When Your Head Gets Stuck In The Clouds

My misery had lessened significantly by the time Elijah left to pick up Gwen. I was already thinking up how to apologize to her for my rotten attitude. To mentally prepare myself, I reheated the coffee she brought me and ate the muffin.

As I had said earlier before we exchanged our heated words, she did come back to my apartment in tears. She didn't know that it was a double date with his parents, or that he had to leave early because he was meeting up with the lead singer in another local, more popular band. Even I had forgotten about that meeting, but I would hear about it tomorrow during our practice.

"I'm so sorry, Gwen, you have no idea," I said, letting my head hang. "I'm the only one that's single anymore, and...I don't know. There's no excuse for what I said."

"I understand," she said, giving me a hug. "Friends again?"

"Duh," I laughed, and hugged her back.

* * *

I left Riley's apartment, happy that I had my best friend back. I pulled the hair tie out of my blonde hair and let it fall around my shoulders. When I reached the parking lot, I searched for the black BMW that was coming to pick me up. A honk came from my left, and I spotted a nicely shaped arm waving at me from the driver's seat.

"Hey, beautiful," said Jesse, making me giggle and wave a hand at him in protest. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said, getting into the front seat. "Which club are we going to tonight?"

"Oh, we're going to this new place at the other end of town, it's supposed to be all the rage," he said, flipping his hands girlishly. "That's where all the hot guys go." Jesse was gay, and when we met a few weeks ago on my girls night we became instant friends. I haven't told anyone about him yet, but when the time is right I'm going to introduce him to Riley. If anyone would understand, she would. Elijah wouldn't; if I can help it, he'll never know.

* * *

Blake was a cool guy, and conversation with him was easy. Him and his band were recently picked to be in the End of the World Tour sponsored by Monster Energy, and told me they wanted to find two more bands from the local area.

"You guys are sick," he said, taking off the headphones connected to my iPod. "I'll give this directly to the tour manager, and he'll get it to someone who can authorize it. No promises, but that doesn't stop you from being a good band." He held up a jewel case that had a copy of our demo on the CD inside.

"Thanks," I said, beaming with pride. "I was going to bring Riley with, but I think she's PMSing today."

"Riley?" he asked, sounding interested. A giant red flag appeared in my brain, and I tried to ignore it.

"Yeah, Riley Worthington, our guitar player," I said carefully, feeling defensive. "She started the band from what Jake and Kyle tell me."

"That should get you guys in, Riley is hot," said Blake, fanning his face with his hand. I had a strong urge to punch this guy in the face, but I stopped the feeling in it's tracks. He was going to get us on tour, and if it was Riley's looks that did it, who am I to stop that? She would probably tear my face off if I ruined this, I thought fondly, trying not to picture that happening.

"Yeah, she is," I agreed, keeping the conversation going.

"Have you tapped that yet?" he asked, taking another gulp of the strong drink in front of him.

"Excuse me?" He's drunk, be nice, Elijah...

"Have you, you know..." he made a hip thrusting gesture to finish his sentence.

"No."

"Why not?" he seemed incredibly shocked at this information.

"Can we stop talking about Riley now, please?" I asked, taking another drink of my beer to soothe my nerves.

"Oh, sure, sure," he said, holding up his hands. "Sorry, dude."

"It's okay." No. It's definitely not okay.

* * *

At two in the morning, my phone went off with a tidal wave of text messages. They were all from Jake, Kyle and Elijah telling me that we were holding an emergency band meeting.

"I hate you," I muttered to it, trudging to my car without looking in the mirror or changing my clothes. All things pertaining to the band, either practice or meetings, were held at Kyle's house. Underoath was blaring from my car speakers as I pulled into the driveway, the only thing keeping me awake other than my open window.

"What did I tell you about wearing tiny shorts to my house!" Kyle yelled from the garage, which was open to the night air.

"Fuck off, Kyle! I could be sleeping right now!" I shouted back, reaching my seat a few seconds later.

"Knock it off you two," said Elijah, both Kyle and I sticking our tongues out at him. He ignored us. "I met with Blake tonight, and he thinks our chances are good. He's going to take our demo to the tour manager." My heart was racing faster than it ever had raced in my lifetime. Blake's band was going on the End of the World Tour next winter. This was everything to me. To us. All that we've worked for has come to this.

We all agreed to work harder than ever on promoting ourselves, myself in charge of getting word out on the street. After Kyle went back up to his room and Jake drove away, Elijah stopped me by my car.

"Hey," he said, setting a hand on my shoulder. "Be...careful...around Blake if we get on this tour."

"Why? I'm not careful around you, Jake or Kyle," I said, holding out my arms and looking down at my clothing. "I can take care of myself, Elijah."

"I know, I'm just worried about you is all," he said bashfully, looking down at his feet. "This is a guy's world you're about to go into and you're not exactly ugly."

"Trust me, I am fully capable of watching out for myself," I said, getting into my car. "I'll wear more clothes on tour, I promise." I winked at him, making him chuckle. "See you tomorrow!"

I watched him in my rearview mirror until I had to make a turn, and he didn't move. What brought that on? I thought to myself, taking the route back to my house mostly from subconscious memory. Based on the few times I've ever been around Blake, he was always very polite and courteous. He didn't stare at me like I was a piece of meat or talk to me like I was some kind of whore. Why would Elijah be getting so protective over a guy like Blake? Dismissing Blake and Elijah from my mind, I went back up to my apartment, fell into my bed and went to sleep minutes after my head hit the pillow.