Chapter 33
June, Saturday, 3 Months Later
The bouncer’s eyeballs practically rolled up into her forehead as she took all five of our fake IDs.
“Rudolph McStevenson,” she said as she read Jonah’s ID, looking down at him. He closed his eyes in frustration. The fake ID thing was way out of his comfort zone, but Oli insisted he get one if they were going to start playing gigs around the city. Jonah couldn’t say no to that. He ceded for the sake of the music but, obviously, he had nothing to do with the name choice.
The bouncer flipped to the next card in the pile. “Poppy Morgenheim.”
“That would be me,” Tiff said, biting back a smile and lifting a tattooed hand in the air.
“Love you, Pops.” Noah threw his arm around her with a wide grin.
“Mhm.” The bouncer hummed as she flipped to the next card. “Ah.” She released an almost impressed sound as she gazed at the ID in her hand. “Carina Jingles. That’s a great one.”
I stared at the bouncer with a rigid, toothy smile. “Thanks. Family name.”
Oli blew a laugh through his nose, unable to contain it, and I elbowed him right in the ribs.
The bouncer sighed, passing back our IDs instead of destroying them like she should have. She named us one by one without even bothering to look closely at the final two cards. “All right, Rudolph…Poppy…Carina…Octavius…” She stopped with the final card in her hand. “Jackson. See, now this one could work. Jackson Holden.”
Oli pretended to flip his imaginary long hair behind his shoulder. “Thank you very much. Been keeping me going for years.”
The bouncer rolled her eyes again. “Judging by the gear piled in the back of your car, you’re tonight’s entertainment. You paid to play here so you’ll get in, but you’ll each have to wear one of these.” She reached toward the podium behind her and grabbed a sheet of bright pink paper bracelets with the words UNDER 21slapped across them.
“Jonah’s favorite color,” Oli said, taking two of the strips from the bouncer to put one on himself and another on me.
Tiff and Noah adjusted theirs onto themselves as well, and Jonah asked for an extra. “For my friend,” he said quietly, taking two bracelets from the woman.
Finally, she jerked her head backward, urging us into the bar before we wasted another second of her time.
The dive was still relatively empty as it was hardly past dinner but, other than the lack of people, the early hour was lost on the place. There wasn’t a single window, and the lights were low. Neon signs illuminated the dirt in every corner. My left sneaker stuck to the floor momentarily as I made my way to a table with Tiff, leaving the boys to migrate toward the open area from which we assumed they’d be playing.
The place was a shithole, I’ll be honest, but I loved it. And it was the boys’ first real gig as a band, the little cuties. Oli and Jonah had been driving out from their hometown almost every weekend for practice sessions and visits and very cramped sleepovers at Noah and Tiff’s apartment, which I joined in on, of course. They’d been working hard to make the whole thing work, and it was incredible to see it start to come together.
Tiff and I sat down next to each other at a shiny table that looked much cleaner than it was. I leaned on it, immediately regretting my decision, and peeled my forearms back off the sticky surface.
“Yeah, I will not be touching anything in here,” I mumbled to the air.
“Me neither,” Tiff answered.
A bartender brought over a tray of waters and some sodas in classic glass bottles so we at least had something to keep us going throughout the night. I’ll admit it was pretty embarrassing to be treated like children. Only a few more months and we’d be able to ditch Jackson, Carina, Rudolph, Poppy, and Octavius for some legal drinking.
Tiff and I chatted, and the boys set up, plugging things in and turning dials I didn’t understand. Oli hadn’t dropped his smile all day leading up to this. Neither had Noah. Jonah was noticeably excited though, for him, it wasn’t exactly a big emotion. He was nervous too, but I was sure he’d be fine. He always got into a groove when they played together.
An hour passed and the boys went from setting up, to testing, to sitting with us, to preparing to perform just as the first rush of patrons flooded through the door. It wasn’t until the very last second, when the place was teeming with humans and noise, that I noticed Jonah picking at his fingernails. I stood and approached him.
“You okay?” I asked, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking it once.
He nodded. “I’m good at this. I can do it. As long as they leave me alone.” He scanned the crowd with his eyes.
“You got this.” I smiled at him and moved on to Oli, who was sitting on a little stool behind the drum set he was given by his mother before New Year’s. The gift was obviously an attempt to convince him to live at home instead of with Jonah’s family, but Oli didn’t seem to care. The last few months had been a major shift for him, and he was happier than I’d ever seen him. I did keep his mother updated over text though, and I made sure he called her often.
I sat on his knee and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Hey, groupie,” he said, taking my lips in his. “Here to mark your territory?”
“No.” I cocked my head. “The waiter winked at me. I’m letting you mark yours.” He pinched my side with a smile, and I giggled, falling into him from the slight pain. “Good luck, sir.”
“I love you, Juni.”
I gave him one more kiss and a squeeze of the cheeks before lifting myself off his leg and turning back toward the table. Tiff was sitting back down from giving Noah a lucky hug, and Jonah stood in front of her with his back facing the setup. It wasn’t until he walked away to place himself behind the mic that I saw what he’d been doing at the table. Stacked up against a glass soda bottle was his phone, Kai’s face on the screen, with a bright pink bracelet wrapped around it. I smiled and skipped over to my two girlfriends.
At least, that’s how I saw them. I hardly knew Kai, and I wasn’t sure she and Tiff had ever even gotten a chance to share a word. But I hoped one day Kai would be home, Tiff’s work schedule would calm down, and we’d become some kind of girl group. That was my silly dream.
The boys began their first song. An original. Jonah got into it, smiling a few times and offering little more movement than the necessary guitar strums, singing leans, and a couple of head bobs. Noah turned around and shook his butt more than was probably needed, but it made Tiff laugh, which only made him do it more. And Oli. My incredible Oli. He looked so carefree. So comfortable. So in the right place.
And so fucking sexy.
My lip dragged under my teeth as I watched him spin a drumstick in one hand. The man was quite talented with his fingers, to say the least. I mean, my god, the dexterity.
It wasn’t until after about six songs that Oli finally took off his damned flannel. A flannel I found myself in quite often with nothing underneath. He whipped it off and threw it forward, hitting Jonah who was trying to take a break to drink some water. Jonah coughed from the impact and spit the liquid down his T-shirt. I could’ve sworn I heard a hysterical chuckle over the noise of the bar, emanating from Jonah’s phone. Jonah turned toward Oli and emptied the remaining contents of his water bottle, which was hardly anything at all, over Oli’s head. Noah took the opportunity to sing-narrate what his bandmates were doing into his mic with a voice almost as impressive as Jonah’s.
They were the most lovable bunch, their personalities shining through in their art in the most perfect way. Those damn boys were going to make it. I just knew it. And I was going with them.
With him.
Everywhere and anywhere.
By the time they were nearing the end of their set, the crowd was really getting into it, dancing and whooping and coming ever closer to the boys’ space. Jonah’s mood began to sour as a group of people stepped just in front of his microphone, and Oli was so red he looked like he was going to pass out. Noah smiled, his hair still perfectly in place and utterly dry, not a drop of sweat on him.
I watched from the table as the boys disappeared behind the crowd, bending down to pack up their things and unplug their gadgets. Some time later, they approached. Noah plopped down next to Tiff, Jonah waved goodnight to Kai, unable to hear her over the raucous, and Oli placed himself behind my seat, squeezing my shoulders and bending over to speak into my ear. “What’d you think, whiz kid?”
I shrugged. “The singer did well. And the bassist was so funny. I don’t know, though. The drummer was a little boring.”
His hand moved from my shoulder to my neck. “Would someone so boring buy you a plane ticket to Spain next month?”
I gasped, and he loosened his hold to allow me to whip around to face him. “Are you serious?”
He nodded with the goofiest grin. “I was going to surprise you after dinner with your family tomorrow, but now seems like as good a time as any.”
“Oli.” I stood from my seat. “You didn’t have to do that.” In contrast to my words, I threw my arms around him.
Truthfully, I could’ve cried. I couldn’t explain how vastly different my life was at this moment from when I first stepped foot in that history class. My mood no longer changed at the drop of a hat, and I could enjoy my days without having to worry about how I was going to fill the hours which no longer seemed endless. I wasn’t as easy to topple, and I had Oli to thank for it. My friends, too. And me. I was making an effort, and I was doing well.
I did meet Kai in Madrid, and she was as beautiful and damaged and real as I expected her to be. She welcomed me in as if she’d known me forever, and I loved her instantly for it. While we had to leave her behind at the end of our stay, I was optimistic about our future.
Oli, Jonah, and I found a place together and moved in shortly after our return from Spain. Oli and I decorated our room with books and gray linens and a stuffed platypus toy, and I drooled while he assembled a desk by the window for me to study at. He had his flannel pushed up to his elbows, and his arms flexed as he straddled the rug, jerking one of the desk legs into place.
On the last day of the move after our room was fully set up, he slipped off to the shower where I’d go meet him in just a few minutes. But, before I did, I reached into the back of my closet and pulled the beautiful, wooden box from the shelf where I’d put it for safekeeping. Opening it, I breathed in the sweet vanilla sprayed in the red velvet lining, my past flashing before my eyes as my heart thrummed for my future.
The right corner of my new desk was bare, the left having been occupied by a family photo, a cup of pens, and a double frame with silly images of Oli and me. I placed the box on that empty corner, lining it up perfectly with the edge of the desk. The sunlight trailed in through the window in answer, as if to pat its top and tell me, Right there is perfect.
My fingers slipped away from the box, and I made my way to the hallway. Before turning toward the bathroom, I took one long look at my bedroom, at my life, at that box, and I knew; Alana would be so proud of me.