I just had sex. And it was...wow. I mean I sort of like Lauryn before, but now...wow.
Okay, so after I talked to Taylor, I went upstairs. Lauryn was sitting up, her lower half under the covers and her nose in a Rolling Stone magazine. On the floor were her shoes, jeans, and her shirt. It turned out she had a shirt on underneath. It was one of those little shirts with the really thin straps, I think they're spaghetti straps but I don't pay attention so I could be wrong. I talked to her about Taylor and after a while she coaxed (yeah right) me into staying in the room for the night. We were talking, then we were kissing, and before I knew it we were having sex! Score! Yeah, I'm an idiot. I know.
Okay, not only has she had sex before, she's perfected it. Oh my God. I don't think I've had sex like that before. Ever. And I've had sex so many times I don't know how many partners I've had. That's not good cause for all I know I could have twenty-seven children and be swarming with STD's, but...yeah.
I looked over at Lauryn asleep next to me. I'm falling in love with this girl. I hate it, but I'm falling in love with her. I hate to say that I'm completely basing it on how great she is in bed, cause that's so shallow, but that's part of it. A big part of it. Okay it's all of it! I'm horrible, but I'm a guy so I have an excuse! I think with my dick and not with my heart. I'm sorry.
But I really do like her. Today was great; I finally spent a considerable amount of time with her without fighting or yelling or even getting mad at her. It was great.
I got out of the bed. I can't sleep right now. I'm not tired. If I try to sleep I'll end up waking her up and that won't be good. I grabbed my clothes and threw them on. It wasn't that late, I could call Isaac and tell him I found Taylor. I knew he wouldn't go back home until the morning. He didn't like to fly at night.
I went into Isaac's room across the hall. I couldn't talk in my room or Taylor's room because they were occupied, and this room was closer than downstairs. I picked up the phone and dialed home. I hope I didn't wake Zo� up, I knew she'd be asleep right now.
"Hello?" It was Isaac.
"Hey Ike, it's me. I found Taylor."
"You did? Thank God; where are you?"
"I'm at our house in LA. I came here with Lauryn and he was here. He freaked me out too, I thought there was some stranger taking our glasses and watching our TV. I should have known it was Taylor, cause only Taylor would turn on porn and walk away to get a glass of water." Okay, so it wasn't porn, but I got Isaac to laugh so I accomplished my goal.
"Did you talk to him?"
"Yeah, we chatted for a bit. He just really needs a break. I'm thinking about pushing back the tour a bit so we can have a break. We really need it."
"I know we do. On the past few sessions Taylor's voice has been really scratchy."
"I noticed that when I was talking to him."
"If we go from this to singing on shows straight to the tour he'll lose his voice for sure and we'll have to cancel shows, and we really can't afford that this tour. Maybe we can cut short some promotions, cause some of that is a bit of excess." I agreed. "So how's it going with Lauryn?"
"Excellent. We're getting along really well. I haven't gotten mad at her all day."
"You had sex with her, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"I knew it. Okay, how much do you love her now?" Isaac asked. He knew me too well.
"I am so in love with her right now. She's great, like, wow."
"That's great. Now go to bed, cause I want you here early tomorrow," he joked. I wasn't even needed in the studio anymore.
"Okay, whatever. See you." I hung up the phone and walked back to my room. I climbed into the bed and stroked Lauryn's hair. I love hair; it's probably why I keep mine so long. I like how a girl's hair is soft and smooth. I could stroke a girl's hair all night, and what I've heard from Nic, they like it too. Lauryn shifted in her sleep. She put her arms around my neck and laid her head on my chest. Yeah, I was going to like this.
When I woke up the next morning, Lauryn was already awake. I heard her talking with Taylor downstairs. I got up and walked downstairs. I'm cute in the morning. I'm probably the only one, but I look cute in the morning. Yeah, it sounds gay, but I do!
I walked into the kitchen and Lauryn was having breakfast with Taylor. "Hey honey, it's about time you woke up. We're ready to go home."
"Great. I'm not." I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and spoon from the drawer. I sat down at the table and poured myself a bowl of cereal.
"Finish the milk cause it can't be left here," Taylor said.
"No, I was going to save some for when we came back here in a year." Taylor gave me a look. "He's not a morning person," I told Lauryn.
"I can hear you, you know."
"He's also a moronic loser with a 'performance' problem, if you know what I mean." Taylor smacked me in the arm.
"Excuse you!" he said, sternly. For a moment I forgot that he wasn't serious and that he didn't mean to hit me. I refrained from being an all-out spaz and freaking Lauryn out, but I didn't look at Taylor for a while.
After breakfast, including a nice tall glass of milk to make me big and strong, the three of us caught a plane back home to Tulsa. I took Lauryn home.
"That was the best," Lauryn told me. "Thank you so much."
"I'll call you later."
"All right. See you." I kissed her. She smiled shyly, a first since I met her and got out of the car. I looked at the time. I guess I could go to the studio. I wasn't really needed anymore, all my parts were done already. I went down to the studio anyway. I could help Isaac out in the editing room. He was getting tired of editing, I'm sure, because he doesn't have a large part in the song.
I went inside the studio. Taylor was in the middle of a verse when I walked in. His voice was considerably scratchy, but scratchy was sometimes a good thing. I could tell he was upset by the way he was straining. He had two bottles of water next to him�one empty and the other half full.
"Hey Ike," I said. He looked over.
"Hey, Tay, take a break," Isaac said, stopping the music. Taylor sighed and stepped away from the microphone, muttering something I couldn't hear. Isaac looked over at me. "Zac, what are you doing here?"
"I have nothing else to do. I figured I'd help you out." I took a seat next to him. "You do need my help, don�t you?"
"Yeah, I could use it. We're pretty much done, though. Taylor wants to rework the bridge but he'll lose his voice before he does all that again."
"Do we have another version of this? We can't have him scratchy on one verse and clear on the rest. He'll have to do the whole thing over again."
"Well he made a big deal that he had to be here, so he's going to be here and sing."
"Hey, Isaac, could you play that verse over again?" Taylor asked, stepping up to the microphone. Isaac turned on the music. Taylor visibly winced when he heard his voice. "Shit," he said, loud enough for the microphone to pick it up.
"We're going to have to do that one over again," I said.
"Can we do that over again?" Taylor asked, and tried to clear his throat. "It's really bad."
"Taylor, it's just going to get worse," Isaac said. "Go home and rest your voice."
"No, we have to do this over again," he said, sternly.
"Taylor, go home. We've got enough to finish the song."
"Well can't I at least help with the editing and the arranging? It's my song too, you know."
"Fine." Taylor took off his headphones and came into the editing room. Ike put on the song. I realized that Taylor's voice started getting scratchy around the first verse, but it got really bad lately. I'm surprised he can still talk.
"God, I sound horrible."
"Maybe if you just shut up for a little while you can rest your throat and get cleared up before we go on the road."
We spent the next few hours trying to get the scratch out of Taylor's voice. It wasn't working. Isaac pulled out some of the first recordings of the songs with just his voice. Towards the end of the day, we were still working. We decided to call it quits around eight.
"Hey, do you guys want to get some food?" Taylor asked.
"I'm going to stay here and finish up," Isaac said.
"I've got stuff to finish at home too," I said. I noticed that Taylor looked a little disappointed.
"All right. Hey, Zac, do you think I could get a ride home?" I nodded. We were going the same place anyway. He followed me out to my car and we drove home. I really wanted to finish my picture of Nic. As much as I didn't want to think about her right now, I did want to finish her picture.
When we got home I went into my room and closed the door. When I was set and ready to paint, the phone rang. I did not want to pick it up so I waited for someone else to.
"Zac!" my mother's voice shouted up the stairs. Shit. "It's Lauryn!" Oh, if it's Lauryn...I reached over and picked up my cordless phone that was sitting near my paints.
"Hey babe," I said.
"Hey honey," she said. "How are you doing tonight?"
"I'm just dandy."
"Did you find out when you're leaving?"
"Oh, trying to get rid of me, I see," I joked, rolling my eyes. She'd been pressuring this out of me and I hadn't found out anything until today.
"Well, duh, I've got twenty guys waiting until you leave so they can have me," she kidded back. Well, at least she had a sense of humor.
"Sure. But, yeah. I found out. We leave on Friday."
"That doesn't leave me much time," she said.
"To do what?"
"To fall in love with you." That's something I'm supposed to say! I'm supposed to make cute little remarks like that, which would totally flatter a girl and all that. Dammit.
"Well, if it helps at all, I'm already headed down that road." No, I did not just tell her that! Oh my God what am I getting myself into? I'm sitting her painting a portrait of Nic and talking to Lauryn! Wait a sec. I looked at the canvas in front of me. This portrait was just clinging to the past. I had the possibility of a nice relationship with Lauryn. Why am I thinking about Nic? This painting was why. I looked at it, and put it away.
Lauryn was by my side as I finished packing. "Well, that's the last of it," I said, and looked at my watch. Our flight to Los Angeles left in two hours, meaning we had to leave soon. Lauryn put her arms around me.
"When are you going to be back?" she asked as she buried her head in my chest.
"In a few weeks, then I'll be home for a whole month before the tour. You can come with me on the tour."
"I can?"
"Yeah! The tour is one big party, all our friends come with us and we party non-stop."
"Really?"
"No. But my friends do come along and we do usually have a good time. The tour is the best part of our career." The door flung open and Taylor walked in, upset. He was wearing sweatpants and a wifebeater (you know, to show off the muscles he wished he had) and his hair was ratted. "Don't tell me you just woke up. We have to leave, like, now."
"I can't tell you anything," he whispered, walking towards me.
"Why? Why are you whispering?"
"I lost my voice!" he tried to scream, his voice squeaking and a look of pain came over his face.
"You lost your voice?" I asked, panic setting in. "We have a show to be on in four hours and you lost your voice? What the hell are we supposed to do?" He shrugged.
"Maybe you could sing," he whispered.
"Me? It's your song!"
"Zac, I can barely talk, let alone sing an entire song. Listen to me, I sound horrible." I shook my head. "You wrote the entire thing, you know it just as well as I do, if not more. Ike doesn�t know my part well enough. You know it. You sing it. I'll play drums and we can get someone to play keyboards so you can be out in front."
"Woah," I said, taking a step back, nearly tripping over Lauryn. "I was about to agree but no, not anymore. I'm not a front man like you are."
"Come on, Zac. It'll be perfect."
"No!"
"Fine, I'll talk to Ike and try to find another way." Taylor walked out of the room. I turned to face Lauryn, but she was giving me a look. I don't know what the look means! What does that look mean?
"What?" I asked. Now it was bugging me.
"Why did you turn that down? That was a great opportunity!" I shook my head.
"No. Taylor can get up in front of a camera and play with it. Ike can do the same thing. I like my little bubble world behind my drums."
"So you're camera shy? Or are you just shy?"
"I'm camera shy. I can get up in front of thousands of people and work the crowd like no other, but when it comes to a camera, I can't do it."
"You should. There's no way to get around it. Taylor can't sing and neither can Isaac." I shook my head. "Hey, maybe it'll work."
"Since when have you been Miss Music? You're not interested at all in my music to being with." She looked up at me.
"Well maybe it's because I want to turn on the TV and say 'hey, that's my boyfriend up there singing.' " Oh my God I'm her boyfriend. Oh my God.
"No, Lauryn, I won't do it."
"Why not?" she asked sweetly and trailed her fingers along my chest. Uh-oh. She was trying to get me to do this. "It'd be a good thing to do." She put her hand in mine and looked up at me with adoring blue eyes. Her other hand brushed along my face and her smooth finger ran over my lips. She knew exactly what she was doing to me, and a light smile danced on her lips to prove it. "Did you know that you have the most erotic lips I have ever seen?" Erotic? Oh God... "They're so thick and soft...very sexy."
"Fine, I'll do it!" I said, pulling away from her. She giggled. Damn, I was going to have to shoot that woman now. I looked back at her and she was slightly smiling, her manicured nail being lightly bit by her teeth. She wasn't stopping. "What do you want?" I asked, desperately. "I'll give you anything! What is it?" I was serious. She was completely winning me over here. I was under her control and I really didn't know why.
"Well...I was just going to ask for a kiss, but since you're saying anything, there was this beautiful ring I saw at a store downtown."
"It's yours. Let's go, we have some time before we have to leave." I grabbed her hand.
"Oh my God, you're really going to get it for me." I nodded. "Zac, I was just yanking your chain."
"I'll still get it for you."
"You shouldn't. I wouldn't take it." I shrugged. I never thought a girl like Lauryn would ever turn down jewelry.
Taylor walked back into the room. "Okay, I talked to Isaac and we might be able to pull something off."
"Tay, I'll do it."
"Good. Our plan was to make you do it anyway." He left. I looked at my watch. I had enough time to take Lauryn home and head over to the airport.
"I'll take you home, it's about time we leave." She nodded. I took my suitcase and I drove her to her house.
"You're going to call me and send me a postcard, right?" she asked after I pulled into her driveway.
"Yeah, I will." I kissed her. "I'll call when I get there and I'll call right when I get home."
"You're going to call me in between too, right?"
"Of course! Don't fret, I will call you and I'll see you when we get back."
"All right. Bye."
"Bye." I kissed her again and she got out of the car. She waved and walked into her house. I drove to the airport. So now I'm going to be calling her when I don't even have time to think? I gotta stop letting her win me over like that.