37

“We’re so going to get in trouble for this…”

I laughed and listened to Emma as she leaned forward in the Taxi talking to the driver telling him where she wanted to go. I ignored Nick while wondering how Emma knew anything about Phoenix. I’d been there on tour enough times to recognize some of the buildings, and yet I didn’t know anything about the clubs in the city. Emma however knew them by name and knew how to give the driver directions on how to get there as well. When she was done talking to the driver she sat back against the seat and gave me a smile before turning to Nick and smacking him in the arm, “Stop whining.”

“I’m not whining…” he said and rubbed his arm. “I’m just being… cautious.”

I chuckled and looked out of the window of the car. “We got nailed once when we snuck out of the hotel in the middle of the night like this. He’s never agreed to do it again since… Of course I was using back then and didn’t give a shit if we got into trouble and didn’t let it phase me when we got into trouble.”

“How exactly do you get in trouble though?” Emma asked, turning her attention to me again. “You’re adults… it’s not like they can ground you or lock your in your hotel room. What does getting in trouble include?”

“They can fine us for breaking contract. It’s in there that we won’t go out and put ourselves in dangerous situations while on tour without security…”

“They dock your pay?” she asked with a gasp.

“Basically…” I nodded. “That’s only if they find out though. They can also make life hard on us by giving us all sorts of shitty press to do that takes up all of our free time.”

“That’s insane…”

“Yeah, but then again we did sign the contract, so it’s not like we don’t know what’s coming.”

“I guess… but I still think it sucks.”

“It does…” Nick mumbled from behind his fingernail that he was butchering while chewing on it as he looked out the window. I watched as Emma ran her hand over Nick’s thigh and then patted it. He looked at her and pulled his hand away from his mouth and smiled. I suddenly felt like an intruder.

“So this club we’re going to… it’s cool,” Emma said and looked at me again. “I lived here for a little bit and although the first time I went to the place I thought it was the biggest mistake in the world, it turned out to be somewhere that I went a lot. It sort of has that rave vibe to it. Just a whole lot of dancing, and not all of the bullshit that comes along with most clubs where people are more there for the socializing than for the dancing.”

“Cool…”

“And…” she said with a smile in my direction, “It’s drug free. They don’t sell alcohol, and anyone caught dealing or doing any other sort of drug gets the cops called on them. It’s absolutely amazing, but they manage to keep it clean.”

I smiled at her and nodded, “Very cool… thanks.”

She put her hand on my thigh, much like she’d done with Nick just moments before, and nodded, “Not a problem…” I didn’t feel like an intruder anymore. She smiled at me and gave my knee a little squeeze. I put my hand on top of hers and held it for a second. It was the longest deliberate touch that we’d shared in the time that we’d known each other.