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It wasn’t my fault my eyes were drawn to her breasts Bla wo She wasn’t one of the athletic girls with boyish bodies and abs so tight you could roll a joint on them and have plenty of room left She was more like a woman froirl’s kind of savvy She always dressed a little on the fruirl you didn’t think much of from the outside but when you peeled back the layers--and I’ht now, but I wanted to be speaking literally--you found an enormous treasure underneath

Amy snubbed Darla and turned away And Darla--noas her turn to be pissed Whatever was going on over there ry, and focused, and passionate Jesus, I wanted to tap into that What was Darla saying to trigger such a hot response?

So in meret My heart began to beat faster and hope slaainst my chest wall What if? What if? What if? was the beat that ran throughher head slowly, mystified, I felt the sale

"Hey, Saroup He was filling in while Joe was at orientation for law school at Penn "Can you help me with this amp?"

"Yeah, sure," I said and stood My eyes broke away from Amy for a few seconds and when I turned back to look she was chatting with Godda his body like he was the only man in the room In a way, he was--he was the dude Liauy in the room--and when I say need, Iabout the fight in hi and annoying It got tiring to pull hiirl’s wrath Most of all, it got tiring because if you have to repeatedly prove youras you think

Amy

From the Ladies’ Roo the hint She seeot to know her, and I didn’t like being nasty to her But anybody as passing herself around the band like a tray of appetizersare you kidding me? That’s not the kind of person I wanted to be friends with

I watched her walk up to the stage and grab Trevor like she owned hi a handful of flesh, how her ar with his hair and theirof envy pulled inside me Not that I wanted Trevor--but I wanted that I wanted aelse mattered in the world

Trevor pulled back, whispered sohed It was an intied to watch, despite feeling disgusted by the easy way she traveled froe Daroup of people I wanted to be part of soy, and fun, and intense

Instead, here I sat in the back of the bar, with a fucking tablet innew It ht be my tablet nowadays but I was still the mousy, bookish Amy The part of me that hated what Darla represented now ad, and laughing, and joking

And then, she stepped away from Trevor and damn it if her hands didn’t touch Sa and I knew, fro on All the air in h at the sained myself her, that his palms rapped around my shoulders, that his cheek touchedlike what Darla and Trevor had just shared Sa Whatever it was, it seele tear travel down her cheek, then disappear past her jawline and under her shirt

The shine of Kleig lightsand Sahad morphed up there--the atmosphere was less exuberant and then, the new bass player It all clicked Joe Joe Ross wasgone?

As if on cue, an all too familiar voice said from behind me, "If you stare any harder they’ll turn into stone"

I whirled around and there stood Lia a ratty t-shirt, jeans that fit every part of hirabbed the chair next tohis forearot it bad, don’t you A at Sa obvious, but itabout Liam made it impossible to lie "I know I aded it to anyone It made me feel complete somehow, as if it were out there--an emotion that now had form

"You see the new bass player?" he said

"Yeah?" I asked "What’s going on? Where’s Joe?"

"Joe left," he said with a tone of intrigue injected Lia on stage all the tiot old pretty quickly but when he was on, he was on The golden boy

"Left? You ot into Penn He’s at soet a new bass player because he’s not going to be back that often"

"Is that why Darla’s crying?" I asked "One of her fuck toys is gone?" I used the words on purpose just to seem Lia, Ae that I have them, Liam"

His eyes narrowed and he studied me I could feel that look crawl overdown, down, down, down until I was breathing so hard I iot to my chest it heaved like some heroine in one of those cheesy bodice rippers Darla was just talking about "If you think Darla’s being passed around like a piece ofShe’s Trevor and Joe’s, and that’s it"