling into her side, and Aliza, who was still on the floor with me. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to the show; I couldn’t get off work!”
“It’s cool. I’m glad you’re here now.”
Alice walked over then, greeting Sandi with typical Alice enthusiasm, nearly falling over herself in the process.
“Uh, Lis?” Aliza began, standing up and looking around. “Where, exactly did you leave my daughter?”
“Oh, chill,” Alice waved her off. “All the band members are passing her around and taking selfies with her.”