“Zoey, Ty tells us you’re going off to college in a couple months.” Carter eased back down in his chair, studying me.
“Yes, I’m going to Western this September.”
“Ah, that’s great. It’s important to get a college degree,” Gus Reynolds chimed in. “I’m hoping Fiona will finally agree with me.”
“I like helping you run the club, Dad.” Fiona fixed him with a pointed look.
“Speaking of which, we need to go.” Gus stood with a gleam in his eye. “Carter, do you want to come with us and risk these guys destroying your house?”
“Ha! These boys are wusses. They don’t party. I left Ty and Zane here last winter when we were in Europe, I think the worst thing that happened was a pizza stain on my new rug.” Carter got up to follow Gus. “Anyway. I’m going to pass, but I’ll walk you to the door.”
With Gus, Fiona, and Carter gone, leaving a bunch of empty chairs, I felt conspicuous still sitting on Ty’s lap. Nervously, I shifted to move into my own seat.
“Don’t get up, Zoey. We’re all pretty stoked that Ty’s finally brought a beautiful girl around.” Zane’s leg was bouncing energetically.
Ty just wrapped his arms tighter around my middle, leaning his head against mine. I decided to go with the flow and relax and hang out.
“Now that you’re with Ty, you’ll be seeing a lot of us.” Jace looked up from his phone. “We’re so busy preparing for the studio and our tour, we are all practically living here.”
“We’re all curious, Saint Ty never hangs out with chicks.” Connor took a long pull from the beer he was drinking.
“Guys, quit with the Saint Ty shit.” Ty stroked my stomach with his big palm, a slight smirk on his face. “Can’t you lay off for a night?”
“I just hadn’t realized that my charm and beauty made you switch teams, babe,” I gently teased.
The entire band burst out in laughter, including Ty. It was a great feeling, to fit right in by giving them shit.
“Remember when Carter actually did think we were gay?” Zane laughed. “Zoey listen to this. Carter’s always going on and on about us protecting ourselves and avoiding skanky groupies, yada, yada, yada. We never let him know about the girls we hooked up with. One day, Carter sat us down and had an entire interrogation about our love lives, and it morphed into how being gay was okay and how he’d support us no matter what—”
“Zane, God. Please don’t.” Ty covered his face with one big palm, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.
Zane ignored him. “We had just lost our virginity in the band room.”
“Together? Dude!” Connor’s mouth lolled open.
“No, not together. Well kinda. Two chicks were hitting on us after the school talent show. We brought them to the band room and were on opposite sides of the room making out. I looked over and Ty’s girl had nearly impaled herself on his monster dick before he threw her off him to fumble with a condom,” Zane relayed the story gleefully. “I was, like, yeah! Green light! We both did them right there in the same room, it was awesome.”
“Not awesome.” Ty frowned.
“Monster dick?” Jace winced. “God, please erase that visual.”
“Yeah, I told Carter that even if I was gay, I’d be keeping my pristine ass far away from that thing.” Zane was laughing so hard he nearly fell off his lawn chair. “It’s huuuuggggee! Right, Zoey?”
My face was flaming red. Now the entire band assumed we were sleeping together, but I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to seeing Ty’s penis. Plus, now all I could picture was some girl impaling herself on my boyfriend, which pissed me off. I felt enraged.
Jealous.
“I have no problem with a little slagging, but have a little respect, guys.” Ty gripped my waist and gently eased me off his lap so he could get up. “Zoey is my girlfriend, our love life isn’t any of y’all’s business.”
“Oh dude! I’m so sorry.” Zane jumped up and ran over to Ty, looking remorseful. “I didn’t mean anything.”
“It’s fine, just please shut the fuck up.” Ty grimaced but held out his hand to me. “Z, do you want me to show you the practice space?”
“Sure.” I felt so uncomfortable, but I appreciated Ty wanting to diffuse the conversation. Admittedly, after Zane’s story, I was anxious to see Ty’s “monster” dick. I was also scared because Ty had experience that I didn’t have, which probably explained why he never pressured me.
My mom had made me promise to wait for the person who would love and cherish me, and I still really wanted Ty to be my first. I was beginning to truly believe he’d be my only. I was desperately in love with Ty and hoped with all my heart that he felt the same. I still needed to hear the words before I’d tell him. And, I knew I wouldn’t be able to have sex with him if he didn’t feel the same way I did.
Oblivious to my inner dialogue, Ty led me back through the living room and down a hallway lined with Carter’s personal photos. I stopped to take a look.
“That’s Zane when he was a baby. His mom, Lianne, is holding him.” Ty pointed to a picture of a waiflike beauty with long, dark-red hair, porcelain skin, and doe eyes holding tiny Zane dressed in a baby version of Grunge wear, flannel, cutoffs, long underwear, tiny Doc Martins, and a gray skull cap.
The next picture was Carter and Limelight on their tour bus, with baby Zane dressed in a similar outfit, playing with some toys. The rest of the pictures were early band shots of Limelight and a ton of Carter with Zane when he was a toddler and small
