Beat Of My Heart

Verse Two

My palms were sweaty, my brain a messy fog of alcohol and loud music, and my heart a fast beating drum to the rhythm of the music still blasting in my eardrums. 

Sebastian Jennings had let me sing into his microphone to one of my favorite songs, and I didn't know why I felt so over the moon about it.  

Perhaps it was the fact that before, I knew he was attractive but I always saw him as unattainable and someone who was just the vehicle to carry crappy pop tunes to the radio to get teen girls like myself obsessed with them and thus propel music sales. 

I quickly realized his full appeal seeing him up close and personal in concert, and it was like I was starstruck. 

Maybe it was just the alcohol though...

After he let me sing into his microphone (swoon), he started working the crowd on the other side of the arena because I'm sure he was probably spending way too much time over on our side although it only felt like seconds to me, and before I knew it, it was the end of the concert and he never got as close to us as he did in that one song. 

"You finished both of these?  How are you not drunk yet?" I heard Josie ask me as the lights came up in the auditorium and the people all started clearing out. 

"I think I am," I said, giggling to her and grabbing onto her hand to keep myself from falling over. 

"Do you think we'll be able to do our VIP stuff still?" I asked her, wanting to get a chance to see Sebastian Jennings up close and personal one more time before we left. 

"Yeah if you can act like a normal person and not an alcoholic for five minutes," Josie grumbled, probably jealous at the fact that he had put the mic in my face for longer than he did with her. 

I shrugged her off and started walking towards the signs that said 'VIP Meet and Greet Passes Only' and she followed my lead. 

"Ma'am can I see your passes?" the large and in charge security guard in front of a velvet rope asked me. 

I dramatically reached into my purse to grab my pass, but my eyes widened when my hands came up empty. 

"I think I left it in the car, I'll go get it don't go anywhere Jos," I told my friend who happily dashed inside the VIP area without me since she had actually worn her pass around her neck. 

Grumbling, I made my way back to the parking lot, the throng of excited teenagers doused in sweat from dancing and being in a packed crowd all night forcing me to walk slowly. 

My feet were burning by the time I reached our car which thankfully was in the front row next to a ton of other expensive looking cars but I sighed in relief when I was finally able to sit down again. 

I was so exhausted from the night and from wearing heels and the alcohol that when I sat down in the passenger seat of Josie's BMW, I reclined it back and found myself somehow drifting off, the two drinks that I had fogging my brain making me forget what I had even come out to the parking lot to get. 

***

Bright lights.  Moving vehicle.  Spinning.  Dizziness.  Confusion.  A little bit of nausea. 

These are the things that I was feeling when I woke from my peaceful slumber in my cramped half laying down position in Josie's car. 

Then I heard swearing. 

"Why are you cussing at me Josie? And can you please turn off the damn lights, my head is killing me," I mumbled out to her, hoping that she'd catch the hint that the drinks I'd had weren't really sitting well with my body that had never had a sip of alcohol in my entire almost eighteen years of life. 

"Oh shit.  Shit shit shit this is not good, not good at all.  How did I do this?!" I heard a man's voice exclaim and suddenly I bolted upright in my seat. 

Josie did not sound like a man. 

I looked over at the person in the driver's seat and let out a short scream. 

This frightened him and he let out a similar sounding scream. 

Then I screamed again. 

And then he- well, you get the picture. 

The point was, he was surprised that I was in the car, and I was surprised that he was surprised that I was in the car. 

The thing that surprised me the most?

Not only was the man sitting beside me not Josie.

It was Sebastian Jennings. 

"How much did I have to drink?" I asked aloud, hoping that it was just my imagination getting the best of me and that an international rockstar wasn't in the front seat of my best friend's car as we drove away from his concert. 

"I don't know but how did you get in my car?" he asked me and I looked around confusedly. 

There was my purse on the ground, along with the backstage pass I'd forgotten to bring into the concert.  

Josie's pink tassel from her arts school graduation was slung around the rear view mirror and I scratched my head animatedly, thinking to myself. 

"Pretty sure this isn't your car..." I said to him and his eyes widened in realization when I pointed to the things in the car that showed that it was most definitely not his car. 

"Oh shit this is even worse," he said, doing a hairpin turn and nearly sending me flying into the window.

"Cheese and fries!  Could you slow down before I puke all over you?!" I yelled out, and he started laughing. 

This figment of my imagination started laughing. 

"What was that, cheese and fries?" he said, his twinkling laugh matched his attitude perfectly.  If he were real, I might have blushed at how close we were. 

Obviously I was dreaming. 

"Hey don't make fun of my catch phrases.  Why are you driving like a maniac anyway?"

"The paparazzi are following me.  They know that this was my last show and since its close to my hometown they're trying to follow me to see who I was going to hang out with but I really don't want them to-"

Sharp turn.  Tires squalling.  Me clenching my butt cheeks because of said sharp turn. 

"-find out where I'm going," he finished after the sharp turn was over and I released my breath and un clenched my cheeks. 

"Well why would the paparazzi be after you?" I asked him and he looked at me quickly before glancing back at the road, shaking his head a bit before answering. 

"Seriously?" he asked me and then it dawned on me. 

"Oh right, cause you're 'famous,'" I said with air quotes around the word because I was still convinced that I was in a dream and it wasn't real life. 

"Well, since I've never met a 'famous' person before, I might as well introduce myself.  Holly Vickers, nice to meet you," I said, extending my hand to him even though he was driving. 

He cracked a mega watt smile and I wanted to swoon. 

Even in dreams he could make panties drop. 

He finally removed his right hand from the steering wheel long enough to place his hand in mine and shake it. 

I screamed. 

Not because we got into a car accident or anything, but because when I shook his hand, I realized something detrimental. 

He most definitely wasn't part of a dream.