Hug

Chapter 1

The following story is pure fiction, and the plot should not be associated with actual events.

Sarah was just six months into her job as Head of Hospitality at Shea Stadium. Until then she'd never met The Beach Boys and never seen them play. She knew of the Beach Boys of course, who didn't? She vaguely remembered that the one she had favoured, when she caught them on TV as a youngster, was the little one, Al. Blonde, cute, with a big, sunny smile.

However, Mike was the Beach Boy (or rather, by this time, Beach Man) that she had been introduced to. He was ok - maybe a little creepy. The others weren't overly friendly, they didn't need to be. But they would nod and smile when they passed by.

The 'Boy' who seemed to lead the band was Carl. She wouldn't have recognised him from the original line up, he'd changed so much. He'd gone from a rather chubby, smiley boy sharing the mic with Al, to a handsome, bearded man, quiet and very committed to rehearsals.

She heard the same bits of tunes played over and over again. Not that she minded this background music while she toiled away in her lonely office overlooking the stadium. She found herself humming along to forgotten tunes from her childhood years, enjoying the nostalgia.

Most days she would take her lunch out to the stands, and sit high up, overlooking the stage, watching and listening to them. The band had obviously played together for a number of years and they knew each other well. During breaks there was a lot of horseplay, joking and laughing.  
Carl didn't join in very much. He always seemed to be busy with other business.

He definitely wasn't your average rock musician. He seemed as if he carried the world on his shoulders, wasn't much for laughing and joking with the rest of the guys. She wasn't sure what to make of him, nevertheless for some reason he intrigued her. In spite of herself she found herself looking for him on the few occasions she took a break from her work and emerged from her office.

Turned out that one of the cheerleaders in the show was someone Sarah went to school with, actually, one her best friends, Suzanne. The girls were thrilled to meet up again after all this time. Suzanne gave her the low down on the group, although she hadn't been with them very long, so was still finding her feet.

Suzanne and the other cheerleaders were in the hospitality suite one afternoon, when Sarah came in for a quality control check. The caterers taken on by the previous head of hospitality had proven to be to be less than thorough and Sarah, still the new girl, didn't want any complaints.

"This is my best, best friend from school back in England!" Suzanne announced excitedly to the rest of the girls, putting her arm around Sarah's shoulders.

All the girls seemed really nice and friendly, and, as Sarah had finished for the day and was only going to go home to her lonely flat, she stuck around chatting to them.

She and Suzanne regailed the girls with exaggerated tales of their school days at boarding school in England, and there was lots of laughter.

Mike came in, and Sarah left the group to check with him that everything was to their satisfaction. He just shrugged and grunted, unimpressed, then made for the veggie platters. Sarah turned round to the girls and made a scared face.

"Aw, don't worry about it, he's been in a shitty mood all day," one of them whispered, and they all sniggered. Without acknowledging the girls, Mike made his way to the bar at the other end of the room.

"Think someone's in need of a hug," Sarah said, and they sniggered some more.

"Who's in need of a hug?" said a quiet, male voice right behind her. Sarah jumped, and turned round to find Carl, plate in hand, helping himself to the buffet.