Distracted No More

by Thia Finn

  “Hell no. I ate the rest of the Cocoa Puffs and played some Warcraft. I’m gonna get in a workout sometime today, though. Can’t let this body get away from me.” He stood and raised his shirt showing off the abs that the ladies seemed to swoon over. “Don’t want the ladies looking elsewhere when they throw their panties.”

  “Mommy, why do girls throw panties at Uncle C? Don’t they want them anymore?” If the lightning bolts coming out of Peri’s eyes could have struck Carter, a funeral would be in our near future.

  Peri turned and looked at Ryan. “Would you like to take your son back to the RV because he doesn’t need to hear what’s about to come out of my mouth?”

  Ryan slipped up behind her and kissed the side of her neck. “You go on back to the RV, sweetheart. I’ll take care of the man-child here.” He nodded over to Carter who had a look on his face I couldn’t quite identify. It might’ve been terror as he decided who he was more afraid of.

  “Be sure to express my opinion completely, babe.” She took Tucker’s hand and led him off the bus.

  It only took a second for the bus to clear out when everyone saw the look on Ryan’s face. As I crawled into my bunk to get out my guitar, I heard a heated argument going on between the two band members. The door finally opened and closed signaling it was done.

  I opened my curtain, and Carter held the controls to his game.

  “Is the coast clear?” I ventured out of the bunk.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about him. He’s all bark.” He looked at me holding my Gibson. “Damn, girl, you still got that old thing?”

  “It’s not old. I love my guitar. It bears the scars of years of learning.” I sat down across from him in the chair and the door opened again.

  Chandler climbed the stairs and saw me. “Oh, are you in the mood to play? I haven’t played my guitar in a while. Mind if I join you?”

  “I would love you to join me. I didn’t know you played guitar, too.”

  “Oh yeah. Keeton and I write most of the songs on the bus with our guitars.” She came back to the front with hers. “This is my baby. I love her almost as much as I love Keeton, but don’t tell him that.” She whipped around and looked at Carter. “And don’t you tell him either.”

  “Hey, my lips are sealed. Just us girls having girl talk,” he smirked at the two of us.

  “So how long have you been playing?” Chandler played a few chords while she did some fine tuning.

  “About nine years now.”

  “That’s great. Are you self-taught or did you take lessons?”

  I glanced up at Carter. “Oh, I had an instructor. He was pretty good most of the time, but he could be unreliable, too.” I knew Chandler didn’t know the whole story between us. The band’s original keyboard player, Jacoby, left the band before their big break. Their music took them to stardom, especially after Ryder came along.

  “Is that so? He or she?” She dug for the information, one question at a time.

  “He, but he doesn’t play rhythm guitar anymore. He moved on to bigger and better music, at least in his mind.”

  “Really? What’s better than playing rhythm?” Chandler turned to Carter and arched her eyebrow? “Unless you’re a bass player, and then you’re just along for the ride with the real musicians.”

  “Real musicians, are you shittin’ me? You know I’m the musician that keeps the band together. The rest of you dumbasses are only around to look pretty and attract a crowd.” Carter tried to act indignant, but I knew better. The band loved giving him and Gunner hell about their abilities.

  “So let me see if I got this straight. A guy taught you to play a great guitar, but he chose to give it up? What an asshat.”

  “Oh, a number of colorful terms describe him and his poor choices.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “I bet they do,” Chandler added. “I bet they do.” She strummed across her strings.

  For the next few hours, we played a variety of music. Some of AD’s hits and then a few songs Hayden wrote for us. I taught Chandler a few of my original pieces that Hayden and I included in our line-up.

  “That’s a beautiful tune, Halo. Did you write that one alone?” Chandler asked.

  I glanced in Carter’s direction to see him staring at her. “The music, no. The words, yes.”

  “I love the intro riff to it and the melody flows over you when you sing it like it’s there to haunt someone. But the words do the real haunting. They leave you wanting more as though the story isn’t over.”

  I nodded at her. I didn’t have a reply, but Carter spoke up. “Maybe the story hasn’t ended. Maybe it needs another stanza added to it. What about it, Halo? Are you completely finished with it?”

  “Part of me wanted it to end a long time ago, but fate has a funny way of taking over sometimes. I guess we’ll see in time.”

  Chandler glanced back and forth between Carter and me. I knew she figured out early in this conversation that a completely different story must be happening in the background. She dropped her head back to her guitar and started putting it away.

  “Guess we better think about going over to the venue for sound check. It’s about that time. I’ll go find Keeton.” She slipped from the bus, but I don’t know if it was to find her fiancé or to escape the tension that built in the last few minutes.

  “What the hell was that about, Halo?” He stood and walked toward me. “I thought we were going to call a truce between us.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Carter.” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean it to sound like an attack on you.”

  “I call bullshit. You obviously can’t let it go, can you? Will I pay for my mistake forever?”

  “Is that what I was to you, a mistake?” I stood and squared off to him raising my voice.

  “Fuck no. You know that’s not what I meant.” He matched my volume

  “What exactly did you mean then?” I refused to back down. He’d added to the sparing we did when Chandler listened. I stepped closer to him.

  “Choosing to let you go, Halo, and you damn well know that’s what I meant.” His eyes glowed with fire.

  “So you admit what you did to us was wrong?” My heart beat faster with each word.

  “Fuuuccckkk.” He hauled me into him and attacked my lips with a punishing kiss. I responded with equal ferocity. When he wrapped his hands in my hair and swiped his tongue across my lips trying to gain access, my judgment flew out the window. I opened and let him in. My acceptance allowed the kiss to deepen, and I slid my hands around his neck feeling engulfed in his need or maybe it was mine.

  The sound of someone clearing their throat brought me back to earth, and I pushed back breaking the spell. He let me go and stepped back looking toward the door where Hayden stood staring at the two of us.

  “Sorry to interrupt this little reunion, but Cash wants us over at sound check, too.” He turned and stepped off the bus.

  I looked up at Carter, who stared at the floor. He refused to look at me which pissed me off. This scene was all on him, again.

  Chapter Twenty

  What the fuck. I knew better. I needed to get my head on straight. Hell, I needed to get back to my old self. Having her around tempted me too much. Talking to her reminded me of how I felt about her before the band. I couldn’t go back there, but she made it so damn difficult. I never wanted to fucking hurt her again, and this situation seemed to be plowing headfirst in that direction. All indicators pointed to hurt. I couldn’t do it, so it had to stop now.

  When KeeMac opened our show, the crowd screamed at their usual volume since the performance by Hayden Victory had them primed and ready to rock.

  “Hello, fucking Phoenix! How ya doin tonight?” The roar of the crowd led into our set, and the noise didn’t stop. The babes threw lingerie our way along with flowers and stuffed animals with phone numbers attached them. The women waited to get the nod from us, only now the nod only came from me. Ripe for the picking, I looked the scantily-clad beauties
over. Shit, my mind still lingered on that kiss from Halo, but I needed to break this once and for all.

  One blonde and one purple-haired lovely caught my attention when they started making out right in front of the stage directly in my line of sight. I usually stayed back closer to Gunner since we were the sound that kept the rest of these dickwads in line, but when I spotted that girl/girl action, I had to move closer making sure of what I saw. Damn, these women knew their actions had all of my attention. I gave the nod to our security who promptly went over and pulled them aside. They always had to sign non-disclosure agreements before coming backstage. The guards now made sure of that before leading them off to the room for tonight’s meet and greet.

  When the third encore finished up the night, we made our way offstage. With something special to look forward to after the show, I quickly wanted to get this meet and greet over with. The radio station that sponsored tonight’s party brought in all their winners for us to meet. The women I brought in were for later in my own private party. I needed the after party to start ASAP. After Halo’s kiss, I only had one thing on my mind, and it had nothing to do with meeting and greeting.

  The radio hosts escorted the last of their group from the room, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We loved meeting our fans, but standing around making small talk after a show when we were all fired up made it difficult. So many of the female fans stood and stared at us and that used to be freaky. We grew accustomed to making conversation with them by doing most of the talking.

  “So ladies,” I opened with walking up to the two. “Are you both ready to have our own little party?”

  Both women stood and attached themselves to each side of me. “Hell yeah,” they said in unison.

  The blonde slid her tongue around the outside of my ear and whispered, “Where do you want to move this Carter, party of three?”

  The other slid her hand under my t-shirt and traced her fingertips over my abs. “I’ll replace my finger with my tongue in a few minutes.”

  “I like where this is going, babes. Let’s see if we can find an empty room around here.” We moved toward the doorway. It opened to Halo and Chandler walking in.

  Chandler spoke immediately, “Typical Carter, already found the women. So sad you’ve lost your best wingman this tour.”

  “Well, sweet Chan, my friends and I don’t need a wingman for what we have in mind. Isn’t that right, ladies?” I looked at both of them and then at Chandler and Halo. Chandler smirked, but the look on Halo’s face almost sent me to the floor. I fought the urge to send the groupies out of the party alone.

  Seeing that look on Halo’s face took me back to the days we were still together. She would occasionally go to the parties where we performed. She quickly learned that girls wanted bad boys and playing in the band automatically classified us that way. Breaking up with her before we left on tour was necessary because of that image and those women. While I hated ending our relationship, leaving her at home waiting to see if I fucked up while on the road was even worse.

  Now she saw it in living color right before her eyes. Leaving an after party with two beautiful, willing groupies draped all over me, cut her to the core. The way her eyes rolled over the women and then the glare she gave me said it all. She knew the score. Hell, maybe she even expected it so she could feel free to move on, too.

  “See y’all later,” I said to the Chandler and Halo. I didn’t want to get into any more of a confrontation than Chan had already pulled me into.

  Our threesome found an empty dressing room for our naked romp. While we were working up to some great sex, I couldn’t bring myself to get into the ménage with them like I usually did. My mind kept replaying Halo’s expression when she looked at the two women.

  “You know, ladies,” I finally said while my hard cock was buried deep in one’s throat. “I’m not really feeling this tonight. I think we’re going to have to call it a night.”

  “But we’ve just begun, Carter,” purple hair said as she pulled my semi out of her mouth. “What’s up with this? Don’t you love us?”

  “Oh, it’s not that I don’t love you, sweets. I have some shit on my mind and can’t get into it. But hey, don’t let me stop you from enjoying each other, or I know some of the roadies that would be honored to take my place to satisfy beautiful women like you both are.” I zipped up my pants and tugged my t-shirt back on. “I’ll take a raincheck until next time.”

  The two pouted for a minute until I promised them free tickets and backstage passes to our next show. I quickly kissed them both and went back to the after party. Slipping through the door, I saw not too much was going on.

  I walked up to KeeMac and Chandler. “What’s up guys?”

  Chandler looked at me as KeeMac spoke up from talking with a sound engineer he knew from some other shows. “Not too much. The radio people left about five minutes ago, but you weren’t here to thank them.”

  “Hey, that’s your job. You’re the big front man, remember and the rest of us are damn happy it’s you and not us.” I slapped him on the back.

  “Where’s Hayden this evening? I never saw him come in here.”

  “He came in and left pretty fast with an overenthusiastic Barbie doll. I’m surprised he’s not back already if he’s even coming here. He’s either holed up in a hotel room with her or back on the bus, I’m sure.” KeeMac finished off his last gulp of beer from the bottle.

  I looked around but refused to ask about Halo. The room usually emptied out pretty fast when the band members weren’t there to entertain.

  “She left right after you did,” Chandler finally spoke up.

  “Who?”

  “Oh please. You are such an asshat,” she laughed as she said it.

  “What are you talking about?” I continued to play dumb, but I knew I was so busted.

  “Halo, dumbass. Halo. Remember her?” Chandler continued.

  “Yeah, I remember. I also remember the two of us discussing moving on with our lives and being okay with the way things are between us.” I didn’t owe this to Chandler, but I wanted her to know I wasn’t a complete douche when I came to Halo.

  “That’s good to know, Carter. I’m glad y’all had that talk. I wouldn’t want you to be mad when you jump on the bus and found the back room occupied.” She didn’t take her eyes off me.

  I guzzled the beer I opened when I walked in. “Wait, what’d you say?”

  “I said I wouldn’t want you going all apeshit when you get on the bus and she’s in the back of the bus bedroom with the man she left here with. You know, ‘what’s good for one is good for all’.”

  Shit. “Uh, yeah. That’s abso-fucking-lutely right. I told her that, too. She’s welcome to entertain whoever she wants on the bus. Hell, I plan to. Those two I was with just weren’t doing it for me tonight.”

  “Is that right? I would’ve thought they were perfect choices for you. Thought you were always down for a Carter sandwich.” Chandler’s eyes bore a hole through me.

  “Sure as hell am. Those two just didn’t have what it takes, though. Gonna have to start being more discriminating when it comes to picking the women out of the fucking crowd. My standards need to be raised now that I’m on my own.” My determination to make Chandler back down grew with each comment.

  “Oh, really. I thought you didn’t have standards. As long as they were pretty, clean, and willing, so were you.”

  “Damn, Chandler. That’s a low opinion you have of me. I’m not that fucking desperate. I get the cream of the crop, especially with no competition now from the other pricks in the band.”

  “More like the pick of the litter,” KeeMac added.

  “Very funny, dickwad. You’ve been there before Chandler came and stole you from the fucking chick market.”

  “That’s right, and he’ll never be shopping at the chick market again.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Let’s go to our dressing room, babe.”

  “Hell yeah, we can.” He pic
ked her up and started unsnapping the snaps on his shirt while kissing from her neck downward.

  God, those two couldn’t ever get enough of each other. I looked around the room and there was only a handful of guys talking music in one corner. Fuck, what was I going to do now? I had no intentions of going back to that bus where Halo entertained her guest. I pulled out my phone and called Hayden. Maybe his Barbie needed to go home already.

  “Dude? What’s up?” he answered.

  “Not much. Where you at?”

  “Sitting on the bus playing Warcraft with Halo. You?”

  “Halo’s with you?”

  “Yeah, she didn’t like all the crap in the after party so we came back here looking for something else to do.”

  Well, shit. That little lying Chandler. What the hell was she trying to pull?

  “I’m headed that way. I’ll play the winner.” Chandler better watch out. The next time I saw her we would have some words over her need to piss me off. I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and took off for the bus.

  I heard yelling and then laughing as I stepped on the bus. Halo and Hayden both screamed at the screen. These two got into the killing-to-win thing. I walked around the divider into the living area, and they were piled up on the couch trying to kick each other’s ass on the TV screen.

  “Dude, she’s better than you and me both on this game. She’ll kick your ass.”

  “Is that right? I never knew you had a mean bone in your body, Halo.” She never took her eyes off the screen to speak to me.

  “Hell yeah. I had a lot of time on my hands, and my friends were mostly guys who liked to play this kind of shit.” Her intensity grew with each shot she made.

  Hayden looked at me. “I thought you had guests for tonight.”

  “No, it didn’t work out. Not the right ones for me.” I didn’t take my eyes off the screen as I spoke, but I knew Halo looked at me.

  “So, do I get to play the winner?” I sat down next to Halo and started watching her moves on the screen. Damn, she was good.