First Kiss (Heavy Influence)

FIRST KISS

A Heavy Influence Novel

By Ann Marie Frohoff

Text copyright © 20
13 by Ann Marie Frohoff

Text lyrics copyright © 2013 Transpose - Chris Bowman

Text lyrics copyright © 2013 Never Enough -
Matthew Reich & Chris Bowman

Text lyrics copyright © 2013 I Swear & Talk About It - Nick Long

Text lyrics copyright © 2013 Best Years -
Evan Taubenfeld

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Ann Marie Frohoff

[email protected]

First Digital Edition: September 2013

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Frohoff, Ann Marie, 1971 –

First Kiss : a novel / by Ann Marie Frohoff. – 1
st
digital edition

Summary:
About an up and coming teenage rocker on the verge of stardom, when the girl next door becomes something more; they're forced to face the harsh realities on his road to fame and the expectations of their friends and family. Sacrifices are made as everything changes as they know it.

“First kiss is gritty, realistic fiction that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the next shoe to drop and I loved it. There are so many twists and turns, making this novel teenage drama at it’s best. Everyone wants to live a California dream kind of life, and Ann Frohoff captures that brilliantly, allowing the reader to escape into this addicting story.” ~
Mia Castille, Author of The Butterfly Chronicles

“This is a powerful emotional read that is hard to put down and even harder to forget once the story has ended.” ~
Danielle, bookwhoreblog.com

“Commands your attention with a bold, honest, and real edge. Witnessing a blossoming love in the midst of it all only adds to the realities that are coming to the surface.” ~
Jodi, Uniquely MoiBooks Blog

For everyone who has a dream, without we would still be in the dark.

Thank you to my husband for allowing me to spread my wings, believing in me that I’d find my way home and to my daughter for allowing me to ask way too many questions.

Thank you to Chris Bowman, Matthew Reich, Nick Long, Elysia Moon and Even Taubenfeld for lending your vision and your voice to bring this story to life.

Thank you to Amy Del Rosso for being my number one fan and believing in this story from its infancy and for introducing me to so many wonderful bookish people. You are the wind in my sails. I could have not done this without you.

Thank you to all the book bloggers (and Twitter for introducing us) who have embraced this story and for your daily insight on all things bookish! Your devotion and love for reading is so inspiring.

Thank you to Shaun Barger for your endless support and expertise and to Kim Tillman for your constructive criticism and knowledge.

Special thanks to those who have given me the passion to write so true (you know who you are); I couldn’t have done this without you.

Art imitates life…

~
Oscar Wilde

PART ONE

SKID OUT

1

Jake

Have you ever wished you could take back a night? Wished you could at least forget it ever happened? That’s how I felt, watching Rachel whiz around my bedroom. My head throbbed and I wanted to barf. Too much booze had me in a black hole and I’d hooked up with Rachel. After two years of keeping her at arm’s length, she finally got to me. I wanted to fucking shoot myself.

“Do you see my shoes? Do you think they’re in your car?” She chirped. Her mood was way too chipper for me and I hung my head, trying not to puke. “Aww baby. What’s wrong?”

              She sat down next to me, rubbing the top of my head. I stopped myself from pulling away, fighting the urge to be a dick. I wanted to blame the whole thing on her, but how lame would that be? What guy doesn’t want a booty call? I shivered at the thought. What was I thinking? I didn’t even like her like that.

             
“I wanna throw up, that’s what’s wrong.” My head remained buried in my hands. I wanted to tell her it was a mistake. Maybe this would blow over and things would be like they were before. I could only hope. “What time is it? I have a meeting with a producer who came to the show last night.”

             
She looked at her cell. “Its 9:30.”

Giving me a wet peck on the cheek, she got up and disappeared into the bathroom. With disgust I wiped her spit residue off my face and hoofed it out of my room. This could turn ugly, I thought. My mouth was as parched; with relief I gulped down some Gatorade as I stood in front of the fridge. At least last night’s show had gone well – we were on fire. I smiled with satisfaction. It seemed like every one of my classmates had come to our show in Hollywood to kick off summer vacation. The place had been packed with familiar faces. We partied like the world was ending, even though it was really just beginning. We were all finally seniors.

Thankfully my mother wasn’t home when Rachel finally left. I blamed our awkward goodbye on my hangover. Her normally painted face was clean from the dark eye makeup and red lipstick. This was the first time I’d seen her without her war paint on. She looked odd without it. As pretty as she was, there wasn’t anything extraordinary about her. She wasn’t a natural beauty. Cute, yeah, but nothing special. She didn’t do it for me, simple as that. What was that saying– don’t shit where you sleep? Was that the right phrase for this? Ugh. Rachel was such a big part of my band life and now this was gonna seriously screw things up. I just knew it.

Driving to West Hollywood was the last thing I wanted to do, bad as I felt. The summer heat was just beginning and it made my wooziness worse. I tried to focus on the task at hand. When I got to King’s Road Café on Beverly, the outside tables were packed. Every hipster in town must have been eating there. You couldn’t help but feel self-conscious walking up. Everyone watched e
veryone else, wondering who was who, if they were anyone big. I chuckled to myself at how new-age-twilight-zone the scene was. Everyone with their hip clothes and their cool shades, trying to look like they weren’t trying. It was a joke. The fact was we were all trying. At least
I
could admit it.

I spotted Jeff and made a beeline for him. I could literally feel the eyes poking me as I passed by.

“Hey Man, thanks for driving up,” he said, holding his hand out.

I gave him a firm shake and glanced around. “I don’t think I’m cool enough to eat here.”

He shrugged. “Just think of it as a bad 3D experience.”

We both laughed.

“I have to admit though, I’m a little jealous of all the tattoo sportin’ mo-fo’s.” I said, opening the menu. “I want a sleeve on this arm.”

He nodded. “You’re gonna have to wait until you’re eighteen, unless you can talk your mom into taking you to Arizona.”

“No shit?!”

“No shit,” he said with raised eyebrows.

“I’m all over that. Next tour, it’s on.” My mood buoyed at the thought. I’d wanted the same tat for the last three years. I was pretty sure of my choice.

“When do you leave?”

“In a few weeks,” I said, gulping down the glass of water that was placed in front of me.

My stomach rumbled with hunger, making me more nauseous. Thankfully my breakfast burrito didn’t take long. My mouth watered in anticipation of the first bite. We ate our food and talked about the band. Jeff was curious as to how we managed with all of us being in school. I explained that Bobby, Mike and I were toying with the idea of being home schooled our senior year if things kept going like they were. Dump, our drummer, was twenty – he didn’t have to worry about school.

Jeff Arnault was a famous, Grammy nominated producer. He was fairly young, in his late-twenties, but he’d produced some of my favorite bands. I was beyond stoked that he felt us worthy of his attention. We made plans to record one song in his studio. I was on cloud nine when we got up to leave. We weaved our way through the closely arranged tables and chairs, trying not to bang into anyone. Once again everyone stared, watching us as we passed. I’d always gotten a lot of stares, mainly from chicks, but this was different; even the dudes were checking me out.

I stood next to my truck, staring back at the crowd outside, and wondered if I would ever be the guy everyone knew about. I didn’t want to be famous for the sake of being famous. I wanted to be known for my music. I wanted to be the guy that these people pointed at and whispered about because of the songs I’d written. I could only pray, because there was no plan B.

I was finally feeling halfway human and continued to push Rachel from my mind. I hoped she wouldn’t show up at band practice. I needed mass distance from that whole scenario. I tried to focus on thinking about the things I had to take care of before we left for tour as I dialed our manager. The call went straight to voice mail.

“
Hey, Notting, it’s Jake. Just wanted you to know I met with Jeff and we’re good to go. We’re going into the studio next week, stoked. Call me back, wanna talk about the new merch and if it’s gonna be done in time.”

Driving down my street I spotted my
next-door neighbor in the distance, Alyssa. She and her friends hung out on the corner across from my house nearly every day there wasn’t school. I looked for her again as I got out of my truck. Checking her out, it struck me that I’d been admiring her more often than I cared to admit. I wondered how old she was. She looked at least fifteen, but I knew she couldn’t be because she didn’t go to my school yet. She reminded me of my ex-girlfriend, Renee, a younger version, but not as dark. Aly was definitely prettier than Renee. Her figure reminded me of a doe – slender and timid, like a ballerina. I honed in on her laughter as I stood in my garage trying not to stare at her. It brought me back to when I used to be friends with her brother Kyle. I used to tickle her until she peed her pants. That was fucked, I thought, laughing.

I perched myself behind Dump’s drum set and grabbed a set of sticks. I began to bang a new beat that’d been bouncing around in my head and watched Aly to see if it would grab her attention. She didn’t even glance in my direction. Living next door to me all these years, she’d probably tuned out my playing by now.

Rachel pulled into my driveway, adding fuel to my uneasy mood. Of course she had to show up, I thought.

“Hey babe,” she said loudly as she slammed her car door shut. I cringed. I didn’t want anyone to hear her. I didn’t want anyone to think she was my girlfriend. I looked out at the group across the street. No one seemed to pay attention.

“What’s wrong with you?” She nipped. I quickly realized that she was wearing her bitch hat. Great, getting her to leave was not gonna be fun.

Ignoring her, I banged hard on the drums, pretending that I didn’t hear her. Finally, I looked at her. “What’s up?”

I was being a dick and I didn’t care.

Her face twisted. “Really?” She was ready to put me in my place, as always. She rolled her eyes at me. “You got an email with some dates and other things so I just wanted to talk to you about it.”

“You couldn’t call?” I asked, agitated. “The guys are gonna be here any minute and I’m working on something. Can’t this wait?”

Her mouth gaped open. “Is this how it’s gonna be?” She folded her arms across her chest.

I sighed. She was right. I didn’t have to be a douchebag. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m tired. I still feel like shit from last night.” I paused, deciding to put our hook-up to rest. “Rachel, I don’t remember last night. I don’t wanna be that guy, ok. I don’t remember being with you and I feel like shit about it.”

I put as good of a spin on it as I could. The fact was I did remember flashes, enough to send the
eebies running through me. What the hell was wrong with me? Rachel turned heads when she walked into a room. She was considered hot as far as my friends were concerned. I was a fool for not wanting her.

She sighed and her face grew softer. “I see. Well, I don’t remember much either.”

“Yeah, not how I like to roll.” I looked around uncomfortably and tapped lightly on the cymbal.

Awkwardness began to creep in. I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted her to get it. I wanted her to read my mind and leave. Thankfully a reprieve, Dump arrived and I stood up. I stared at Rachel without a word and she finally conceded.

“Ok. Hope you feel better.” She stood for a moment, waiting for me to come around from the drums, but I was planted firmly. It was different now. Normally I would hug her with smiles, thanking her for being rad.

“I’ll call you tonight after I get through this and catch a nap. Thanks
Rach,” I said, giving her a crooked smile. She turned, flipping her blond hair without a word. She wasn’t happy.

Dump stood quiet, looking at me with a bent grin. “Dude, you fucked up didn’t you?”

“Beyond, man. Why didn’t you stop me?” I threw the sticks across the garage. “I just have to hope she doesn’t take this like we’re going out now.”

“Good luck with that,” he laughed.

“I wanted to chew my arm off this morning.”

Dump laughed harder. “What, it wasn’t with a boner that you woke up to her snuggled next to you?”

“Dude, I coulda chewed my arm off and beat myself with it.” I grabbed my hair, groaning.

Band practice went along like any other. As soon as I confirmed that I wasn’t into Rachel, Mike, our other guitarist, gave me a good ribbing. He began to strum an impromptu tune about what he’d like to do to Rachel and he drilled me for info. I don’t think I’d ever
wanna do a girl that my friend just did, but we’re talking about Mike here. He was on a different planet.

The next few days I avoided Rachel as much as I could and tried to ease back into the way things were. Thankfully, she didn’t put any pressure on me, but I knew that wouldn’t last. Sooner or later she’d
wanna hang, alone, and talk.