Above the Noise (24 page)

“Yeah, you got a visual for that, too, didn’t ya, Cal? You’re gonna have to do more than shake your head to get rid of that beautiful piece of porn.” He nudged me with his elbow as we headed out of the hotel room.

I laughed and pushed him into the elevator and hoped he would keep that little comment to himself once we met up with the girls.

Shit, Bones.

“GRACIE!” I DROPPED
my bags and ran as fast as I could and literally tackled my bestest friend in the whole world, right there in the middle of the airport. We rolled around on the floor hugging and giggling while people stared. We didn’t care. It had been way, way too long since we laid eyes on each other.

“Becki, you’re super skinny. What the hell is up with that? Calon not feeding you?”

“Hey, now. You know I’ll always take care of your girl, G.” Gracie jumped up off the floor and into Calon’s arms. If it was anyone else with their legs wrapped around my boyfriend, I’d throat punch her. Not Gracie, though.

“Calon, you’re all scruffy and rock star-y. Wow. Look at you.” She rubbed the scruff on his chin.

“Yeah, I don’t feed her, and she doesn’t let me shave.” He laughed and put her down. “You look beautiful, Gracie. You look happy, really, really happy.”

“How could I not be? So many of my favorite people are standing right in front of me!”

“Where’s
Stacy? I thought she’d come with you.” I hadn’t talked to Stacy the whole time we’d been gone, but I hadn’t realized it until just that minute.

“She’s studying. She doesn’t even know you guys are coming.” She spun around to the other guys. “Bones, Manny, Spider, come here! Give this girl some lovin’.” They all fulfilled her request and lifted her up off the ground. When they put her back down, she turned toward Danny.

“You must be Danny. It’s really nice to meet you. Becki’s told me a lot about you.” Gracie gave her a big hug. Gracie was just precious, always making sure no one was uncomfortable. I’d told her about my few, but insistent, reservations about Danny in the beginning. After a month of working with her, they’d all melted away.

“I’ve heard a ton about you, too, Gracie, from all these guys. You sure are loved.” Danny smiled almost in a sad way, which made me wonder more about her background. We all come with shit in our past. Danny and I hadn’t gotten into any of that yet.

“Everybody hungry?”

“Starving.” We all said in unison. It was actually the first time I remember being hungry in a couple weeks. That’s all it was. I just missed home.

Gracie drove us to her apartment building in Jake’s new car. On the ride, she had me hand out dark glasses and knit hats from a big bag in the back seat. In order to keep it a secret that Alternate Tragedy was who was behind the costumes at Mitchell’s that night, the guys all needed disguises. They all got a kick out of the hats she picked. I looked into the back of the car and cracked up. It looked like Gracie, Danny, and I had picked up four thugs on our way home from the airport. Ridiculous.

When we got to Gracie’s apartment, she put her finger up to her lips and shushed us. She silently unlocked the door and carefully pushed the door open. Stacy sat on the couch with her back to the door, bopping her head to the beat of whatever was pumping through her ear buds.

We all walked up to the back of the couch and just stood and waited for her to notice she was being watched. Her reaction was priceless. She squealed and hugged me, shook hands with all the guys and Danny then immediately grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me back to their bedroom and shut the door.

“Shit, Becki. You gotta give me something. You have to tell me what he’s like in bed.” Stacy sometimes reminded me of Bones.

I cackled, probably a little too loud, rolled my eyes, and zipped the imaginary zipper across my lips.

“Come on, Becki. God, his eyes, that body. Hell, even his feet have got to be hot. Please, give me something, just a little something for me to hold on to. Please?” Stacy slapped her hands together like she was praying.

“Okay, but you have to shut up about it. No telling anyone.”

“No telling anyone about what?” Gracie walked in and closed the door behind her.

“Becki’s gonna spill it about Calon.” Stacy bounced up and down in front of me.

“I’m not spilling anything. You asked
for a little something to hold on to
. That’s all I’m giving you.”

“Uh. I don’t know if I wanna hear this. It’s Calon. He’s my good friend.” Gracie was already covering her ears as she spoke.

“No, you probably don’t want to hear about him inducting me into The Mile High Club, do you?”

“BECKI!” Stacy squealed, and Gracie fell down on Stacy’s bed and covered her mouth and kicked her feet and flopped around.

There was a knock at the door, and I heard Calon’s muffled voice.

“You can come in, Cal. We’re all decent. Promise.” However, I couldn’t promise the girls’ reaction to seeing him after what they’d just heard would be decent.

The poor guy opened the door, took a step inside the room as Gracie and Stacy squealed and giggled. A look of fear crossed his face, and he backed up. “I was just coming to tell you the pizzas are here. Uh. Carry on.” He was gone as quickly as he arrived.

I fell down on the bed with my BFFs, and we laughed until our stomachs hurt. There was a small part of me that felt bad leaving Danny out there with all the guys when we were obviously having our own private girl-time. But these were my girls, she’d live.

GETTING TO MITCHELL’S
Halloween night proved to be a feat even James Bond would’ve been challenged by. There were collegiate trick-or-treaters everywhere. All the fraternities had drop-in parties, where you got shots at the door instead of candy, and all of the bars had their own Halloween events. The line outside of Mitchell’s was insane and put all the other parties to shame. Buzz apparently did a great job promoting the masquerade event, but I knew we’d never get to the front of the line when we couldn’t pull the ‘we’re the band’ clause.

“Buzz, we’re here with the guys. How do we get in?” Gracie nodded her head. “Yep. Okay, perfect. Headed there now. Thanks, Buzz.”

Then she just took off running down the alley, yelling for us to follow her. She was in charge of renting the costumes for the guys, so they were completely unrecognizable, which is exactly what they were. No one would suspect that the giant apple, bunch of green grapes, bunch of purple grapes, and the weird-looking leaf all with white plastic faceless masks were actually the members of Alternate Tragedy. More like Fruit of the Loom Tragedy. Danny and I jogged behind the guys to make sure no one tagged along.

Buzz waited for us around the other side of the building, the daytime entrance to the restaurant portion of Mitchell’s was virtually deserted. The night went off without a hitch. The crowd went wild when they realized who it was behind the masks. All it took was for Calon to take the apple headpiece off and shake out his gorgeous curls for the girls to lose it. They changed into normal clothes after the first set, and by then, the place was mobbed. I saw tweets and Facebook posts with pictures of them, so it felt like the whole town was there in no time.

It was so hot near the stage that I kept moving further back toward the stairs, hoping some of the cool night air would fall down the stairwell from the street level door. Eventually, Gracie and I sat at the bar. Maverick handed me glass after glass of ice water. We joked around and laughed the whole time.

“Hey, Gracie. Where’s Jake?” Maverick leaned across the bar and slid a bottle of Rolling Rock her way.

“He’s on his way. Buzz texted him to pick up some stuff they’re running out of because of all the people that are here. This is crazy.”

“Seriously, I’m pretty sure we’re past max capacity tonight. Hope the fire marshal doesn’t show up.” Maverick spun around toward a whistle and headed over to a gaggle of squealing girls.

“Becki, you okay? You don’t look so good.” Gracie rubbed the sweaty hair from my forehead.

“It’s just so effing hot in here, Gracie. I feel like I can’t breathe. I want to stay until last call, but I feel like I’m melting. I may not make it.” I shook my head and tried to suck in a breath even deeper than the last hundred I’d taken. Somehow it just seemed as though the oxygen wasn’t getting to my head.

“We can go home, Becki. Becki?” Gracie’s voice trailed off and sounded like she was under water. I looked up at the stage, and I could see Calon’s mouth moving, but it was like my ears closed, like they do from a sudden increase in altitude. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes.

“Maybe I picked up a cold or something on the plane. I’m fine, just feel super out of it all of a sudden.” I leaned back against the bar and held onto my barstool with both hands. I had to concentrate on keeping my focus from blurring into oblivion.

“Becki, you’re scaring me.” Gracie was ultra-nervous about everything. She’d always been prone to anxiety, even before the hell she went through with Noah. I saw her look to the stage more than once.

“Don’t you dare make Calon worry. I think I just need some fresh air.” I blew strands of hair out of my face.

“Or the urgent care office on the corner.” She nodded her head like it would make me agree with her.

“Gracie, relax. Can you just walk up to the sidewalk with me?”

“Mav!” She called so loud it made me jump. “I’m taking Becki upstairs for some fresh air. If we don’t come back down soon, will you come check on us?”

“Absolutely. You okay, Becki?”

“I’m fine, but I’m having trouble convincing my collegiate-age mom of that.” I rolled my eyes. Gracie looped arms with me as we headed toward the stairs that led to the sidewalk. I could breathe better by the fifth step, it was like we were ascending above a thick cloud of heat and into thinner, cooler air. It’s exactly what my lungs craved. I sucked in as many deep breaths as I could, so that when we got to the sidewalk, Gracie could tell I was fine and just needed some fresh air.

“How’s that?” She let go of my arm, and I let my body fall back a couple inches to the wall, which made Gracie gasp and grab at me like I was headed to the ground.

“I’m fine, Gracie. Good God! You will be an awful mom. You’ll make your poor kids as nervous and anxious as you are.”

“Becki Jane! That’s a terrible thing to say! You know how badly I want kids.”

I laughed at her panic and obvious horror at what I’d just accused her of. “I’m just kidding, Gracie, you’ll make a good mom one day.” She smiled and nodded her satisfaction.

I felt a flutter in my chest that felt like the onset of an anxiety attack, which made me pissed at Gracie for freaking out. Then my heartbeat sped up and began to race so fast I slid down the wall to sit and clutched my chest. Gracie took my face in her hands, and she was saying something. I couldn’t focus on her words, though, I had to focus on breathing and staying conscious. As if someone turned a switch, I lost my peripheral vision until everything went black.