Page 19 of Never Lasting (Never Blue)

I jerked my chin at her and Tino. “Looks like it’s serious between you two.”

She tipped her head back again and smiled up at him. He brushed her hair away from her face, planted a kiss on her forehead, then squeezed her against his chest. And I was stupidly jealous.

It wasn’t a rational feeling, but jealousy so rarely was.

“If I were to ever marry someone, it would be Tali,” Tino said. “We would have beautiful, beautiful babies.”

She giggled. “And how are we going to conceive these babies?”

He flicked his hand dismissively. “I’ve had sex with women before. I could do you for the sake of progeny.”

She turned to face him. “You’ve had sex with women? As in multiple? And I’ve been letting you feel me up all night?”

“I only touched one tit. It was a mighty fine tit, but I still prefer dick,” Tino said.

I was too distracted by Tali’s tits to listen to the rest of their bickering. She had on a different band shirt—Bush this time—and little boxer shorts. I couldn’t even say why, but it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. Especially with her sleepy-high eyes and long hair tousled around her shoulders.

The night wore on, and my high finally caught up to me. Ben stumbled home with Seven and a couple of the girls. Laura and Nina stretched out on Tino’s sectional couch and fell asleep. Jeremy disappeared with another girl, leaving me, Tino, and Tali.

“I’m heading to bed, kiddies. Remember, mi casa es su casa. Stay as long as you want, but no fucking on my rug. It’s new, and dry cleaning is a bitch.” Tino gave us a finger wave and meandered up the ornate staircase leading to the second floor.

Tali got up from the floor, stretching her arms over her head. I stayed on my spot at her feet, like her loyal subject. She glanced at the sleeping girls on the couch and the piles of blankets and pillows on the floor.

“I need some water,” she whispered.

I followed her into the kitchen, suddenly parched myself.

She hopped up on the counter, sipping from a plastic tumbler and gently swinging her legs. She had slippers on her feet.

“Did you come in your pajamas?”

Her cheeks tinged pink. “I did. Tino said lowkey, and I went the lowest of keys.”

Leaning my hip against the counter beside her, I crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re so fucking adorable, Stripes.”

“Stop it, Jude.”

I held my hands up, hating that I was coming off as skeevy, but I truly couldn’t help the shit that left my mouth around her. “I’m stopping. Right now.”

She took another sip of her water, eyeing me over the brim. “Never Again should do the Swerve tour. That crowd would eat you up.”

I huffed. “Sure. We’ll get right on that.”

“I’m serious.”

“Tali, obviously that’s a dream. Getting to tour the country all summer? Getting our music out there like that? Jesus Christ, I’d give almost anything for that. But we can’t just invite ourselves on tour. We kinda have to be invited.”

She put her cup down and rubbed her lips together. “I bet I could get you on the tour. I have a friend of a friend who books some of the acts. Let me see what I could do.”

A surge of something hit me in the chest.Hope. That, motherfucker, is hope. But I pushed it down. Hope was deadly. I’d gotten my hopes up one too many times, only to have them crushed right in front of me. And this girl, as convincing as she was, was just a kid really. No chance I’d be pinning my hopes on her pretty promises.

“You get us on tour, I’ll marry you, girl.”

She laughed, and it entered my bloodstream, like the finest cocaine. “As if I’d marry you, a hopeless flirt, and even worse, a musician. No, I’ll take a shout out in the liner notes of your first album. Maybe add it to my resume. But you can keep the ring, rock star.”

Her words were hard, but she delivered them with a soft, teasing smile.

We ended up stretching out on the pillows in the living room, neither of us tired yet, even though it was three in the morning. We talked about music for days and all the shows we’d been to for years. Tali knew every band I mentioned, had memorized lyrics to the most obscure punk songs I’d grown up listening to. She told me she’d email me music I had to check out. We realized we’d been at the same show at CBGB in New York last summer. Had even been near each other. There was no way I would have forgotten her if I’d seen her there.

Her eyes grew heavy lidded, and I relaxed into the softness of the moment.

“I should go home,” she whispered.

“You definitely shouldn’t, Stripes. Stay a little longer.”

Her lids gave up the good fight and fell shut while her mouth curved into a final smile.

“Just a little longer.”

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