24
I was expecting our destination to be a nasty, old rundown shack sandwiched in between crack houses. And I was expecting Derek’s bandmate to be a drugged-out, long-haired scuz that we would wake up when we got there.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
As I drove my beat-up Toyota, Derek directed me out to the suburbs. That is, when he wasn’t chatting with a newly friendly Shanna.
We finally turned into a very pretty, upper-middle-class neighborhood with manicured lawns and kids playing out in the street.
We pulled up in front of a brick McMansion with a long driveway that ended on the side of the house.
“Whoa, your bassist lives here?” Shanna asked.
“Yeah. Nice, huh?” Derek agreed.
There was a new Honda sitting in front of a basketball hoop. I started to park beside it when Derek stopped me.
“Park behind it – his parents aren’t home from work yet, and we don’t want to get blocked in.”
His parents aren’t home from work yet?
“He lives with his parents?” Shanna asked, once again voicing the questions I wasn’t sure were polite.
“Yeah, he’s still a senior in high school,” Derek said.
High school?!
I realized that I’d never found out Derek’s age.
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Eighteen.”
Holy SHIT. He was a year younger than me.
“Oh my GOD, you’re a baby!” Shanna cackled.
Which was ridiculous – she and I were both 19.
And he was definitely no baby. Not at six feet tall with that astounding body.
But I had thought he was 24 or 25, so the truth was a shock.
Once I got out of the car, I started towards the front of the house – and again, Derek intervened.
“We’re actually going in the back,” he said.
Shanna and I followed him into a backyard full of azalea bushes and dogwood trees. There was even a goldfish pond complete with a tiny stone waterfall. It was a suburban paradise.
Derek led us around to a patio in the rear and knocked on a sliding glass door with vertical blinds.
It opened a few seconds later. A lanky, baby-faced giant poked his head out and looked down at Derek crossly. “You’re late.”
“I brought that girl I was telling you about. Ryan, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn, this is my bandmate Ryan.”
I stared at him.
Not what I’d been expecting at all.
He was a clean-cut kid who looked like he belonged in cross-country instead of in a band. He had short brown hair – not quite a military buzzcut, but only a few weeks of growth removed from one. Clean shaven, no piercings, no tattoos. He had the angelic features of a complete innocent. He wore stiff blue jeans – new and not yet broken in – and bright white sneakers. The only hint about his musical leanings was his t-shirt, which was from a Foo Fighters concert tour a couple of years ago.
His eyes flitted over to me and froze. His mouth dropped open the slightest bit.
“Hi,” I said, raising my hand.
“H-hi,” he stuttered, his eyes never leaving mine. I noticed they were a pretty brown.
“I brought a looker for you, too,” Derek said. “This is Shanna.”
Ryan broke away from staring at me and glanced over at Shanna – and his eyes almost immediately dropped down to her cleavage. He blushed slightly and immediately raised his eyes.
Shanna ate it up.
“Hi!” she bubbled, flinging out her hand to shake his. I could tell she liked him.
An innocent for her to corrupt.
“Hi,” he said, taking her hand, then looked back guiltily at me, as though he’d done something wrong.
“Alright, let’s get started,” Derek said, brushing past him and stepping inside. “You can mack on the ladies later.”