Read Online Above the Noise by Michelle Kemper Brownlow - Free Book Online

girls we could laugh and joke with. Don’t get me wrong, we’d been propositioned more than once, but we always respectfully declined. Well, except for Bones.
    The term groupies always seemed seedy and dirty to me. I, personally, didn’t like the word. But the girls at Paisley, yeah, they were closer to the groupie end of my measuring stick. We were being touched and groped and, as far as we knew, not one of them had ever seen us play. They were all over us, I assumed, just because our faces were plastered on the walls of the entryway.
    “Cal, I feel like a piece of meat—and I love it!” Bones was grabbing and groping right back. He, of course, then followed a couple girls away from our group.
    Spider and I both called, “Not it!”
    “Shit!” Manny was always slow at that game. We all knew there had to be a chaperone assigned to Bones, or we’d lose him. It’d happened one too many times that we left a bar and headed to the van only to realize we were one man short. We’d eventually find him in someone’s back seat, or he’d call from someone’s apartment, but it always dragged the night out longer, and, quite frankly, it got annoying.
    “You must be Calon.” A beautiful blonde stood before me in a skin tight black tank and boobs that held their own zip code. I felt awkward because Becki was right next to me with her hand in my back pocket. I didn’t want to flirt back, but at the same time I knew blowing off fans wasn’t a good idea for any musician, especially an up and coming band. Becki’s hand slowly slid out of my back pocket, and she slapped my ass.
    “Go get ‘em, rock star.” She winked and linked arms with Manny. “Come on, Manny, we’ve got a bandmate to babysit.” She was so fucking cool.
    “Dude, I’ll get us some pitchers.” Spider headed to the bar.
    I looked back down at the blonde, smiled and winked. “I am. And you are?”
    “Adrienne.” She whined her name then leaned in toward me and stood up on her toes. Her face was just a couple inches from mine, and I could smell about twelve tequila shots on her breath.
    “Who are you here with, Adrienne?” I’m sure she took it as my way of finding out if she was available, but I truly just wanted to know who to drop her off with when I was ready to end our conversation.
    “Just a couple friends of mine, but I’d like to go home with you.” She winked and fell into my chest. I steadied her with my hands on her shoulders.
    “Well, darlin’, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” I felt like a dick, but, even if I wasn’t madly in something with Becki, Adrienne wasn’t my type. As old fashioned as it sounded, I wasn’t made for one night stands or a quick fuck in the coatroom, and nothing, not even Adrienne, was going to change that about me.
    She started to say something, but I noticed a head full of messy black hair out of the corner of my eye. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end even before I turned to see who it was.
    Max had one hand on each of Becki’s shoulders as if he was trying to hold her still. There were too many people crowded around Adrienne and me to see Becki’s face, but I worried. My fists clenched and released then clenched again at my sides. I was more concerned about Becki’s reaction to me stepping in than I was about taking a few hits from Max.
    “I’m sorry, Adrienne, my friend needs me. It was really nice meeting you.” Just then her drunk friends barreled up to us, which reminded me at the beginning of our short conversation I’d been concerned about just leaving her alone in such a crowded place. I had almost done that exact thing. It was obvious Becki trumped my chivalry. I smiled and nodded at her friends’ giddy behavior just to be polite, but when I turned back around, Becki and Max were gone.
    I stormed toward the edge of the dance floor where Max and Becki had been standing and looked around. Drunk people bumped me off balance, and a couple girls ran their hands