Straight from the Heart by Breigh Forstner Page A

ever met. He could take a song and completely flip it
around, adding a few extra notes and harmonies and making it epic
in my mind.
    Hearing a faint knock at the door, my body
froze. I hoped no one heard my out-of-tune singing or seen my crazy
dance moves through the peep hole. I peeked through the little hole
in the door and saw Cale’s right eye staring back at me. Standing
back, I unlocked the door, allowing him in. His hair was wet from a
shower and was wearing a tight solid navy shirt and silver
basketball shorts.
    “Did you have a good night?” I asked him
with a flirty smile as he gave me a hug. I breathed him in and he
smelled like Axe body spray and men’s shampoo. Keep it together
Bryn. Just because he smells good doesn’t mean anything.
    He yawned, stretching his arms over his
head. “Wasn’t too shabby. Had some people in the room, drank, that
kind of stuff.” I think he was purposely trying to leave out that
he had girls in the room. As much as I didn’t like the sound of it,
it wasn’t like I owned him. We were just bandmates. He glanced at
my unmade bed, pointing at it. “So why didn’t you come in and party
with us?”
    I shrugged. “I had that date.”
     “You still went out with the bastard?”
I cringed when he started to swear. This over protective act was
starting to piss me off a little bit, like he was just another
older brother that I didn’t need. “I’m surprised he didn’t try to
put the moves on you. Was he at least a gentleman?”
    “Like I just said, yes I did. Everyone
deserves a second chance, Cale. He’s a really nice guy.”
    “I never said he wasn’t, but, whatever
that’s your choice.” He kicked the wall and sat down. Luckily his
foot didn’t leave a dent. I really didn’t want to have to pay for
it.
    I started to laugh. “You know you’re pretty
sexy when you’re jealous.”
    He looked at me as if he didn’t expect those
words to come out of mouth. But I knew I was right. His face formed
a weird expression and mouthed “Sexy?”
    “What?” I asked in between giggles. My
laughter was uncontrollable now. I fell back into the recliner in
the corner, trying to hide my face from him. I’m sure it was beat
red from laughing so hard. “That’s the first word I could think of
Cale! You just seemed so protective. And sexy just popped into my
head.” As if he needed an explanation.
    Cale walked over to me and knelt down,
putting his hands on my knees that were curled up to my chest. “Of
course I’m protective. You’re 18 and new around this scene. These
guys are eating you up alive and I hear every little thing they are
saying. I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not because it’s up to the guys
and I to keep you safe.”
    Swatting him away, I got up, pulling down my
shorts so they didn’t show so much skin. “Let’s just get to
practice. Raptor, Vince and Luke meeting in here too?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, they had more fun than I
did, so it’s taking them longer to wake up and recover. Gives us a
head start to work on the vocals.” I handed him my iPod and he
flipped through the songs to find the one we were practicing. His
fingers stopped scrolling and played “You’re Going Down.”
    We listened to the song a couple of times,
and in the middle, he would tell me when to come in and what pitch
so our voices stayed in harmony. I didn’t quite understand why he
thought we should perform this song but Cale admitted to me that
The Sick Puppies were one of his favorite bands.
    “The bass line is sick,” was his excuse. He
didn’t even play bass.
    You learn something new every day.
    Vince, Raptor and Luke knocked on the door a
few minutes later, smelling like they hadn’t showered or put
deodorant on. It didn’t help that when they gave me a group hug the
day old smell wafted up. I made a mental note to take another
shower later on, or just spray extra coats of perfume before the
show.
    “We should go up to the Sears Tower, dude.
None of us got the