Mafia Desire (Erotica)

My alarm snapped me awake well before dawn the morning of the show. I sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched for a moment, collecting my not fully coherent thoughts. After a quick shower, I got dressed in khaki cutoffs, a faded gray Built To Spill shirt and sneakers. Grabbing my backpack and double checking to make sure I had the tickets, I wandered down the hall to make sure Skye was up and ready.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

She was no more of a morning person than I was and answered her door while mid-yawn. I paused a moment to take in her look. She was wearing a loose skirt with black leggings and a white sleeveless t-shirt that had SPC ECO printed across the front in black letters. The straps of a black bra peeked out beneath the shirt at her shoulders. All of that combined with her black Mary Jane shoes gave her the look of a hot chick that would no doubt turn heads at a rock concert. Hell, she had my attention already and it was not yet six in the morning.

“Too early,” she yawned.

“It’s a long drive. We gotta get going.”

“Coffee.”

“Not enough time. Gotta get going. We’ll stop somewhere closer to Edgerton and grab some breakfast.”

She peered at me through one squinted eye as if contemplating whether or not to take a stand on the coffee issue but found herself interrupted by another yawn.

“Move it, zombie.” I stepped aside and followed her as she shuffled down the hallway.

She fell asleep in the passenger seat before we got to the first red light leaving the house.

I didn’t wake her until we pulled into a Waffle House about an hour outside of Edgerton. We sat across from each other in a booth and sipped coffee while we waited on our order to arrive. She folded her arms on the table and laid her head down on them, looking up at me with a tired crooked smile.

“Thanks for letting me sleep in the car.”

“Just remember you may have to help keep me awake for the drive home tonight.” I chuckled.

Skye sat up as the waitress dropped off our food and scurried away to help the next table. I watched her coat her chocolate chip waffle with syrup and wondered what sort of defect was going on in her taste buds to make her want to order such a thing. I had a feeling the sugar rush she was about to experience might be bad enough to need to lock her in the trunk for the rest of the ride to the venue just so she wouldn’t be bouncing around the car like a lunatic.

“So listen,” I began, pointing a piece of bacon at her. “When we get there, You need to stay with me, okay? Don’t wander off.”

“Sure, daddy. Do you want me to hold on to your belt loop, too?” She gave me a smirk.

“I’m being serious, smart ass. Sometimes things get kind of out of hand at these shows.”

“Like what?” She shoved a piece of waffle in her mouth but was paying attention now.

“Like sometimes, in the crowd, some asshole decides to take advantage of the anonymity to feel up a pretty girl. Grab her ass. Especially the girls that decide to crowd surf. I’ve heard of much worse things, but if you stay with me, you’ll be fine. It’s not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself, it’s that these assholes I’m talking about tend to be chickenshits and usually won’t try anything if the girl is with someone.”

“Whoa. I didn’t think of that.”

“I probably make it sound worse than it is, but I’ve seen it happen before. Never saw anything as bad as a rape, thankfully. But I’ve seen girls get felt up and stuff. One girl last year punched me thinking I was the one who did it. I hadn’t, but I think the guy next to me may have grabbed her. I don’t know. I felt like shit regardless, even though I hadn’t done anything. Just being accused of it sucks. But the thing is, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Pretty girls are targets for these shit heads.”

“You think I’m pretty?” A shy smile crept across her face.

“You’re beautiful and you know it. Stop fishing for compliments.” I sighed in mild annoyance at the selective listening habits of girls.

“Thank you, Ryan. That’s really sweet.” She looked so pleased with my words that I thought she may start glowing. She could be really adorable sometimes.

“Well, it’s true. But do you understand why I want you to stay by me? I’m not trying to be a prick, I just want you to have fun today without having to worry about that kind of crap.”

“So you want me to pretend you’re my boyfriend. Got it.” She grinned as she returned to her waffle.

“Not exactly what I had in mind,” I replied, trying not to appear rattled by her suggestion, shaking some salt on my scrambled eggs. It was closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. “Just stay close to me, where I can be there if you need me.”

She nodded around a mouthful of food and I went back to work on my own breakfast, satisfied that she had gotten the point.

* * * * *

When we got to the fairgrounds outside Edgerton, we parked and walked what felt like five miles to the entrance. After a relatively short wait in line, we were scanned by bored security guards with metal wands, showed our tickets and were waved on in. As soon as we got in the gates, Skye gave me her purse to store in my backpack.

I stopped at the first concession booth I saw and groaned as I paid six dollars each for a few bottles of water to drop in my pack. I deeply resented this kind of economic sodomy and thought it was ridiculous that they wouldn’t allow us to bring our own water in. It was nearing the end of Summer and it was going to be hot as hell out here today, so I knew I had to make the best of it.

“Holy crap, six bucks?” Skye muttered as we walked away from the booth following a herd of people and the sound of a not very good band in the distance.

“This venue gouges you any way they can for stuff. Fifteen bucks for parking, six for water, I don’t even want to know what lunch is gonna cost us later. It’ll be worth it, though.” I replied.

The main stage was at the base of a large man-made hillside, allowing for a better view of the stage. There was already what looked like a couple of thousand or so people in the crowd spread out all over the hill chatting in groups. A decent sized group were down near the stage watching the first band play their set. As was typical of big festival concerts like this, the first bands were unknown local acts looking for exposure. Most of the time, they weren’t very good. This was not an exception.

This was a bigger music festival than I was used to attending, and I found myself slightly impressed with the huge projection screens on either side of the stage. That would certainly make it easier to see the bands later. Scanning the area, I tried to find a spot that looked like a good one for watching the show, but being far enough from the stage to be sure that Skye would still be able to see. Most people at the show were taller than her, so I didn’t want to get us into too thick of a crowd where she would have no chance of seeing anything but armpits.

As we walked down near the mixing board area, which looked like a decent place right near the middle of the hill.

“How’s this spot?” I asked.

She looked around, the slight breeze making strands of her hair cross over her face and I got lost for a moment taking in how pretty she was.

“I want to get closer,” she said, knocking me out of my thoughts.

“The closer we get, the ground levels off and you’re not gonna be able to see around people.” I pointed out.

“Look, let’s try it. If I can’t see worth a damn, we can always move back to here, right?”

“I guess so.” I sighed in defeat. I knew her height was sometimes a problem for her, but I didn’t want to make a big thing of it. I was trying to help, but I knew if I kept bringing it up that she would start to resent it. So I went along, being more than a little certain that we’d be backtracking up the hill again shortly. Hopefully, I thought, the crowd filling in around us wouldn’t take this spot.

We moved down through the crowd closer to the stage. It was still spaced out enough that we had room to pass through pretty easily, but I knew that wasn’t going to last. Before long, she had maneuvered us to within about thirty people from the stage.

The music was much louder down here and you couldn’t hear each other talk over the band who were currently doing an absolutely abysmal attempt at a cover of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are.” I didn’t like Nirvana to begin with, and this definitely wasn’t helping. Skye glanced over at me in annoyance, and I realized that she couldn’t see the stage at all around everyone’s shoulders.