Chapter 38: Bruises and shocks
POV: Zac
August 31, 2008
I knew I was in a strange bed, in a strange room, with a wicked ass headache and this sick feeling. There was bright sunlight filtering through the curtains of the room, which thankfully were closed still. I groaned and moved a bit, felt a leg beside me and I turned. Gabby was sitting there, still naked, propped up on pillows looking at her phone.
“Good morning.”
I groaned and she laid the phone to the side and slid down beside me. Her lips felt soft and gentle on my cheek, then my forehead.
“You don’t sound like you’re fine.”
“I have a bad headache.”
“Oh, when you get up that won’t be the only thing hurting.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s almost noon actually.”
I was going to get up but the movement made me feel very sick so I laid back down. “I think I drank too much.”
Which was odd, since I didn’t feel like I did drink that much really. Her hand came over my waist and she got a little closer. She could not be wanting sex now, I really don’t think my body could do that!
“You didn’t drink too much.”
I looked at her confused. “Everything was…I don’t know. Different.”
“When you came inside did you get anything to eat or drink?”
“No.”
“Did anyone give you anything?”
“Tera gave me smarties, the sugary candy. They were sealed still it’s the only reason I bothered to eat them.”
She didn’t look too happy about that but she kissed me. “Not all of them were smarties.”
“What do you mean?”
“She gave you ecstasy. Tera is fond of giving away candy like that, but with her at least one is not a candy. Those wrappers are easy to open and reseal.”
I blinked, clearly I misunderstood that. There was no way she gave me some drug. Ecstasy was something I’d definitely heard about, I mean hell Carrick had done it a long time ago. But, it was candy!
“You have to be kidding me. Why the fuck would she give that to me?”
“I’m not kidding. I thought something was off when you got in the pool, again when you took the shirt off. You’re more than willing to do anything in the pool told me you’d gotten a hold of something. It’s why I said come inside, because I didn’t know what. I can’t answer the second question without asking her. But, she doesn’t much care how it affects someone.”
The enhanced sensations kind of made sense now. “I’ll be okay right? Like they weren’t all the same?”
“One maybe two usually are, given you aren’t freaked out and you didn’t stay awake for like three days I am going to assume you got a really low dose of it. I’m sure in a few days everything will wear off. Now, you may have some bruises, scratches, maybe some sickness too. “
“Do I even want to know where we are?”
“We’re still at Sierra’s friend, third floor. Sierra is downstairs actually and most of the guest are gone but a few like us that found rooms.”
“Is that normal?”
“Very, this is actually not the room I usually went too.”
“Why didn’t you go there?”
She smiled and kissed me. “Because you aren’t someone I planned to leave the next day. I came to the third floor because no one is allowed up here but a very select few.”
“Are you one of those few?”
“Yep.”
“Why do you say bruises and scratches?”
She tilted my head to my arm where a really long scratch mark was.
“You have more and I’m betting if my thighs are bruised, yours are too.”
“But you’re okay?”
I got another kiss. “Yes.”
She followed it with another several dozen and I couldn’t deny that I rather liked that. We finally got up about one and got showered, the room had everything we needed and she was right, I was definitely sore and bruised, the hot water helped some. Gabby had brought another dress, really lose comfortable cotton one. She’s brought me shorts and a simple t-shirt with Van Halen on it. The bathing suits were put in the bag and then we tidied up and headed downstairs.
Sierra was standing at the kitchen counter talking to a woman, she had dark maroon red hair and when she turned she had the brightest grey eyes I’d ever seen. She also wore bright red lips and a silver lip ring.
“Good morning.” Sierra said.
“Morning, did you do what I asked?”
Sierra held up a slice of pizza. “Arrived five minutes ago.”
The red haired girl looked at me. “How do you feel Zachary? I heard you had quite an experience.”
I glanced at Gabby and then back at her. “I feel okay, thanks for asking.”
She picked a slice of pizza up. “I should be asking Gabs here, you fucking woke me up bitch. Screaming his name, not cool.”
Gabby walked over and put her arm around her shoulder, not in a mad way. “You told me if I didn’t cry and scream it wasn’t good, I did both. Guess it was that damn good.”
“Well, next time chose a room not next to me!”
“I thought your room was on the far end.”
“Changed rooms a few years ago.”
“Well, I didn’t know that.”
I walked over and sat down on the stool and Sierra placed a plate with pizza on it and a bottle of water in front of me.
“Since your wife is being so rude, Zac this is Heather. She already knows your name.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
She looked hurt by that and it confused me. I’d never met her before!
“Meet me? Boy you met me when you were fourteen. I attended a show or five.”
Gabby and Sierra both looked at her. “Fuck, you really gonna make me confess here?”
Neither of them said a word and I wondered why, but then Heather sighed.
“I went to the whole tour, every show. You were technically thirteen when I met you the first time, then you turned fourteen.”
“You followed the whole tour?”
“Every United States show, my father would not grant me permission to leave the states.”
“Is that how you knew my name before anyone said it?”
“It is. Gabs, get your damn plate and sit down.”
She came around me and Sierra served her the same thing. I had to admit that hearing she went to every show was a little new and maybe frightening too. But, eating did actually help me feel more human.
“I’m sorry Zachary, I told anyone handing out stuff that they should ask the person or at least inform them beforehand. We had a lot of non-users, myself included. I wish I had known before she left as I would have had very strong words and you can rest assured, she’ll never be invited back.”
Sierra snorted. “Least it lead to the best sex of his life. Even I heard them fucking when I went by.”
I felt the intense blush. I wasn’t use to girls talking about my sex life when I was here, but it reminded me of something Chase said, I was always surrounded by girls. I was now, three very nice looking ones.
“You attended every show for real?”
“I have the ticket’s somewhere to prove it. I was mildly obsessed but that was before my heavy metal and hair bands obsession.”
“Admit it, the four year wait caused you to move on.” I said.
“Pretty much…”
“Fair warning Heather, even if you call me a bitch, you should remember what happen to that girl.” Gabby said.
“I was there, I remember. No worries, I may have wanted to slam fuck him behind a venue but that was before I realized I wasn’t really into dudes.”
Shit, I’d been fourteen and she wanted to do that? Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t remember her!
“You wouldn’t even touch him!”
“I was eighteen! It was illegal.”
Well, that made total sense! Holy shit she was how old?
“Don’t feel bad about the drug thing, Gabby told me not to eat anything but I didn’t think they would be anything but sugar candy. I still don’t know why she would bother.”
I was sure that Gabby and I both noticed her head drop some, meaning she may have a clue.
“Heather.” Gabby said.
“Grape vine told me she kind of wanted to have sex with him and thought if he was high he wouldn’t be careful on whose bed he went too. She was rather shocked when you sent the blonde packing, he barely even noticed her. I think she just wanted a taste of you Zac.”
“She won’t be getting that. I’m not stupid.”
“You damn well better not be, take my kitten.”
“Do you live here alone?”
“Oh hell no, this is the family’s house. During the summer my parents, uncles, aunts, relatives and all stay here. I’m allowed to throw parties as long as I hire someone to clean up good. I have a studio apartment in downtown.”
“Nice. What do you do?”
“Well, I run a business online and I do have a brick and mortar store in town as well. I’m sure you’ve never there.”
“Are you positive?”
“She runs an adult store Zac, pretty sure your vanilla ass has never been there.” Sierra said.
“Hey! My ass is not vanilla!”
“Right now it’s more cherry than vanilla.” Gabby said.
I blinked at her as they laughed, son of a bitch. I didn’t bother to comment and they moved on to other subjects. Heather seemed energetic, outgoing, nice and a little wild. She and Sierra seemed to be quite close but she was to Gabby as well, even if they hadn’t spent tons of time together. Heather asked for the picture and I obliged as long as the other two got in also, mostly so Gabby can post it so Chase would see it. He wouldn’t believe me otherwise.
The living room was comfortable and nice, but I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to be the only guy here.
“Gabs do you remember when we met?” Heather asked.
She looked up. “How can I forget? You come driving up in your little fancy car and nearly ran me over.”
“I was just trying to pick you up.”
“Could have done a better job, I don’t even remember who yanked me out of the way.”
“That would be me!” Sierra said.
“Do you always try to run your prospective dates over?”
“I didn’t try to run you over!”
“Yeah, about that…when were you going to tell me about your little obsession? I mean, I knew you’d been to the shows.” Gabby asked.
“Now, Gabriella Skye do you really want to know what I’ve done to pictures of him? Videos? Really, what I would have done?”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know really…but Gabby just smiled. Clearly she either had an idea or wanted to know.
“Probably everything I get to do? Seriously, I thought you were always a lesbian.”
“Oh hell no. I was like 20 when I discovered I preferred women over men. Zac here was my favorite but really, Taylor wasn’t bad.”
I looked at her puzzled. “Taylor?” I asked.
“You didn’t know your older brother was kind of a hoe?”
Gabby giggled. “He’s aware of that. But, you slept with Taylor?”
“Before I turned 18, yes.”
“I won’t tell his girlfriend.” I said.
“Please don’t, but it was a long time ago.”
“Yeah, she’s aware of his past, she may know already.” I said.
I think Stella would remember hair that color, but hell I didn’t remember her at all.
“Are you ever going to tell me what you did? I’ve been waiting.” Gabby said.
“Gabby.” I said.
“What? I have a right to know.”
Heather got up and moved beside her, she had no problem getting all over her so she could whisper the details into her ear, based on Gabby’s expression I didn’t want to know.
“Would you allow that if Heather was a guy?” Sierra asked.
I just smiled at her. “Hell no. His ass would be flat on the floor.”
“Interesting, so I can do that the whole tour?”
“Don’t push it.”
“Don’t worry Zachary, she doesn’t have any attraction to me. If she did she would have saw me naked swimming around you two last night, no her sole focus was you.”
She got up and moved away, sitting back in the chair.
“Satisfied with her answers?” I asked.
“Yeah, if she got to you before Crystal did, you damn sure wouldn’t be vanilla or even cherry.”
I just shook my head, there was no way to live down vanilla apparently.
“You guys quit picking on him. I can’t say that I blame him, I mean really Skye you didn’t let us tie you up right off the bat. You made Newton swear he would untie you as soon as you asked and then you tested him!”
“What? You think I wanted to be that bound without some promise? Yeah right. I’m not stupid.”
“That you never were, even I saw that.”
“Girl! You should see her draw.”
“Draw?” Heather asked.
“Yes! I was on the bus last tour and I saw this drawing pad, curious I open it. Thinking it’s one of the guys or even Zac’s, I open it to nude drawings of me. So I’m wondering who the hell on that bus has seen me naked, it’s just her. She come through and asked for her tablet back.”
“Didn’t know you drew at all.”
“She’s quite remarkable actually, she has some paintings somewhere in town.”
“There at the AhHa gallery.”
“There where?” I asked.
“There not on open display or even on a wall. There in her office and she was just going to show specific people. The Dragon however was on A-frame for like a few days.”
I blinked and the other two looked totally stunned as well. She had a painting displayed in a gallery and didn’t tell us?! I would have gone to see it just to see it!
“It’s not a big deal, my name wasn’t shown at all.”
“Still that’s…big.” Heather said.
“Draw something.” Sierra said.
“I don’t have anything here Sierra.”
Sierra hopped up and vanished and Gabby sighed, when she came back she had paper and pencils, not the best quality for either but it was better than nothing. Gabby accepted them, asked what to draw, which the answer was whatever. She moved to the island counter, just stood there. Hopefully it wasn’t another nude drawing!
“Do you really feel better?” Heather asked.
“Yeah. I can say I won’t accept anymore candy at your parties. Whatever her reason was it could have ended pretty badly, especially if we’d have left.”
“I’ll have a talk with her.” Sierra said.
Gabby returned when she was done and handed the paper to Heather. “It’s not naked, he would divorce my ass but it’s as close as you’ll possibly ever get.”
I raised an eyebrow wondering what the hell she drew, clearly it was me!
“Well, son of a bitch. You should have drew the naked ones before you married him and then mailed them to me!”
“I have several he won’t allow out of the house.”
Eventually she turned it around, she’d drawn a really great portrait on one side and the other side was from behind, with shorts but no shirt.
“Send me an e-mail and I’ll do something on actual paper not printer paper.”
“Nude?”
“No. Not Nude.” I said.
“Oh come on! Humor me Zachary!”
I just shook my head, I wasn’t caving on that. They talked a little more about her drawing and eventually her brother before we headed home, I had her drive because I wasn’t entirely sure that I should drive. I didn’t feel different or anything but I didn’t want to take any chances. I was kind of glad to be away from everyone and home though. She started dinner for us while I returned calls, because my phone had been left at home. I then sat down at the counter.
“So, aside from the drug thing, which you probably shouldn’t tell anyone about. Did you have some fun?”
“I did, it was just very different. I’m not use to parties turning into orgy’s.”
“They often did back then and usually sooner. But, I am sorry about what she did. If I’d known she was going to try shit I would have warned you.”
“My fault, I shouldn’t have trusted her.”
“Maybe next time we’ll leave before the nakedness happens and it won’t be a pool party.”
“Next time? Yeah, let’s avoid random places. Thank you for dragging me up-stairs though.”
“Not a problem. There uh, is something I should say.”
I glanced up at her, her expression wasn’t concern or anything though. But she got an envelope from the junk drawer and slid it to me.
“Sarah’s friend, her name is Debbie, she brought this by the studio Friday.”
I opened the envelope and inside was a check written out to Gabby. Even I blinked a few times at the check’s amount.
“Is this real?” I asked.
“Yes. She didn’t actually price them and sell them, she auctioned them off on the website. The dragon had numerous offers even though it was stated it wasn’t for sale but for artist’s display. She even had to list it as sold to stop the offers. She started all the bids at 500.”
“This is more than double that.”
“Invoice is attached, the one of the river sold for nearly two thousand by itself and with the added amounts it took it to that amount. She did say she didn’t charge the normal fee for handling it because I was so new and it was an offer she made. She gave me her guide as well.”
“Well, you know people want them. Did she say who it was?”
“She posted the name after they were all sold. She said a few have written about custom pieces and she wasn’t sure about giving out my information.”
“Yeah, it might be better to create an account just for that.”
“Is that like…normal?”
“It’s a ten thousand dollar check Gabby, it’s not bad for 6 paintings. Considering you worked pretty quickly on them all. I’ll have Dad look at her prices though because they seem a bit steep. Heather runs a website, so it’s possible she could help you set up something on your own.”
“But, wouldn’t using a gallery get the name out there?”
“It would, it might be better to pay her to sell them for now, and then transition to your own website later.”
“Talk to your Dad first, make sure she’s legit on those prices.”
“I told you people would buy them.”
“So, you’re saying what? I shouldn’t just enjoy private Hanson shows all the time?”
I just smiled and we had dinner. I knew she could do it, just providing her with incentives was the issues. Granted, these types of checks were not normal for the sizes she did, but it appears Debbie explained why. Added, it wouldn’t be that much if she’d taken her typical cut. But, it did seem to inspire her some.
After dinner we sat down and created an e-mail so individuals could contact her and so Debbie had one to use as well. We laid down early because even though it was late when we woke up, we were both tired and I kind of wanted to make sure I’d be rested for this coming week of packing, loading, practicing, and arguing with my brothers!