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12

Emma didn’t show up at sound check the next day. At least I never saw her there. And yeah, I looked for her, a lot. So much that at the end of the sound check I nearly got knocked off of the stage when I forgot what I was doing and Nick ran into me.

“Dude… what the hell is wrong with you today?” he laughed and nudged me.

“I just… I dunno…” I said and shook my head. “Sorry…”

“Too much Trading Spaces last night huh?”

I forced a laugh and nodded, “Something like that, yeah…”

Nick looked at me and made a face, “Liar… what’s up?”

I sighed and checked the area again for any signs of Emma, “You ever meet that girl Emma that hangs around Skinner?”

“Yeah I think so… once, maybe. She’s kinda short, great ass, really green eyes, right?”

I sighed again thinking about her green eyes, “Yeah…”

Nick laughed at me, “What, you got a hard on for her or something? I’m telling Skinner…”

“No…” I groaned. “I don’t have a hard on for her, I just… well, last night when I came back from that stupid club I ran into her. She’d locked herself out of their room and was soaked because she’d been out in the rain. So I let her come into my room and made sure she was okay and dried off… She’s nice…”

“And you’ve got a hard on for her…” Nick said and laughed again.

“No I don’t… I just thought she’d be here. She said that she’s usually at sound check helping out.”

“Dude, she’s a groupie… groupies don’t help out at sound checks.”

“She’s not a groupie, she’s a tee shirt girl…”

Nick looked at me and then cracked up, “Are you serious?”

“What?”

“You just gave me a death look when you said that.” He mocked me with a serious look on his face, “She’s a tee shirt girl…” He then laughed and held his stomach, “Yeah right man, you don’t have a hard on for the chick… If you wanna bone the tee shirt girl, go for it. Just stop lying about it. And watch out for Skinner, cause he’s kinda scary. He’d kick your ass into next week without much effort.”

“They’re not together… she’s just his friend.”

“Then what’s your problem? As you so clearly stated, she’s nice… and she’s not screwing Skinner which frankly is a good thing because yeah, he’s kinda gross.”

I looked across the stage to where Skinner was hitting on one of our dancers and nodded, “Yeah he is…”

“Damn good drummer though…” Nick said looking at Skinner and then looked at me. “So… go find your tee shirt girl why don’t you? Take her back to the hotel, give her a happy screw, and get this out of your system before our show tonight.” Nick was teasing me, I knew that by the smile on his face, but it still bugged me. I wasn’t lying when I told him that I wasn’t after Emma in a sexual kind of way. I just liked talking to her, or something. There’s something about hanging out with people who don’t seem to give a rip about my celebrity status that’s nice. Emma certainly didn’t seem to care about it, and that was really comfortable. I just wanted to see her again. “Want me to ask Skinner where she is?”

“Uh, no…” I said shaking my head. “If I’m gunna find her, I’ll do it on my own.”

“Well then go on with your bad self…” Nick said with a chuckle and pushed me toward the back of the stage. “Tee shirt girl, oh tee shirt girl… where for art thou tee shirt girl?”

I flipped Nick off. Then I smiled and went to look for Emma.