Dissent (8 page)

I
was under no illusions about my position. I was a lackey. I was the
lowest man on the totem pole. Lower still that the driver himself. I
was, no doubt, going to be given the most ass-breaking jobs. The
dirty ones. The ones no one else wanted to do. Which was fine by me.

I
was raised on hard work. I got up before the sun. I chased chickens.
I fished. I hunted. I chopped firewood. I built things. I broke
things down. I fell into bed after dark feeling soreness in every
spot of my body, too exhausted to even think about fighting sleep. I
lived that way for twenty-four years. My body was accustomed to it.
It would fall back into it gratefully.

Darcy
didn't come out of her bunk the next morning. Burt has us hooked up
at a RV stop so we could shower and get out and stretch out legs,
walk across the street to the diner and grab some food. But Darcy
hadn't showed her face. Apparently it was such a rarity that the
other crew members were sitting around worrying about it until Todd
actually went and woke up Jay. Which was, again, something that was
never done.

Jay
stumbled out of his bunk, still pulling up his pants. The girl, Maddy
was completely naked on his mattress. “This better be fucking
important,” he grumbled, looking around at us, “I was
deep in some good pussy.”

Todd
looked away, a slight blush creeping up on his cheeks. “It's
ten...” he started.

“Yeah,
exactly. I'm not supposed to be pestered for another four hours.”

“No
one has seen Darcy yet,” Joey, a guy somewhere in his early
twenties with spiked purple hair and silver earrings winding all the
way up his ears, said.

“It's
ten?” he asked, squinting at us.

“Yeah,”
Todd said.

Jay's
brows drew together for a minute before he turned and walked down the
line of bunks, reaching Darcy's and, breaking the rule I had heard
about three times since I got on board, pulled open her privacy
curtain. “What the fuck, Darce?” he asked, reaching in
and ripping her earbuds out. “Everyone has been worrying about
you. Are you sick?”

We
couldn't make out Darcy's response, but then Jay was reaching into
the bunk, grabbing her, and hauling a screeching Darcy down. She
flailed out, slamming her closed fists into his shoulders, chest,
stomach.

We
sat back watching as he set her on her feet, swatting her ass hard
enough for her to stumble forward a step. “Stop being such a
pussy,” he said, pushing her forward toward the galley. “Look
what I found,” he declared as he blocked her way back to the
bunks. “Someone needs to force some coffee into her until she
stops being such a bitch. If you'll excuse me, I have some business
to attend to,” he declared, unfastening his pants as he turned
back to his bunk.

It
wasn't long until we started to hear grunts and moans from his bunk.
Todd turned, reaching into a compartment underneath the windows,
hitting a few buttons until music started coming out of speakers all
around us.

“Good
morning, Darcy,” Mike said teasingly. He was a kid who couldn't
have been older than twenty with long black hair pulled into a bun at
the crown of his head and dark, keen blue eyes. There was a quiet
confidence about him that was rare in guys his age that I figured
must have been attributed to the lifestyle he led: complication free,
wild, exciting, sex-filled. “You look lovely this morning.”

“Fuck
off,” Darcy said, squinting her eyes at him.

“Ain't
she just a ray of fucking sunshine?” Mike asked, looking at me,
and smiling.

I
felt a momentary stab of sympathy for her. It must have been hard to
be in a bus full of men. She, no doubt, was the butt of a lot of
jokes and teased mercilessly. It really took someone secure in
herself to put up with that. Especially when there were brutes like
Jay, treating her with the same annoyed loyalty of an older
brother... and sarcastic kids like Mike.

“Come
on,” I said, reaching down and grabbing a pair of her
flip-flops and holding them out to her, “let's go get you some
food.”

She
eyed me for a minute, putting a hand on her belly then, very
grudgingly, slipped into her shoes and made her way toward the door.

I
followed her outside, ducking her head so her hair fell like a
curtain around her face. I wondered if she was doing it to avoid me,
or out of habit because she got recognized out in public. I fell into
step beside her as we walked through the line of RVs- people already
milling around. Families. Older people.

“You're
going to have to talk to me sooner or later,” I said, waiting
for cars to pass on the busy street so we could cross.

“I
don't have to go out of my way to do so though,” she said,
moving out into the street, despite cars still coming.

“Jesus
Christ,” I said, following behind her, watching as the cars
screeched to a stop. “Do you have a death wish?”

“They'll
stop,” she shrugged. “If we wait till there are no cars,
we'd be waiting all day. We have a show to get to.”

I
reached for the door, opening it for her. “Are you nervous?”

The
inside of the diner was old-fashioned, all chrome and bright pink.
Small jukeboxes were situated on each table, song lists to flip
through on the inside long faded like they had been there since the
diner opened.

“Two?”
a perky waitress asked in a pale pink diner dress and a white apron
asked, reaching for menus.

Darcy
eyed me for a second before shrugging. “Yes, please,” she
said and we were led over to a booth by the front windows. “I
don't usually get nervous until it is almost time to go on.”

“Even
after all these years?” I asked, looking down at the menu.

“Yeah,”
she said, shrugging. “I mean you never know what kind of crowd
you might get.” She accepted her coffee cup and the took the
carafe of “bottomless” coffee, pouring for me first, then
herself. “At the beginning, there were times we were booed off
of the stage. I think that sticks with you even when you're
successful. You're only ever one bad show from having that happen
again.”

The
waitress came back, taking our order, eyeing Darcy with a long
sideways look like she was trying to place her, then went away.

“You're
going to lose,” she said, thumbing through the list of songs,
all of which were foreign to me, then selecting something slow and
bluesy.

“Lose
what?”

“Whatever
you want to call this,” she said, gesturing between us. “A
game or a challenge or a particularly prominent notch in your belt.
You'll lose.”

“I
think you underestimate me,” I said, smiling.

“I
think you overestimate yourself,” she shot back, smirking.
“Look. I don't want this tour to get awkward or strained.
You're here. There's not much I can do about that now that you have
Jay on your side. He's an awful ally,” she added, refilling her
already empty coffee cup. “He'll abandon your cause for any
short skirt that crosses his path. But anyway... don't go letting
your ego get in the way of the the careful balance of peace we have
going on or you'll regret ever getting on the bus.”

“You're
kinda sexy when you're threatening people,” I said, chuckling
at the fire in her eyes. I reached across the table, placing my tan
hand over her incredibly pale one. Her eyes flew down, but she didn't
pull away. “How about you don't let your ego get in the way of
you getting something you really want.”

“I
don't want you,” she said, lifting her chin slightly.

“Sure
you do,” I smiled, pulling my hand away and bringing my coffee
to my lips.

“You're
such a...”

“I
hope you're happy,” Jay grumbled, sliding in next to her,
looking tired and taking her coffee from her. “Before you
freaking out the crew, I was this close to getting in her ass. Now
she wants nothing to do with it.”

“I'm
sorry if my oversleeping is effecting your depravity,” she
said, turning in the booth and reaching behind her to the empty one
next to ours and grabbing an extra coffee cup off the surface. “I'm
sure you'll convince her eventually.”

“What
is it with you broads and not letting a guy stick it in the ass?”
Jay asked, making the waitress blush crimson as she dropped off our
food.

Darcy
reached across the table for the glass ketchup bottle, turning the
cap end toward Jay. “Here, bend over and let me shove this up
your
ass.”

“Oh,
baby,” Jay smiled, taking a breakfast potato off of her plate.
“You little perv. I didn't know you were into assplay.”

Darcy
rolled her eyes, slapping his hand away from her food. “Maybe
she'd be more into it if you didn't fuck her like a goddamn rabbit.
Anal sex hurts at first you know.”

“So
you think I should give it to her slow and then suggest anal?”

Were
they really having this conversation at a diner at ten-thirty in the
morning? I looked between them, both wholly unconcerned about the
sideways looks they were getting from other diners and the staff.

Granted,
I have been more than a little bit of a whore since I got out of my
old life. I fucked in every possible way. Threesomes. Foursomes.
Oral. Anal. I did it all. But I couldn't imagine sitting around
discussing how to get some chick to submit to anal sex over
breakfast. In such a detached, casual way as they were. It was like
it was normal. Like they discussed their sex lives openly and easily
for years. Which, I realized, they probably had.

I
never talked to anyone about mine.

“What
do you think Isaac?” Jay asked, looking at me.

“His
name is Isaiah,” Darcy corrected, pouring ketchup over her
scrambled eggs.

“Whatever,”
Jay shrugged.

“What
do I think about what?”

“About
Darcy's idea?”

I
looked at Darcy whose eyes darted up to mine for a second before
turning back to her food. “It depends on the girl,” I
said, looking at her for a moment before glancing at Jay. “I
don't know Maddy.”

“Right,
but you've done anal I assume.”

“Yeah,”
I said, smirking at Darcy's attempt to not look at me.

“So
how do you get girls to do it?”

I
shrugged. It really did depend. And some women had a strict “no
backdoor entrance” policy. But in general... “Just tell
them you're going to,” I said, reaching for my toast.

“Tell
them you're sticking it in their ass?” Jay asked, then winked
up at the waitress. “French toast,” he told her and she
practically ran away.

“Yeah.”

“What's
your success rate?”

I
pursed my lips for a second. “I'd say eighty percent.”

“Eighty
percent of the women you fuck just roll over when you tell them
you're going to fuck their ass?” Darcy asked, putting her fork
down.

“Yeah,”
I smiled.

“Bull
fucking shit.”

“Darce,”
Jay broke in, his face amused, “bend over. I'm gonna fuck you
in the ass.” Darcy snorted and slammed her shoulder into his
arm. “Dunno man,” Jay said, shaking his head, “didn't
work that time.”

“Try
it,” I suggested.

“Alright,”
he said, taking a slice of my toast and getting out of the booth.
“Get my food to-go for me. I'm gonna be hungry if this works.”

“It's
not gonna work,” Darcy said, shaking her head.

I
reached into my pocket, grabbing my wallet and pulling out a hundred
dollar bill. “Hundred bucks says it does.”

“I'll
take that bet,” she said, looking completely sure of herself.

Eight

I
owed him a hundred freaking dollars.

We
walked back onto the bus about an hour later, bags full of Styrofoam
take-away containers for everyone to find Maddie making her way
toward the galley, walking awkwardly then wincing when she sat down.
Jay smiled, throwing an arm around her and winking at us.

“Mother
fucker,” I said, dropping the bags on the table.

“Pay
up,” Isaiah said, looking way too proud of himself.