Read Online Boy in a Band (A Morgan Mallory story) by Lisa Loomis - Free Book Online Page B

guitar.
    “You guys suck ,” Sam said.
                  “Totally suck,” Sara said.
                  “Yeah, we’ve been out there looking for you,” Pat said, a bit hurt.
                  He was so non-confrontational, I felt bad for him.
                  “That’s the funniest part,” Mathew laughed.
                  “Assholes,” Sam said, slamming the door.
    Mathew laughed as we listened to them tramp down the hall. I hadn’t moved from my spot on the bed, still flush from his touch. Mathew rotated the chair slightly so that he had his back now to the door and was facing me. I watched as he plucked, placed his fingers on the strings, and then tuned. He picked at various chords, and then started to play. I watched his hands. One of the hands I had held in the backyard, one of the hands that had touched me. They glided almost sensuously, easily across the guitar and its strings.
    When he got into the music , he didn’t seem aware of much else. As he played, I finally loosened back up and folded my legs, crossing them, getting more comfortable on his bed. His bed. I fantasized about him kissing me here, touching me. Gayle and I talked about sex. We knew the basics and Keri had filled in a lot of the rest for me. I wondered if he ever thought about kissing me. I was thinking about what it would feel like to kiss him when I realized he’d stopped playing. I looked up at him, feeling naked.
    “Where were you?” h e asked.
                  I felt the emotion fill my chest, my face feeling hot. The tingling I’d felt between my legs was now a dull ache.
                  “Nowhere,” I answered, looking away, pushing my feelings down.
                  “You looked like you were thinking about something serious,” he said.
    “Nope, nothing serious . Maybe feeling bad about hiding. Keep playing.”
                  He mixed it up, but his favorite was the rock-and-roll stuff. Some of it I recognized from the radio, some I didn’t. He would sing now and then, but mostly he played. His fingers moved so knowingly over the strings. When he played, his hair would flop forward over his face, and he would move with the music. When he was so wrapped up in his music, I could observe him closely. I watched his expression change with the chords and the song. Goddamn, he was good-looking . Somehow he seemed older than me, so comfortable with himself. He interrupted my thoughts again when he set the guitar down. I hadn’t even heard the music stop. I was looking at his lips and quickly shifted my focus to his eyes.
    “There’s that look again ,” he said.
    He was putting me on the spot and my thoughts had been going places I didn’t dare discuss.
                  “What look?” I asked.
                  “I said serious before but that’s not it, somewhere else maybe.”
                  “Enjoying the music, you’re playing, that’s all,” I said.
                  “Do you have anyone you like at school?” he asked. “A guy, I mean.”
                  The question was awkward. I hesitated, trying to figure out his reason for asking. As of yet we hadn’t discussed very much about the girl, guy thing, certainly nothing about any connection between us.
                  “School’s out,” I finally answered.
                  “Duh, you know what I mean, when you are in school.”
                  “I don’t know,” I paused, thinking. “Not really. I have a lot of guy friends.”
                  I thought about some of the boys in my class, and they all seemed immature compared to him. Mathew could be immature too, but most of the time when we were alone together he wasn’t.
                  “When the guys and I get together and play, we have girls who come and hang out. Some are pretty