Love Will (3 page)

“Oh my God, you’re Will,” a girl informs me, clinging to my arm.

“Yeah,” I tell her with a smile. “What’s your name?”

“Jo,” she says. “This is my roommate Annie.”

“Nice to meet you both. Is it always this crazy here?”

“We moved into our dorms this week,” Jo tells me. “Classes don’t start until Wednesday, so it’s our first weekend back. We’re catching up with old friends… meeting new ones…” She drags her hand down my chest.

“Right.”

Damon hands me a tumbler of what appears to be soda on ice, but could easily be mistaken for his standard Jack and Coke. I take a sip to make sure he gave me the right drink. “Thanks, man.”

“I got you,” he tells me with a nod.

“Peron, right?” Annie says as she looks over my shoulder. I turn around, not realizing he was even standing there.

“Yeah. Hey.”

“Peron, this is Jo and Annie. I’m guessing you ladies go to Penn State?”

“Good guess…”

“The, uh… Nittany Lions, right?”

“Yes!” They both laugh and cheer a little.

“What is a Nittany Lion, anyway?” Peron asks.

“A mountain lion from the Nittany Valley area. Keep up, Peron.”

“Is that true?” Annie asks.

“You don’t know the history of your own mascot? Wait, are you
freshmen
? Are you old enough to be in here?” I ask them, teasing.

“We’re seniors!” they say in unison.

“Probably not in any sororities. I think they make you learn that sort of thing…”

“No…”

“Cool.”

“You don’t seem Greek, either.”

“No?” I ask them. “What do I seem?”

“A little rough around the edges…”

“In five minutes, you get
rough around the edges
?” I ask them with a laugh.

“We’ve been to a few of your shows in Manhattan. And we’ve seen some videos.”

“Videos, huh?” I take a drink of my Coke and bite the inside of my cheek, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.

“You and Damon. You’re kind of the playboys of the group, right?”

“My reputation precedes me.” My hand finds its way to my hair and starts tugging. I survey the room, only to find many,
many
more eyes on me. I turn around to Peron. “Is there something on my face?”

“No,” he says back to me. “Why?”

“Just feels like everyone’s looking at me.”

“I think they are,” he confirms. “No different than any other night.”

“We don’t mind,” Jo says.

“Huh?” I ask, not remembering what we were talking about.

“That you’re a playboy.” She licks her lips and does that fluttering thing with her lashes.
Fuck
. “We’ll be at the show tomorrow. We have tickets.”

“That’s great,” I say, nodding my head.

“Do you ever pick two?”

“Two what?” I ask Jo, already knowing the answer, but wondering if she’s brazen enough to suggest it. Her crimson cheeks hint that she’s not.

“Two girls,” Annie says for her. “At once.”

“Oh, God,” I hear Peron mumble behind me.

“S’that what you’re into?” I ask them.

“Will?” Peron says loud enough for all of us to hear. “Remember what we talked about?”

I turn around and shoot him a death stare. “I’ve got this under control.”

“Damn it, Will…”

“No,” I say bluntly to the girls, not letting them answer my question. Peron’s right. I shouldn’t lead them on. “I don’t ever ‘pick two.’ If you’re into that, Damon’s your guy.”

They both shake their heads. “We’re just both into
you
.”

“Ahhh,” I say. “Well, I’d hate to come between two friends. I’m not worth it. Trust me.”

“I’ll be the judge!” Jo blurts out, then covers her mouth, surprised at her own outburst. Annie looks over at her, brows furrowed. Instinctively, I pull Jo’s hand away from her mouth. I hadn’t realized how captivated I’d been by her lips until she hid them from me. Little, subtle things always lure me in. I glance back up to her eyes, and they lock with mine. She does this thing where she barely squints them for a split second, and it’s about the sexiest thing she could have done short of stripping down to the thong I
know
she’s wearing, right here in front of me. I take one step and put my hand behind her ear, bringing her head to mine so I can feel those luscious, wanting lips on mine.

Fuck their friendship
. Jo’s a fantastic kisser. I pull her body flush with mine. I want to feel her curves, but I’m mindful of where we are, and keep my hands above her waist. She’s not as considerate, though, as I notice her hands wandering down my ass. It’s nice; if I were a woman, I’d be curious, too.

“You like that?” I ask her.

“Yeah,” she breathes. “Take me back to your place.”

“Ohhh,” I groan, nuzzling her nose with mine. “If we were in Manhattan, we’d be on our way, but I don’t have ‘a place’ here.” I pull away to show her my disappointment.

“We can go back to mine,” she suggests, and we both look at Annie. She makes it very clear that’s
not
an option.

“You know what, Jo? That’s, uh… yeah, I can’t do that anyway. This isn’t a good idea.”

“Why?” she whines.

I kiss her again to stop the noise–and to feel that feeling again, because it’s a nice feeling.

“I honestly don’t even have a valid reason for you. I’m sorry.” I shake my head and release her. “I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. Or touched you…”

“Seriously?” she asks, getting angry.

“Again, I’m really sorry. It’s not you, it’s–” I stop myself before I can finish that horrible, regrettable sentence. No matter how true it is, it still sounds condescending as hell and is likely to get me slapped across the face. “I didn’t come in here looking for this.”

“Will and I,” Peron says, speaking up, “we just needed a drink to clear our heads. We’ve been trying to write all night, and nothing’s coming. Just a lot on our minds, and yeah… he wasn’t looking for a distraction, but you know… you’re just his type, and he gets off-track sometimes. It’s just his nature. He can’t help it… playboy…” He repeats what they’d said about me.

“I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Jo doesn’t look to be the forgiving type
at all
. I glance over at Annie. “Look, if you didn’t like how she kissed, you can try me…”

“You bitch!” Jo says, pushing her friend.

“Ladies, like I said to start with, I am not worth it. Can I call you both a cab back to your dorm?”

“I am
not
going back to the dorm alone,” Jo says, adamant.

“Me, neither,” Annie says.

“All right, then. I guess I’m off the hook. Peron?”

“Bus?”

“Yep.”

“Why did we have to come in here?” he asks me on our way through the crowd.

“Because part of this whole…
thing
… is to get people to come to the shows. To get more people interested in Damon. To sell as many tickets as possible. To make money. To be a success. We can’t hide out on the fucking bus and achieve results.”

“Well, then why are we going back?”

“Because that was a disaster,” I say, stopping halfway through the parking lot and pointing to the club. “That’s exactly what we
don’t
want to do. Those girls were already going to the show.
Had
tickets. I pissed them off.”

“Where’s your radar, Will? Your test? They were drunk. They’ll forget all about this by morning anyway. Forget about it and stop beating yourself up.”

“Fuck.”

“Stop pulling your hair. You’re gonna regret it when you’re thirty and have a hairline like mine.” I’m a few inches taller than him, and I know for a fact it’s worse than he knows it is. He’s reaching comb-over stage, but I don’t have the heart to tell him. Still, I know baldness is hereditary. My brothers and I have good genes, and plus–I’m not pulling it
that
hard.

“Day one, man. Day fucking one, and I can’t make it through a half-hour without wanting the first pretty girl I see. I’m hopeless.” I kick someone’s tire, setting off a car alarm. Peron and I assume the same posture–hands in pockets, ambling casually away from the noise as if we had nothing to do with it. It’s obvious we come from the same side of the tracks and got into our share of mischief growing up. Neither of us were the cause of any trouble; we were both just typically in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We make it back to the bus, but realize too late that we have no way to get inside.

“Text Ben,” I tell Peron, once again too busy with my hair to mess with my phone. “Tell him he parked illegally.”

“Did he?”

“No, but he won’t come out here if we just tell him we want inside. We’re reneging on our jobs, remember? The
boss
isn’t gonna like this.”

“Technically, Damon’s the boss,” Peron reminds me, “and I think
he’d
understand. He knows what you’re trying to do, and Will?”

“Did you text him?”

“I did. Are you listening to me?” He slaps my hands away from my head. “You walked away from her, man. She invited you back to her place, and you said no.”

“So the fuck what? I never go back to a girl’s place.”

“Well, I guarantee if you wanted the bus, you could have gotten the keys and had fifteen minutes alone with her. You didn’t do that, either. So what if you wanted her? You didn’t
take
her. You. Walked. Away.”

“I should have walked away about ten minutes earlier.”

“Did the cops come by?” Ben hollers at us. “Who says I parked illegally? I checked for signs.”

“I saw one on the other side,” I lie to him.

“Where?”

“Just let us in the fucking bus already.”

“Show me the sign!”

“There’s no sign, Ben. I just need on the bus before I piss off all the women inside that bar.”

“What’d you do?”

“He just turned someone down. That’s it,” Peron answers for me.

Our manager gives me a displeased look. “We’re on a mission of
good
will, Will. Not…
bad
-will. You’ve got to turn your… your
Will
around. I know you have this idea of drastic life changes, but they’re kind of in direct conflict with our mission. Do you see that?”

“Shut up,” Peron says as I stare blankly at Ben. “He can do both.”

“Apparently he can’t.”

“Open the door, Ben,” I say, flexing the muscles in my fingers.

“You pussies can’t hibernate on this bus while the rest of us bust our asses to bring these people to our shows. That wasn’t the deal,” he says as he unlocks the door and tosses the keys inside.

“I’m well aware of
the deal
. Appreciate the empathy,” I say sarcastically, walking back to my bunk and stripping out of my shirt. “You’re a good man.”

“Fuck you, Will. I’m not your therapist. Grow a pair.”

“Fuck
you
!” I yell back, throwing my shirt at him. “I’m trying not to make things worse tonight. That’s all I’m doing.”

“Yeah, this all feels good to me!” he shouts back. “I’m feeling great about things!” He walks out the door, but immediately bumps into someone before he takes the step to the ground level. “Well, hello there.”

“Hi!” I hear a woman say. It’s followed by multiple giggles.

I close my eyes and take a breath, fearing another challenge I’m not prepared to face.

“So you escaped jail, I guess…” Ben says. “That was quite some indecent exposure, though…” I look out the window next to the TV to see the black limo we’d passed earlier parked next to us.

“We got off with a warning… not all of the Pennsylvania cops are on the straight and narrow, if you know what I mean.”

“Good to know,” he says. “How’d you find us?”

“Big tour bus, right off the highway… hard to miss. So there are seven of us… you said you only needed five, though…” I turn around to look at Peron’s ashen face. He’s vehemently shaking his head.

“Seven’s even better!” Ben says. “Damon and Tavo are in the club… you ladies want to come with me?”

“Where’s Will?” one of them asks.

I don’t even look his way, because I know how he’s going to answer.

“He’s right here. Will? You have some visitors.” I glance at Peron first, then finally over at our manager with my hands poised to catch the shirt he’s holding. Instead, he tosses it to the front of the bus.