Chapter Eight Comatose
Chapter Eight:
Comatose
Bash
She’s already dressed and I barely have my boxers back into place. I can’t tell if she’s being polite or if she got what she wanted from me, but I fear it’s the latter. It always is. “Are you hungry?”
”Uh... Yeah,” she says nervously. “I’m always hungry.”
Is she still being polite? I don’t think I care. I’m going to be selfish about it either way. “Me too, but after I come I always want to pig out. The kitchen here is always stocked up, too. Buffet style.”
I grab my phone, pull on some sweatpants, and lead the way back downstairs without a shirt or shoes on, my gaze dropping to the hickeys I left on her neck once we fill up a plate with junk and sit across from each other. “You think your friend went to Paris tonight?”
“Oh yeah,” she laughs, loosening up a little. “She preferred Levi to Jonah so I’m positive she took him up on the offer. And they’ll have a good time, she’s fun.”
“Yeah?” It’d be great if they got Sid to join, but I have a feeling he’d rather go celibate than watch Levi fuck a woman.
“Is that something you’ve ever done? I’m the last person that will judge you, I’m just curious to know more about you.
.. I guess I could ask what you do for a living instead though. ”
What the hell am I even saying?
I stuff some food into my mouth to shut myself up for a few seconds, but something about her body language makes me curious. She’s trying to decide whether to lie to me or not.
“I haven’t,” she starts, and that sounds truthful enough. “And I’m sort of an author? I’ve worked on books and documentaries, things like that. Boring to a rockstar, I’m sure.”
“I don’t think that’s boring at all. Art is never boring to me. Do you enjoy it at least?”
She grins, adorable and sideways. “Is this on the record or off?”
I want to see more of it. “It’s always off the record with me. It’s hard enough to get privacy these days, so I’ll keep your secrets, beautiful.”
“Then no, I don’t enjoy it. But I’m apparently pretty good at it. So good that I was able to follow my favorite band across the country.”
I thought her eyes were blue, but for some reason they look grey in the dim lights. They’re stunning. “I bet you are. So now that you’re successful and you got to live the concert lover’s dream, what now? What do you want to do?”
She shrugs a little. “My life has never been my own, so I never gave it much thought. I didn’t think I’d make it this far, to be honest. What about you? Do you ever regret the fame?”
That sounds... sad. It makes sense that I would be a magnet to sad souls, but I have to remember I can’t save them all. I couldn’t even save my ghost.
“Yeah,” I admit. “Not always, but sometimes I wonder how my life would have looked if I stuck to lyricism and never showed my face. There’s no reality where I don’t write music, but if I had never learned to scream, I’d probably be able to go to Taco Bell after a good orgasm without giving my handler a heart attack. ”
Giggling, she leans a little closer. “What’s his story? He’s awfully young to be a handler, isn’t he?”
“He’s one of my best friends. He was in a band back when I first started, and he hated it. He didn’t want to leave the industry, but he didn’t want to be in a band anymore so I told him to come work with me. He might not look like it, but hand him a violin and he’ll make you cry.”
Her eyes widen a little. “That’s awesome. Not the crying part, but the rest of it. I’m glad he found a way to stick around.”
“Mmhm.” I find myself staring at her and saying something that should have stayed an inside thought. “I bet you’re a real pretty crier.”
Her eyes drop to my lips. “I’ve never asked, so maybe I am.”
“Maybe one day I’ll see.”
I’ll make her come until she cries, and to show her I mean sexually, I reach under the table and squeeze her thigh.
“One day, huh? Sounds like you’re not done with me.”
“Does this feel done with you?”
I pull her hand over to feel how hard I am and watch as her pupils dilate. “Not even a little.”
“You down to fuck in here?”
My dick jumps in anticipation, but her damn friend stumbles into the kitchen with her hair a mess and a wide, dopey grin on her face before we can act on it.
“Oh, shit. Hi. Are those french fries?”
She rushes over to snatch one off my plate and meets her friend’s gaze with a giggle. “Do you have any idea what just happened?”
She’s whispering loudly, but at least Alaina was right. Seems like she had a good time.
“Both? Good for you,” she laughs. “Can we maybe talk about this later though?”
“Yeah, totally.” She glances between us and then whispers again, “Was it pierced?”
“There you are,” Jonah croons. “I should have known I’d find everyone in the kitchen.”
God damnit. Alaina seems to accept the fact that this is over faster than I do, she stands and takes her friend’s arm. “I should get her back to the hotel. We decided to drive the rest of the way and I’d rather her not be hungover for it.”
I officially hate both of our friends.
“Do you guys need a ride to the hotel? We have a driver.”
I stand up and adjust myself to hide my hard-on, but the sweats leave little to imagination.
Thankfully, all I see on Alaina’s face is desire and regret. “I drove here and I only had the one drink, so I should be fine. Thank you for... everything though. This was the best night of my life.”
I see nothing but truth in her eyes, and before I can talk myself out of it, I grab her throat and pull her into a sloppy kiss. “Drive safe.”
Her face falls as her cockblock of a friend starts to tug her away. “Bye, Bash. I— Jesus, Brooke, I’m coming — Oh, fuck.”
I watch them until they’re out of view, then plop back down on my seat with a sigh. “You two have shit timing, y’know that?”
Jonah takes a seat and starts eating Alaina’s food like it was his all along, but it’s not like she’s here anymore. “Yeah, sorry. We fucked her once and Levi got bored so she got dressed. I don’t understand that guy. Won’t fuck anyone twice, not even on the same night.”
“I stopped trying to understand Levi, you should, too.” I pull out my phone to check some notifications, and when I open up my Instagram for the first time in weeks, I see multiple messages that reference my ghost in the message previews. “Look at this shit.”
I flip the phone around for him to see, and he takes it from my hands for a better view. I didn’t even get to click on one yet.
“Christ, dude. Why are people so fucked up? It was probably one of these freaks who broke into your trailer.”
I didn’t even think of that because I was positive no one knew about the Goldfish, but in all reality, I was a fool to think that anything about my life is private anymore. “Yeah, probably. Are they all claiming to be her?”
He flips through a few more. “Nah, not all of them. Some are just trying to comfort you, some are telling you you’re nuts, but yeah.
A lot of them are saying they’re the one.
” Shaking his head, he hands my phone back.
“That girl you just fucked is obsessed with you, too. I asked Brooke if she thought she’d want to join us and she said no, that her friend is so fucking obsessed with you she won’t even fuck anyone else.
Might wanna make sure you don’t have one of those from her. ”
Fuck.
Appetite gone, I snatch my phone off the table and scroll for a while to see if I spot her, but there’s way too many messages, and every single face is a blur.
I was so desperate for a fuck to actually mean something, I ignored the signs that she was using me and let her do it anyway.
Like her friend’s trip to Paris, I was probably nothing more than a checkmark on a bucket list, because if she was truly obsessed with me she would have stayed.
Unless she wanted to leave me craving more...
“How obsessed?”
Jonah raises his eyebrows. “Bro, I didn’t ask. As soon as I knew she wasn’t coming, I focused on the pussy in front of me. Did you want me to braid her hair and get their life story?”
No shit. I would have done the same. “Whatever. I’m going to bed since I won’t be getting a round two. Hope you wore a condom.”
I toss a fry at him and disappear upstairs to change rooms for a clean bed, but when I get a whiff of her shampoo on the pillow, I snatch it up to bring with me.
Maybe she was using me, but now that I know she might be playing a game, I know better than to look too deeply into any of this. That was the best fuck I’ve had in a while, and if she lets me have her again, I’ll take what I need from her and move on.
It’s not like I ever thought we could have a future anyway.