Friction Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Epilogue

  I really don’t know how I allowed Kristy to talk me into coming to this concert. I was smashed up against the barrier at the front of the stage by hormonal, crazy-ass women, screaming, crying, and trying to get the attention of the lead singer on stage. I didn’t even like this band that much. I mean, they were okay. Honestly, I didn’t listen to Friction. I heard a few songs on the radio, but I never really paid attention to them. Kris was a huge fan, though. When her Friction buddy came down with the flu and landed in the hospital, Kris insisted that I accompany her. I couldn’t let her go alone, and the fact that she was about to cry was a major contributor to my decision. Manipulative bitch.

  So, there I was, suffocating and so not enjoying the show. The lead singer, Alden Breck, was strutting across the stage, grinning and thrusting for the girls, making matters worse for me. When he grinned and thrust in my general direction, I only frowned. Didn’t he realize how ridiculous that was? I mean, it was okay when some guys did it, but I don’t know…Alden was annoying me. He just seemed so damn cocky. Cocky grin, cocky flirting, cocky thrusting – when the hell was this cock fest going to be over?

  Kristy bounced, screamed, and belted songs out at an alarming volume for her tiny stature and voice, all the while reaching out to touch Breck’s fingertips. Puh-lease.

  After he had taken a few big gulps from a water bottle, he proceeded to fling the rest of the water onto the audience. As I shrieked in disgust, Kris and the other morons screamed with delight. I shook the water off my arms with sheer disgust. I looked up to glare at Alden Breck, but he was already looking at me as he sang. He looked amused, although there was nothing amusing about his song. When he looked away from me, his expression went back to one of anguish while he sang about climbing from the dark, or something equally poetic.

  When the band finally disappeared off of the stage, I turned to Kristy. I gave her a look that told her I was ready to get the F out, but she yelled something about an encore. It wasn’t until the band reappeared that I figured it out. A freakin’ encore? Come on! I sucked in a breath and tried to be patient. I mean, how long could one song take, right? Right, except they did two more encores after that one! During the last song, Alden leapt off the stage to reach out to his fans as he sang. He was all the way down at the other end, so maybe I wouldn’t have to be too close to him. If he got too close to me, I was gonna hit him for flinging his germy water on me, for taking too damn long to finish the show, and for being a cocky asshole.

  The crowd surged forward; people who were impossibly too far back pushed forward to try to touch the musician. The closer Breck got, the harder I was pressed up against the railing. I seriously couldn’t breathe. My lungs were being crushed between bodies and metal. I was starting to gasp for air as Breck neared us. By the time Kris got her greedy hands on him and he was standing in front of me, I was starting to panic. I really couldn’t breathe, and the people behind me didn’t seem to give a shit. Breck looked at me funny as he sang. When he reached for me, the people behind me reached for him, and then I was reaching for him, but out of blind panic because I couldn’t even take in a breath. The metal barrier in front of me that had seemed so unmovable and was contributing to my suffocation began to give way. As if he sensed what was happening, Alden stopped singing and his eyes grew wide. He started to yell something to me, but then the barrier was falling and I was falling with it, with thousands of berserk fans behind me rushing forth to get to Alden. I wasn’t able to take in another breath again before I was pushed to the floor. I saw feet, heard screaming, heard the bouncers yelling, and I heard Alden Breck cursing at people. My fingers were crushed under more than one foot; people were tripping over and stepping on me. I still couldn’t breathe and I knew I was going to die there on the floor, suffocated and trampled to death by Friction fans. I felt a strong hand around my wrist. I felt people being shoved away, and I felt myself being lifted high into the air. As my vision blurred and darkened, I saw the frantic face of Kristy, and then her blonde head was lost in the crowd before I saw nothing. I blacked out.

  I woke up to a light burning into my retinas. I groaned and tried to bat the light away.

  “How are you feeling, Noa?” a male voice asked me.

  I couldn’t get my bearings. I felt like I was on a couch – in an obnoxiously loud and bright room. Male voices boomed around me, sprinkled with a few girlish giggles. The smell of cigarettes and alcohol was prominent. Not just alcohol and cigs – was that weed? And how did this asshat know my name?

  I blinked up at a man who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties.

  “Who the hell are you?” I asked, surprised at my raspy voice. I reached up to touch my throat, but hell if my fingers didn’t hurt. I winced and held my hand up to my eyes. Two fingers were taped and they looked broken. “What the fuck?” I asked no one in general.

  “How are you feeling?” the guy asked again.

  “Who the hell are you?” I repeated my question.

  “My name is Greg. I’m a doctor. I think she needs to go to a hospital,” he said to someone standing just out of view near where my head rested on the couch. “She seems confused. She might have a head injury.”

  Then I remembered being crushed underfoot of maniacal women and it was all Alden Breck’s fault! I slowly tilted my head to see who was standing above me and automatically scowled when I saw Breck.

  “I agree,” he said with a small, cocky smile. “She does seem confused. Women don’t usually scowl at me, Greg.”

  “I’ll get the paramedics in here,” he said with a sigh. “I knew we should have taken her right away.”

  “Stop worrying,” Alden waved him off.

  “No, I won’t stop worrying, Alden!” Greg snapped. “If she’s seriously hurt and we didn’t act hastily enough, you’ll have another lawsuit on your hands – hell, I’ll have a lawsuit on my hands.”

  “It’s fine,” Alden waved him off again as he looked down at me. “Little Noa isn’t going to sue, are you, Little Noa?”

  “How the hell do you know my name – and what the hell am I doing back here?” I snapped and tried to sit up. “Owwwwaaahhh!” I yelled angrily when my ribs ached as I tried to sit up. My head protested with a fair amount of pain, too.

  “Lie back down,” Alden said impatiently, and then shoved me back to a lying position.

  “This is all your fault!” I tried to yell, but my whole body ached.

  “My fault?” his eyebrows popped up. “Are you serious? I saved your life, Little Noa.”

  “Stop calling me that! You only had to save my life after you put it in jeopardy with your obnoxious, cocky—”

  “Whoa!” He held up two hands. “Obnoxious and cocky?”

  I made a sound of disgust and looked around for Greg. He was talking to a guy who then talked into a headset. Headset guy nodded, said something to Greg, and left. The good doctor walked back over to us just as Alden was about to start up again.

  “Paramedics are on their way,” he said kindly.

  “Thank you,” I muttered. Then I remembered Kristy. “Oh, damn! My friend – where is she?”
/>   Just as I finished saying that, I heard Kris’s angry voice enter the room.

  “Get your hands off of me! I don’t care about the damn band right now! I want to make sure my friend is okay!” Kristy was tiny, barely five-foot two, two inches shorter than me, but she could be very scary and intimidating when she wanted to be.

  “Noa!” she cried, rushing to my side. She had tears in her eyes. “Are you okay? Oh my god, I thought you got trampled to death! How would I have explained this to Warren?”

  “Maybe if her boyfriend was here with her, he could have protected her,” Alden spat out, glaring at me with his arms crossed.

  “Warren is her brother,” Kristy said, glancing up at Alden through her eyelashes. She leaned in close to my ear. “He’s really smoldering hot, huh?”

  I rolled my eyes and attempted a deep breath with my aching ribs. I just wanted the paramedics to get me the hell out of there already.

  “Brother?” Alden’s eyebrows raised and then a slow smile appeared on his face.

  “For the love of all that’s good in this world, can someone please make him go away?” I sighed, putting a hand over my eyes to block my view of Alden Breck.

  “What is wrong with you?” Kris whispered. “He saved you!”

  Before I could inquire after that, the paramedics showed up. They poked and prodded, and then asked a lot of questions as they loaded me onto a stretcher. Before I rolled out, the drummer – Hash – tossed his drumsticks onto my lap and grinned.

  “Thanks for falling on your face. I didn’t want to do another fucking song.”

  I looked at the drumsticks. “Umm…you’re welcome?”

  He sauntered away and Alden appeared at my side.

  “Oh, my goodness, do you ever go away?” I snarled as I was being wheeled out.

  “Your blatant distaste in me has struck a chord,” he said with seriousness. “I’m going to be hard to get rid of, Little Noa.”

  “I’m not little Noa,” I said. “I’m just Noa – and how do you know my name?”

  He grinned and his blue-green eyes flashed with mischief. He set my little purse and my phone on my lap next to the drumsticks. “I’ll see you soon, Little Noa.”

  “Not on your life, Breck.”

  I left Alden Breck behind me as I was wheeled down the long corridor to the exit.

  ***

  “You were turning blue,” Kristy was telling me a few hours later as I rested in a hospital bed behind a curtain. “It was funny; I only noticed because Alden was looking at you weird. Then all hell broke loose. I was yanked backward just as I saw you go down. There were so many people all over you and Alden was yelling at people, pushing them off him as he tried to get to you. Finally, the bouncers kept people off him long enough to pull you off the floor. Alden lifted you onto the stage, jumped back up there, picked you up, and carried you offstage. The crowd was nuts – the police eventually had to come in to get everyone under control. It’s really surprising that no one else was seriously hurt. But holy shit, Alden Breck saved your life, Noa!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’d rather have been trampled. Alden Breck is obnoxious and conceited.”

  “I love how he calls you Little Noa,” she said dreamily.

  “Ew.”

  “You don’t have to like him as a musician, Noa,” Kristy snapped. “But you should really appreciate what he did for you. You don’t understand – he could have been seriously hurt himself trying to save you.”

  I didn’t answer her. I just sulked and fingered the drumsticks that were given to me. Kristy was right, of course. I really could have been dead or close to it if Alden had not saved me. Not to mention, he could have been torn apart by the crowd, but she was also right with her first words. I didn’t have to like him. No problem. I didn’t.

  “When you go home, at least you’ll have a story to tell,” Kristy said with a small shrug and a smile.

  “I don’t think I’ll be sharing this story,” I said softly and yawned.

  “You should get some sleep,” she said. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

  “No.” I smiled at my oldest friend. “Go home. It’s late. Do not call my brother!”

  She held up her hands in defeat. “I won’t, I won’t.” She got to her feet and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I hate that you are spending your last full night in California in the freakin’ ER.”

  “A vacation to remember,” I sighed.

  “Indeed. See you in the morning,” she said as she opened the curtain. “Little Noa.”

  I glared at the curtain even after I knew she was gone. I loved Kristy to death, but if she called me Little Noa again, I was going to drum on her head with one of the drumsticks.

  I closed my eyes, feeling thankful that I wasn’t any more hurt than a couple of banged up fingers, bruised ribs, and an aching head. The fingers weren’t broken, but they hurt like hell. It could have been so much worse, and the doctors feared that I had a concussion, but thankfully not. That may have delayed my trip back to the east coast and I was so ready to get back to the east coast.

  Kristy and I had been friends since ninth grade. Instead of getting into a catfight about a boy who was secretly seeing both of us, we both dumped him and became friends, and never looked back. Kris and I were complete opposites. She was blonde and I was dark haired. She had blue eyes and a button nose and I had plain brown eyes and an okay nose. My figure was okay, but Kristy’s figure was incredible - curvy and just…hot. I sometimes wondered if she just needed a plain friend to accentuate her natural beauty, but after a couple of years, I got over it and accepted myself as I was.

  After high school, Kris packed up her life in New Jersey, deciding on the college life at UCLA, and Jersey was something else she never looked back on. She made new friends, found an awesome job after college, and an incredible guy. I was in California for their wedding last weekend, and since they weren’t going on a honeymoon right away, I stayed a week to spend some time with my old friend, which was how I ended up at that damn concert.

  I couldn’t get Alden Breck’s smug grin out of my head, and that was annoying me, because I really didn’t like the guy. Okay, I didn’t know him, but he was actually really good looking with his sandy blond hair, hazel eyes, and a chiseled body; though he still came off as cocky and obnoxious and that was enough for me to dislike him.

  After getting used to the noises in the hospital, I started to drift off to sleep. I was almost out of it before my phone vibrated on the table next to me. I hoped it was Kristy telling me she got home all right, but the incoming message was from a name I did not program into my phone: Alden Breck, Musician & Saver of Lives.

  “So obnoxious!” I whisper-yelled.

  I was angry – how the hell did he get my number? Then I figured he probably called himself from my phone. I checked that out before I even looked at his message, and I was right. Who does that with an unconscious girl’s phone? Unbelievable!

  I went back to the text messages and opened Mr. Saver of Lives’ message.

  Hi, Little Noa. I hope you are feeling better. No hard feelings?

  What? Was he kidding me? No hard…really?

  This move is borderline stalkerish, I keyed in.

  I saw a chance and took it, he said. You weren’t awake for me to ask you for your number.

  I pursed my lips as my fingers angrily flew across the keyboard. I think it is sad and pathetic that the only way you could get my number was while I was unconscious. For the record, if I had been awake and alert, you most certainly would not have my number. Now that you are aware of that, take this opportunity to lose said number. Thank you, Oh Saver Of Lives for not letting me die at YOUR concert. Goodbye.

  Minutes passed, and I believed I had finally gotten rid of Breck. I sat back and started to relax, closing my eyes again, but then my phone vibrated.

  Little Noa, Breck said. I saved you for yourself as much as I did for myself. Sorry, I am not very good at ‘losing’. Please get some rest. Almost d
ying at one of my concerts must wear a girl out. Sweet dreams.

  I could practically hear his smug voice and see his smug face as he said the words. I angrily shut the phone off, put it on the tray, and forced myself into a fitful sleep.

  “When did you get that T-shirt?” I asked Kristy, wrinkling my nose in distaste.

  Her husband Trent was putting my bags in the car. Kristy and I were standing in the foyer with our umbrellas, getting ready to go out into the pouring rain. My flight left in a little more than three hours. We’d be lucky to get through the stupid San Francisco traffic in time. Kris had picked me up from the hospital only a couple of hours before, while still dressed in her pajamas, a pet peeve of mine. It was really no effort at all to at least change into a pair of jeans or even a pair of sweats. Going past your driveway in pants with sleeping cows and quarter moons on them was plain unacceptable.

  “Um, well,” she said, smoothing the Friction shirt with her hand. It was signed by all the band members, like really signed, not stamped on. “Last night, as I was leaving the hospital, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. I almost didn’t answer, but it was late, it could have been some kind of emergency, you know? I answered and it was Alden Breck,” she beamed.

  “Oh, no,” I sighed and hung my head in disappointment. “Don’t tell me. You didn’t.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me, Noa? It’s Alden Breck of Friction! At first, I was confused – how the hell did he get my number, but Doctor Greg gave me his number so that I could update him on your condition and Alden got my number from him. Anyway, he told me he had some gifts for you and me because he felt bad about what had happened. So, I stopped at their hotel on my way home and he kept asking me questions about you. Noa, I think he really feels bad that you got hurt. He kept apologizing to me about it, and I was like ‘dude, she’s okay. Don’t worry about it,’ but he still looked worried. Then I thought about how amazing it was that I was standing in Alden Breck’s hotel room, talking to him about my best friend, and at the same time, wishing I didn’t just get married last week, know what I mean? I’ve read a lot of gossip about his um, skills.”