Above the Noise Read Online Free Page B

two beds, face down and hugging his bottle of Jack. Manny and Spider stumbled in, not as drunk and pretending not to notice what they probably assumed Bones interrupted. Using my body as a human shield to hide his giant boner, Calon backed me toward the door and called out, “Guys, we’re gonna go get some ice.” He grabbed the ice bucket from the shelf, and we rushed out the door.
    Once in the hallway, I spun with my back against the wall and tried to catch my breath. Calon leaned in toward me with one hand next to my head. His curls brushed my face and tickled. I blew them away, making us both laugh.
    “You were saying?” He tipped his head, resting his forehead against mine.
    “Huh?” I didn’t know what freakin’ planet I was on, let alone what I’d been saying.
    “You said, ‘Calon, I need to’ just before the idiots burst in.”
    “I was going to say that I needed to feel you—closer, ya know?”
    “Whoa, Becki Mowry, are you saying you want to move past first base? Wait. Is kissing first base?” he whispered it sarcastically as if second base would a huge step. I hoped it wasn’t a huge step for him, because I’d never even slowed down at second base. Shit, I’d touched Gracie’s boobs within the first week I knew her. Of course, I was drunk, and it was one of our middle school friend’s stupid dares. But it was faster than Calon was moving, which frustrated the piss out of me.
    “Yes and yes.” I took my hairband from my wrist, threw my hair up into a messy bun, and then shot him my best puppy dog eyes.
    “Are you propositioning me?” His eyebrow arched as his thumb brushed my jaw lightly.
    “Yes, thick-as-a-brick rock star, I am. Geez. What’s a girl gotta do to get into your pants?”
    “Oh, honey, what’s in these pants… we may need to work you up to it.” He kissed me on the cheek and grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s go get some ice.”
    Shit.
     

     
    “I’M CLEAN. I’VE been tested twice since Shawn and I broke up.” I reached up and turned the overhead light off, which left us snuggled up on my single bed, joined only by the moonlight that shone through the window. We were in the middle of one of our stream of consciousness conversations. I couldn’t even remember how the conversation of exes came up, and I was still trying to wrap my brain around something Calon said that made me think he wasn’t the typical groupie-slut rock star.
    “Twice?” Calon picked his head up off my pillow and looked down at me.
    “He said things were getting too serious, but I found out later he’d been cheating.”
    “Well, I’m clean, too. Only been tested once, though.” He rested his head next to mine
    “Slacker.”
    “Yeah, that’s me—big ole slacker.” He pushed me in the shoulder, almost causing me fall off the narrow bed. He pulled me back into him, and I swore I felt something in his jeans that hadn’t been there before. It could have been wishful thinking, though.
    I needed to calm the hormones that had me ready to strip for him down, so I changed the subject to something that was sure to deflate all boners. “What about kids?”
    “Do I have them?” He sounded shocked that I asked. For a second it made me wonder if he did and just didn’t want to tell me.
    “No, dummy, do you want them?”
    “Umm… I don’t like to think that far ahead. I’m more of a ‘live each day like it’s your last’ kind of guy, ya know? How about you? You want kids?”
    “No way. I guess I’m a little too selfish for that.”
    “Selfish?”
    “Yeah, I like my body the way it is… not fat. I like to spend my time the way I want to. I’m impulsive and love to do spur of the moment things. Kids kinda disrupt all of that.”
    “Yeah, I guess they do.” He brushed the hair from my neck and let his hand gently fall there. Goose bumps prickled over my entire body, and I hoped he didn’t notice.
    “Besides, when I was twelve, I got really sick and was diagnosed with Leukemia. I