“Hi Jonny.”
“Hey, man.”
Everyone said something as they passed him. They wanted Jonny Rock to acknowledge them. He loved their need for his acknowledgement almost as much as he loved his power of dismissal.
“Hey,” he’d reply and keep walking. Very rarely did he stop to talk to anyone, and when he did, the conversation ended on his timetable. When he was done talking, he’d say “gotta go,” and walk away. No one completed a conversation with him because they wanted to.
Jonny entered his office. It was small, messy and windowless. Everyone called it the black hole. Stuff went in, but never came out. Jonny unlocked his desk and pulled a small travel bag from his bottom drawer and took it to the restroom. Fortunately for him, the station had a private bathroom.
He went in and locked the door, put the bag on the sink and began running the water. He removed his shirt, pants and boxer shorts and hung them on the doorknob. He then took a bar of soap out of his bag and placed it inside a washcloth. He ran it under the water, working a thick lather up on the terry cloth. When he was satisfied with its soapiness, he began scrubbing his body, cleaning behind his neck, under his arms and around his manhood, removing any scent of Heather and their afternoon rendezvous. He didn’t want his wife Jill to know of his indiscretion. He rinsed his body down and dried himself with another small towel he kept in his travel bag. Jonny put on a clean pair of boxers, got dressed and brushed his hair.
The happy husband was ready to go home.
Jonny went back to his office and placed the bag back in his desk and locked the drawer. Clean and fresh, he thought, she’ll never know.
Five minutes later Jonny was in his car and stuck in traffic. He turned up the radio. Dana was on the air interviewing 99 Thieves.
“So fellas,” she said huskily, “what’s the deal with your song Stolen? Am I sensing a theme here?”
“No,” Shawn, the lead singer replied, “we’re good boys.”
“Good kleptos maybe?” Dana joked.
Shawn laughed, “You might say.”
“Some might say you have a desire to get caught,” she teased. “Let’s see, you call yourselves 99 Thieves and have a hit single called Stolen…what’s the follow-up? Fifteen to Twenty?”
They all laughed.
“Dana, I think our goal was to steal your heart.”
“Ooo,” she purred, “Now I’m blushing.”
“This I’d like to see.”
Jonny smiled. Dana sounded so natural. She always had an instant rapport with the bands she interviewed. They loved her because she made them sound good, she made them sound cool. Bands were great at making music, not at sounding interesting. To them, a great interviewer was a gift from God. The bands needed her to make them sound like rock stars and Dana Drew always delivered.
Jonny turned into his complex and dragged himself up to his third floor apartment, noting Jill’s car in their assigned spot. She was home. He popped a breath mint and went inside.
“I’m home.”
“Hey, Jonny,” Jill said emerging from the kitchen. “Dinner’s almost ready,” she wiped her hands on a dishtowel and leaned in for a kiss. Jonny brushed her lips briefly.
“So how was your day?” he said sinking onto the couch.
“Tiring,” Jill replied walking back into the kitchen. Jill worked as an ad designer for a local advertising firm. She was petite and blonde, still pretty, Jonny thought. But Jill was older, as old as he was. They’d been together since college. She was comfortable, like an old shoe. He had to give her credit though, Jill stuck with him through it all. Through his days in Macon, Georgia as an overnight jock working for peanuts for two years, then following him to Naples, Florida for a nine to midnight shift for another two long years.
That’s when he got his break, a call back from Ted Reed at WORR in Miami.
Ted heard his reel and wanted him for the afternoon drive shift. Jonny was elated. He was twenty-seven and he had made it. Fast forward four years and Jonny had established himself as a name in the market and now Ted needed Jonny more than Jonny needed Ted. Jonny was the anchor of the station. Or so he thought.
Jill married him fresh out of college when his future was unknown. She was a beautiful blonde who really loved him and he really loved her. He still did. But over the years they had fallen into a pattern. He worked, she worked and the spark was gone. She stopped her rigid workout plan once she got a job and her taut body grew soft. A few extra pounds here and there…Jonny noticed every one, every inch of extra flesh around her hips and thighs. He’d casually rub her leg, secretly measuring the width of her thigh with his hand. He missed her tight legs. He missed a lot of things. Jill used to be a bit awe struck by him. They met in college when he was on the air. She liked the idea of dating “the popular disc jockey.” But years pulled away the mystique. She’d seen him at the highs of his career and the lows. She knew him better than anyone else. He wasn’t Jonny Rock, he was Jonathan Roeker and always would be.
“Jonny, dinner’s almost done, could you take out the trash before we eat so it’s done?”
“Sure,” Jonny said, annoyed. Couldn’t he just have five minutes to himself when he came home? He grabbed the trash and took it out to the chute. Don’t be argumentative, he said to himself, don’t give her a reason to suspect anything. He had learned from his mistakes. Jill discovered an indiscretion once, a year ago with another intern…Cindy. Cindy with the full lips. Their relationship never progressed to the degree of his relationship now with Heather. They only fooled around a little. Jill had found Cindy’s lipstick on his collar. It was such an obvious, cliché way to be caught, it was almost laughable. Jonny told Jill that Cindy was just overly affectionate. Jill didn’t really buy it, but she also didn’t want to accept the alternative, that he might be cheating on her.
“It better just be one sided,” she had said, “and you better put an end to it.”
“Yeah, babe, of course. You know how kids are today.” He flashed his don’t you love me smile.
She believed him and everything went back to being copacetic. That is until Heather came along. Slender, perky breasts and long legs. Then there was her mane of soft red hair. Damn! He could feel himself getting excited just thinking about her. “Shake it off,” he muttered to himself, trying to gain control before going back into the apartment. Heather was dangerous…he was starting to have feelings for her.
He couldn’t let that happen.
The apartment door opened and he saw Jill peer down the hall.
“Jonny,” she called out, “did you get lost? Dinner’s on the table!”
“I’m coming.”
Jonny really needed to cool things off with Heather before he totally lost control.
Chapter 6
Larry Carter listened to Dana Drew.
He listened to Dana Drew every day, taping every show.
Religiously.
He was in love with Dana Drew. She was his perfect type. Smart, witty and beautiful. Not like his old girlfriend, The Bitch, the one who discarded him so easily. The only thing he missed about The Bitch was her height. She was a bit shorter than him, which was rare.
Larry was only five foot five.
Dana Drew had beautiful black hair. He loved the way it looked, so shiny when she combed it, so black that it seemed iridescent. It looked awesome with her full pouty lips. He dreamed of those lips and what she could do with them.
Larry had studied her face a million times. He knew every contour, every curve.
He’d go to see her at remotes so he could get pictures of her. He always hung back, not ready for Dana to see him in person, so all of his pictures of her were from a distance. It was okay, but not good enough.
He studied the best shot he got of her, the one close-up of her face he had enlarged to a life size eleven by seventeen. He could see her dark almond shaped eyes and her smile. That mouth again. Oh, that mouth. He got chills thinking of it.
Then there was her v
oice. She sounded so throaty, so sexy on the air. Her voice felt like home. She was his perfect woman and his best friend in the whole wide world. Larry called Dana every so often just to talk. Over time, they’d become close friends. He called her for advice when The Bitch left him. Dana reassured him that he could probably do better and that she was sure there was someone else out there for him who would make him even happier.
That’s when he knew, she loved him too.
Dana’s shift had just ended. He let her finish talking, then pressed STOP on his cassette recorder and ejected the tape. Larry carefully removed the cassette placing it down on the table. He wrote as neatly as possible on a sticky label, Dana Drew, January twelfth. He slowly lifted the label from the wax paper and lined it up so it was exactly in the middle of the cassette and placed it down. A small ridge folded up in the corner. The clean, crisp label was now imperfect.
“Fuck!” he yelled angrily. “Damn it! Damn it!”
Larry took out a razor blade from the desk drawer and began to remove the sticky label from the cassette. It came off messily. He poured some turpentine on a piece of cloth and rubbed the remaining stickiness from the plastic until it was smooth again. He then took out another label, re-wrote Dana’s name and the date of the show, and placed it on the cassette again, this time more carefully. It lay perfectly flat. Even, crisp and clean.
“Good,” he said and smiled broadly. Larry put the cassette in its case then walked over to the bookshelf in his house, placing the cassette next to Dana Drew, January eleventh. Larry had a recording of every one of Dana’s shows. Well, every one since he discovered her. When he was really lonely or horny, he’d pick out one of his favorite shows and listen to it or pleasure himself to it. Occasionally, he’d call in to talk to Dana and she’d put him on the air. Those tapes he marked with a shiny gold star.
Larry was very happy tonight. Tomorrow he was going to talk to Dana in person. He had finally lost the last few stubborn pounds and felt confident enough to meet her. It was perfect timing really. Just as he had achieved his weight goal, he heard Jonny Rock announce that Dana would be at Scully’s in Miami tomorrow, just minutes from his house. Larry knew it was more than just a coincidence, he knew it was fate.
Because he and Dana were destined to be together.
Larry shook with nervous excitement and moved into the bathroom to study himself. He had always been overweight by about fifty pounds. He lost all of it in the last three months. A huge loss due to a strict diet. Larry survived on weight loss pills, coffee and grapefruit juice, allowing himself only one real meal a week, usually a cheeseburger at Floyd’s Bistro down the street every Friday at twelve fifteen in the afternoon.
Larry looked at his naked body in the mirror, still shocked at his change in appearance. The chubby guy was now lean and trim. He worked hard for his new appearance. He was at the gym every day. His arms were extremely muscular and his chest almost looked broad, like a movie star or something. He smiled and flexed. He had accomplished what he set out to do. So far.
He peered harder in the mirror and picked up his tweezers. One stray hair poked out from his eyebrows. He plucked it with surgical precision. Now he looked good.
Larry had curly brown hair, wide set light brown eyes and surprise, surprise, high cheekbones. He never knew his face had structure, fat and flesh always covered it. He turned to see his profile. His prominent nose made him look distinguished. Dana would think so too, he was sure of that.
He moved from the bathroom to his closet, carefully removing the outfit he bought for tomorrow’s big night. He lifted the plastic that covered the black silk shirt and gray trousers. Everything was perfectly pressed, wrinkle free. Better not keep it out too long, he thought, it might get ruined. So he carefully pulled the plastic back over his outfit, then put it back in the closet. Larry slipped on a pair of white sweatpants. He had exactly twenty-four hours before he would see her. He figured he could take the time he had left to work out a bit more, tone up a bit more.
Besides, the exercise would help relieve his sexual tension.
“Oh, Dana,” he murmured, quickly grabbing his pillow, pretending it was her. Larry caressed the top of the pillowcase as he had done a million times, then kissed the sheet firmly.
Yes, Larry Carter was ready for Dana Drew.
He only hoped she was ready for him.
Chapter 7
Cody Blue Smith changed the locks on the house. It didn’t matter, his father never returned after the night with the gun. For all his drunken bravado, his father was a coward.
Cody’s mom was resentful of Cody’s actions, glad for the beatings and abuse to have stopped, but sad to see Kevin’s income disappear. She was forced to get a job as a waitress at the local truck stop. She earned some money, but not nearly enough.
“I’ll help support us, Momma,” Cody promised. He got a job at the local convenience store after school. It didn’t earn him much money, but it was enough to help pay for the basics. They had no car, his dad took that when he left. They did the best they could to make things work without a vehicle. They had to, there was no other option.
The house was his grandparent’s old place that his mom had inherited so there was no mortgage. The main expense was electricity and food which Cody and Jane’s meager paychecks barley covered. So they ate a lot of pasta, used the lights and air conditioner sparingly and tried to get by.
Cody’s job combined with track practice didn’t leave him much free time, but he wasn’t willing to give up track. He really enjoyed it and he was really good at it. His coach mentioned he might be good enough to get a scholarship for college. That was all Cody needed to hear. College was his ticket out of his small town. An education from a good school meant a good job and an even better paycheck. So he devoted himself to the track team, pushing himself harder and harder with each race, winning again and again. His persistence paid off. Senior year he was offered a full scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville, just a stone’s throw from Pinetree. It was perfect. He could go to school and still be near his mom. He knew she needed him.
He needed her too.
Jane was elated at her son’s acceptance into the university. She only wanted the best for him. A wish fueled by the guilt of his childhood. If he could make something of his life, then maybe her life wasn’t such a waste after all.
Cody started UF in the fall. It was the first time in his life that he was on his own. The first time he was free.
Now Cody could date. Really date.
He told the girls he met that he was from Waldo, a town just outside Jacksonville. Waldo was too far away for a quick visit with a new girlfriend, but close enough in similarities to his home in Pinetree that he could sound like he grew up there. No one at school knew him or his family. No one knew that he was lying. And no one had to.
College was freedom. Cody shed his skin and all its scars, all the horrors of the past and the shame of his poverty lay dead on the floor. He started school with a clean slate. All people knew was that he was an athlete. A title he was happy to have.
Cody made friends easily. He lived on campus for three years, unusual, as most students moved off campus after the first year, but living in the dorm was affordable. His senior year he moved into a house in the student ghetto, an area just north of campus. He was still walking distance to school, so the fact that he didn’t have a car didn’t matter. Cody’s roommates were three guys who had known each other since they were kids. They were from Fort Myers, on the West coast of Florida. They’d never heard of Waldo and didn’t care. They met Cody in one of their auditorium classes and became fast friends. Two hundred students in one room and they ended up next to each other in the front row.
Actually, their meeting was a bit of divine intervention.
Cody always sat in the front of the class. Since his track scholarship had been based on academics as well as athletic ability, he was determined not to lose it. So as geeky as it seemed, he sat in the front row of
every class and took diligent notes. He was not willing to lose his chance at a college education. Three years of this philosophy had paid off. Cody did well, very well, in school.
Alex, Harper and Bobby were a different story. They arrived ten minutes late to class.
“So glad you showed up,” Professor Carlton said walking towards the tardy trio with a wireless microphone. Because of the sheer size of the classroom, the professor chose to parade around class like Phil Donahue to get his students’ attention. He was easygoing, but did not tolerate disrespect.
“Uh, sorry,” Harper said.
“I’m sure you are gentlemen, that’s why I think you’d love to sit in the front row right next to this studious young man.” He stopped in front of Cody.
“Uh, right,” they replied and reluctantly walked all the way down to the front row. The class got a good chance to study the three boys. They snickered as the brown haired trio waved like three Miss Americas as they walked to the front of the class.
Of the three, Alex was the most attractive. A tad overweight, his pudginess gave him a boyish charm that the ladies seemed to like. Bobby was very tall and very skinny. Brown freckles dotted his nose. Lanky, like a basketball player, Bobby strutted next to Alex. He wasn’t embarrassed. Bringing up the rear was Harper. Medium height, medium build, Harper was the most forgettable in appearance. They fell in sync in the front row and sat down. The three kicked back, not bothering to open their notebooks. They did, however, observe Cody during class and his proficient note taking skills. They cornered him at the end of the hour.
“Dude, we have a proposition for you.”
Cody looked over the three guys before him. They were clean cut, preppy dressers. Like no one he knew from home.
“What kind of proposition?”
“Listen, we’re not into the whole school thing. We’re starting a band.” Alex paused as if they were already rock stars.
“Yeah and..?” Cody was not impressed.
“Anyway, class is kind of an inconvenience for us. Any chance we can not go to class so we can practice and borrow your notes?”
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