Chapter 7

Skid Mark

I yanked the earpiece out of my ear for the fourth time as the interference with my wireless mic overloaded it. Gippal's bright idea of equipping me with an earpiece that would allow me to communicate with him and vice versa wasn't looking too bright anymore.

"Gippal, I don't think this is going to work. I'll probably go deaf if we keep this up," I said, rubbing my ear.

I had tried placing my wireless mic in different spots so the earpiece wouldn't pick it up, but the only place that didn't make the meddlesome piece of plastic squeal in protest was the hem of my jeans. That was a good place if everyone wanted to hear me walking across the stage. The bad thing is, I need that earpiece. Gippal needed it so I could tell him when to start the background music. If our timing wasn't exact, things could go very wrong.

"Paine, I have an idea," Baralai said, his voice booming over the speakers.

"What is it?" I inquired, playing catch with the earpiece.

"Don't use a wireless mic for the songs that you play your guitar. Use a corded mic with a stand," he suggested like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Wow, Baralai, I'm impressed." I really was, believe it or not. "Now why didn't I think of that? Oh, I know. Because Gippal thought his bright idea was going to work." I paused to check the time on my cell phone. The show was starting in a little less than two hours and I had to get ready. "Get that mic ready. I'll be back soon."

As I left the stage, I was dreading walking back out once I was dressed in my costume. Rikku had definitely done her homework on hosiery and I looked like I belonged in a burlesque, which was not a good thing to be wearing in front of Baralai right now.

After I was dressed, I was just getting ready to leave our dressing room when I spied Rikku's white pull over sweater slung over the back of her vanity's chair. I grinned as I snatched it and carefully put it on, being mindful of my costume. "Hey, Rikku, I'm borrowing your sweater." She was in the bathroom so I had to raise my voice so she could hear me.

"Okay, just don't lose it!" she shouted back.

I snorted as I left the dressing room, slowly making my way back to the stage. I heard Baralai's and Gippal's muffled voices chattering away as I walked back out and swung my guitar strap over my shoulder. I stepped up to the corded mic Gippal had graciously set up for me then placed the ear piece back in my ear. I eavesdropped on their conversation, unimpressed when I heard Gippal was telling Baralai about all the 'hot' girls that were in his classes. The guy was a ladies' man at heart. He was totally committed to Rikku and knew that he couldn't touch any of the other girls we went to school with, but he wasn't against looking. He was currently trying to set Baralai up for a date with one of these girls, but he was politely turning him down.

I checked to make sure the mic was turned off so only Gippal would hear me speak. "Gippal, do you seriously think Baralai would let you set him up on a date? Do you want to scar him for the rest of his life?"

Gippal swore in Al Bhed at the sudden appearance of my voice, which made me break out into giggles. "Thanks for the heart attack, Paine." I heard him breathe in deeply and exhale just as quickly. "And I would not scar him for the rest of his life. The boy needs to get out and live a little."

I rolled my eyes as I turned the mic on. "I don't think he needs your help with that. Ready to continue?"

They were silent as I continued to practice. I had just enough time to run through all the songs I would be playing twice. When I stepped off stage so Gippal could start letting everyone inside, I was confident that I wouldn't mess any of the notes up. I watched the backstage crew arrange all of our costumes as a male member of the make-up crew did small touch ups to my face.

Before I knew it, Yuna, Rikku and myself were getting the show underway. I literally held my breath when it was time for our first costume change. I was expecting something, anything, to go wrong, but it never did. We were back out on the stage in exactly three minutes. The rest of the costume changes turned out the same way. I was shocked; I had expected the night to turn into a complete disaster. Maybe my opinion on costume changes during the show was a little biased after all. I made sure to profusely thank our crew before they left.

Once everything had settled down and I was back in my regular clothes – thank Shiva – I was outside next to my motorcycle, chatting with all three guys while we waited for Yuna and Rikku to emerge. We were going to go out to eat again and I could hardly wait. The small lunch I had bought for Gippal, Baralai and myself hadn't filled me up all the way and I was ravenous. Yuna and Rikku came out a few moments later and we left immediately for the restaurant.

"Oh, Paine, I almost forgot!" Rikku exclaimed a few minutes after we were seated at our table. "Our agent called me a couple hours before the show started."

My shoulders slumped a small amount. There was a fifty-fifty chance that the news Rikku had from our agent was bad news. "What did he say?" I asked apprehensively.

"Well, he got a call from…someone. This…person is wondering if we would be able to come up to Bevelle next week and perform with…them." The way she was avoiding speaking about the individual made the corners of my eyes twitch.

"Oh," I replied, knowing exactly who she was talking about. The 'someone' Rikku was insinuating was a male singer/songwriter that we had performed with many times before. It had been almost a year since we had last seen him. "When next week does Cainen want us to perform with him?"

Rikku didn't look surprised that I knew who she was talking about. "Saturday night. That way we can still do our show," she answered. "Oh, and he said something about wanting to perform the song you wrote together."

Ah, hell, I thought, wishing she hadn't said anything about that. Baralai didn't need to know about the complicated relationship between myself and Cainen. I saw Baralai look at me out of the corner of my eye and I felt like burying my face in my hands.

"I'll get in touch with him later about it," I replied, keeping my voice guarded. "Let's not have an overly extravagant show next week, alright?"

Both Yuna and Rikku nodded, looking satisfied, until the blonde one spoke. "Can we have at least one costume change?" she asked, sounding like I was her mother and she was asking for permission.

I scowled at them, but reluctantly accepted. I didn't want to argue with them anymore about the stupid costume changes. It wasn't worth the headache. I just wanted to enjoy a night out with my friends before I had to go back to reality.

The next week passed uneventfully. Because of the upcoming show in Bevelle with Cainen, I didn't have a chance to work on any new material. I managed to get his phone number from our agent, who insisted that he call Cainen back for me even after I told him multiple times that I wanted to talk to him. Eventually it took me threatening to fire him to get him to shut up about it and bid me goodbye.

Cainen was ecstatic to hear my voice for the first time in a year. Yuna, Rikku and I had met Cainen shortly after we had risen to fame. We became extremely close and would go to Bevelle about twice every year so we could see him. Mine and Cainen's relationship started to get interesting after the fiasco with my ex-boyfriend. One weekend after our show, I had gone up to Bevelle by myself just to get away from Luca. I hadn't meant to meet up with Cainen while I was there. I hadn't even called him to tell him I was in town. Rikku had been the one to take the liberty and let him know everything that had been going on.

The next thing I knew, Cainen was sitting in my hotel room with me crying on his shoulder and explaining what happened in greater detail. I thought of him as one of my best friends so I wasn't at all prepared when he kissed me. I didn't exactly know how to react; I had come to Bevelle to get away from boy drama, not jump right back into it head first.

I was so shocked in fact that I almost got up and left Bevelle right that second. I never knew that Cainen felt that way towards me. Every teenage girl in Bevelle was in love with him and I was under the impression that he had a girlfriend. After seeing the shock on my face he quickly apologized and asked me to stay, saying that he would make up for his momentary lapse in judgment to me. I agreed, but had no idea how much trouble that one simple answer would give me later on.

Sunday evening after I had checked out of my room, Cainen and I were standing next to my motorcycle when he decided to drop a bomb on me. He told me that he had feelings for me, that he had for a while, in fact. He just didn't have the courage to tell me. Too bad that I found this out after I'd had my heart shredded by an insensitive jerk.

So to make a long story short, I ended up telling him that I couldn't return his feelings. He understood and said he would wait. After that our relationship went back to the way it used to be, but I could tell what he was thinking about every time he looked at me. I should have been unsettled because of that, but, strangely, I wasn't.

Our conversation over the phone had been surprisingly normal as well. He was excited about seeing all of us again. He talked to me about the song we had written together and asked if I would be willing to play lead guitar for a few of his other songs, something he had never asked me before. I accepted immediately and he sent the sheet music for the songs he wanted me to play in an e-mail so I could print them out.

"You do remember how to play our duet right?" he inquired, a smile in his voice.

"Of course I do," I answered, knowing he was only messing with me.

So fast forward all the way to Saturday. We were making the three hour drive to Bevelle. Yuna, Rikku, Tidus, Gippal and Baralai were all stuffed into Yuna's car with our costumes and two of my guitars in her trunk with me following behind on my motorcycle.

I cautiously lifted my left hand off the handlebars and stretched my arm over my head, flexing and unflexing my fingers. I did the same on the other side. The vibrations from the handlebars were starting to make my arms hurt, but I didn't dare to drive with just one hand. An eighty mile an hour crash would ruin my night.

I huffed as I flipped my visor open, blinking rapidly as a blast of air hit my sunglasses. It was a warm day out so the inside of my helmet got hot quick. I was getting bored with the scenery; we wouldn't be going through Macalania Forrest for another half hour and even then all I would be staring at for another hour is trees, trees and more trees.

So I settled for staring at Yuna's license plate and going over guitar notes in my head.

Before I knew it we were driving through the outskirts of Bevelle. I smiled to myself, relieved that I had found something to occupy my time. Cainen told us to meet him at the stadium so we could run through the show once and have the three boys help them with setting up the equipment.

I was nervous about seeing Cainen with Baralai there watching me. He didn't know about my history with him. The only thing Baralai knew was that we had written a song together. I wanted it to stay that way too. I was the last person that needed two boys getting territorial over.

Baralai and I had continued to talk over the past week, but I had kept to what I had said and refused to bring him to the studio with me. The next time he was allowed to come back wasn't until I have the music for his song completely finished, which isn't going to be for a while. Although, I have to give him some credit for staying true to his word. He was, in fact, behaving himself. Whenever we talked or spent any time together, he never brought up anything about my past and I did the same with him. Our relationship was actually at a point that I was comfortable with and I wasn't on edge around him anymore, which was saying a lot.

But, oh boy, was I on edge while Cainen and I were practicing our duet.

Both of us would be playing our electric guitars with the small exception of me playing a small acoustic piece at the beginning. Baralai and Tidus were taking a break from their work when we began to practice. They were standing by the end of the first row of seats and staring up at us. I swore Baralai's eyes were boring holes into me while I sang. Our gazes met once and I almost forgot to keep singing. The intensity of his stare shook me to my very core. He had never looked at me like that before.

He broke eye contact a second later and I was able to concentrate again. They stayed until the end of our duet then went back to work. I was hoping that Cainen hadn't noticed Baralai watching us, but, of course, I'm never that lucky.

"Who was that?" Cainen inquired casually as we carried our guitars off stage.

I swallowed nervously and decided to play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that boy with the tan skin and white hair." He paused and smirked. "Don't try to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Who is he?"

I glared at him, wishing he hadn't asked. He didn't need to know about Baralai. I've known Cainen to be jealous and if I told him about Baralai now that's all he would be thinking about during the show. I paused and briefly thought about what Baralai really was to me. He was my friend, yes, but is that all?

"Let's just concentrate on the show right now. I'll talk to you after." I needed the extra time so I could get what I was going to say straight.

Cainen smiled and nodded. "I'll hold you to that. You better go get ready."

He left me backstage wondering what in the hell I was going to tell him later.

"Paine, what do you mean you're staying behind?" Yuna asked, confusion making her eyebrows scrunch together.

I had just loaded my guitars into Yuna's trunk; Rikku and the guys were gathering all of the costumes inside. Yuna was the only one that wouldn't freak on me and start hammering me with questions. I also didn't want Baralai to know where I was going. If he seemed on edge with Cainen earlier then I could only imagine what he would think if I was meeting up with him alone.

"I need to talk with Cainen. It won't take long, I promise."

Yuna crossed her arms and narrowed her bi-colored eyes at me. She was quiet for so long I thought our friends would walk out before I had the chance to make myself scarce. "Alright," she finally said. "I'm calling you when we get back to Luca and you better answer."

I smiled. "Yes, Mother," I replied as I walked over to my motorcycle. "And I promise to answer my phone."

She waved as I drove past her, an expression that I couldn't read on her face. It could have been concern, but I wasn't sure. I was meeting Cainen at a small park near the outskirts of Bevelle. I still had no idea what I was going to tell him. This talk wouldn't take long – hopefully – so there was no need to meet at a restaurant even though I was hungry. I had plans to stop at a gas station on the way back to Luca to fuel up. I could find something to eat there.

Cainen was leaning up against his sleek sports car when I pulled into the deserted parking lot a few minutes later. The sickly yellow glow of the lamp posts washed all the color out of our surroundings, turning the deep red of Cainen's car to a disgusting orange.

"Good job tonight," he began after I had taken off my helmet. "So tell me about this Baralai." He wasted no time in getting straight to the point.

"In truth, there really isn't much to tell. I only met him a couple weeks ago." I paused to sort out my thoughts. "I honestly have no idea what he is to me. He's already expressed his interest in me, but I'm not sure how to respond to him."

Cainen's eyebrows rose slightly in interest. If he reacted to my words negatively in any way he was doing a very good job of hiding it. "Go on," he urged.

"And you know how I handle things like that," I said, giving him a pointed stare. "I only managed to avoid him for three days. He found me at my studio and from then on I couldn't avoid him anymore. He promised to behave himself."

A knowing smile turned the corners of Cainen's mouth up. "He seems like he's a good guy. He's a hard worker; my stage hands told me as much. If he hurts you, he's going to be hearing from me." His smile grew wider and even reached his eyes.

I was slightly shocked at Cainen's words, wondering if I had heard him right. It was either my imagination or he had just given me his blessing to pursue something with Baralai. I was a little confused. I thought that Cainen would feel threatened by him.

It took me a few seconds to find my voice again. "Excuse me if I look a little confused. I'm trying to figure out if I heard you correctly," I said, rubbing my ears for dramatic effect.

I had to hold myself back from jumping in fright when he started laughing like I had just told a funny joke. I crossed my arms and patiently waited for him to calm down.

"Paine, I realized a long time ago that you'll never again give your heart away to someone that you know might break it. If you thought Baralai was going to do that you wouldn't even waste your time with him."

At his words, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Cainen was absolutely right. I found it hard to believe that I hadn't figured that out sooner for myself. This boy that I haven't seen or talked to in over a year knew more about me than I knew about myself. Truthfully, I was actually kind of proud. He had come a long way and matured a great deal. The old Cainen wouldn't have been so calm.

I wasn't really sure how to react so I did the only thing that made sense: I hugged him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed him like I would never see him again. He snaked his arms around my waist and squeezed me just as tightly, his breath rustling the hair on the side of my head. We stood there like that for quite a while.

"Thank you," I whispered, moving away from him. "I'll see you later."

"You bet. Drive safe, please."

"Don't worry." I pulled out of the parking lot and let my headlight cut through the night on my way out of town. My friends had a pretty good head start on me, but I wasn't in any kind of rush to catch up with them.

I don't remember how long I had been driving. I don't even remember how fast I was going. It could have been the speed limit.

All I remember is seeing a flash of movement to the right of me, losing control of my motorcycle and flying through the air.