Afflicted (2 page)

After borrowing the pickup from Jake, I headed to LAX and managed only to get lost once on the way here. I had so much excitement and energy that I even made a sign to hold up at baggage claim. I waited impatiently for her to come into view. As soon as she did my breath caught and the fire returned to my empty heart. I wanted to ravage her on the spot.

Wearing a
pair of short, denim shorts and a black tank top she looked like sex on legs. The second thing I noticed was that she dyed her hair blonde, which surprised me, but, it looked fantastic nonetheless.

I practically tossed the sign aside to run to her. As soon as I reached her I picked her up off the
ground and spun her around. I fucking missed her like crazy. I also hadn't been laid since our last visit when I went home for the weekend, over three months ago. I was dying to get inside her. Taking her carryon bag I led her to the exit. Since the loft didn’t have any walls Jake made arrangements to stay with Kevin and Derek tonight so we could have the place to ourselves.

I opened the
door and helped her inside the truck. She smiled shyly. Something about her has changed. I just couldn’t decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. The drive back was quiet. I asked her about what was going on at home, and how school was. She smiled and responded in one-word answers, but wasn’t her overenthusiastic self. I blamed it on being tired from travelling, at least that’s what I hoped it was.

Pulling
into our assigned parking space, I led her up the stairs. As soon as the door was closed she pounced, and old Rowan was back. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I was already at full salute. I kissed her like a man starved and led her to my bed placing her down in the middle and climbing between her legs. I propped myself up with one hand and undid her shorts with the other while she lifted so I could pull them off. She fumbled clumsily with my belt.

Why did I choose today to wear a fucking belt?

I always like
d to make her come before we had sex, but today I couldn’t wait. She was already wet, so I positioned the head at her entrance and nudged forward.
Fuck, she’s tight!
I wasn’t going to last long. I slowly ebbed in and out until I was balls deep. Realizing that I didn’t even bother to take her shirt off, I pulled her top down and exposed her magnificent tits.

I rocked in and out of her slowly
, making sure to hit her G-spot with each forward thrust. I could tell that she was getting close, and tried to think of anything other than the fact that my balls felt like they were filled with lead. A half dozen more thrusts and she let go screaming so loud the neighbor’s dog started barking. It only took me two more thrusts before I found my own release.

Lowering myself down I
cradled her tightly in my arms. I loved just holding her, I think it’s actually what I missed the most. My mind drifted to tomorrow, and I hoped the plans I made would show her just how special she was to me.

Ordering some
Thai take-out we just hung out like we used to in Phoenix. We had another mind-blowing, back-clawing round before bed since the first time was kind of quick. I pulled her close to my side and breathed her in. Closing my eyes I drifted into the best night’s sleep I’ve had in months.

When we woke up, we quickly got dressed before heading the
down the street to Starbucks. I ordered us each a coffee and a muffin to go. We were heading to Beverly Hills today to see Rodeo Drive. I planned on taking her sightseeing and to do some shopping. I figured the least I could do was let her blow my money.

When we arrived she was in awe with all the fancy shops. We mostly window-shopped and did a lot of walking. She managed to find a couple of unique
, high-end pieces and blew the rest of my signing bonus. She was happy, and to me that’s all that mattered. I took her to a fancy steak house for dinner, and the conversation flowed easily. Whatever discord I felt yesterday evaporated. We were back to just being Rowan and Blake.

We
spent the next two days in between the sheets, before I had to drive her back to the airport. I hated having to say goodbye to her, especially since I didn’t know the next time that I would get to see her with us leaving for tour soon. I walked her as far as I could before kissing her farewell in the middle of the busy airport. I watched her make her way through security and disappear with the crowd. I walked back to the truck with a heavy heart feeling the other half of me missing, again.

The next two weeks I threw myself into practicing for the tour. I was like a robot. Our calls were few and far between with her being in school and working as a waitress part time and me spending
every waking moment in the studio. In two days, we would be heading out for our first tour.

The record label gave us a shitty
, fifteen-passenger van that we would call our home for the next three months. They even allotted us a certain amount of money for gas, food and lodging to help cover the rest of our expenses. I was pumped because it was an awesome opportunity for us to get our name out there.

We loaded up the van with enough Gatorade, Jack Daniels and Pringles for a seven-nation army.
Dylan told us that Gatorade bottles are especially handy when you have to relieve yourself, and there are no bathrooms for two hundred miles. We were starting out toward the East Coast where we would be playing our first opening show. It was going to be a long-ass three-day drive getting there. We decided that we would all take turns driving, so we could drive further before stopping and getting a hotel room.

Derek started driving first, he was a horrible driver and a tailgater.

The rest of us situated in the back of the van and pulled out a game of Scatagories. It was fun for the first hour before it started getting lame. Kevin took over for Derek somewhere in New Mexico. It was hard to drive through Arizona and not stop to see Rowan. We stopped and ate McDonald’s, which gave Derek nasty ass farts.

“Kevin, crack a window!” Jake yelled.

Kevin just laughed and didn’t do shit. We kept going until we arrived in Oklahoma City. We pulled into a Days Inn and got a room. Jake and I double-checked to make sure that the van was locked because all our equipment was in there, along with all our other belongings. I pulled my phone out and dialed Rowan.

“He-
wo.” She mumbled sleepily.

“Hey baby.” It was so
good to hear her voice. “Are you sleeping?”

“Yeah.” It was barely audible.

“Alright. I just wanted to say goodnight and tell you that I love you.”

“Night.” She hung up.

I was back to feeling discouraged again. It wasn’t something that I was familiar with. I was the perfect gentleman. I was a fantastic boyfriend. I held doors and put her up on a pedestal. I was faithful. I even sent her flowers every week.

What more could a girl want?

Sure we were in different states right now, but that wouldn’t last forever. I went into the room and flopped on the bed. Jake cocked an eyebrow. That was his way of asking me if everything was okay. I gave a chin nod, letting him know that I was fine and quietly continued my internal struggle. Maybe I could see about flying her out to one of our shows…

The next morning we grabbed some pastries from the so-called continental breakfast and headed to the van.
After checking to make sure nothing was stolen, I agreed to drive first because at least it would help me occupy my mind. When we stopped in Kansas to get gas Jake offered to take over, but I declined and kept going. We made it all the way to Indiana before we called it a day. Tomorrow we would make it to our first stop at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.

~

Pulling up to The Stone Pony we were greeted with the smell of the salty ocean off in the distance. A line of concertgoers was already stretched along the side of the building. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to set up and get ready to go on due to the insane amount of traffic that we hit on the way here. To think that I thought LA was crowded. We started unloading equipment and rolling it in through the back door. After grabbing a couple cardboard boxes filled with CD’s and t-shirts to sell at the merch table post-show, we were finally finished with fifteen minutes to spare. Crashing Down was already inside and all set up thanks to their roadies.

Dylan ha
d a girl on either side of him, and he was undoubtedly getting laid by both of them tonight. I felt almost like an intruder to their pre-orgy. After getting everything set up the guys and I took a seat before they came to let us know that it was time to go on.

We stepped through the door and walked
the narrow hallway before stepping up on to the stage. This was it, our first big gig. I strapped my bass on, and Jake stepped up to the mic. Derek tapped on the drums a couple of times, and Kevin strummed the neck of his guitar. I looked out at the rowdy crowd and felt adrenaline course through my veins.

“New Jersey! How you folks doing tonight?” Jake asked.

We were met with a less than unenthusiastic answer.

“Alrighty
then…we’re Battlescars, and we’re going to rock your world tonight!” Jake yelled.

We started with our first song ‘Hurricane.’ We nailed it
, it was like we’ve been doing it for years. By the time we were getting ready to wrap up the set the crowd was seriously into it. It was going to be an uphill battle being the opener, but with any luck we would end up building our own fan base.

We finished out our set and Jake bid the crowd goodnight. I was still feeling the high from the adrenaline. We walked over and retrieved our
measly two cardboard boxes and went to sit along the wall at our table. We weren’t even finished setting up when people started lining up. Before too long, we had a long line. We were selling our CD’s for five bucks and our shirts for ten.

By the end of the show
, we were entirely sold out. It was a good thing, but we would need to find a way to get more, and fast. We loaded up our equipment into the van and headed off to the next venue in Allentown, Pennsylvania where we would be playing Crocodile Rock. After arriving at the hotel and checking in I headed right to the shower and got ready for bed. Jake did the same, and before long exhaustion hit us and we both passed out.

The next three weeks of shows pretty much went the same. Drive, eat, play the show, sleep and do it all
over again. Derek was already sucked into the lifestyle, and anytime he could use it to pick up a girl he did. Jake was dabbling more and more too. Kevin could care less because that wasn’t his scene and it made me feel a little less lonely.

Standing outside the hotel room I was sharing with Jake
, I tried calling Rowan again and got her voicemail. We’ve been playing phone tag all week, but in three days we would be in Arizona and I planned on surprising her. I missed her like crazy, but being on the tour was better than I could have ever imagined. It was almost dreamlike to be here. There was loud moaning coming from the room, and I hoped that Jake would be quick because I was exhausted and didn’t seriously need to listen to them getting their rocks off all night.

I pulled out my headphones and turned the volume up
heading into the room with blinders on. Nirvana came on, and I couldn’t help but smile.

I remembered being an eleven-year old k
id sitting in front of the TV watching Nirvana Unplugged in New York on MTV. I was absolutely mesmerized and thought Kurt Cobain was the coolest person on the face of the earth. I wanted to be just like him. I started dressing in flannel shirts. Mind you that we lived in Arizona, and they weren’t easy to come by. I grew my hair out and even convinced my mom to let me get blonde highlights. She drew the line at eyeliner, but I’ve been known to go in her make-up bag and steal some from time to time.

It was at that time when I
truly fell in love with music. I used to get up every Saturday morning and watch the new videos. I envied them. After thinking long and hard, I decided that I wanted to play bass. I finally saved up enough money from doing chores around the neighborhood to buy my first bass guitar. I was a natural, or so the instructor told me. His name was Fred, and he even offered me free lessons. I’ve been playing ever since. It was my true passion.

In high school
, a couple of my friends and I would jam out in their garages or basements, that’s when I met Jake. We’ve been best friends ever since. I knew that I wanted to figure out how to turn my passion into a career. Not knowing then how difficult it was going to find a balance in it all. My friendships, family, relationships and life were all suffering. I almost wanted to toss in the towel and go back home, almost.

I pulled a pillow over my head and closed my eyes.

When I woke up in the morning, Jake was just coming out of the shower. I swear he never sleeps. The girl was gone, which didn’t come as a surprise to me. He’d screw ‘em and toss ‘em. I rolled out of bed and went to take a piss. We were set to play in Texas tonight and New Mexico tomorrow. Then we would be in Arizona. I didn’t tell Rowan that we were going to be there early since I wanted to surprise her. I already made reservations at our favorite restaurant The Melting Pot.

Throwing
my clothes on I went to see if I could scrounge up something for breakfast. I grabbed my backpack and headed to the lobby managing to find a donut and some cookies left in the lounge area. I ate the donut and wrapped the cookies in a napkin for later. I plopped in a chair and waited for the rest of the guys to come down.