His lips were soft and gentle, and his lip ring was cool and smooth. His hand was cradling my cheek, and I put my fingers around his wrist.
At first, I didn't know what to think. This was ridiculous, nothing could come out of it. He's too much older than I am, he'll get bored with me in a week. I'm just some broke college girl who lent him a shirt and a room- he doesn't want anything from me, he's probably just looking for something to do.
Then I realized that all these things sounded so bad inside my head, but I didn't actually care. I didn't care at all. He was funny and sweet, and he was such a gentleman with me. I would see where this went.
He broke the kiss, and looked into my eyes, searching for a reaction. I decided to scare him a little, and kept my face blank. He looked down and slowly drew back his hand, but I caught it and threaded my fingers through his. I sat up and kissed him from above, and felt his hand settle lightly on my waist. This time, when I broke the kiss, I looked down at him and smiled. He smiled back, and reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I reached for my backpack, and pulled out his sweatshirt.
'I believe this is yours? Thank you for it, it kept me warm all night.' He sat up and started to roll it into a pillow, and said that he wished he could have kept me warm instead of his sweatshirt. He looked down and blushed, and I leaned over and kissed his cheek. He kissed me again, this time with more force and his hand found the back of my neck and I felt his fingers gently caress me, sending electric currents through my body. His mouth opened slightly to mine, and I marveled at how soft he was. He was so gentle that I could barely feel his tongue, but just enough to make me want more than he was giving. I ran the top of my tongue piercing along the front of his teeth, and he exhaled sharply in response. I broke the kiss and he pulled me down to lie next to him, resting our heads on the makeshift pillow.
'You definitely planned this out Mr. Fuentes. Didn't you tell me you had a rule about fans?' He laughed and his hand found mine.
'I did not! Well not all of it. I planned on taking you up here, but I hadn't planned on kissing you, it just sort of happened.' He cleared his throat and I saw some color rise to his cheeks. 'Are you, uh, glad?, that it happened?' What a sweetheart. Rockstar and all, and still worried if a girl likes him back. I squeezed his hand tightly, and that was answer enough for him.
And there we lay, for hours upon end; listening to the bands that were playing, spying on the crew and the crowd, throwing bits of paper from my bag down, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. When the last band was about to come on, Mike decided that we should go back down. His fans would be wondering where he was, and the band would be mad if he didn't show up for any signings at all. Also, the wind was picking up, and the platform was starting to feel a bit unstable, so we climbed down as fast as we could.
When we got to the booths, Mike was greeted with cheers from many of the lines, and I received quite a few looks from some 15 year olds. I remembered being in their shoes- it sucked. But oh well, I'm sure they'll find their rockstars someday.
'Mike! Where the fuck were you, bro? Tony and Vic went off to some interview like 20 minutes ago. My hands going to fall off, come help me sign these.' Jaime's eyes flicked over to me and he grinned. 'Is this the lovely young lady who rescued Mikey when he wasn't feeling so good?' I nodded and smiled at him. He raise an eyebrow and said that he hadn't been told I was so pretty, he would have fixed his hair that morning if he had known.
'Well thank you. I think your hair looks lovely today, you must refer me to your stylist! My name is Alexis, by the way.' He bowed and put on a fake British accent.
'Tis an honor to meet you, my dear Alexis. I am Jaime.' A scream came from behind me, an suddenly the whole crowd took up the cry. The platform that Mike and I had been on had started to break. The wind was getting stronger and some of the metal rods had started to come loose. Before I knew what was happening, Mike pulled me under the tent and told me to stay with the merch girl, who motioned for me to help her pack up the remaining band merchandise. I bent over to help her, and when I stood up, I saw Mike and Jaime running full tilt toward the main stage, pointing people toward the entrance as they went. The security guards opened the gates as widens they could go, and as the fans flooded out the gates, band members, guards and crew members tried to take down the stages as fast as they could. A panicky feeling rose from my stomach to my chest, but I swallowed my fear and turned to help the girl throw the tee shirts and accessories into one box and stack the CD's in another.
'Can you pass me the tape, please?' I tossed the roll of tape to her, and we finished closing up the boxes. She bent down to pick up the CD box and started to stagger, so I took it from her arms.
'You take the shirts, I got this one. Where do we put them?' She smiled at me gratefully, and picked up the other box.
'Over there, in the back of the bus.' She hurried across to the tour bus and put the box down so she could open the back door. We put the boxes in and as we were trying to shut the doors a bunch of branches whipped by us, one of them grazed my back and left a stinging line. But I had other things to worry about.
The wind was getting faster and faster, it had started picking up branches and trash from the ground and whipping it around. We couldnt stay outside much longer without being in serious danger. Texas is so damned flat that if a wind picks up, there is nothing to slow it down. The girl took my wrist and we ran to the front door of the tour bus. Vic was running toward the bus with Tony at his heels, and they shoved us inside and closed the door behind the four of us.
'Mae, you alright? Forget about the tent, we have an extra, its alright if it gets blown away.' Vic brushed the hair off his face as Tony sat down on the couch. Tony looked at me quizically, realizing that he had no idea who I was.
'Um, I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?' Vic turned to look at me and his eyebrows went up, hiding behind his hair.
The merch girl, who's name was Mae, apparently, came to my rescue. 'She's Mike's friend. Mike told her to help me get the merch in the back, but it was getting too bad for her to get back to the parking lot, so I brought her in here. Is it okay if she stays until the wind dies down?' The boys both visibly relaxed.
Tony stood up and smiled at me. 'Of course! You're the one that was taking care of him, aren't you?' I nodded. 'Then you must be Alexis. I'm Tony and that is VIc. Thanks for making him feel better. He couldnt stop talking about you this morning.' The door opened and a gust of wind blew in as MIke and Jaime tumbled in.
Mike's cheek was bleeding, and so was his right hand. Jaime was bleeding from his nose and mouth. 'Oh my God you two, you're both wrecks. Sit down, I'll clean you up.' I asked Mae where the bathroom, and I got a roll of paper towels, and some rrubbing alcohol. MIke was sitting at the table, so I gently cleaned his cheek off with warm water, and then cleaned the cut with the alcohol. I kept my eyes on him, but told Jaime to take a paper towel and hold his nose with it, so it would stop bleeding. I took Mike's hand and cleaned it off, but the cut was deep, and I knew it was going to get infected unless I bandaged it up.
'Hang on a second, I've got some stuff in my bag that will help.' I took out the bandaid box that i had, and took out the wound closure strips that I always carried around (call me paranoid, but they came in handy more often then you would think). I pulled the edges of the wound together and put the strips on, then applied the antibiotic cream that came with the strips. 'Just keep it clean and dont cover it up. You can redo them tomorrow and then it should be alright.'
Mike smiled at me and before he could thank me, Jaime called out, 'Hey! What about me? my lip feels like its the size of an apple.' I went over to him and gave him a glass of water and told him to rinse out his mouth with it. Then i turned to Vic.
'Do you have any whiskey?' He laughed.
'Bit early for that, don't you think?' I told him i didnt want to use alcohol on Jaime's mouth because its very dangerous, but the cut inside his mouth was really bad and needed to be disinfected. Whiskey would help with that. Vic walked to the cabinet above the fridge and pulled down a bottle of Jack Daniels. He was so short that he had to jump to reach it.
'Dude, how do you know all this? Can you be my doctor? Mine doesnt let me drink jack to make my mouth feel better.' Jaime grinned as I handed him a bit of watered down whiskey.
'Trust me, you won't thank me once its in your mouth. Drink it and swish it around in your mouth for a few seconds then spit or swallow. And I'm studying to be a vet! I would hope that I know how to disinfect a cut on the go.' Jaime emptied the drink into his mouth, and his eyes widened, then squeezed shut. He made a high pitched squeal and swallowed.
'Fucking hell, dude! Can i have some water?' I passed him a glass of water, and relief spread across his face and the water cooled the burning in his mouth. My hair had come out of it's ponytail, and I reached back and pulled in back up into a bun.
'Oh my God, Alexis, your back.' Mike's voice was worried.
'What about it?'
'Hun, you're bleeding like crazy. You need to get out of that shirt its all ripped. Come on, I'll get you one.' He took me to the back of the bus and got me a plain black tee of his. I peeled off my shirt and pulled his on. When I looked at my shirt the back was cut open and there were blood stains on it.
'Shit. Mike, I hate to ask, but could you help me with my back? I really dont want that to get infected. Can you just get all the dirt off of it with some water and a towel, and then clean it with the alcohol? I'll walk you through it, I just can't reach it myself.' He smiled and nodded.
In the bathroom, I shut the door and pulled the shirt over my head. 'Ok, just dab along the cut and get all the dirt and stuff off.'
'Alright, just tell me if it hurts too much, and I'll be gentler.' I felt him work his way from the top of the cut, on my right shoulder, down, toward my left hip. 'I need to move your bra, hun, is that okay?' I nodded and he unhooked the strap. I gasped as some skin came away with the fabric and felt slightly light headed. 'You alright?' I saw Mike's face in the mirror; his eyes were worried, but his brows relaxed when I nodded.
'Just hurry, I feel a little lightheaded.' He quickly cleaned my whole back and then picked up the alcohol. He trickled some on the top of the cut, and then down the rest of my back. I saw stars and went weak. I felt Mike's arm latch around my waist and he held me up and he finished pouring.
I was breathing heavily; the cut was worse than I had thought. 'Easy now, sit, relax.' Mike helped me sit on the toilet seat and I gripped his hand tightly. 'You're shivering. Here, hang on.' He pulled the tee shirt over my head again, and told me to wait there. I took my bra off as he closed the dor behind him. I didn't want to fasten it over the cut again.
Mike came back in, carrying a pair of sweatpants. 'Here, these will keep you warmer than those shorts. You don't look so good, hun.' He knelt down next to me and I giggled.
'That is just what a girl wants to hear from a cute guy.' He blushed.
'Oh you know I didn't mean it like that! You're as beautiful as always.' I reached out and pulled him into a hug. He pulled me closer, careful not to touch my back, and whispered in my ear. 'I'm so sorry you got hurt. It never would have happened if I hadn't asked you to come.' I looked at him, with my forehead against his.
'Yeah, well, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.' And I kissed him again.
He pulled my legs around his waist and stood up, picking me up with him. He walked down the middle of the bus and lowered me onto the couch in the back, and closed off the room.