I couldn’t decide what to wear to the Battle of the Bands. I had actually been standing in front of my closet in a towel for almost ten minutes, just staring into it. I’d been standing there so long in fact, my hair under the towel had almost completely dried. Since that morning at the beach with Shane and everyone, I had found it hard to focus on anything. I kept replaying what he said about holding my hand over and over in my mind and soon I forgot whatever I had been doing.
After Shane left us at the parking lot, we stayed for a while to talk about what he told us. Jett and Creepshow turned out to be way more supportive than I thought they were going to be. Jett especially. He seemed to like Shane. It seemed almost as though, under different circumstances, they could have been best friends. Creepshow still acted kind of back-offish, but that was just his way. Sixx had always told me she thought Creep crushed on me and for the first time today with Shane, I saw a little bit of that. I needed to watch that, because even though I love Creepshow like a fat kid loves dessert, it could never be anything more. Right?
Sixx herself . . . that girl is another story altogether. She clearly had become a Shane convert. That was a no-brainer to me, like, seconds after Shane got there. I’m not saying Sixx is shallow or anything; sure, Shane’s appearance swayed her, no doubt. But she leaned toward his direction even before she met him. However, having now met him, she definitely pitched her tent in his camp.
I checked my watch. They’d be picking me up soon. I had to get a move on. I pulled on some leggings, a purple miniskirt, a white tank top with a back tank underneath it, and my trusty black Converse sneakers. I threw my wallet, some gum, and at the last minute, a digital camera I had lying on top of my dresser, into a backpack purse. I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of the four of us. I was putting in my trademark ponytails when I heard The Gator’s unmistakable horn outside. All right! We were Battle of the Bands bound!
****
After we finally got a parking spot, which took hours, thank you, we walked into the civic auditorium where the Battle of the Bands was being held. There had to be more than three thousand kids packed into the place. The noise was deafening. Ear-splitting music being piped over the sound system was almost impossible to hear over the chatter of the crowd. I usually shied away from these kinds of places; too many people, too little room, and way too many variables. But tonight I was totally stoked to be here. The energy felt awesome. Everyone, including us, completely fed off the vibe in the place.
Being a teen event, of course it was non-alcoholic as well. Creepshow and Jett went off in search of sodas, and Sixx and I swam closer to the stage. She looked amazing tonight and I took the opportunity to tell her.
“Girl, you look great. You are fully rocking those boots.” Sixx was a beast when she thrift-store shopped and she had on an incredible find tonight. She had managed to find thigh-high combat boots and she wore the heck out of a great black dress with gossamer silk batwing arms à la Stevie Nicks. She had piled her hair on top of her head and had two chopsticks stuck in the beehive. And she had some serious black eye makeup on. She looked hot. I told her so.
“Shut up, right?” Sixx glowed and did a totally uncharacteristic twirl.
“Totally.”
“You don’t exactly suck either, Juice. Can’t remember the last time I saw you in a skirt. Looks good on you.”
“Yeah, but I still have on my comfortable kicks.” I stepped back and gave her a There’s-No-Place-Like-Home heel click, from the Wizard of Oz. “All the better to mosh with, my dear.”
Sixx kicked up one of her own booted legs. “Mama didn’t raise no fools, Juice. Look around at all the stupid high heels. Those pathetic girls are gonna be down for the count after two bands.” She threw her arm around my shoulder. “But not us. Combat Girl and Chucks Chick will still be going strong till wa-a-ay after band number fifteen!” She started dancing as if to illustrate the point and soon, the two of us were jamming to the loud music.
“Hey! Don’t get started without us!” Creepshow came up behind us and jumped right in on the beat. Jett soon followed, his arms full of drinks. He handed me and Sixx sodas which we drank thirstily, draining in sloppy gulps.
“Thanks, Jett. I felt like dying. There are so many bodies packed in here, there’s almost no air. The smell in here is making me gag. Smells like feet.” Sixx never beat around the bush. I loved that about her. She has no edit button.
“Me and Creep are gonna check out the action near the front of the stage. Usually find a special kind of groupie up there.” Jett and Creepshow headed into the crowd after making arrangements with me and Sixx to meet us by The Gator in a couple of hours. We were hoping we would run into each other sometime before then, but we had our backup plan in place in case we didn’t.
After the guys left, Sixx and I walked around and checked out everything going on. Sixx wasn’t exaggerating earlier; this place absolutely crawled with people. The closer we got to the stage, the harder it got to navigate the crowd. We gave up and decided to hang back where the crowd wasn’t so thick or the music so loud. There were tons of guys there, but none of them were doing anything for me. Sixx, on the other hand, was falling in lust just about every three minutes. I wasn’t even looking for me, anyway. I mostly looked for my Shane look-alike host body. I didn’t tell Sixx what I had been doing, but she figured it out.
“Ah, heck, Juice. Are you body shopping when you’re supposed to be having a good time?”
“No! I am not ‘body shopping’. Gross, Sixx.” I totally had been body shopping and she’d nailed me. I only hoped my face didn’t give my lie away. It did.
“You are so lying! You know how I can tell? You can’t even look at me.”
“Can too.”
“So, do it.”
I tried to look at Sixx and couldn’t.
“Ha! I knew you couldn’t!”
“What-ev. Who cares anyway? I thought this would be the perfect place to find someone. I just thought someone from school would be way too close to home.”
“Okay. I can’t say you’re not right. But you should have told me this would turn into a shopping expedition. We wanted you to have fun. You never do.”
That was so not fair. Fun and I weren’t even on speaking terms. “I do too have fun. And to prove it, no more body shopping tonight. I promise.”
Sixx looked at me with a skeptical eye. Clearly, she doubted my ability to drop this particular task. A huge show of commitment was required. “I promise, no more tonight. Now, let’s go find cute boys!”
“Oh. Balls. Of. Crud.” Sixx enunciated every word. “I. Do. Not. Even. Know. You.” She looked at me like I’d gone mental on her. “Did you seriously just say ‘cute boys’ to me?” I nodded vigorously and broke into laughter, suddenly loving that I was here, and that I was here with Sixx. She laughed with me and we linked arms and headed into the crowd just as the first band took the stage.
****
A couple of hours and several bands later, I had separated from Sixx and was weaving my way to the bathroom. I stood in line with about thirty other girls for almost half an hour until my turn came up. In the same time period, I must have watched two hundred guys come and go from their bathroom like they had a revolving door. It frustrated me to watch. When I finally got out of the bathroom, it looked as though another girl had gotten about as frustrated as me about it, because event security were hauling her and a friend out of the men’s room among cheers from the crowd, which delighted in their antics and were getting rowdier by the minute. Seems they got tired of waiting in our line and busted into the men’s room. Security caught them doing it and nabbed them while she and her friend were inside.
The inevitable scuffle ensued. A body slammed into me, pinning me to the wall. Suddenly, the whole line for the bathroom was violently shifted forward and I was smashed into the person next to me. We both moved to the left and were crushed by an incredibly large lady waiting for her boyfriend, who heaved us all back to the right. I got slammed into the crowd, lost my footing, and fell on the ground, where I nearly got trampled to death. I barely dodged spike heels and steel-toed boots trying to rub my rear-end where I knew a bruise was already forming.
Great. How am I going to get out of this? All of a sudden, a pair of strong, muscular arms reached down and helped me up. I couldn’t see who was helping me, but the same arms wrapped around my waist and confidently and expertly guided me out of the mob.
As soon as we were safely away from the freaky flash mob, I spun around to face my protector. I halfway expected to see Creepshow or Jett, but in the back of my mind I also knew it wouldn’t be either of them. And I turned out to be right. When I looked around, I stared into a face I’d never seen before. The arms belonged to a tall boy, smiling at me with the warmest, kindest brown eyes I’d ever seen.
“Hi.” He straightened me up and stood back to look at me. “I’m Mason.”
“Lucy. But everyone calls me Juice.” I held out my hand and he took it, but instead of shaking it, he just held it and then covered it with his other hand.
“You okay, Juice? You took a pretty hard hit back there.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine now. Thanks for rescuing me.” I became acutely aware of my hand in his. He looked at it and with a final little squeeze, let it go.
“Well, it looked like you were sinking in quicksand. Plus that crowd looked to be going south fast.”
“I know. And all because the line for our bathroom wrapped around the dance.” I laughed nervously.
“Yeah, you girls do take a long time in there.”
“Hey, some of us do. I got in and out of there in minutes flat.”
“Well, natural beauties don’t need a lot of time.” He looked straight at me when he said that. I know I blushed because I could feel the heat crawling across my cheeks.
“What, you don’t hear that a lot?”
I could only shake my head in answer to his question. Was he kidding? I looked down at my black high tops and my hand went absentmindedly to my short blonde ponytails. He had to be kidding.
But he wasn’t. “I can’t believe that,” he said, his brown eyes sparkling. As if he could tell how uncomfortable I was, he changed the subject. “Are you thirsty? Let’s get something to drink.” He grabbed my hand, easily, as if he had been doing it forever, and we walked over to the refreshments area.
At that moment, I would have followed him anywhere. I was already halfway to being in love with Mason after only ten minutes.
I saw Sixx while Mason went to get sodas for us and I waved my arms frantically to get her attention. Despite the roar of the music and the crowd, she managed to both see and hear me and shove her way through the sea of people to get to me.
“Ohmigoodness Juice. I thought I’d lost you forever! Where the heck have you been? And just what happened to you? You look like you just won the lottery or something. Did you find a bod—” I smacked my hand over her mouth before she said anything else just as Mason walked up with drinks.
“Mason, this is my best friend, Sixx. Sixx, this is Mason. We just met.” I implied a thousand other things to her with my eyes and bless her, she got it all. Her eyes flashed back at me with instant best-friend-only understanding.
“Hey, Mason,” she said. “Nice to meet you. One of those mine?” She pointed to the sodas Mason carried and without missing a beat, he handed her his soda. “Sure is.” He handed me the other one and when both of his hands were free, he casually slipped his hand in mine again. I tried not to show it outwardly, but my heart jumped up into my throat. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Sixx caught my eye and winked at me.
“Well, I’m glad your friend is here and you’re in good hands, now, because actually, I have to leave.”
What? Leave? How could he leave now? How could he leave ever? I actually started to feel panicked. How would I see him again? Should I ask for his phone number or wait for him to ask for mine? OMG, what if he didn’t want it? I didn’t even know his last name!
“Hey, Sixx, do you have a pen and paper in that giant bag of yours?” Mason asked. He stood peering into the cavernous opening that represented her purse.
Yes! He wanted my number! I forced myself not to dance. Sixx started ripping around in her mine shaft of a purse and I prayed there would be a notepad and pen in there somewhere. Sixx finally came up for air with both. I started breathing again as she handed them to Mason.
“Juice, I’m going to give you my number. I’d like to see you again.” He looked up at me. “If you want to.” He waited, pen poised over the notepad.
“Yes.” I thought up ten different things to say. I could be cute or flirty or teasing or coy. In the end, all I could manage to say was yes. “I’d like that, Mason.”
“Great. Me too.” He bent over the notepad and scribbled and talked at the same time. “I’m writing down my name, Mason Keene, and my number.” He ripped the page off and handed it to me. Then he handed me the notepad and pen. “Will you give me your number, Juice?”
Again, I thought of all these great ways to answer, and again, all I came up with was one word. “Yes.”
Sixx told me later it sounded perfect. She said she knew it was by the way Mason smiled.
I wrote my name and phone number down on the small piece of paper and ripped it from the pad. I handed it to him and when he took it, he withdrew his wallet from his back pocket and folded my paper once and slipped it inside the billfold portion of his wallet. I could hear the Velcro as he opened and closed it and I thought, I’m as important as his money. Wow. Then I felt Sixx jab me in the ribs. I almost laughed out loud.