by Thia Finn
“You know, I probably won’t be back this direction for a long time, right?” He pulled me between his legs getting me closer as he leaned back on the bus.
“Oui. I know.”
“It was a great night, ma chéri. I wish we had a little more time together.” He pulled me forward, so my head rested on his chest with his chin on my head.
“Me, as well.” I sighed wishfully thinking. I knew it affected him as much as it did me. Obviously, leaving women behind wasn’t something he often did.
“You have my cell number here. Call me when you have time to talk, please?”
I had to let him go, but everything in me ached at the thought. “I promise, I will make time to speak to you.” He kissed my nose, and then both my cheeks and finally, my lips. All I could do was moan in his mouth.
I walked back to the cab when he let me go, and I waved as we watched each other until the cab pulled away. It was harder to do than I thought it would be. I knew he would move on quickly because he had a long tour before he went home to America.
Present Day
As much as I wanted to, I decided not to call him right away. I needed time to think about this. What was I going to say to him? I didn’t want him thinking I was deceiving him, but I didn’t want to continue the lie either. The more I remembered of our conversations, I knew we never actually discussed where I lived or what citizenship I held. He only assumed I was from France.
In actuality, I held dual citizenship. I was born in the United States at my mother’s insistence. My dad was French, through and through, and wanted all of his children to be born there, but Mom was adamant the three of us be born in Texas. He loved her so much that he agreed to almost anything she wanted.
After each of us was born, we moved back to France. I lived there until I was about fourteen and then moved back to Texas for high school and then the University of Texas. My younger sister, Journey, went to high school in Texas and was now going to university in France. My older brother, Rykor, lived in Paris but came to the States for college at Princeton and then Harvard law school. He wanted to study International Law, and my father agreed to it. Good thing he was the brain of the family.
I wanted to be a nurse which required me to be smart but not like him, and he always enjoyed lording the subject of his intelligence over me. My parents lived back and forth until the people elected my father to the Parliament, and then he only came to Texas when my mom couldn’t leave. Now that Journey was at university, Mom came and went to France more often, but she always called Texas home.
Walking back downstairs in our River Oaks home, I found my mother Skyping with Dad. She was dying for my sister to come home for her twenty-first birthday. She turned around and saw me sitting at the breakfast bar when she ended the call.
“Oh, hello. Did you rest any?”
“Not really but I did unpack my clothes. I want to start looking for a job as soon as I can. I don’t plan on living here with you for long, so I need to go to work. I want to work in pediatrics, so I’m going to look at those openings first.” I opened my browser on my laptop to start the search.
“Honey, you should take a few days to rest up before you get started. I’m sure you’re jetlagged from the trip.”
“I am, but I want to see what’s out there and freshen up my resume. I haven’t applied for jobs in a couple of years, and I have some new certifications, but I don’t know what I’ll have to do to get them up to speed for the States. I have a lot to figure out before I even apply,” I said as I scrolled through a job board online.
“Well, I suppose, if you’re that determined to move out. You can stay here as long as you like, you know.”
“Mother, I’m twenty-five years old. I don’t need to live at home any longer.” Simply thinking of living with my mother for an extended period pushed me into the panic zone. I loved my mom but living with her for very long, uh. Just thinking about it put me in a bad mood.
“I’m just telling you that you’re always welcome here. Our home will always be your home. It’s plenty big enough, and you can save money.” I heard exactly what she was saying. What she actually meant though was, “Stay here and tell me when and where you’re going and with whom you’ll be going. Have you been drinking? No men spending the night.” All reasons why I would be looking for a place to live immediately.
I would stay here only until I successfully found a job. I had plenty of money saved, but I didn’t want to dip into my savings unless it was necessary.
“You know, I might not even stay in Houston. There’s no reason I can’t live wherever I want to now. I can get a nursing job almost anywhere in the States.” I knew already she was going to love that comment.
“Well, yes, Lola, you can do that, but do you want to? Why would you want to live somewhere else? Your family is here.”
“Yes, but I might want to live in Austin. They have Dell Children’s Hospital there. It would be a great place to work.”
“But they have Texas Children’s here, and it’s one of the best in the world. I’m sure you could get a job there, as well.”
I could see this was going to be a battle, so I decided to change the subject. “Hey, did you talk to Journey? When’s she coming home for her birthday?”
“Your father and I were just discussing that. He said he can’t get a clear answer from her. She’s all about her friends from the university and wanted them to come home with her for their next break which is in two weeks, so he’s thinking about flying them all over here.”
“That sounds like a fun twenty-first birthday party to me. What do they want to do? Did he ask her?”
“He said something about going out to a festival in Austin. Oh, darling. That’s what you can do for her birthday. Take them all to Austin to this festival thing.”
“Mother, they’re adults. They can take themselves.” Okay, I had to get out of here sooner than I thought. I would be expected to keep up with that group and keep them out of trouble for the time they were here, and I wasn’t feeling that at all.
“I know they are, but you went to school there and know all about it. It would be perfect. We can rent a house on the lake for a couple of weeks and get them tickets and of course, you can take a couple of cars, so you don’t have to be with them every single minute. This will be perfect. She’s going to be so excited when I tell her. Let’s see if she can talk with us both now.”
And just like that, I had been sucked into doing something that was not on my radar. “Hey wait. Is this festival a music festival?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure she said.”
“When are they coming?”
“About the beginning of October. I don’t have a date yet, remember?”
“Mother, no. Just no. That’s Austin City Limits Festival. There’ll be seventy-five or eighty thousand extra people in Austin for that. Do you know what traffic will be like?”
“You did it for years. I’m sure it’ll be fine for a week or two, Lola. Look, she’s answering right now.”
“Hey, honey. I hope we didn’t wake you.” I heard loud music in the background. I doubted we woke them.
“Hello, maman. What’s going on?” She was in her bed, and I was sure she wasn’t alone. I knew how that was going to look if Mother saw a man crawling out of Journey’s bed. She was almost twenty-one years old and lived in an apartment with two other girls. What could Mother expect, calling in the middle of the night?
“Your sister and I were wondering approximately what day you were planning to come home for your birthday. She’s going to take you all to this festival in Austin y’all wanted to do. I thought your dad and I could get a house out on the lake for a week or more. It would be so much fun, and I’m sure the weather will still be warm enough to enjoy the lake.” Mother didn’t take a breath. I hated when she got all worked up about an idea.
“Oh, yeah. That might work. Just a minute.” Journey laid the tablet screen down on her bed turned off the volume, and her tablet
moved around like she was getting out of bed. When she flipped it back over, she was still in the same spot, but two more girls were in the background. Journey was obviously talking to them when the sound came up. “My mom wants us to come to Texas for the two weeks and get a house out on the lake in Austin. It’ll be perfect. We can go to ACL both weekends if we want. There’ll be so many different bands in town all week long. What do y’all think?”
The noise that came over our speaker sounded like a cross between a banshee and a hyena. They were obviously happy about it. I looked at my mom, and she was all smiles.
“So, I guess it’s settled. What day will you fly in?” They worked out the details, and I went back to my room. Not what I wanted to spend a damn week, or worse, two, doing. I plopped back down on my bed and saw a message from Gunner on my phone. Oh yeah, I thought, wait a minute. This might be a plan, a fucking good plan.
I rolled out of bed with the sun peeking over the hills behind my house. September in Austin was always a mystery when it came to weather. It could be hot as hell or already working on a brisk fall. I needed to get back to the gym and going when it was scorching outside made things worse. I started going to the fucking gym, a place I loved to hate, before the last tour. Working out was a necessary evil to maintain bodies that drove our female fans wild. Before we left on the last tour, I made it a habit. I needed to get back to it as soon as possible. Otherwise, I would turn into a couch potato permanently attached to the latest gaming phenomenon. I was determined to stave off that bad habit.
I walked in sweating from the workout, and saw a message waiting on my phone. Carter wanted to remind me that he was going to have friends over, and he knew I was always down for a party. This fuckwit threw parties for any reason. Hell, usually he didn’t need a reason.
What we needed to concentrate on was getting back into the studio and working on refining the new music we’d written, while we were on the last tour. That’s where we did most of our writing because we were stuck on that fucking bus for long hours. Our platinum albums all came from bad-ass music written while we were on the road, and I knew this one was going to be just as good as the last.
When we rolled down the road with everyone’s undivided attention, and Chandler, KeeMac, and Ryan pulled out their acoustics, we got the best music written and for damn sure the best lyrics. They even let Carter and me help with the lyrics. One of the songs on the last CD was all me on lyrics. It’s had a lot of downloads on iTunes and was used in the sets for the live shows.
I’m good with lyrics but not worth a shit at writing music. I had tried, and it was just not in me to get music on paper. Guess that was why I was the drummer. Maybe I should have considered going to college and learning all of that before I joined the band. Back in the studio, though, we added the magic to it. By the time we laid down the tracks, the music was phenomenal, and our fans fucking loved it.
I noticed as I drove home from the gym the promoters had started moving some equipment in to get the festival up and running. We agreed to play on Saturday night of the first weekend on one of the two big stages, which was another reason we needed to get some of that new music down. We had talked about trying some out on the crowd. The people at the festival will like whatever we did, so we planned to play some old and new stuff. Some of them would prefer we only play our old music, but we needed to expose them to new sounds to get them fired up for the next CD.
Peri had already started booking our next big tour. It would be four fucking months back on the bus, but this shit was what we chose, and the minute we stepped on stage and heard the roar of the crowd, we were always glad we did.
My body needed the workout, and I was glad I bit the bullet and did it. I knew I would be sore from taking off a few days. When I walked back in the house, my phone was chiming, and it was a text from the very person I was dying to speak to. Thank Fuck.
Lola: Hey you. Got a message to get in touch
I was a little nervous to start this conversation. I wanted to see her so damn badly and the sooner, the better.
Gunner: Finally. I thought you might have forgotten me
Lola: Uh, no. How could I do that
Gunner: So how’s life
Lola: Wellllll, I’m not in Paris anymore
Gunner: WTF. Where are you
Lola: Would you believe it… Houston
You gotta be shittin me. She stayed here in Texas after the plane fiasco? I started pacing around the room. How quickly could I get down there to see her? Okay, Gun. Chill. Don’t sound that eager, but damn, I was stoked now that I knew she was so close.
Gunner: Great. That’s even better. For how long? When can I see you
I hit send before I thought too hard about it. So much for not sounding like I was ready to stalk her in person.
Lola: I’m living here now and I’m coming to Austin in a couple of weeks to ACL
This fucking day got better by the minute. I stood in my kitchen dripping wet from the gym and grinning as though a photographer was doing a solo piece on me. All I could think about was getting to see her. It had been well over a year since we spent the night together, and I still remembered every single minute of the fun we had.
Gunner: That’s outstanding. We’re playing on the first weekend. I’ll get you some VIP passes. Are you coming alone
Lola: I wish. Bringing my sister and friends for her 21st
Okay, that could be a potential problem.
Gunner: Yeah? How long you staying
Lola: Maybe two weeks in a lake house for their break from uni
Gunner: Sounds fun. Think we’ll have time to see each other? What the hell’s uni
Yeah, that was desperate but shit, I wanted to spend time with her.
Lola: I’ll make time to see you while I’m there. They’re big girls and can take care of themselves. Uni=university (sorry Euro-speak)
Thank fuck! She wanted to see me, too. I had to do some thinking. I needed a plan for when she was here for two weeks.
Gunner: I like the way that sounds. (us, not Euro-speak) Let’s makes some plans
Lola: Works for me
When my phone started ringing, I assumed it was her, but then the screen read KeeMac. Disappointment.
“’Sup?” I answered.
“Hey, we need to get in the studio this week. You available?” KeeMac was always the first to get us back together. We never appointed a spokesperson for AD, but he took on the role since he’s the lead singer.
“I thought the same thing. I know we are gonna to want to do some of that new music at ACL, but it’s still raw and needs work. Just text me what and when. I’ll be there.” I wanted to get back to my texting with Lola.
“Great. I’ll let ya know but plan on it being this week. I need to talk to the others still.”
“Cool. Later,” I ended the call.
Lola: Where’d you go
Gunner: Talking to KeeMac about studio time
Lola: So, we are coming up on the Thurs before the festival starts on Friday. I haven’t been in years. Bet it’s huge
Gunner: We played small stages early in the day before 13 Recordings signed us. That’s the last time I went
Lola: OK, you’ll find out about tickets and let me know ASAP
Gunner: Will do. Hey, glad you messaged me
Real smooth, Gunner. She was probably thinking what a loser.
Lola: Glad you reached out after all this time. Now you have my number here. I’ll be waiting to hear from you
Gunner: I’ll probably call if that’s OK
Damn, what was I, twelve? May I please have your permission to call? Maybe I should have asked her dad instead.
Lola: Sounds great. Soon, promise? :)
Okay, I liked that comment a lot better. Maybe she had been thinking about me some.
Gunner: Promise
No way would I add an emoji. I wasn’t that desperate, or wait maybe I was…I added a fingers crossed emoji. She had already reduced me to fucking emojis. I
thought to myself, I am so in trouble.
“Dude, where is your head today?” KeeMac yelled.
“Hell if I know. I can’t concentrate on shit when Lola’s going to be here in a few hours.” I needed to get my mind straight.
“Well, the rest of us would like to get this new music down sometime in this lifetime, and you’re fucking up the whole rehearsal.” I swatted away the Red Bull can Carter pushed at me. “Get your head in the game, dumbass.”
“Okay, let’s start from the top. If we can get through it one time clean without stopping, maybe we can call it a night and you can do something about getting your head out of your ass,” KeeMac said with a huff.
“Like we haven’t dealt with the same damn thing with you and Chandler always taking breaks? Every time one of you looks at the other, you get a fucking boner for her and stop practice. I don’t know how the hell y’all get through a whole show on stage.” Ba-da-pow, I hit my drums. These two have been going at it since she joined the band in what was supposed to be a temporary position for three weeks. So much happened to her in that time that our band family knitted a web around her to get her over family shit. It all worked out for the best. We lost Jacoby to his bitch girlfriend, but we gained Chandler instead. Turned out to be a win-win situation for us all.
KeeMac grabbed his crotch and turned to look at Chandler. “We get through it fine, thanks for asking. That’s why they make closets backstage. Ain’t that right, babe?” I looked at Chandler, and she blushed. She had been around us on our big tours, but she could still turn bright red when we said or did stuff like that. I did it just to see her face light up. It was some funny shit watching that bright color creep up her neck and across her face until she was glowing like a stop sign in car lights.
