Marcus held up his hands in surrender. “Fuck, dude, easy.” He grinned at her and Zoe, and gave a wink for good measure it seemed.
“But seriously, you can just call me Five now.” They had never called Marcus “Five” while growing up as a nickname, but over the past five years he had taken on the name—for reasons unknown to her.
“But seriously, you’re a sight for sore eyes.” He looked over at Zoe who was standing in front of Beats talking with him. “Both of you are.”
She gave a hug to Matty and then Beats, and then they were all sitting on the couch and chairs, beers in their hands, and the atmosphere starting to feel like it used to. It was still a little strange to be right in front of them after all this time, especially Jacks, and not because it had been ages since they had been in the same room. The way they had stopped seeing each other still played through her head like a broken record.
“So, what’s new with you two?” Beats asked as he twirled a drumstick between his fingers.
Tanner glanced at Zoe, who sat beside him, and saw her friend’s face redden. Yeah, the poor girl still had it bad for the drummer, but he seemed oblivious to that fact, like he always had. Five—it felt so weird calling him that—was sitting in the chair he had been in before, and that nearly nude blonde was right back on his lap. It took a lot to make Tanner uncomfortable, especially in the sexual sense, but seeing Five slip his hand between the blonde’s legs, and move his other hand to cover one of her breasts, made Tanner feel really out of place.
She cleared her throat and looked back at the other three guys. Jacks had since grabbed his guitar and was picking out a soft tune, but his gaze was trained on Tanner. She shifted in her seat and looked at Matty, who was talking to some redhead that she hadn’t even seen enter the lounge.
“Not much new, well,” she cleared her throat, “aside from the fact that I’ve moved back to town because I can’t find a job with my degree.”
“You go to school working on that computer stuff?” Five asked, but his voice was muffled since he had it practically buried in the blonde’s cleavage.
“Dude, how about ditching the chick and spending some time with the girls?” Beats said, but there was a sharpness to his words. Beats looked at her and shrugged. “He’s a horny fucker. And I swear his dick is out of his pants more times than not.”
“Beats, you’re being just as much of a douche as Five,” Jacks said.
The other guys started laughing, and when Beats looked over at Zoe and nudged her in the shoulder she gave this nervous laugh. That had Tanner smiling, yet feeling bad for her friend. Of course they had all been open and outgoing back in the day, but everything just seemed weird now, different, and she hated that.
She noticed—and felt—Jacks staring at her, but she willed herself not to shift and not to seem uncomfortable. But of course she knew she looked just that, because she felt her hands slightly shake, and felt the trickle of beads of perspiration form between her breasts again. Now more than ever Jacks’ stare made her feel so hyperaware.
“Your hair is shorter.” He continued to strum on his guitar, but once again kept his piercing stare trained on her. “I thought you said you were never going to cut your hair short?” Jacks said without really showing any emotion in his voice.
She realized, when her heart slowed from its crazy thundering rhythm, and when she forced herself to stop fidgeting with the edge of her shirt, that the song he was strumming was “In My Life” by The Beatles. It had been the last song Jacks had played for her, the one right before they had gone in his room and into his bed, where he had taken her virginity.
She might have lost her virginity that night, but it had been hard, fast, all-consuming, and exactly the way she had envisioned being with a guy like Jacks. Shifting on her seat again, but this time not from feeling out of place, but because she was wet between her thighs thinking about that night again, she licked her lips.
“Long hair is a lot to manage.” She lifted her hand and ran a lock of her dark brown now shoulder length hair between her fingers. She also had bangs now, ones that kind of did a swoop thing along her forehead, but bangs nonetheless. “I actually just cut it, like a week ago.”
Jacks didn’t say anything for several moments, and she hated that she worried if he liked this new cut or not. She remembered all those years ago when he used to reach out and take a piece of her waist length hair between his fingers. He’d rub the locks back and forth while staring into her eyes. Those were the little memories she thought of a lot, and ones he probably didn’t even think about, or remember.
“I liked your long hair.” He was silent for a moment after he spoke, but still picked out the song. “But I like the short hair better. You look like a grown-up.” Jacks smiled, and everyone around them started laughing. But Jacks and Tanner weren’t laughing, and instead still watched each other.
“You coming to the show in Denver?” Matty asked, breaking up the trance that had suddenly surrounded her.
“Um,” she glanced over at Zoe and lifted her eyebrow. “I don’t know. When is it?”
“This Saturday,” Beats responded.
“We would love to come.” Zoe spoke up before Tanner could say anything.
“Sweet,” Beats said and nudged Zoe in the arm again.
They started a conversation, and soon that tight air that surrounded Tanner seemed to go away as the conversation went from the guys and their fame over the last few years, to the days back in high school when they were playing gigs at a few of the bars in the surrounding cities.
“You remember we could only go to the ones that would let in minors?” Five said through a laugh. “I mean we couldn’t even stay past a certain time at most because that was when only the legal drinkers could stay.”
Everyone started laughing even harder.
“Or what about the time we dared Beats to strip down and run through the center of town fucking naked because we were all trashed on those apple puckers that Zoe got from her folks’ place.” Matty threw his head back and started laughing so hard that tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes. “I haven’t thought about this shit in so damn long.”
“You jokers think that is funny, yet you didn’t have the Sherriff make you sleep in a cell for the night for indecent exposure.” Beats had this snappy tone to his voice, but as everyone kept laughing a smile broke across his face.
“Oh, shit, I miss those days,” Five said and wiped the corner of his eyes. He looked up at the blonde, said something low so that only she heard, and then stood. “I need to wind down. Catch you assholes back at the hotel.” He came up to Tanner, gave her a huge hug, and whispered in her ear, “You and Zoe will come to the show in Denver, right?” He pulled back. “The bigger venues are a trip, like a real fucking surreal trip.” He grinned and then winked.
She hadn’t planned on it, even after Zoe had told them they would go, but how could she say no to spending more time with them? “You know we will.”
He turned and gave Zoe a hug, too, and then pointed to Jacks. “Make sure the girls don’t back out of coming to Denver.” Beats winked at her once more.
Jacks nodded. “No fucking way are they getting out of coming.”