Absolutely Unforgivable(13)

“Fine?” he said, sounding almost offended. “I was hoping for a little more than fine.”

“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that,” I pleaded. “Really I didn’t. You guys were great. I’m so sorry.” My face was turning several shades of red.

Billy laughed it off and started to get up as Jeromy came back but Jeromy said, “No, man, stay seated; I’ll take this one,” and pointed to the chair next to me. He kissed my forehead and took the empty chair on the other side of me. “Miss me?” he purred into my ear.

“I did, very much so,” I said to him as I leaned in to kiss him.

“So what did you think of the band?” Jeromy asked me, while handing me my new beer.

“Yeah Stacy, what did you think of the band?” Billy said sarcastically behind me.

“I thought they were amazing. Billy really knows how to work the crowd.”

“We aren’t all of that. We were just … fine was it?” I turned to face Billy as he said it with a smirk on his face.

Billy leaned in and asked Jeromy, “So, have you told her yet?”

“No, I think she still needs a few more beers in her first.”

Billy hadn’t exactly been quiet about saying it and when he did everyone around the table laughed. They all seemed to be in on it. Whatever it was. I wondered what the heck they were talking about, but as I looked around nobody seemed to be willing to tell me.

Billy waved over the waitress. She was a beautiful brunette with lots of curly dark brown hair and soft brown eyes. Her long legs stuck out in the small, tight black mini skirt she wore. The waitress had a worried look on her face and I knew exactly what it meant. I had worked at a bar long enough to know that when regulars started ordering rounds of shots they were going to get rowdy. Rowdy … ha, I get it now. Rowdy’s. I laughed to myself as I realized what the name of the bar meant.

“To Jeromy and Stacy!” Billy shouted as he lifted up his shot glass and then downed it. Everyone at the table repeated, “To Jeromy and Stacy!” I drank my own shot and within a few minutes the waitress returned with another. By the time I had my third shot I was definitely feeling more relaxed and by the fifth shot, I was feeling wonderful.

So wonderful that it didn’t bother me in the slightest that across the table Travis was doing shots off of Darla and Starla’s breasts. Okay maybe it bothered me some. He noticed me looking at him, cocked his head up and said, “Want some?” God he’s an ass. I averted my eyes and turned my attention back to Jeromy and Billy, who at that time were looking at me with a sort of conspiratorial grin across their adorably sexy faces.

Billy started to get up. “It’s that time again.” He motioned for the sound guy and he quickly made his way over to us and handed Billy a tambourine.

“Know what this is?” he asked.

“Ummm yeah. It’s a tambourine,” I answered cautiously. I glanced over to Jeromy and he had a grin on his beautiful face, but he didn’t say a word. Instead he just watched me carefully as Billy continued to address me.

“See, we have this thing around here. If you are going to hang with us, you are going to have to pass initiation. You gotta show us that you can really handle it.”

I furrowed my brow as I looked at him. Initiation? What the heck was he talking about? Billy didn’t tell me anything more; instead, he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the stage with him. The rest of the band had already taken their places. As we got on the stage the crowd cheered.

When Travis strummed the first few notes of the song, the crowd went wild. Billy grabbed the microphone in one hand, while still holding on to me with his other. “My good friend Jeromy has recently moved back in town and he brought this hot piece of ass with him.” He squeezed me tightly, pulling me in closer to him.

He paused for a moment and the crowd let out a load roar. Billy lifted his hand trying to get them to settle down so he could continue to speak. While Billy addressed the audience of eager fans, Travis continued to strum out first part of the song. It was a familiar beat and it only took me a second to realize the song was Jessie’s Girl. It was a song I knew well. I loved it but I still didn’t get what I was doing on stage with them. Maybe this was it. Maybe he just wanted to see if he could embarrass me with this introduction.

As the band played on, Billy continued talking to the audience. He twirled me around with his one free arm. “What do you think?” There were lots of whoops and hollers coming from the crowd. My face flushed.