Chapter 6

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They played five or six songs for me. They did really well, except for Stu. I definitely saw why everyone complained about how crappy he was as a bassist. I've heard all of the songs a billion times before, but I would never tell them that.

I clapped for them after each song and would say something positive about it. I felt like most special girl in the whole world. There were absolutely no words. As happy as I was though, I really needed to get home. I was curious to find out if I was still here tomorrow or back in the future.

"Well, it's getting late," I said, standing up and grabbing all of my school stuff. "I really need to get home. I have homework to do. It was nice to meet all of you. I'll see you all later."

"Wait!" Paul said, putting his guitar away quickly. "I'll walk you home. You don't want to be on these streets all alone, especially if you don't know where you're going." I couldn't exactly argue with that. "See you guys later."

They all said their goodbyes, John and Stu staring at me interestingly, Pete being indifferent, and George being too shy to look at anything but the ground.

Outside on the sidewalk, Paul and I walked, feeling the cold evening air blow. Paul pulled out a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth. "Cigarette?" he asked, holding one out for me in case if I wanted it.

I put my hand up and said "No thanks. I don't smoke."

Paul shrugged, putting the cigarette away. He lit the one in his mouth and blew out a big puff of smoke. "It's very rare to find a girl who doesn't smoke."

"Is that good?"

He smiled. "Yeah. It means you're one of the rare ones." He blew out even more thick white smoke. "It also means more cigarettes for me."

I couldn't help but giggle at that comment. Stop it, Colleen, I scolded myself. You're supposed to hate him.

"So, what did you think of our performance?" he asked casually, but I could see in his eyes he valued my thoughts.

"It was great!" I answered, being honest. "You guys really have a lot of talent. You're definitely going to go far."

"I hope so," he said doubtfully. "That's the dream."

I wanted to tell him everything about the future. It's both awesome and horrible to be the only one knowing what was going to happen. I found it funny that he was scared of not hitting it big when I knew for a fact that he was going to be bigger than ever! But the absolute last thing I wanted to do was accidentally change the future, so I kept my mouth shut.

"You'll get there," I said, knowing it was true. "I'm sure of it."

He smiled, loving my encouragement. He blew out even more smoke and very sneakily checked me out up and down. He thought I wouldn't notice if he did it quickly, but I caught it.

"So tell me more about yourself," he said. "I'm intrigued."

Yeah, I thought. Intrigued with what's under my skirt. "Um, well, what would you like to know?" I said, like I didn't know any better.

"Everything. Do you have any siblings? What do your parents do? What do you do for fun? Do you actually try in school or just blow it off? You know, just tell me."

I took a deep breath. "Well, I don't have any siblings. I'm an only child."

"Hmm," he said, taking another drag of his cigarette. "I have a younger brother. His name is Mike. He's . . . annoying." He threw his cigarette butt on the ground and took a moment to crush it underneath his shoe. "You have no idea how lucky you are."

I've heard many stories from my friends about their siblings and how they wish they didn't have them, so I'm glad I stayed an only child. "I'm sure I don't," I agreed.

"What about what your parents do?"

I. Had. No. Idea. I mean, I knew what they did in the present world, but in the 1960s . . . forget it. I just had to make something up and pray that it was true, and if it wasn't, I would pray that he would never find out.

"Um," I said, taking a split second to pull something out of my ass. "My mom is just a housewife and my dad is . . . an engineer." That was what I came up with in that short amount of time.

"Oh wow," Paul said, sounding genuinely interested. Please don't ask any questions, I begged God. "Engineers make good money. Do you know what kind of engineer he is?"

"Uh, nope. No idea."

"Oh." He pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and took a nice, long drag. "How about for fun? What do you do for fun?"

I couldn't exactly tell him that I liked to play on my computer or that I was a total videogame-junkie. So that created a whole new round of making stuff up. "Um, I like to draw a little bit. Um, I read. I listen to music. I don't know. The usual." Coming up with answers on the spot was hard.

"Oh come on," he said, not accepting that as an answer. "I know for a fact that you play the violin. There has to something else that you do for fun."

"Um . . ." I didn't know what else to add to that list. I couldn't really say something that was around in the 60's. "I-I don't know. You kind of put me on the spot."

He laughed. "Alright, alright. You think about it and I'll ask again in a few days." Good, I thought, letting out a big breath I had been holding in. "How about school? Do you actually give a rat's ass about school or is that something you're just gonna let slide by."

Now this was something I knew the answer to. "Yeah I care about school," I said. "To be honest, I'm a total nerd. I was a straight-A student back in America." That was half-true. I used to be a straight-A student, but then I got bored and found everything I was doing to be pointless so I let my grades drop to about a B average. But I wanted Paul to know I was smart so his tricks weren't going to work on me and that I was different than any girl he's tried to get with before. In any case, I figured that the education received back then would be so much easier than what was being taught now, so I was confident that I could keep up that streak.

"Really?" Paul seemed surprised. He looked me up and down and up and down, not really in a sexual way, but more of trying to figure me out. "Well, you'll need to help me with my homework. I'm sure I could pull my marks up a few points if I got some help." He winked at me, letting me know he wanted my help in particular. He threw this cigarette butt on the ground and squished it with his foot.

Soon we were at my house and I held my breath, hoping Paul wouldn't try anything. I hated awkwardness.

"This is it," I said, standing in front of the door. The lights were on so I knew my mom was still up. I turned to Paul and said "Well, thank you for walking me home."

His smile went back to being a seductive, sexual one. "Anytime, love," he said, eyes going down and then quickly coming back up again. "I'll see you tomorrow in school, I guess. Have your lunch with me and George. We would love to talk to you."

Being that I didn't like them, I really didn't want to, but not wanting to be rude I said "Okay."

Paul grinned and said "I'll see you then, Miss Colleen." And he walked off down the street.

I watched him go for a second and then I went inside and closed the door.


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