Free Songbird by Jamie Campbell Page B

suite. He wasted no time in opening the bottle and taking a swig. I sat beside him, far enough away not to be tempted. If that was even possible. He wasn’t in groping distance, anyway.
    “So do you have a reason for drinking tonight?” I asked, curious what had brought him to my room.
    “We’re on tour, it’s tradition, right?” He held out the bottle for me. I shook my head, I was already bordering on the brink of insanity, I didn’t need to be drunk too.
    “Maybe if we were a rock band.” I shrugged. “About last night, I didn’t-”
    He cut me off with a wave of the bottle. “It’s okay, I get it. You were after some fun, I was there. But just because we made out one time, I don’t see why we can’t be friends. It doesn’t have to be all weird and stuff now.”
    I relaxed, perhaps I wouldn’t have to avoid him for the rest of the tour. “I wasn’t just looking for some fun, for the record. I like you but I’ve been with guys like you before and I got burned. I don’t think I can do that again.”
    He gave me a lopsided grin. “Getting burned is half the fun, it’s how you know you’re alive.”
    “It’s how you know your heart can break,” I countered. I wasn’t a teenage groupie that could be won over by a few little rebellious statements. I was smarter than that, at least I hoped I was.
    “What’s the point of living if you’re not living on the edge?”
    “It’s safer away from the edge, somewhere in the middle.”
    “But not as much fun,” Forest continued. He was beginning to make me wonder what we were talking about in the first place. “So what makes me so bad anyway?”
    “Because you’re the kind of guy that attracts trouble, you probably have a woman in each city, and you know how gorgeous you are. Those three things are a deadly combination.”
    “It must be hard knowing it all.” He stared at me while taking another long sip from the wine bottle. “But you don’t know me.”
    “I know your type.”
    “And you got all that from just looking at me?” Forest was challenging me, raising one eyebrow. “Is that why you stood me up at Flannery’s?”
    It was embarrassing being called out on my actions. I had hoped he would forget about it. “Sorry about that, I had my reasons.”
    He leaned in close, I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Oh how I missed the days when that was me – not caring about the consequences and just having fun. It was destructive, but I never found myself alone in my hotel room scanning message boards.
    “If anything,” Forest started. “I think you are the one that is breaking hearts, not me.”
    I guessed he was right. He hadn’t done anything to me and yet I had rejected him twice. If we were keeping a scoreboard of wrongs, I was definitely the leader.
    He held out the bottle for me again. This time, I took it. I downed a gulp of the white wine, it felt so good sliding down my throat. I took another and forgot all about what I was supposed to do.
    The next morning, the alarm pounded in my head like a sledgehammer. I reached over and turned it off in a panic, desperate to stop the infernal racket. I knew I had to get up but I didn’t want to leave the comfortable bed.
    I turned around, hoping to maybe get a few more minutes in. However, I wasn’t alone. Staring back at me was the handsome, sleeping face of Forest Knight.
    I sat bolt upright, desperately trying to remember all the details of the night before. We had been talking, then drinking, then… what?
    I dreaded looking under the covers but it had to be done. If we slept together, I needed to know. I closed my eyes, held up the covers and opened them again.
    I was still wearing my clothes. So was Forest. So we hadn’t done anything stupid, only got blind drunk. That was a relief. I just wished I could remember everything. I wasn’t sure if there was anything I needed to be embarrassed about. Hopefully if there was, Forest would have just as many things to be concerned