Page 44 of Stone Rules

The lights flash and a big burly man gets up off his perch on a barstool in the corner. “Thanks for coming everyone. The band goes on in thirty. If you’d like to take your seats for the opening act, now would be the time.”

I guess that’s our cue to leave. They probably need time to practice or focus or meditate or whatever the hell they do to get ready for the show. Adam grabs a scantily-dressed blonde girl before she reaches the door. He whispers something in her ear that has her face splitting with a smile as she hangs back with him instead of being herded out with the rest of us. Okay,whateverit is.

As we exit the lounge, Chad tells us he and Nikki are going to hang backstage, and for a minute I feel guilty about asking Ethan to forgo that. I lean over to tell him, but before I can get the words out, he holds up his hand. “Charlie, no way. I know what you’re going to say. But you must absolutely experience this like every other concertgoer. You’re in for a real treat.” He grabs my hand and tingles of sensation make their way up my arm.

Why is he holding my hand? This isn’t a date.

I get my answer when we are escorted through a door into a mosh pit of people. There must be thousands of people trying to make their way to their seats. I almost lose Ethan ten times in the crowd, but he never once lets go of my hand. Not until we find our seats.

I turn around to take in the enormous crowd behind us. There must be hundreds of rows behind us. Thousands. I’ve never seen so many people together at one time before. And that’s when I feel it. The energy. The excitement. The pure adrenaline.

Yes. This is exactly what I needed after the day I had.

Chapter Twenty

The opening band comes out to cheers and applause.

I’ve never heard of this band before. But that’s not surprising. I still don’t listen to music all that often. I never got into it like most teens. I assume it’s because of the negative association I felt with it. My mom would always play loud music when . . . well, she played it a lot. I’ll never listen to music from the 80s or 90s. But White Poison is fine. They’ve only been around for the past four or five years, being catapulted to stardom thanks to the popularity of YouTube. They became popular by simply posting videos of themselves performing. They were offered a record contract without ever having played a live concert. Or so I was told in the limo on the way over.

It’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement, and after a few minutes I find myself swaying my hips and tapping my feet to the beat.

I find it amusing that everyone is assigned a ‘seat’ when nobody actually sits down the entire time the band is playing.

There is a break when the first band leaves the stage. Being so close to the front, we can hear a lot of banging and moving as they presumably have to set up for White Poison to make their entrance.

The crowd is still buzzing with commotion, but at least I can hear Ethan speak when he leans his head close to me. “So . . . about this centerfold thing.”

I shrug.

“I’m not sure I like the fact that millions of other men have seen you naked.”

It’s hard not to find his jealousy endearing. “I wasn’t naked. I wore a G-string. Plus, it’s a European publication. I hardly think millions of men have seen it. It’s not like I posed forPlayboyor anything.”

“My goddamn brother saw it,” he pouts.

“So what?” I ask. “I’m not your girlfriend, Ethan. You have no right to an opinion on those kinds of matters.”

His hard stare burns down on me. “I still don’t like it, Charlie.”

“Then don’t ever look at it,” I say.

“Right.” He laughs. “Kind of like telling a kid not to eat the cookie in the cookie jar. If he didn’t know the cookie was in the jar, he wouldn’t ever want it. And now that you’ve told him it’s there, but that he can’t eat it, it’s all he can think about.”

“So in this scenario, you’re the kid and I’m the cookie?” I ask, amused.

He smirks at me.

“Nobody is saying you can’t eat the cookie, Ethan. Eat the fucking cookie. I’m handing it to you on a platter.”

“Are we still talking about the photo spread?” he asks.

I don’t get a chance to answer him before deafening cheers, screams and cat-calls echo through the concert hall as White Poison takes the stage.

They start out playing a popular song I recognize from the radio. It may be one of the only songs I know of theirs since I’m not the type of person who buys music.

It’s hard not to feel the pure energy around me, and before I even realize I’m doing it, I’m dancing along with the tens of thousands of other people in attendance.

The dancing. The energy. The sheer number of people in here. It’s all contributing to the heat in the massive auditorium and I feel beads of sweat start to trickle down between my breasts.

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