Catherine by April Lindner

Author:April Lindner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / Classics, Juvenile Fiction / Love &#38, Romance
ISBN: 9780316196925
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2012-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

Catherine

For a while, Hence and I met up at Jackie’s every day after school. Then, one afternoon, as he was slipping back into his jeans, he gave me a sheepish look. “I won’t be able to meet up tomorrow. Riptide’s rehearsing.”

I bent to kiss his forehead. “That’s okay.”

“This won’t be the only time. We’ll need to rehearse at least a few times a week from now on.”

“Got it,” I said. “I understand.”

Hence wrapped his arms around me and gave me a squeeze. “You’re amazing,” he said, and then he was gone.

I dressed slowly, giving myself a pep talk. Being in Riptide is a great thing for Hence. I’ll get more writing done now, and missing him will make my poems deeper, because poets are supposed to suffer. Aren’t they?

Dad was really excited for Hence and gladly cut back his hours at the club, but rehearsal time with the band quickly expanded to take up most of Hence’s new free time. Suck it up, I told myself whenever I felt a pang of longing. You don’t need to hang around your boyfriend constantly. Besides, this will make the time we do get to spend together even more special.

Still, on the afternoons when Hence was rehearsing, I couldn’t help wishing I could be there, too. I wasn’t about to suggest it, though; I knew from experience that guys in bands don’t like girlfriends at practice any more than they like them at auditions.

I’d heard Dad’s musician friends grouse endlessly on the subject. “Paulie insists on bringing his old lady to every rehearsal, and she’s a colossal pain,” I remembered Dave D’Amato saying, at one of Dad’s late-night drinking-and-bullshit sessions, about his bassist’s girlfriend. “She thinks she can make suggestions.” There had been true horror in his voice.

And Dave’s weaselly drummer, whose name I could never remember, actually chimed in, “I don’t mind if a guy brings his girl along, provided she’s hot and she brings us beers.”

Dave laughed. “We need a new rule. Hot girls welcome… but no Yokos.”

“They’re sexist pigs,” I told my dad the next day as we were clearing away the empties from the living room. “Why don’t you say something?”

“Dave’s an old friend. Besides, he’s essentially right. Bringing a girlfriend to practice is unprofessional.”

“Or a boyfriend,” I sniffed. “Girls are in bands, too.”

Dad chuckled. “Or a boyfriend.”

So I knew better than to ask Hence if I could sit in, which was why I was floored when he brought up the idea himself. “The guys said you could come watch us rehearse tomorrow if you want.” We were cuddling under a blanket, and I was so happy to be in his arms that I hadn’t even been thinking about rehearsals.

“You asked them?” I was thrilled. “And they really don’t mind?”

“Stan and Andy weren’t so into the idea at first,” he admitted. “They had some bad experiences with the last lead guitarist’s girlfriend. But I said you’d be totally cool.”

I snuggled my face into his neck and inhaled deeply, breathing him in.

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