“Gee, thanks,” I grunted, biting into my fruit again.
Claudia patted my arm sympathetically. “I’m your friend; hence, it is my civic duty to tell you the truth. When I watch you play it bores the shit out of me.”
I blinked quietly, keeping a stoic face.
“Mallory? Hey, Mallory? Are you okay?” She waved a hand in front of my face, which I immediately smacked away.
“What do you mean I bore you?” I screeched. “I couldn’t have gotten this far in my studies if I bored people to death with my music.”
“I didn’t say you bored me to death…you just bored me to sleep.” She shrugged her shoulders and smiled sweetly.
I shot her another irritated look as I practically gnawed my fruit.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Under her breath, she whispered, “No, I’m not.”
My ponytail suddenly felt too tight, eliciting a pounding headache across my scalp. Ripping the band off, I allowed my long hair to fall over my face, hiding me from the world. “Okay, let’s say I agree with you. I know I can’t perform.”
“You can’t.”
My jaw clenched. “But the music itself is played pretty awesome, right?”
“Oh, definitely.” She nodded good-naturedly.
“So what’s my stage presence matter? I just want my music to be loved. I don't need to be loved.”
“It kind of goes hand in hand,” she responded carefully. “Pianist and piano piece? They’re like two peas in a pod.” She paused and wagged her eyebrows. “Wow, my alliteration is on point today.”
I couldn’t help but snort. “Okay, bio major, how would you know anything about music exactly?” My voice came out harsher than I had intended. Deep down, I knew Claudia was just trying to help me, so before guilt could pool in my stomach I quickly added, “I’m sorry. I’m just stressed.”
“Maybe we should look for Mr. One-Night Stand again,” she mused. “You seemed pretty relaxed over the weekend.”
I shot her a look. “Now’s not the time.”
With a soft giggle, she grabbed the apple from my hand before I could take another bite. “I didn’t wear a raincoat today. Please eat after your tirade.” She waited until I stuck out my tongue at her before asking, “You want to play for the theater, don’t you? For Broadway productions and all that?”
“Of course.”
“And what do they do, Mallory? They perform!”
“But I’ll be hidden in the orchestra pit,” I whined. “They’ll be watching the actors, not me.”
“Fine, I’ll give you that.”
“Thank you,” I grumbled, hoping she was done.
She wasn’t.
“If you don’t want to be the center of attention, why do you want that solo so bad? You’re in an ensemble right now. Isn’t that good enough for you?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Because…”
“Yes?” she prodded, as if poking a sleeping bear.
I threw my head back and sighed. “Because I know I can do it and I know I deserve it. Maybe…maybe I do want to be in the spotlight. At least once in my career, you know?”
She nodded, as if satisfied with my answer. “Well, there you go. Now all we have to do is work on getting you there.”
“And how do you expect to do that? Sarah has that X factor that all teachers like.”
“I thought you were so sure she was sleeping with Damien,” she teased.
“That too,” I replied glumly.
Claudia laughed and squeezed my arm. “We just have to make you feel like the baddest bitch ever. Once you’re confident, any performance will be easy.”
“Baddest bitch? You have to have power for all that.”
“Power?” Claudia repeated with amusement.
I nodded, feeling incredibly hopeless. “You need the power to make people fall in love you while you’re onstage, kind of like how Beyonce does it.”
“Oh my gosh.” She covered her face with her hands, giggling hysterically. “Okay, Beyonce. Let’s figure out how to get you that power.”
Chapter 5
Asher
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I punched my bed angrily, giving it a few kicks for extra measure. The bedframe rattled, warning of an impending split.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell is going on in here?” Gerald entered the room without knocking, which I couldn’t really be too mad about, considering it was his house.
“What do you think?” I muttered, throwing my gym bag across the room.
“Hey, be careful! You’re not paying any rent here, you know.” I could tell he was only half-teasing. God forbid I cost him his security deposit.
I sighed and threw myself onto the bed, shutting my eyes. “I fucking screwed up tonight, man. I blew it big time. I’m a fucking failure.”
“Seriously? It was one battle. It’s not the end of the world.”
“For me it is!” I growled. “You heard them! Hollywood…they all think I’m a joke.”
Gerald sighed and plopped down on the chair next to the bed, shaking his head slowly. “They’re all jealous, dude. They can say what they want about you selling out, but just try your best to ignore them.”
“No one actually said that out loud,” I muttered.
Ignoring me, he pressed on, “Trust me, if any of those assholes were given the opportunity you were, I guarantee you they’d snap it up in a second. All of this ‘underground only’ bullshit is nothing but a farce.”
“Farce. That’s a big word for you, Gerry.”
“Thanks,” he replied proudly.
I sat back up and began rubbing circles into my temples. “I just don’t understand what happened to me. I’ve never been so low in my game before.”
“It happens.”
“Not to me!”
“Okay, let’s step off your high horse for a minute, okay?” he said, but not unkindly.
I nodded my head as he pressed a soda bottle into my hand. “What’s this for?”
“Ran out of beer. Gotta go for a run later, but until then drink some cola to perk yourself back up.”
As I unscrewed the bottle, I eyed its curved edges. It reminded me of a woman’s tapered waist that flared at her hips. “Perk myself back up, huh?”
Perk…perky.
Like Mallory’s perky tits and her unbelievable curves…
“That’s it!” I gasped out loud, jumping to my feet.
I moved so quickly that I nearly scared Gerald straight out of his chair. His head snapped around in surprise. “What? What’s going on?”
My heart was thrashing against my chest. I couldn’t believe I figured it out! “Okay, I know this is going to sound weird, but just roll with me on this, okay?”
He shrugged. “Sure, man.”
The great thing about Gerald is that he’s always down for whatever ridiculous idea popped in my head. He was definitely more than a friend. He was a brother.
“You know how a lot of athletes can be superstitious?” I asked, feeling my palms clamming up. If I was right, this was going to be a hell of a problem to fix.
He scratched against his buzzed head, scrunching up his face in thought. “Like how they don’t wash their socks and stuff?”
I nodded excitedly. “Yeah, or how fans think certain girlfriends or wives are bad luck and hate it when they come to games?”
“Oh, you mean how some fans thought that blonde singer jinxed that one football player guy?”
Yeah, we were as far from traditional sports fans as you could get.
“Exactly.” I sighed, picturing the cute little freckles scattered across Mallory’s nose. “In fact, I think I have my own blonde jinx.”
“You mean that girl from last night?” he asked incredulously. “What was her name again?”
“Mallory.”
The beautiful blonde siren had caught my attention the moment I saw her walk into the club. Unlike the two other girls she was with, she had the thick thighs, narrow waist, and plump butt that d
rove me crazy. I knew I needed to get to know her and couldn’t believe my luck when she practically invited herself over to my place for ‘coffee.’
Granted, it sucked waking up to find that she had left, especially since I would have loved to get her number. I almost regretted sleeping with her before actually getting to know her first.
…almost.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Gerald clucked, after taking a sip of his own soda. “You slept with this girl and now you think she jinxed you.”
I shot him a thumbs up. “Precisely.”
“So, how do you fix it.” His reply sounded more like a statement than a question. He knew me well enough to figure out I would not be dropping this issue until everything was solved.
“Good question. First I have to find her.” I walked over to my desk and grabbed my laptop, powering it up. “I probably shouldn’t sleep with her again though, huh?”
“Probably not,” he agreed.
Shit. I would have loved to fuck her again if given the chance.
He eyed my laptop as I furiously began to type away. “What are you doing?”
“Finding her like I said I would,” I shot back, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“And then what? What are you going to do if you do find her? Dance around her in the moonlight with lit torches and magic herbs until your luck returns?”
I grimaced, knowing I did sound pretty insane, but I couldn’t help myself. B-boying was life to me. I needed to fix things before I found myself unable to do what I loved. “I guess I’ll figure it out once I find her.”
I pulled up my social media account and typed in the name: Mallory.
“Let me guess, you don’t know her last name.” Gerald chuckled as if it were the funniest things in the world.
“Lay off, man. Like you’ve never had a nameless hookup before. At least I have her first name.”
“Right.” He leaned over, peeking over my shoulder. “There’s like a ton of Mallorys in San Diego, dude. I don’t think you’re going to find her.”
I balled my hand into a fist, tempted to punch my mattress again. “Ugh. Why is this is so hard?” I shook my head profusely. “No. I am not giving up. I will find her.”
An hour later, I was slowly navigating my way through a social media site for employers. Somehow I doubted she was the CEO of some Fortune 500 company, but I’d leave no stone unturned.
“You guys in there?” a nasally voice yelled out from the front of the house.
“Door’s open!” Gerald yelled out my bedroom door, still never leaving my side. I highly doubted he was as amped to find Mallory and break the curse as he was enjoying my obvious turmoil.
Mahone walked in, adjusting the ridiculously oversized baseball cap over the green wisps of hair that reached the middle of his face. “What are you guys doing?”
“Looking for Asher’s jinx,” Gerald answered with a smirk.
“Shut up,” I muttered.
“Jinx? What?” Mahone’s head snapped back and forth between us like a spectator at a tennis match.
Ignoring the scowl on my face, Gerald leaned back against the wall and stretched out his legs as if he were oh-so relaxed. Must be nice. Snickering softly, he answered, “You know that girl he slept with last night?”
“What girl?” Mahone asked incredulously.
“Oh, yeah. You weren’t there. You couldn’t get into the twenty-one and up club, could you, Squirt?” Gerald broke out into laughter, earning him a forceful punch from Mahone. Though Gerald tried to play it off like it didn’t hurt, judging by his watery eyes, he was actually in a good amount of pain.
Mahone rolled his eyes and glanced at my computer screen. “You need help?”
“I’ve been at this for an hour. I don’t think your help is going to, well, help.” I groaned, running my fingers down the length of my face. “It’s no use. I’m doomed to be some noob fuckboy forever.”
Gerald continued his annoying snickers as Mahone grabbed the laptop from me. After a few keys were hit and the mousepad tapped, a rather tacky looking website complete with swirly font, flash, and annoying electronica music came on screen.
“Ugh!” I grimaced. “What the hell website are you on?”
“Is it one of those weird European porn sites? They always have weird music,” Gerald mused. Mahone and I shot him a bewildered look prompting him to mutter, “Or so I’ve heard.”
Mahone chuckled and continued perusing the butt ugly website. “I’m on Club Mal’s website. You know, the one I couldn’t get in?”
“We were all eighteen once, kiddo. Just be happy you’re legal for something,” Gerald shot back.
I narrowed my eyes, watching intently as Mahone clicked from page to page. “What are you doing?”
“You know those annoying club photographers that go around, hoping to snap pictures of girls’ tits?”
“Of course,” I said with a nod, recalling the gigantic DSLRs in my face.
“There has to be a picture of that Mallory chick somewhere on here. If you slept with her, then she probably was pretty hot.”
I tried to ignore Mahone’s creepy fanboy ways and clasped my hands down on his bony shoulders, shaking him in excitement. “Mahone, my man, you are a genius.”
“Thanks…Asher?”
“Yeah, bro?”
“Please stop breathing on me. You’re freaking me out.”
How ironic.
I immediately drop my hold on him, ignoring Gerald’s obscene murmurings behind us. “Uh, so yeah…find anything?”
“You said she was a gorgeous blonde, right?” Mahone reminded me of someone in CSI, carefully examining each picture and making sure not one clue was missed. Shit, all we needed was one of those weird boards with red yarn connecting each dot.
“Yeah, but I bet there were a lot of blondes there that night,” I all but whined. What was this girl, this jinx doing to me? I wasn’t anything more than a pathetic schoolboy.
“Give me some defining characteristics about her then. Does she have a tattoo or a birthmark?”
Gerald stared at Mahone blankly. “Dude, you watch way too much Law and Order.”
I scratched at my chin, which was now covered with a layer of stubble. It was a new look for me, which considering how depressed I was starting to feel, was quite fitting. It hid me.
“Uh…well, her eyes were this awesome shade of blue. They were so pale that they reminded me of ice.”
“Sorry, dude, the flash on this camera gave everyone red eyes. Give me something more.”
Shit, why is this so hard?
“She had one of those cute cleft chins, but not the John Travolta kind, you know? The cute kind like on Emily Blunt.”
Gerald stared at me incredulously. “You can’t possibly find a picture of some blonde girl based on her butt chin.”
“Found her!” Mahone exclaimed proudly.
“I stand corrected.”
Gerald and I excitedly looked over Mahone’s shoulder and to my utter disbelief, not to mention relief, Mallory stared back at me. With her bountiful curls and big eyes, she looked even more beautiful than she had in my memory.
“Wow,” Gerald murmured in appreciation. “I forgot how hot she was.”
“Lay off,” I muttered, pushing his shoulder.
“What? She’s a jinx. You can’t possibly still be interested in her.”
“Just…just lay off.”
“Okay, so now you’ve found her. What next?” Mahone raised his eyebrows, waiting for a response.
“I…uh…” I threw my head back and groaned. “I don’t know. How the hell do you get rid of a jinx?”
“Maybe talk to her?” Gerald suggested.
“And how do you expect me to do that? Sure, I found her on this website—”
“I found her,” Mahone corrected.
I nodded my head in acknowledgment. “Am I supposed to go to this club every night, hoping to run into her again?” I narrowed my eyes, thinki
ng about our interaction. As fun as she was that night, there was something about her that didn’t scream partier. “She didn’t strike me as the kind of girl who goes out clubbing too much.”
“Just the type of girl who bones right away?” Gerald offered innocently.
“Not even that,” I muttered, ignoring him.
“Do you even know if she’s from town?” Mahone asked with a sigh.
“Yeah, I know all that,” I nodded adamantly.
“So what school does she go to? What does she do for fun?”
Gerald’s eyes widened, nostrils flaring. “Damn, you are a kid. It was a hookup. It’s not like they played Twenty Questions before doing the deed…uh, you didn’t, right?”
“No,” I snapped, growing increasingly impatient.
“I got it!” Mahone’s fingers moved swiftly, pressing three keys simultaneously until I heard what sounded like a snap of a camera.
“What are you doing, nerd?” Gerald asked, shooting me a conspiratorial smirk.
I snorted and listened as Mahone explained, “Taking a screenshot and posting it all over social media. If we’re going to find this girl, we’re going to need help.”
“Ooh, are you going to put her on one of those dating apps?” Gerald asked, looking lost in his own thoughts.
“Seriously, do you just say the first thing that comes out your mouth?” I glared at him in bewilderment.
He shrugged. “Sometimes the second thing.”
“I’m going to make this go viral. If we’re going to find her, we’re going to need some help. Luckily for us, we have the good old internet at our fingertips.” Mahone expertly worked, sharpening up Mallory’s photo as he logged into every single social media account he owned. “I need a hashtag.”
“Hashtag?”
“Come on! You guys aren’t that internet illiterate. What if I asked you to make a meme?”
“Meme?” Gerald repeated.
I shut my eyes and sighed, knowing he was just pulling Mahone’s leg. Once again rubbing at my temples, I murmured, “What about…”
“Free Asher!” Gerald cracked himself up.
Breaking Hearts (B-boy #3) Page 3
