I stared at the crumbly, stucco ceiling, laying on my back on the mattress, which sat, desolate, on the floor. My mind was numb, yet racing, and my heartbeat was flying, bipolar, all over the place. I was fiddling violently with the frayed edge of the thin blanket that fell over me. It was probably about eight in the morning, and the sun had just risen, shining cool rays of light into the dusty, small room. I couldn’t sleep- how could I?

“Hey, Wyatt,” I whispered, just loud enough. “Hey, Wyatt?”

“Hm…?” He rolled over to look at me. “What’s up?”

I forgot what I was going to say, for a moment, until I hastily spoke. “I can’t sleep. Do you got something that can help me sleep?”

“Oh. Sure.” He climbed up off the mattress and began rummaging in one of the drawers in his desk. When he climbed back under the blanket, he dropped a few round blue pills into my open palms. “Valium all good?”

“Yeah, thanks.” I swallowed the Valium dry.

When I woke up that afternoon, I still felt tired. And hungry, and sore in all the wrong places. Wyatt wasn’t there when I woke up, either, so I lay motionless for a while, eyes fixated on the ceiling. 

I wondered if maybe I should just call my mom or James, but then I realized I had to call Speed, because he would be coming today, if he could make it. And then I began to wonder what Speed would think of everything that had happened. With me and Wyatt, I mean. I didn’t think he’d be exactly overjoyed. But also, he didn’t exactly have to know. Sure, we were great friends, but why should he have to know anything very private about my love life?

So I decided I wouldn’t tell him, and got out of bed, running my hands through my messy, oily hair and putting on my missing items of clothing.

I quietly walked out into the living room, where Sky and a guy who I assumed was Ray were sleeping on the couches.

Ray woke up with a start when I shut the door, and asked, “Who’s you?”

“I’m Layne. Do you know where Wyatt is? Or Ana?”

“Oh. No. I think Ana’s downstairs or something.” He paused, scratching his head. “I’m Ray. You new here?”

“Yeah.” I waved at him as I headed for the door to walk downstairs.

Ana was sitting at the bar, her head down on the table, and I thought for a moment that she was asleep, but she jumped up when she saw me.

“Layne! Layne! Layne!” For someone who was very obviously hungover, she seemed in great spirits.

“What’s up?” I sat down beside her on one of the ancient bar stools.

She was giggling again. “Wasn’t last night _fun. _Musicians are neat, aren’t they? Aren’t they?”

“What? Sure, yeah.” I began rubbing my temples, stomach aching. “Got a phone I can borrow for a sec?”

Ana pointed to a phone behind the counter. “Tonight’s gonna be fun, too. Are you staying?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve got nowhere else to be.” I dialed Speed’s number, he picked up instantly.

“Hey?”

“Hey, it’s me. Sorry for calling kinda late… Are you coming?”

“Layne? It’s like two o’clock. School just fuckin’ got out!” He sighed. “Gimme an address?”

I told him the address for the place, and he said, “I’ll be there by ten, maybe ten-thirty, okay?”

“Okay. See you.”

“See ya, gorgeous.”

“Oh, who’s that?” Asked Ana, still grinning, as I sat down beside her again.

“My friend, Speed. He’s cool. He’s on his way now, so he’ll be here by the time the bands are playing,” I explained, untangling a knot in the back of my hair.

“Cool.”

“Hey, I gotta get my bag…” I muttered, mostly to myself. “I left it outside. In a bush. You know?”

“Oh, sure. I get that.” Ana’s head was back down on the table, sleepily.

I rushed outside to find my backpack, luckily it hadn’t been stolen. Back inside, I changed my clothes and freshened up in the bathroom.

Surprisingly, I didn’t look too bad, after I washed my face and extensively did my makeup so that I’d look older- the scary thing was that everyone was probably at least four years older than me, and had no clue that I was at least four years younger than all of them.

When I went back to the bar, Ana was snoring. I kicked her leg, saying, “Hey, wake up.”

“Oh, what? Sorry. I’m kinda tired.”

“Have you seen Wyatt?”

“What, you haven’t seen him? I’d’ve thought you’d been seeing a lot of him.” That made her giggle again.

“He was gone when I woke up.” I shrugged, heart sinking a little. “I haven’t seen him since.”

“Well, I have no idea where he is.” Ana paused, then changed the topic. “Wanna hang out with me and Kat today? You’re pretty neat, you know?”

I shrugged again. “I don’t have any plans, I don’t have anywhere to be. Sure.”

“Great! I don’t suppose you got much money, do you?”

“No, not really.” I wasn’t really feeling Ana’s excitement. In fact, I was feeling a little sick, to be honest.

“Oh, that’s fine… You can wear some of my clothes. We look about the same size.” She glanced at my clothes: graphic T-shirt, baggy jeans, and my dad’s hoodie.

“What’s wrong with _my_ clothes?” That made me kind of defensive.

“Nothing! They’re great! They just don’t suit the activities, if you know what I mean…” Then, she jumped up, grabbed my hand, and pulled me upstairs to her room, which was much better decorated than Wyatt’s.

Ana threw a bikini-like crop-top at me, pretty much the same as the one she was wearing, and then a dark brown flannel shirt. “There you go! You’ll look so pretty!” She giggled again in her high-pitched voice. “Try them on?”

Silently, I put on the clothes. I did look good, but I felt weirdly bad about discarding my hoodie, which was shoved back down in my bag, to be left in Ana’s room.

Ana jumped out into the living room, yelling at Sky and Ray: “Can you guys get off your asses for once? Where are the rest of the guys? Where the hell is Kat?”

Sky mumbled, “Kat’s still sleepin’ and the guys are out doing something, I don’t fuckin’ know what!”

“Where the hell is Kat sleeping?” She asked, crossing her arms with an impatient sigh. “Did she go back to her _parent’s_ house?”

“Nah. She’s sleepin’ in some guy’s room- I don’t fuckin’ know, man!” Sky pulled a pillow over his face and added, his voice muffled, “Can you get off my back for once? You ain’t my fuckin’ _mom_.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Ana screamed at him, her face going almost red. “Just tell me where Kat is, will you?”

“I already told you!” He yelled into the pillow. “I don’t fuckin’ _know_.”

“Ray?” Ana turned to face him, but he looked like he was nodding off. “Ray, where the hell is Kat?”

Ray mumbled something incoherent and dozed off, and then one of the doors swung open and, just like that, Kat walked out, half-naked, rubbing her eyes.

“Oh my God,” she muttered, brushing through her hair with one hand. “What happened?”

“Oh,” Ana said, awkward. “We were looking for you.”

“Why?”

“We’re gonna hang out with Layne. Do you wanna?” She paused for a second, and then: “Wait, who’s room is that? I thought you went back to your parent’s house, didn’t you? I don’t remember what the fuck happened last night, Kat-”

“No, no, chill, Ana, chill, man, okay?” Kat mumbled, coughing slightly. “Let me get dressed.” She grabbed her clothing from whoever’s room that was, and changed in the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, Ana was jumping up and down, saying some nonsense about something, I don’t know. When Kat was finally ready, she dragged us along the streets of downtown Sovernon, giggling about one thing or another.

“Does _anyone_ have cash?” She sighed. “I’m totally broke.”

I shrugged. “Same here.”

“I could probably ask my mom for some, but I don’t know if she’d give me any,” Kat replied, tying her short auburn hair into a ponytail. “It depends.”

“If you want to, then do you think we could? I mean, it’s _your_ mom’s money, and _your_ mom, but we’re all kinda broke here, man!”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then: “Nah, sorry. My mom’s already on my case for not being worth shit on my own. Sorry.”

Ana shrugged. “Eh, it doesn’t matter.”

“What’re we gonna do, anyway?” I asked, nervously fiddling with the ends of Ana’s flannel that she’d lent me.

“I dunno. But I am _starved_.” Ana rubbed her stomach, and I noticed that she had a belly button ring. “We gotta get something to eat.”

My stomach rumbled at the thought of food. “Yeah,” I agreed.

Eventually, we all got hungry and stopped at a bustling diner, where we dined ‘n’ dashed to avoid admitting that we had no money at the moment.

Kat looked sicker than before, and I still felt kind of disgruntled, while Ana, hyperactive, dragged us along until we found Wyatt, Jack, Rob, and their bassist- whose name I wasn’t sure of- in the parking lot of a seven-eleven, waiting for somebody.

“Hey, speak of the devil!” Jack said when we walked up, dropping his arm around Ana’s shoulders.

Wyatt nodded at me, with a smile, in greeting, his circular sunglasses obscuring his eyes. I nodded back, forcing a smile to be friendly, although I didn’t feel much like smiling.

“Who are you guys waiting for?” Ana asked, putting her arm around Jack’s waist.

“Shane’s gonna pick us up,” replied Rob, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “We gotta go to this meeting thing with this guy- we might even get on this fuckin’ record label if it all goes well.”

“Wait, what?” Ana gasped, her face exploding into a grin. “Seriously? Like, you guys can make an _album_? A _label_? That’s fucking great!”

Jack kissed her and then, after a long minute, said softly, “That’s right.”

“That’s cool as hell,” I added, this time with a genuine smile.

“Yeah, yeah, _if_ we can be on fuckin’ time if Shane actually _gets_ here!” The bassist muttered, sighing angrily. “If we’re late because of him, I swear to God…”

“Hey, Johnny, man, chill the fuck out, willya?” Wyatt snapped at him. “We’re not gonna be late, okay?”

“Well, we’re gonna be, if Shane doesn’t-”

“Hey, man, look, I can see his car right now- right over there.” Rob pointed to a petite grey car that careened uneasily into a parking lot. I could already hear the blasting 1980’s Aerosmith.

As the car skidded to a halt, the driver’s window rolled down and a redheaded guy stuck his head out, exclaiming, “Get the fuck in!”

The guys began to file into the car. Jack kissed Ana on the cheek, whispering something, while Wyatt leaned in to kiss me and- what the hell could I do? Suddenly, his lips were on mine and then he said, casually, “See you later,” as he got into Shane’s car.

Ana giggled. “You’re red as a cherry, Jesus Christ.”

That just made me blush more, embarrassment flooding my brain. “I haven’t kissed a lotta people before, if I’m being honest,” I murmured, pursing my lips.

“_Ooh_!” Ana leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “How many, exactly?”

I tried to think over the amount of guys at parties I’d kissed- most of the time I was too drunk or too high to remember. I’d only ever had one boyfriend, a guy who asked me out in ninth grade and we’d go to the movies every Friday for about three months- mostly just to make out in the dark, not because either of us were film freaks or anything.

So, I shrugged. “I don’t know. Usually when I’m kissing someone, I’m pretty drunk…” Then, because why the hell not, I added, “I’ve only ever had one real boyfriend before, you know.”

“What?” Kat gasped, genuinely shocked. “Really?”

I nodded, my cheeks still flushed. “Yup.”

“Aw, it’s okay, Layne…” Ana pouted her lips, almost dramatically. Almost _sarcastically_. “We’ve all been there, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, when we was fuckin’ _fifteen_,” laughed Kat.

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” I snapped, crossing my arms. I was terrified they’d realize that I was a fucking _child_, and… Then what?

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right…” Ana inhaled slowly, shaking her head slightly. “Sorry, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to make fun of you! You’re neat, Layne, you’re cool.”

I smiled with a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Ana…”

“It’s not even five o’clock yet, oh my God,” Kat suddenly said, as she spotted a clock on the wall of the seven-eleven. “We’ve got _hours_ to waste!”