A suprise run in

The first half of school passes in a blur as you think about your dream. You can’t ever remember having such a vivid dream before, or been able to remember one in such detail. As you head out to your favorite tree at lunch you feel a tap on the shoulder. You turn and see Piper looking at you with a bitter sweet smile on her face.

“Hey John, what’s up you ignoring me or something?”

“Piper, hi. No I uh, my mind was somewhere else. Besides why would I be ignoring you?”

“Well I thought you might be gloating about Jason.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were totally right about him” she says as her eyes start to tear up. She turns her head and wipes at them quickly. “There was someone from a record label at Johnny’s last night, and Jason had called him to hear him sing.”

“Well, that’s great isn’t it? I mean didn’t this guy like your set?”

“He wasn’t there for the band. It turns out Jason was just using the Giant Ants to back him up. He had no intention of trying to make a go of it with our group. He said that we were just ‘a competent rhythm section to showcase his vocal talent’. Can you believe that?”

“Shit Piper, I’m sorry. I knew he was an asshole, but that’s low even for him.” I hold the door open for her as we head outside, all thoughts of Kristen and my dream forgotten as I try to think of something to say to comfort Piper.

“That’s not the worst of it. When we tried to talk to the label guy he said that he wasn’t looking for a rock band, and that if we wanted to make it in the music business right now we should look at changing what we do. According to him rocks yesterdays news and we the best we could hope for was doing session work.”

“Hey what does he know anyway?” I asked putting a hand on her shoulder “that guy liked Jason after all. If that doesn’t show bad judgment I don’t know what does.”

“Yeah maybe”, she responds with a half hatred smile, “but the other guys in the band were pretty discouraged. Was even talking about quitting, things are tight with his family and he might have to find a job to help out.”

As the two head toward your tree you discuss how hard it seems to be to get any record executives to take rock bands seriously these days. The two of you are so caught up in your conversation you don’t notice what’s going on around you until someone shoves a flyer in your hand. “Check out the Codex for all your music needs”, says a familiar voice.

“Wha...” you say, your hand closing around the one offering the flyer. You look up and meet the same pair of grey eyes from your dream. You stand there stunned as you realize who it is. Kristen, the sound girl from Johnny’s. This afternoon she is dressed in a pair of short denim shorts and a black sleeveless t-shirt with a red outline of a gothic tower on it with words “Codex ex Musica” below it.

“Oh hey” she says blushing a little. “John right? Thanks for the help last night, you really covered my ass.” As the implications of what she said set in her blush gets deeper. “I mean with the cables and, you know that other thing.”

“My pleasure, I mean…” you stammer thinking how she might take offense or think you were some kind of perve. Suddenly you realize your still holding her hand and gently let go and try to think of what to say next.

Chuckling Piper comes to your rescue. “We haven’t been really introduced. Hi I’m Piper, you’re the new sound tech at Johnny’s right? I see you’ve already met my eloquent friend.”

“Yes, Kristen, nice to meet you Piper really great set last night by the way.”

As the two girls get acquainted you can’t help but check Kristen out some more. She has her hair pulled back in two short pig tails, her eye makeup is a smokey grey, and she has on a dark burgundy lipstick.

“So” Piper asks “What’s this Codex thing?”

“Oh it’s this music shop my brother’s opening up. It sells c.d.’s, instruments, sound gear, and all types of stuff even some software for mixing tracks. He’s a pretty good instrument tech too, so if you need your gear worked on he’s your guy. There’s a small movie section too. I’m working there during the day to help him out for a while.”

“Sounds cool”, Piper comments, we’ll definitely stop by and check it out.”

“Great!” Kristen says reaching into her back pocket. “Here are a couple of special coupons. My brother said I could give these out to some of the local musicians who I thought had promise.” As she hands you each one you see it is for five hours free studio time.

“Wow thanks” you say. You and had always done your demo recordings in his basement, recording in a fully equipped studio would be a real treat.

“Hope to see you soon” she says. As she turns and walks away it could be your imagination but you think she puts a little extra sway in her hips.

As you watch her go you can’t help but think about how the only way the sight could be better is if she was only wearing the thong from last night. A quiet sigh from your right brings you back to the moment and you could swear that Piper is watching and appreciating the sight almost as much as you are.

“What?” she asks when she notices you looking at her.

“Nothing, I just was wondering if you wanted to head over and check the place out after school.”

“I don’t know, are you sure we want me tagging along? I might cramp your style.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh come one.” Piper says grinning at you. “She was totally hitting on you; why else would she have given you that coupon for studio time?”

“Hey, she gave you one too.” You point out.

“Yeah, but she’s heard my band play so she knows we’re good. For all she knows you guys could sound like a wet sack of cats in heat.”

“Gee thanks.” You say trying to look offended but can’t help but chuckle at the image.

“All I’m saying is if some hottie gave me free studio time wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”

“So, you think Kristen’s a hottie?” You ask teasingly.

“Ughhh”, Piper exclaims, “you’re such an ass.” She then punches you playfully in the shoulder and sticks out her tongue at you. “So meet here after school?” she asks.

“Only if you promise not to beat me up.” , you say pretending to be scared.

The two of you agree to meet up and head off to class. The entire rest of the day you fantasize about Kristen’s cute ass and wondering about Piper’s actions. Finally the last bell rings and you catch up with Piper and go to check out the new store.