5
Jem
Two Blue Phoenixguys are harder to hide than one. The Camden venue is bigger than the last place I saw Ruby Riot, and jammed with students. Most pretend not to notice us—if anyone thinks Blue Phoenix are old school, these guys do. This both suits and amuses me. On my way through the bar, I check out some of the chicks and none of them responds. I’m long overdue getting laid and judging by their indifference, this could be fun. A challenge could be the thing to take my mind off obsessing about sex with scarlet-haired rock chicks.
The venue owner gives Bryn and me one of the back rooms to hang out in. The chipped wall is decorated with band posters dating back years and it doesn’t take long to locate a tatty Blue Phoenix one near the top. I remember playing here. And I’m pretty sure I remember getting an awesome blowjob in this very room.
“What you thinking about?” asks Bryn.
“Old times.” I indicate the poster with my bottle of water.
“Reckon this band could be the next Phoenix?” he asks.
I choke a laugh. “Come on, nobody can be the next Phoenix. It’s like saying, ‘can Phoenix be the next Stones’. Close but not close enough.”
Bryn shakes his head with a small smile. “Such humility, Jem.”
“Have you listened to them? Ruby Riot?”
Now he fixes me with a half-disparaging look, lips pouting slightly. “I not only heard but saw them too online. I can see one of the attractions for you.”
“The chick? I wouldn’t rate a band based on how hot the singer is!”
Bryn gives me a disparaging look. “If only I could believe that.”
“But you heard them? You can see this is beyond my dick’s opinion?”
“I’m winding you up, man.” Bryn shakes his head. “Yeah. Be interesting to see them live.”
Five minutes into their set and I can see Bryn agrees. He doesn’t have to say anything for me to know the sound gets under his skin too. Again, Ruby’s voice travels to my soul, to the place we share that I don’t want to be. The crowd, a sweaty sea of black, is as spellbound as the last time I saw them play, and again I hover near the bar.
Wearing a tank top and short skirt with knee high striped socks and kick-ass boots, she’s sexy as hell. I have a thing for huge ass boots wrapping half of a girl’s leg. I really, really shouldn’t picture them wrapped around me.Too late. I shift against my cock-hardening reaction to her; one I bet a few other guys are having.
I doubt Ruby can see me from here, but I want her to look at me. Instead, she spends a lot of tonight singing to the floor or the ceiling, hair flying around her as she moves around the stage. Oblivious. Despite the synchronicity of the band, she’s on the edge in her own space as if Ruby’s something rare the guys have captured and she won’t allow herself to be part of them. Not completely.
A girl with long, dark hair sits on a stool nearby, facing the band. She’s petite, dressed in a short black dress that barely covers her ass and tits, and red and black striped leggings. Is this a thing? Chicks with stripy legs? She side glances me and her mouth makes an ‘o’ of recognition, so I nod.
She smiles. I smile back.
Awesome.
Bryn’s halfway into the crowd, partly blended in although his height sets him head and shoulders above the others. Nobody notices. A lot of the guys are fixated on the vision of sexual fantasies with the girl who’d eat them alive. I can’t equate this girl and the ballsy voice with the meek girl held against the wall by her dickhead boyfriend or whoever he is. I can only hope she uses some of that strength to kick him in the balls, and soon.
“You’re Jem Jones, aren’t you?” calls the girl over the music, as I approach her.
“I guess I don’t need a lame chat-up line.”
“Try one if you like.”
“No, sweetheart, I don’t need to.”
She licks her bottom lip slowly, and trains her eyes on me. “I came tonight because I heard you’d be here.”
Aha.I move closer and lean against the wooden bar next to her. “Oh? And why would that be?”
“I have fantasies about sex with rock stars.”
“You don’t mess around do you?” I say with a laugh.