Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 25

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 25
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

I threw Anna the keys once we were outside and she looked over at me in disbelief. "I'm driving?"

"I don't know where I'm going."

"Cool! Nick only lets the boys drive his Escalade. He teases me that I can't see over the steering wheel."

I considered Anna. She was taller than me, but could she see over the steering wheel? Truth be told, I didn't want to drive the huge thing. I felt about 2 inches high in it, and that was just sitting in the passenger seat. I decided not to share this with Anna. We were getting along and so far she was about the only person in Tampa I liked. And at this moment, that statistic included my boyfriend. "Screw Nick's boys! Tell me Tampa has a decent music store. I'm feeling the need for Ani or Courtney!"

"Got it," Anna reached into her bag and popped in a CD. The familiar guitar started and I could feel my heart rate returning to normal. I hated this… fighting with Nick and feeling this way. Last night Nick had slept on the couch again and… nothing was going the way it should.

Yesterday at the mall had been okay. He was fun and relaxed… the Nick I knew, only better. But then the friends came over and that all changed. Quickly. I guess he wanted to impress them? After all, it's not like he saw them all the time. He'd told me that touring was more like a normal life to him and I was starting to believe that.

Or maybe I was just being a bitch. He was having fun with his friends, and I expected him to realize I wasn't having a good time. I could have gone up to him at any time and told him I didn't like these people and he would have left. Right? Maybe that's why I didn't say anything to him.

But that wasn't fair. I shouldn't have to make him choose. I was just drunk and jet-lagged and overwrought. He was having fun, I had a lot of fun with Anna and her friends, so why did Nick and I end up screaming at each other?

"Maybe I should just go home," I wondered aloud once we were at the Waffle House and we were quiet, considering the menu. I was unsuccessfully trying not to compare this morning to yesterday when I sat here with Nick, acting silly and playing country music just to make him laugh.

"Rachel, don't. You can't let Vinnie win."

"Am I competing?"

She nodded, but then the waitress appeared and we ordered. Great thing about Waffle Houses, you get your food in about 10 minutes and suddenly I was starving. I guess I was still a little hungover from last night. And even though Nick and I had made a bunch of food for the party, no one ate it. They all headed straight for the chips and the keg.

"Don't we always compete? I mean, boys are different when you get them alone. Nick's a great guy and all…"

"That's just it. I'm used to boys being around other boys! Nick knows that. Why did he have to leave me alone with the evil angels?"

Anna raised an eyebrow at me. "Bands are different. This is real life."

I sighed. "I don't usually feel older than him. But, really, last night was college life."

"Ah, yes, wise elder," Anna joked. "Instruct us on the ways of love."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Shut up. You'll find out soon enough that you can't drink like that all the time."

"I learned that one a while ago, believe me. But you know how they say that boys mature slower than girls."

I had to giggle. "Good point. He's different on tour, you know. I don't know this Nick very well."

She nodded. "Yeah, I got to see that when he flew me out a few weeks ago. He was all business like and shit. It was weird. I never took popstar Nick very seriously. He's always going to be a geeky 12 year old kid to me."

"He's still a geek, Anna," I deadpanned, and she giggled with me. We discussed touring for a bit and Anna had a million questions about how we did things. It was weird to be seen as the successful one, but I guess that's what I was now. Anna's band was still struggling to get consistent local gigs. Nick had helped them with a demo - letting them use the studio he and Aaron had in Marathon - but it wasn't going anywhere yet.

"So how do you manage two bands?" I finally asked as we sat there finishing our coffee. The place was pretty empty and I think the waitress recognized me, because she was being more attentive than any Waffle House waitress I'd ever known.

Anna shrugged, "Easy when neither is successful, I suppose."

"Even unsuccessful bands take a lot of time. I mean, not that you aren't…" I quickly backtracked. "Did that sound bitchy? I didn't mean it to!"

"No, you're right. The Queen Bees are mainly a way for us to not kill the boys in our life. Although, I sort of like them better."

"Naturally."

She smiled at that, "Well, the vibe is different, you know? We fight over who gets to sing lead and take the guitar solos, but it's just different. We can fight and it's okay. But when I fight with someone in the other band…"

"Do they try to blame your being mad on your period?"

"Yeah! And I fuckin' hate that, man. I mean, am I not allowed to have an opinion without it being 'hormones'?"

"I got Jeremy good with that one once," I confided, moving closer so the whole restaurant couldn't hear. "You know we used to date?" She gave me a 'duh' look, but leaned across the table to hear me better. "Well, one day we were having a horrible fight about something. Shit, I don't even remember. He was probably telling me I came in late. Jeremy's always accusing me of that."

"Hate that! Like I can't keep time?"

"I know! Anyway, he turned to Darien and James and rolled his eyes, proclaiming that it must be my time of the month and I just looked at him in all seriousness and said that it wasn't and I was two weeks late."

"Shit! What did he do? Did he buy it?"

"Hook, line and fuckin' sinker! Jeremy is the reason I'm the condom nazi. When we first met, he wouldn't touch me without one. He was petrified that he was going to end up like his father and leave a trail of kids across the East Coast…" Anna's eyebrow shot up and I smiled, "Okay, I'll dish on that in a second… you aren't going to go running to the tabloids, are you?"

"You can trust me, Rache!" Anna exclaimed, moving back and crossing her heart before taking another cigarette out of her pack and offering me one. I shook my head. I should stop or Nick was going to complain when I got back that I smelled like an ashtray. On second thought, screw him. If he could do 10 shots in an hour, I could smoke a few cigarettes.

"The whole room was so quiet you could hear my watch ticking and they all just stared at me. I could see James' ears turning red - they do that when he's really pissed off, it's sort of cute. And finally Darien dropped a drumstick and I laughed, and they all figured out it was a joke. But Jeremy didn't bug me about my mood swings again for another good 3 or 4 months. Bliss."

"Was James still pissed? He seems sort of… I don't know… protective?"

I nodded, "Yeah. That's what Jeremy calls him, my protector. I guess so, but it's mutual. It's like with any best friend, I guess. We look out for each other. It was always cool having James around growing up because I was this little shrimp of a kid and James was always the mutant freak. He'd chase off the boys who were bullying me."

"James doesn't look that intimidating, Rache."

"True… but when you're 10 and everyone else is barely 4 feet tall… James was towered over everyone else. It was cool."

Our waitress came back over to fill our coffee cups and we were quiet until she left. We sat there for a while longer, eating raisin toast and drinking coffee. It was nice to not talk about Nick and last night. I felt myself calming down the longer we sat there.

Maybe his friends would be better in smaller doses? We should invite Vinnie and Tony out to dinner tomorrow or something. Maybe just Tony. Tony and Anna?

My phone rang and I jumped. Nick?

I looked down and it was a text message, "R U tlkng 2 me?"

"Nick?" Anna asked, reaching for the last piece of toast.

I nodded, "Yeah. Have I let him sweat long enough?"

The phone beeped again, "Hse clean. Evry1 gone."

My heart fluttered a bit as I thought about him. It was horrible how I could never stay mad at him for very long.

The phone beeped again, "I luv U."

I smiled at that and Anna looked over at the phone, "You're not still mad at him, are you?"

I bit my lip, considering her and that slightly wistful look that crossed her face for a moment, "You never wanted him?"

It was out there before I could stop myself… the elephant standing where our raisin toast had been a second ago. Anna was more Nick's kind of girl, wasn't she? She knew his friends and would put up with them. Hell, she liked them! She was his age, after all…

But she shook her head quickly, "Me and Nick? You've got to be kidding! He's like my brother or cousin or something. Gross!"

"I know… but…"

Anna smiled and grabbed my phone, returning Nick's message before I could stop her. She handed it back to me, "Press send, Rache."

It said, "Me 2."

My finger traced the 'send' button, but I didn't hit it yet. "Why do you hang out with them?" I asked, and Anna met my eyes.

"You want to know why I dated Vinnie."

I smiled at her. "I really do not like that guy."

Anna shrugged, leaning back in her seat. "I don't like him much, either. But I sure as fuck loved him once."

I knew that feeling, didn't I? But I still liked Jeremy a hell of a lot more than I liked Vinnie.

"Dunno," Anna continued, considering her coffee. "I thought I could save him. And he would be so different when we were alone. And I was only 17. All those stupid clichés, Rachel."

"I know those clichés," I admitted. "What does Vinnie need to be saved from?"

She rolled her eyes. "Himself. His family is all fucked up. He moved down here with his dad because his mom kicked him out, and I don't know if he's talked to her since. He never talked to her when we were together. I don't know what's happened since then. His dad's been married about a million times. I can't even keep up. He's got issues with women."

"I noticed."

She laughed. "Hey, try dating him for two years! But don't be mad at Nick for what Vinnie did."

"He could have stopped it."

"Rachel, Nick doesn't even know what was going on. Did you notice how drunk he was last night?"

"Yeah, but…"

Anna interrupted me. "Did you tell Nick you were pissed off? Or did you just expect him to come to your rescue?"

"I didn't need to be rescued," I grumbled, but I couldn't meet her eyes. I did sorta expect Nick to realize I was aggravated, and that wasn't fair.

Fine. I hit 'send' on my phone and looked back at Anna.

"Alright, I'm being a whiney girl." Fucking jet lag. Half of this was just the fact that I was exhausted. If I'd been able to sleep for a full day before I had to deal with the friends, I probably would have been fine.

"No, you're not," she told me. "Believe me, I know these guys. Vinnie is an ass, and he drags the others down with him. Vinnie's totally jealous of you, so he was making sure to keep Nick distracted."

"Vinnie's jealous of me?" Was there some homoerotic subplot here I was missing? Because I was usually pretty good with those.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Those guys all want to be Nick's best friend. They're like junior high girls, I swear. They all want to get invited to come on tour with him, or hang out with him at the clubs, because he buys all the drinks and gets all the girls."

"So who is his best friend?"

"Me," she said with a smirk, and I had to laugh. "I know he tells me things he'd never dream of telling those thugs. And when he invites them on tour, he just wants to get drunk and stupid and be away from the band. So they can have their games. Vinnie's got something to prove, because they've had some big fights this summer about you."

"Did they?" I thought back, trying to remember what Nick had told me about Vinnie this summer.

"Oh, Nick's pushed him around. Tony told me. Vinnie might say shit about you, but Nick only takes it up to a point, and then he snaps."

I guess that was good?

My cell phone beeped again and I looked down at my text message. "COME HOME!!!" it flashed, and I had to smile. Okay, it was good. We'd talk, and it would be good again.

Disclaimer | Sudden Silence Website
Feedback to Authors | Tragical Fiction (home)

Subscribe to receive an email when this site is updated!

Powered by groups.yahoo.com