Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Chapter Two: His Hard Rockin' Princess

Read Ch. 1 by clicking here

Chapter 2


Elle Sullivan couldn’t hear anything except the driving heavy metal, and she loved it. Her brother, Rich, and his wife, Mandy, had taken her to concerts before, but they’d been three or four bands at the most, and always with assigned seats inside an arena. Seeing bands on four different stages, often overlapping, was the coolest. The three of them most often caught the beginning of one set and wandered over to a different stage to catch part of another. Rich had a few this weekend he needed to see all the way through, his emphasis, not hers, but neither she nor Mandy minded. And both nights they had backstage passes for the main stage, where tonight she hoped she’d get to meet Crushed Edges, her absolute favorite band. She had a CD booklet ready for them to sign. Anyway, she loved the almost constant musical assault and backstage thoughts because it kept her from thinking about that older guy earlier at the campground.
What the hell had that been? He was way too old to affect her like he did. She couldn’t tell his age, but he was at least a few years older than Rich, who, at 25, had six years on her. So she shouldn’t, couldn’t, lust after an old guy. Could she? Ugh, like she said, now wasn’t the time to think about it. Or maybe ever. Though the way he stared at her made her tingly inside, a reaction guys never elicited from her. Yes, she had a boyfriend in high school, had sex with him, even, but that one look…
Snap out of it!
Oh, crap, and now Mandy eyed her with curiosity. How did she always know? Everyone said how mysterious Elle’s mind worked, but she never fooled Mandy. The only other person who could read her so easy was Mom, and she was, well, Mom.
She gave her sister-in-law an innocent grin and then started banging her head along with the music. She accidentally, but sort of on purpose, whipped Rich with her hair, and he grinned and gave her a nudge in time with the music, which she returned. Their own private mosh pit.
Hehe. Mosh pit. The term always put a smile on her face. She could understand calling it something like mash pit, as people mashed themselves together, but mosh pit? A silly phrase for such a violent act. She glanced over at Mandy and saw her attention had returned to the stage. Good.
The band, Sunken Ships according to the banner hanging behind them, launched into their final song, and the crowd went a little extra nuts. She didn’t know it, but liked its catchy hook. She bobbed her head and watched the controlled mayhem. A mosh pit roared in front of the stage, but the three of them stood well out of its reach, so she had fun watching. Rich looked like he wanted to sprint into it, but he wouldn’t. Mandy had issued a stern warning before they got here yesterday that his pitting days were behind him, and he agreed. She still found it funny to see how tight a grip Mandy had on his arm, though she bobbed her head in time with the beats as she did.
Once the song finished and the band said its goodbyes, a guy, close to her age by the looks of him, stepped next to her. He wore tattered jean shorts, a Sunken Ships t-shirt, and had a bunch of tattoos on his arms and neck. She groaned at what she knew would come next. She’d put up with it more than once today. Most had taken her brush off in stride, but Rich had to step in on one occasion. Would this guy try to chat her up, or would he go for the porta-potty sex right away? Her mind chose that moment to betray her with thoughts of the guy in the campground this morning, wondering what she’d say if he offered. She couldn’t help but flush, and, shit, it emboldened this douchebag.
“Hey, baby, did you enjoy them? They’re my favorite band.”
“I never would have guessed.” She nodded to his t-shirt. Double-shit. Why did she give him an opening in the conversation?
His grin widened. “It’s kind of noisy. You want to go somewhere a little more quiet?”
“No, I want to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law and watch some bands.” She turned towards Rich and Mandy, her wearing a slight grin at how she handled it, and Rich scowling at the guy, like every time a dude hit on her. Not that she minded his overbearing attitude; she wasn’t here for a boyfriend today. Or any day, to tell the truth.
“I can come with you. We can talk music. Or whatever you want.”
“Take a hint, dude.” She emphasized dude in a not very polite way.
He grabbed her by the elbow, and she readied herself to smack him, while Rich stepped forward, murder in his eyes. Even Mandy, always so calm, cool, and collected, looked ready to kick some ass. Before anything physical happened, people around them, both men and women, shouted at the guy that she said no, and he needed to back off. He let go, put his hands up in surrender, mumbled an apology, and took off. Those around looked at her to make sure she was okay, and she smiled and nodded at everyone, who went back to their own business. Mandy calmed Rich and raised her eyebrows at her.
“I’m fine. The asshole would have been in for a world of hurt if he hadn’t backed off. Make sure the Hulk is calm enough to continue our afternoon.”
Mandy giggled and rubbed Rich’s chest.
“I’ll hulk you,” he said, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
“Maybe he’ll mosh pit, and we’ll let you join that one.”
“Don’t give him any ideas,” Mandy said, but Rich already had a gleam in his eyes.
“Let’s stay here,” he said. “Shotgun Serenade starts in a couple of minutes and I want to see their set. I need to get in some serious headbanging.”
Mandy kissed his cheek. “Fine, but don't move. We’re going to get some drinks. Do you want lemonade or a beer?”
“I think I need a beer after that fucker tried to assault my baby sister.” No, they weren’t related by blood, but Mom, her mom, had married Dad, his dad, when she was four-years-old.
Elle rolled her eyes. “You don’t need to protect me. I was about to smack the shit out of him. Despite what you think, I can stand up for myself.”
He rolled his eyes back at her, which got her giggling. It also got him to crack a smile, so she and Mandy left to grab some drinks.
“Lemonade or water?” Mandy asked.
Like she needed to ask. Elle couldn’t get enough of the strawberry lemonade here. “I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.”
“Water it is.”
She scoffed. “You’re bad at this game.”
Mandy laughed and handed her a $10 bill. “I want a regular, not the strawberry one. I’ll go get Rich his beer. If the guy comes back, kick him in the shins.”
“I’ll aim a little higher,” she said, and Mandy gave her a grin and eyebrow wiggle.
As she waited in the short line for lemonade, her attention drifted over to the BBQ stall a few feet away, and her heart sprung into her throat. It was him. The hot older guy. He couldn’t see her since he stood at the front of the line and focused on ordering, but she had a good view of him. He was every bit as handsome as she remembered, and she better judged his age to be late-20s or early-30s. She guessed him to be about six-feet tall, taller, but not towering so, over her 5’5” frame. He had dark brown hair, cut short, but shaggy in a stylish sense. She remembered how his eyes matched his hair color. Now that she saw him standing, she noticed how fit he looked. Not like a bodybuilder, but he definitely kept himself in shape. God, how she’d like to see him without his shirt. Without his pants would be nice, too, and then she gave herself a mental face-slap. Get it together, girl. Unless you want to go introduce yourself. Ha, yeah, right. She sort of wished Brianna, her best friend, was here; Bri would’ve pushed her towards the guy so she’d have no choice but to say hi. Of course, Bri might have taken the Sunken Ships asshole up on his alone-time offer, so she wouldn’t be in line with her anyway. He had the tattooed look she liked in guys. Elle stifled a laugh, her eyes still on her mystery older guy.
“Uh, miss, you ready?” the guy behind asked. He pointed to the girl at the cash register.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Keep your shirt on.”
She ordered the two drinks, and by the time she collected them, her guy had gone. Shit-shit-shit. But it wasn’t like anything would have happened. Besides, she saw nothing wrong with staring and dreaming. Plus, she knew where his RV was. There were still two nights left in the campground, after all. Because, sure, she’d go right up to him. He might even be married and she simply hadn’t seen his wife. Though by the way he stared back this morning, that didn’t ring true.

Elle sucked in a deep breath to clear her mind. She couldn’t keep any of this on her face when she saw Mandy, or her secret crush would be ferreted out. Mandy could do it, and Elle hated that in a big, bad way. Yeah, it was fun to watch when she did it to other people, but not her. When she saw Mandy walking towards her with Rich’s beer, she put on a big smile to hide any of her mystery guy thoughts, and went to meet her halfway.

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