Page 64 of Your Rhythm
Things ease up a bit more after that. I notice everyone avoids the topic of Shayla or anything to do with Atlas, but I’m just glad we’re talking. In what I think is an attempt to patch up their rift from earlier, Cole agrees to go to the show with Ace. The two of them head out to brave the angel piss and then it’s just me, JP, and the four remaining slices of pizza.
As soon as they’re gone, a huge and extremely self-satisfied smirk spreads across JP’s face.
“So,” he says, nodding and continuing to smile at me like he’s about to dump a bucket of ice water on my head.
“So?” I repeat.
“You gonna tell me if she’s good in bed?”
I keep my face blank. “Who?”
“The snake. I know you’re banging. I was just kidding before, but now Iknowyou’re banging.”
“You definitely don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do,” he practically cackles. “I saw you getting on the metro with her last Tuesday, and you didnotlook like you were going to an interview.”
“God, JP, you’re a fucking creep.” I stretch my arms over my head. “Fine. All right. We’re banging. Just don’t go spreading it around, okay?”
He starts pumping his fist in the air and makes some triumphant grunting noises. “Yeah man, I knew it!”
I pick up a piece of pizza and wait for him to calm himself.
“So are you dating or something?” he asks me. “It’s been like two months since you met. When’s the last time you stuck with one girl for that long?”
“You know I’m not opposed to dating, right? I actually prefer it. I just haven’t had time with all the band stuff going on.”
He points a finger at me. “So youaredating.”
“We’re not,” I correct him. “She can’t, not with her article coming up. It looks bad, and I think she’s scared Atlas won’t like us being together. After it’s published though, I...”
I trail off, not even sure where I was headed. I’ve been fixed on the present moment with Kay, taking our time together day by day. Being with her is like walking down a backstreet at night: one moment you’re safe in the glow of streetlamp, the next you’re picking your way through darkness, straining your eyes to see when the next light is going to appear.
I don’t want to bump up against a brick wall one day and realize I’ve reached the end of the road. I want more moments with her, more kisses on rooftops we shouldn’t be on, more nights spent keeping her neighbors awake with her creaking bed frame, more of the way she squints without her glasses, more of her half-smiles and favourite songs—more ofher.
If stumbling around with my hands out in front of me is the only way to have her, I’ll do it.
“You should be careful, though.” JP’s voice jolts me back to reality. “She seems cool, and I’m not saying you’re wrong about her, but she’s still the press. Just watch out for yourself, you know?”
“She’s not like that,” I snap.
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Look man, I’m just trying to be—”
“I know!”
He flinches at my shout and I draw in a breath, pausing for a moment to calm down.
“I know. I appreciate it. It’s just, do you think I haven’t thought about all that myself? I know what her job is. I also know whosheis. She...understands. About music. She gets it. I’ve never met anyone who isn’t a musician and still gets it the way she does.”
“Then good thing Atlas approved her, if she’s going to write as good of an article as you think she is.”
A pang of guilt hits me like a punch to the gut. I try to steel myself against it. Kay’s articlewillbe good, and if Atlas has a problem with it, we can still use the defence that all her interviews were booked before they took over our PR.
That doesn’t change the fact that I knew the guys wouldn’t go for it and lied to them to get what I wanted.
“You still haven’t told me,” says JP, interrupting my thoughts yet again, “if she’s good in bed.”
I grab the last slice of pizza, pushing my doubts away as I close the greasy cardboard box and set it aside with the others.
