She walked over to Ryan first and held out her arms expectantly. He leaned over and put his arms around her –
And then, POW! she jumped up and kissed him full on the mouth.
His eyes almost popped out of his skull.
She stood back, laughing. “I’m sorry – I had to do it, I might not ever get another chance!”
Derek and I laughed as Ryan turned beet-red.
“What do you mean, you might not ever get another chance?” Derek asked. “I thought you were coming back here next year.”
She shook her head. “No… I’m pretty sure I got too many D minuses, so… probably not.”
“Oh… that sucks. I’m sorry to see you go.”
“Me too.” She hugged Derek. “When you guys are famous and on tour, will you let me come backstage?”
“Hell yeah,” Derek said. He gave her a bear hug and lifted her squealing off the ground, twirling her around. “In fact, I’ll be pissed if you don’t come backstage to see us.”
When Derek set her down, she came over to me. We smiled at each other sadly and just hugged.
When she was right up next to me, she whispered in my ear, “Live a little, Kaitlyn. Don’t make that mistake we talked about.”
Then she pulled away, winked at me, and got in her car. She rolled down the window and waved and shouted at us as she drove off down the road.
58
Derek, Ryan, and I stood around awkwardly after Shanna drove away.
Derek gave his best friend a look like, Well? What are you waiting for?
That was odd, I thought.
“Uh… I should probably get going, too,” Ryan said, running his hand through his hair.
Then I knew something was up.
“You don’t have to run off,” I said.
I was nervous to be alone with Derek.
Partially because I really, really wanted to be alone with him, which could bring about no good whatsoever.
“I kinda do. I promised my mom I’d do this thing… and… I gotta go.”
“Do you need a ride?”
“No, that’s my dad’s car down there,” he said, pointing to a black Cadillac. “I picked up Derek and we both came over here.”
“You picked Derek up in the hood in that?” I asked, impressed. “I’m surprised you weren’t carjacked.”
“It’s not that bad,” Derek chided me.
Ryan and I both nodded somberly at the same time. “It’s that bad.”
“Don’t tell my mom, okay?” Ryan asked me very seriously.
I laughed. The idea of me tattling to his mother was pretty adorable.
“I won’t.”
We kind of stood there for a second doing the awkward ‘do we hug, do we shake hands?’ dance – then I decided to end it and moved in to hug him.
“It was really, really nice meeting you,” I said as he put his arms around me.
His arms were warm and comforting. He was a good hugger.
“You, too. Friend me on Facebook?”
“Sure. Let me know how you guys are doing with the band.”
“You got it. Well… I’ll see you,” he said to me and Derek, and walked down the street.
I looked at Derek.
He looked back at me and smiled.
We were alone…
…and no one would be interrupting us in the empty dorm room.
59
Present Day
Two more rounds later, we stepped tipsily out of the Forum. Shanna immediately began scanning for taxis. One came down the street and she hailed it.
“You comin’ with me?” she asked.
“No, I’m going to take the subway back.”
“I can give you a ride – ”
“Naah, it’s just a couple blocks that way.”
The taxi drove up to the curb in front of her.
“So, are you going to go do it?” Shanna called out as she opened the rear door.
“…yeah,” I said grudgingly.
She threw her arms up in the air in a giant ‘V’.
“YES! Shanna Williams for the win!” she yelled to all of New York City, then turned back to me. “Let me know how it goes!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grinned, and started off down the street.
She started to get in, then stopped and hollered, “Hey – wait – I know you didn’t sleep with him, but you never told me what happened after I left that day!”
I turned around and yelled, “Read the fuckin’ article!”
“You bitch!” she laughed, then got in the taxi and sped away.
60
I called Rolling Stone the next morning. The switchboard patched me through to Glen’s office, and a secretary asked who I was. I told her and waited while I got put on hold.
He answered only a few seconds later. He sounded wary, but hopeful. “Kaitlyn?”