Page 23 of Behind the Lights

Well, that explains why he was never dressed as ratty as the rest of us. His family has money.

“Uh, no. This is only the second time we’ve ever spoken.”

He laughed. “True, but I hope to change that.” He winked and turned, walking away.

I couldn’t rip my eyes away from that tight ass.What I wouldn’t give to be those jeans…

“Dude,” Stoli smacked me on the back and I jumped.

“What the hell?” I said, louder than I meant to.

“What did he want?” He bobbed his head in the direction Lucas had gone.

“He asked me about the talent show. Said his dad is some sort of an agent,” I told him, leaning over to pick up the book I’d tossed when he scared the shit out of me.

“Yeah, right,” he sneered.

“What’s he done to you anyways?” I asked, not quite certain why Stoli seemed to have it out for him.

The look of shock crossed his face, albeit briefly. “Nothing, I just don’t trust his prissy ass.”

“Yeah, but what a great, prissy ass it is.” I looked down the hall, as though I could still see it there. But I could have sworn I heard Stoli growling behind me.

“Do you have any classes with him?” I asked as we walked out the front doors to head home.

“No.”

“Then how do you know him?” I wasn’t sure where this was headed. Did we like the same guy or something?

“I don’t.” His answers were short, and curt.

“Then what the fuck? Do you like him?” This was really starting to piss me off. What was his deal?

“Ha, not on your life.”

“Okay, so what is it? If you like him, I’ll back off, but otherwise…” I trailed off, throwing him a bone in the hopes he’d come clean with me.

“Look,” he stopped suddenly, and I damn near ran into him, “I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all.”

Relentless in my pursuit for the truth, I pushed, “But you don’t even know him.”

“I don’t need to.” His face turned red and for the first time, I saw an angry Stoli before he stormed off.

As we neared our houses he stopped, his hand on the door handle, but never turned to look at me. “We have practice on Wednesday so I’m gonna go inside and get my homework done and work on my parts. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He went inside, slamming the door behind him. Leaving me dazed and confused standing alone on the front steps to his house.What the hell did I do?

I walked the hundred or so feet to my house, racking my brain to figure out what went wrong. After tossing my backpack on the floor beside the couch, I went into the kitchen to make something to eat.Stoli and I never fought before, was this our first?

I stalked up to my room, plate in hand taking the stairs two at a time and plopped down at the desk, diving into my homework. Afterwards, I put on my headphones and cranked it up. Getting back to learning my part of the song – the singing one. That’s a hell of a lot more pressure than I ever anticipated when I agreed to start a band with Stoli. And the first thing they threw at me was Freddy Mercury, the man with a killer voice who could belt out any tune.Ugh.

It was a while later when someone tapped me on the shoulder, I shrieked, “What the—” Grabbing my headphones and sliding them off before turning to find my dad standing there. Thankfully I caught myself before finishing that statement. “Whoa Dad, you scared me. What’s up?”

“Surprised to see you home. You sounded pretty good, son.” He patted the shoulder he’d just tapped, “Hungry?”

“I could eat.” I reached over, shutting off the stereo.

“Pizza’s downstairs.” He turned and walked out with me trailing behind him.

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