Music Inn

It would be an understatement to say things changed between me and Sam after that. After we kissed for the first time, we came to the agreement that we both really wanted to have sex right then and there, so we wasted no time in going back inside. Sam put a sock on the doorknob, just in case the guys came back, and then we were home free from there.

I wanted to get it over with, since I hadn’t had sex in about three months now, but Sam insisted that it was all the more reason to go slow. And so we did, and I had to admit, it was good. Sam had looked up from where he was placing these agonizingly slow and tender kisses on my thighs and asked, “Was this worth waiting for since March?”

“Yes, yes,” I’d answered impatiently, grabbing a fistfull of the sheets next to me, “now would you just –”

“Say please,” he’d breathed, pausing, and I thought I was going to explode.

“Please, please, please,” I’d begged finally, and he’d smirked.

We finally finished about half an hour later, sweaty and breathless. For a moment, neither of us spoke, trying to figure out if what had just happened was real. “I can’t believe that just happened,” I said finally, putting a hand over my heart, which was still beating much faster than usual.

“I can,” Sam said, and I didn’t even have to look at him to know he was grinning. I rolled onto my stomach to face him and had to swallow. He was lying on his back, hair sweaty and matted to his forehead, but he still looked perfect somehow. “That was awesome.”

“Never said it wasn’t,” I answered, smiling a little. Sam slowly mouthed, Since March and I rolled my eyes.

“I’m hungry,” he decided, flipping over and pushing himself up. “Wanna have breakfast?”

“Are you serious?” It was just after three in the morning.

“I’m always serious, Lexi, I thought you knew that by now,” Sam answered, getting out of bed and walking over to the door. “Are you staying here or shall I bring it to you?”

“Mmm, I’ll be there in a sec,” I said after a moment of thinking. He shot double guns at me before leaving. I lay there for a few seconds before rolling over and looking over the edge of the bed at the floor, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. I noticed my shorts sitting on the ground where I’d abandoned them a while ago, and I could see a lump in the back pocket lighting up. My phone.

I quickly reached down and grabbed it and saw that it was notifying me of a text Kiera had sent about half an hour ago.

how’s the wild sex going?

I wondered if she could hear us or if she just knew, the way she somehow knew everything.

v good, thanks for asking

The response came within seconds.

LMAOOOO I KNEW IT!!!!!!!! TOLD U IT WOULD HAPPEN TOLD U TOLD U

ok ENOUGH THANKS

not till you admit i was right and you were wrong

you were right a LITTLE BIT

translation: alexa is a turd and kiera is always right

i don’t remember ever saying that

yeah ok more importantly why are you texting me and not off having round 2

he is making us food if you must know so i am going to stop this convo and go eat

eat that DICK more like

i hate you

:~)

Rolling my eyes, I unplugged Sam’s own phone from where it was charging and plugged mine in, figuring it was for a good cause since his was on 78% and I was only on 22%. I was about to get up and join him, but then I realized: I was in Sam’s room. I had a few extra minutes to snoop around without getting caught and see what he was really like.

There were a lot of posters on the walls that had a variety of bands on them, such as Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Clash, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, State Champs, The Story So Far, The Cure, The Vaccines, and more. I approved.

There was a rack filled with CDs and records, and next to that, a bookshelf that was overflowing with books. I leaned over to examine a few and found pretty much classics: The Road, Lord of the Flies, The Catcher in the Rye, and Slaughterhouse Five, which looked like it had been read many times in particular. There were also several books on conspiracy theories and aliens, which didn’t surprise me.

The wall was also decorated with photos: pictures of him, Colton, Thomas, Fletcher, Gabe, and some other people I didn’t know. Occasionally there were objects: a guitar, some records, a wall, lights, random places in the city. A brown and white dog was featured in a few, and to my surprise, there was one of Kiera and I standing in front of some bar. I remembered Sam taking the picture and Thomas yelling at him to ‘hurry the fuck up.’ My smile was open and happy, albeit slightly drunk, while Kiera’s looked like it was just forming on her face in a little side smirk.

Satisfied with my snooping, I settled back onto the bed right as the door opened and a naked Sam walked back in, balancing two glasses of milk and a tray with bacon, cinnamon rolls, and strawberries in his arms.

“I see I am bringing it to you,” he commented dryly. I smiled sweetly and sat up.

“Where’d you get the cinnamon rolls?”

“Found a packet of them in the back of the fridge, the Pillsbury slice and bake kind. Fletcher loves ‘em, but I figured it’d be okay to have them,” Sam explained, sitting down and handing me a plate.

As we sat and ate, I said, “I was looking at your photos.”

“Oh really? Did you find the one you and Kiera are in?”

“Yeah, I like that one. I like all of them. Who’s the dog?”

“Oh, that’s our dog. We all adopted her to celebrate our first year of being on the road. Her name’s Lady.”

“How come I’ve never met her?”

“Well, you’ve never really been in our apartment, have you? But you’ve probably heard her barking.”

Now that I thought about it, I could recall hearing a dog barking at random points in the day, but dismissing it as coming from another building. “I didn’t know that was your dog,” I said, giggling. “Where is she?”

“Sometimes Gabe takes her for the weekend if we wanna go out or something,” Sam explained. “She’s not very fond of being left alone.”

“Aw. I’d like to meet her. I love dogs.”

“She’d like you too,” Sam said, chewing some bacon and promptly getting crumbs all over the bed. “She’s a very good judge of character.”

I smiled and didn’t say anything. We continued to eat our “breakfast” and when we were finished with it, Sam merely stacked the plates on the floor, unbothered. “So what else did you find while snooping through my stuff?”

“I was looking at your books.”

“And?”

“Classics and conspiracy theories. Sums you up pretty well.”

“That it does.”

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Slaughterhouse Five,” he answered promptly. “I read it when I was a junior in high school and I think I’ve read it fifty times since.”

“What’s the first line?”

“Well, that depends. From the first chapter, which is kind of a preface, or from the actual beginning of the story?”

“Both.”

“Easy. ‘All this happened, more or less,’ and ‘Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.’” He raised his eyebrows at me.

“Very impressive,” I said with a smile.

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Um . . . I’m not sure,” I said with a shrug. “Harry Potter maybe.”

Sam laughed. “A classic.”

“Well, you know me.”

We continued to talk like that the entire night, just bouncing off of each other and telling stories and laughing. I wasn’t even aware of the time passing until the first rays of sunlight were peeking over the tops of the buildings and Sam said, “I just remembered I have to open the restaurant today.”

“When’s that?”

“In ‒” he checked his phone, “three hours.”

“Oh.” Neither of us said anything, but then I glanced at him and we both began to laugh. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Very.”

“I should probably go, anyway. I’m actually surprised the rest of the guys haven’t come back yet.”

Sam pouted, but gave in eventually and even put a pair of boxers on while I pulled on my underwear, t-shirt, and shorts, preferring to just carry my shoes and my bra with me. I peered at myself in the mirror, trying to tame my hair and wipe off the excess makeup under my eyes.

Sam came up behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I answered, smiling.

“How’s it going?”

“Good. How do I look?”

“Like you just had some pretty good sex.”

“That’s funny, considering I just had some pretty bad sex.”

“Hey!” Sam turned his head and blew a raspberry into the side of my neck, causing me to shriek and move away. “You’ll pay for that.”

“Ooh, I’m so scared,” I teased, walking towards the door. “Well, this was . . . fun.”

“It was,” Sam agreed, grinning at me. “Can’t wait to do it again.”

I tried not to blush. “Yeah. Just, um. Text me sometime and we’ll figure it out.”

“Sure thing.” He winked. “See you around, Alexa Fogerty.” He opened the door and I turned to go into the hallway, only to nearly trip over a body. Stumbling back, I looked down at the sleeping figures of Colton, Fletcher, and Thomas. All three of them were curled up on the floor outside the door.

“What the hell?”

“Oi,” Sam said, nudging Fletcher in the side with his toe. “Wake up.” They stirred, and eventually all three of them were blinking up at us.

“That definitely murdered my back,” Colton said grumpily as he sat up. “Thanks, asshole.”

“Why were you guys out here in the first place?” I asked.

“Sock on the door,” Fletcher explained. “We had to obey it, but we had nowhere else to go.”

“Good men,” Sam said good-naturedly, taking the sock off the doorknob and pulling it on his foot. “I owe you guys for that. How about breakfast? Alexa Fogerty and I ate most of the cinnamon rolls, but I think there’s some still left.”

“What else did you guys eat?” Fletcher asked with a grin. I blushed, but Sam merely laughed.

“I’d better go,” I said quickly. “Thanks, Sam. And, um. Sorry for making you guys sleep out here.”

“No trouble at all,” Fletcher said. Colton muttered, “Yes, trouble,” but Thomas quickly elbowed him.

“See ya,” Sam said cheerfully, unbothered as usual. My face burning, I set off down the hall, pulling out my key and unlocking my door.

Kiera was nowhere to be seen. I went down the hall and into her room and found her fast asleep in bed. Part of me wanted to be a good friend and let her sleep, but the other part knew what she would do if the roles were reversed.

So I threw back the covers and climbed into bed, snuggling up into her side. She groaned before finally opening her eyes, jumping when she saw me staring back at her. “Jesus Christ. What are you doing here? What time is it?”

“Almost five-thirty,” I said nonchalantly.

“Have you been awake the entire night?”

“Yup. Just got in.”

“Ugh.” Kiera buried her face in her pillow. “So?”

“So?”

“How was it?”

“It was . . . good. Very good.”

“Now what?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you guys staying friends? Are you dating? What’s going on?”

“Um,” I said, fidgeting with the blanket, “I guess we’re just staying friends for now. But it’s, um. You know.”

She lifted her head, raising her eyebrows. “Oh. So it’s like that.”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

“I’m happy for you and all,” Kiera said slowly. “But just . . . you don’t really know what you’re doing, so be careful, okay?”

“You’re not my mom, Keek.”

“I know, and thank God for that,” Kiera said. We both snorted.

“Don’t worry about me,” I reassured her. “I’ll be fine. Honest.”

♫ ♫ ♫

I came into work on Monday with a scarf wound tightly around my neck even though it was the middle of June. Dan and Hazel raised their eyebrows at me.

“Aren’t you a little hot?” Dan asked.

“Um, no,” I said, trying to sound casual. I’d explicitly told Sam not to leave any marks on my neck, but of course he hadn’t listened.

“This store has a strict ‘No Ugly Scarf’ policy,” Hazel said. “I’m afraid that’s a major violation.”

“Hey, I bought this a few years ago,” I protested. It wasn’t that ugly, just sort of . . . plaid.

Dan reached over and tried to pull it off, but I dodged him. However, while he was distracting me, Hazel snuck up behind me and yanked it off.

“Hey!” I said shrilly, immediately clapping a hand to my neck, trying to grab the scarf back. “Give it!”

“Oho!” Dan said, letting out a low whistle. “Well, well. What do we have here?”

“A hickey, it seems,” Hazel said, still holding the scarf out of my reach. “Coincidentally, in addition to having a ‘No Ugly Scarf’ policy, we also have a ‘No Hickey’ policy.”

“You guys give each other hickeys all the time!” I protested weakly.

“Yes, but I am the founder and owner of this store, whereas you are my paid minion,” Dan said cheerfully. “What do you think, babe? Should we fire her?”

“I say we give her a wedgie,” Hazel answered.

“Good idea. Come here, Lex,” Dan joked, motioning towards me.

“You guys are jerks,” I said grumpily, feeling embarrassed and annoyed. Before they could make fun of me any further, the bell on the door chimed. “Welcome to ‒” I started to say, but stopped short. All four members of Common Castles were strolling into the store.

“Oh, look. He matches!” Dan pointed at Sam, who was approaching the counter, seemingly unaware of the love bite on his collarbone that was peeking out from his shirt.

“Hi, guys!” Sam said happily. He grinned at me. “Hey.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “Hi.”

“Can we help you?” Hazel asked, obviously trying not to laugh.

“We heard Sucker Punch just released an album,” Colton said. “Do you guys have it?”

“Why, as a matter of fact, we do,” Dan said, going into the back and digging around. “We just got a shipment of them today. You lucky ducks.”

“I can make a duck noise with my hands,” Fletcher announced.

“No one cares,” Colton said as Dan came out with four copies of the CD in his hand. “Do you each want one, or ‒?”

“Yes please,” Thomas piped up. “No way in hell am I sharing this album with the rest of them.”

“Suit yourself,” Dan said, shrugging, but I understood. I liked having my own personal copy of an album, because then it was mine to take wherever I wanted and to listen to anytime I felt in the mood. Dan and Hazel merged their CDs and records when they got married and shared them, but that was because they were just that type of couple.

Dan rang up the CDs and handed them to the boys. “See you later,” Fletcher called as they left. Sam looked over his shoulder at me and waved. I returned it, feeling only slightly disappointed. I’d sort of been hoping he’d stop and talk to me, but oh well.

The rest of my shift was uneventful, but as I closed up for the night and said good-bye to Dan and Hazel, I pulled out my phone and saw I had one new text. From Sam.

wanna come over tonight?

I hesitated, tapping my fingers on the keyboard. Biting my lip, I typed my response.

be there in 10