The Allure
Chapter One: The Contest
I should probably start out with where we all were. The band and I were in Philadelphia Pennsylvania for a show. We had just finished our first set when I had picked out my girl for the night. She was a pretty thing, with black hair and green eyes as deep as the Mediterranean Sea. I had already had enough whiskey to keep myself buzzed for the rest of the night and I was ready to party. My war paint was half way gone from the sweat that was pouring off of me from the hot lights and running around on stage. I sat for a moment and took the water bottle from our manager John. Twisting off the cap I leaned away from my bass and took a swig. Our army was so loud I could feel their screams through my veins. Like the sound that comes from my bass I breathed it in letting it fill my senses.
Andy walked up and towered over me. I looked up…and up…and up, until I could see his face from where I was sitting. It was already bad enough he was taller than me when I was standing, but Andy's favorite passed time had to be standing, the man never sat if he didn't have to.
"Did you have her sign the papers?" Andy asked before taking a drink of water. I sighed and shook my head.
"No, I'll go get them now." I walked past Andy while he followed me and I went into our bags. I pulled out a small packet of paper and looked around for the girl that I had picked out of the crowed. I found her on a couch by a big screen tv that showed the concert in full high definition and I sat down next to her. She jumped and looked at me and smiled brightly. "I need you to sign these." I said holding them out to her with a pen.
"Why?" she asked taking the papers and the pen I offered.
"You can read through them, it's a contract. It just says that you won't sue us or anything and that you consent to having sex with me." She giggled and I smiled. I didn't know if she took this serious or not, but it was something John made us go by. The last thing we needed was for some crazy bitch to say we raped them for money. I left her there with a pat on the leg and went to pick up my bass from it's stand. I played a cord and smiled feeling it sing beneath me. I walked out to the sound of roaring fans lights shining in my eyes and the heat of thousands of bodies in the Wachovia center. We played two more songs before it was time to announce our secret contest that no fan knew about. It had taken a lot of meetings with our managers and our security to get everyone to agree on where we would have the contest. As I stood to the side playing some background music with Jinxx Andy stood up in the center front of the stage and put his mic into the stand.
"Philadelphia Pennsylvania!" The crowd roared into life like a flame that was just fed oil. CC tapped out a beat on the drums and Andy continued. "We have a little contest going on tonight." He said and everyone became quiet. "During the break I picked out a ticket stub from thousands in a bag." He held up the ticket stub and I walked over to the other side of the stage while Jinxx took my place. "Here it is!" He took the ticket and put it in between his belt and his pants and crossed one arm in front of him. "So there are rules to this contest. Conditions and what it is all about. So, whoever has the matching ticket to this stub here," he patted his waist. "Wins a one week fully paid vacation with us." Andy turned to me. "Where are we going again?" He asked. I walked up and spoke into his mic.
"We are going to Key West in the Florida Keys." Thousands of people screamed and I could see people grabbing for their tickets.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!"Andy held up his hand and silenced the crowd. "The person with the winning ticket and one of their friends will come along with us. Now here are the rules to this contest. Sorry, but no one under 21 can go." Outraged cries came from the crowd. We all knew that would be one of the main reaction we got from the crowd, but we couldn't allow 18 year olds into bars with us, that would get us in trouble, or we would have to have one of us stay home and babysit the minors while we all went out. We just didn't want that. We wanted it to be fun for everyone. Andy continued by explaining just that, without saying babysitting. "Finally we will be leaving in three days from Philadelphia to Key West. So, we have three days to straighten everything out, find our two 21 years or older fans and get going!" Andy reached into his belt and held up the stub. "So here is the ticket. If you are over 21 please provide a form of ID and discretely show your winning ticket to one of the security guards posted around the arena. We don't want a riot out there." It was a good thing that Andy had remembered to put on his twitter last night that everyone had to bring ID. He chuckled and held the stub in front of his face while one of the spot lights focused on him. "The winning ticket is #278452190. If this is your ticket and you aren't over 21 please let one of the guards know and we will pick another ticket." Andy repeated the ticket number and then we started playing another song.
If the winner hasn't come forward before the next song we would repeat the numbers again. We played through the song and got word that the winner was found. It was good because we didn't need to find another ticket stub and wait until after the concert to find another winner. After the concert is when we greeted our Winners. One woman waited patiently while I put down my bass before she ran right into me and hugged me. I laughed and looked down to the woman who wore war paint just like mine. She jumped back and smiled again. She had light purple hair with electric blue contacts in. Her hair had stripe extensions, and a couple rainbow highlights. Her hand reached up to touch her skull bow that was in her hair and she turned to call for her friend.
A woman with dark mahogany brown hair walked forward from sitting on one of the couches. She had no war paint on and she wore a brown hanging shirt with a hat that you would normally see at a coffee shop. She wore dark blue jeans and a set of brown boots the same color as her shirt. She smiled pleasantly and stood with her friend. She was a sore thumb with all of us standing there.
"Hi I'm Eliza. I'm the contest winner and this is my friend who is going to come with me!" The purple haired girl said. I looked at her and then at her friend. Andy smiled and stepped forward.
"Nice to meet you." He was greeted with a hug from Eliza.
"Eli was never good with introductions. My name is Alura." She smiled and folded her hands together in front of herself.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ashley Purdy." I said holding my hand out to her.
"I can hug, I don't have a disease." She said jokingly. Her voice was soft like a whisper. I opened my arms for a hug and she smiled and walked into them and hugged me. Nothing unusual, no spark, no feeling of rightness, these aren't faerie tales. I let her go and she looked down at her shirt. I had gotten war paint on her.
"Sorry." I said and she shook her head.
"It's just a shirt. I can replace it when I have the money." I looked at her and smiled. She was pretty laid back. She watched as her friend hugged everyone and she followed after her quietly introducing herself with a hug to each of us.
"So are you a fan too?" CC asked when she finally got to hugging him.
"Yea I'm a fan. I love your music. It is very inspirational and life changing." She smiled and stood in front of us while her friend calmed down. "I suggest it to anyone who is having a hard time in life." She took out her cell phone and made a phone call while her friend talked on and on to Andy. When she came back I flashed her a smile.
"So who was that?" I asked. She looked at me and smiled.
"That was my secretary." I blinked couple times before I asked,
"So you are a business woman?" I regained myself and smiled.
"Well, in a sense. I'm a psychologist. I work from home and help those with addictions, and men from war with post traumatic stress disorder." She smiled and I put the pieces together.
"So you really suggest our music to a lot of people. You suggest it to your patients?" I asked her and smile smiled.
"Yea I do. I liked your music and I found that it is very uplifting. I love you music. It's helpful to a lot of addicts." She sat down with me on the couch while I drank some water.
"So what types of addictions do you work with?" I asked and took another sip of water.
"I mainly work with sex addicts, but I can help people with drug and drinking addictions." She said and leaned back crossing her legs in front of her. I raised an eyebrow. Sex addictions? Did that even exist? I thought about it and I couldn't imagine it being an actual addiction. Didn't you have to go through withdraw for it to be considered an addiction?
"How is sex an addiction?" I asked turning on the couch to face her.
"Well, imagine wanting to have sex everyday all day 24/7" she said and I laughed.
"I already do babe." I set my empty water bottle down and I took the JD from the table.
"Well, now imagine that not even 5 minutes after you are so tired you don't even want to move, you want to have sex again." I thought for a moment and took a swig from the JD bottle.
"Well, that isn't abnormal. It happens."
"Yea it happens. But every time, all the time, no matter how many times or how long you have sex you want it. You manipulate people into having sex with you. Woman and men, young and old. No matter who it is. You spend all your money on it. You always have porn, you never go a day without it. You could have sex five times a day every day. Use your breaks to find someone to have sex with. You cheat on your girlfriend or boyfriend, husband or wife. You never stop, your never satiable, and the only thing you ever want is that split second where you are on top of the world. It gets harder and harder to reach an orgasm, and by the time your thirty you almost never reach that point. That is what a sex addiction is like." She sat back and I looked at her dumb founded. She knew a lot about this. She spoke as if she had experience. I wouldn't ask though, we had just met, this conversation was just about her work.
"Wow, ok I don't have that problem." She looked at me and smiled.
"Yea I know you don't. You wouldn't be sitting here right now if you did. That black hair chick over there would be in the tour bus with you right now if you did." She motioned over to the girl that was holding the papers.
"Oh, yea, her." I chuckled. I forgot about her while I was talking to Alura.
"I better go home and pack anyway. I have to tell my family where I will be. Thank you so much for paying for this vacation. This is going to be a great week." She stood and hugged me goodbye before she hugged all the other guys. She and Eliza left with the key to their hotel room at a hotel we were staying at the next couple of days. The woman I picked out walked up to me and handed me the papers, fully signed and legally binding. I handed them to Andy and led her off to our van. It was going to be a good night. I wonder if she was a virgin.
Andy walked up and towered over me. I looked up…and up…and up, until I could see his face from where I was sitting. It was already bad enough he was taller than me when I was standing, but Andy's favorite passed time had to be standing, the man never sat if he didn't have to.
"Did you have her sign the papers?" Andy asked before taking a drink of water. I sighed and shook my head.
"No, I'll go get them now." I walked past Andy while he followed me and I went into our bags. I pulled out a small packet of paper and looked around for the girl that I had picked out of the crowed. I found her on a couch by a big screen tv that showed the concert in full high definition and I sat down next to her. She jumped and looked at me and smiled brightly. "I need you to sign these." I said holding them out to her with a pen.
"Why?" she asked taking the papers and the pen I offered.
"You can read through them, it's a contract. It just says that you won't sue us or anything and that you consent to having sex with me." She giggled and I smiled. I didn't know if she took this serious or not, but it was something John made us go by. The last thing we needed was for some crazy bitch to say we raped them for money. I left her there with a pat on the leg and went to pick up my bass from it's stand. I played a cord and smiled feeling it sing beneath me. I walked out to the sound of roaring fans lights shining in my eyes and the heat of thousands of bodies in the Wachovia center. We played two more songs before it was time to announce our secret contest that no fan knew about. It had taken a lot of meetings with our managers and our security to get everyone to agree on where we would have the contest. As I stood to the side playing some background music with Jinxx Andy stood up in the center front of the stage and put his mic into the stand.
"Philadelphia Pennsylvania!" The crowd roared into life like a flame that was just fed oil. CC tapped out a beat on the drums and Andy continued. "We have a little contest going on tonight." He said and everyone became quiet. "During the break I picked out a ticket stub from thousands in a bag." He held up the ticket stub and I walked over to the other side of the stage while Jinxx took my place. "Here it is!" He took the ticket and put it in between his belt and his pants and crossed one arm in front of him. "So there are rules to this contest. Conditions and what it is all about. So, whoever has the matching ticket to this stub here," he patted his waist. "Wins a one week fully paid vacation with us." Andy turned to me. "Where are we going again?" He asked. I walked up and spoke into his mic.
"We are going to Key West in the Florida Keys." Thousands of people screamed and I could see people grabbing for their tickets.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!"Andy held up his hand and silenced the crowd. "The person with the winning ticket and one of their friends will come along with us. Now here are the rules to this contest. Sorry, but no one under 21 can go." Outraged cries came from the crowd. We all knew that would be one of the main reaction we got from the crowd, but we couldn't allow 18 year olds into bars with us, that would get us in trouble, or we would have to have one of us stay home and babysit the minors while we all went out. We just didn't want that. We wanted it to be fun for everyone. Andy continued by explaining just that, without saying babysitting. "Finally we will be leaving in three days from Philadelphia to Key West. So, we have three days to straighten everything out, find our two 21 years or older fans and get going!" Andy reached into his belt and held up the stub. "So here is the ticket. If you are over 21 please provide a form of ID and discretely show your winning ticket to one of the security guards posted around the arena. We don't want a riot out there." It was a good thing that Andy had remembered to put on his twitter last night that everyone had to bring ID. He chuckled and held the stub in front of his face while one of the spot lights focused on him. "The winning ticket is #278452190. If this is your ticket and you aren't over 21 please let one of the guards know and we will pick another ticket." Andy repeated the ticket number and then we started playing another song.
If the winner hasn't come forward before the next song we would repeat the numbers again. We played through the song and got word that the winner was found. It was good because we didn't need to find another ticket stub and wait until after the concert to find another winner. After the concert is when we greeted our Winners. One woman waited patiently while I put down my bass before she ran right into me and hugged me. I laughed and looked down to the woman who wore war paint just like mine. She jumped back and smiled again. She had light purple hair with electric blue contacts in. Her hair had stripe extensions, and a couple rainbow highlights. Her hand reached up to touch her skull bow that was in her hair and she turned to call for her friend.
A woman with dark mahogany brown hair walked forward from sitting on one of the couches. She had no war paint on and she wore a brown hanging shirt with a hat that you would normally see at a coffee shop. She wore dark blue jeans and a set of brown boots the same color as her shirt. She smiled pleasantly and stood with her friend. She was a sore thumb with all of us standing there.
"Hi I'm Eliza. I'm the contest winner and this is my friend who is going to come with me!" The purple haired girl said. I looked at her and then at her friend. Andy smiled and stepped forward.
"Nice to meet you." He was greeted with a hug from Eliza.
"Eli was never good with introductions. My name is Alura." She smiled and folded her hands together in front of herself.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ashley Purdy." I said holding my hand out to her.
"I can hug, I don't have a disease." She said jokingly. Her voice was soft like a whisper. I opened my arms for a hug and she smiled and walked into them and hugged me. Nothing unusual, no spark, no feeling of rightness, these aren't faerie tales. I let her go and she looked down at her shirt. I had gotten war paint on her.
"Sorry." I said and she shook her head.
"It's just a shirt. I can replace it when I have the money." I looked at her and smiled. She was pretty laid back. She watched as her friend hugged everyone and she followed after her quietly introducing herself with a hug to each of us.
"So are you a fan too?" CC asked when she finally got to hugging him.
"Yea I'm a fan. I love your music. It is very inspirational and life changing." She smiled and stood in front of us while her friend calmed down. "I suggest it to anyone who is having a hard time in life." She took out her cell phone and made a phone call while her friend talked on and on to Andy. When she came back I flashed her a smile.
"So who was that?" I asked. She looked at me and smiled.
"That was my secretary." I blinked couple times before I asked,
"So you are a business woman?" I regained myself and smiled.
"Well, in a sense. I'm a psychologist. I work from home and help those with addictions, and men from war with post traumatic stress disorder." She smiled and I put the pieces together.
"So you really suggest our music to a lot of people. You suggest it to your patients?" I asked her and smile smiled.
"Yea I do. I liked your music and I found that it is very uplifting. I love you music. It's helpful to a lot of addicts." She sat down with me on the couch while I drank some water.
"So what types of addictions do you work with?" I asked and took another sip of water.
"I mainly work with sex addicts, but I can help people with drug and drinking addictions." She said and leaned back crossing her legs in front of her. I raised an eyebrow. Sex addictions? Did that even exist? I thought about it and I couldn't imagine it being an actual addiction. Didn't you have to go through withdraw for it to be considered an addiction?
"How is sex an addiction?" I asked turning on the couch to face her.
"Well, imagine wanting to have sex everyday all day 24/7" she said and I laughed.
"I already do babe." I set my empty water bottle down and I took the JD from the table.
"Well, now imagine that not even 5 minutes after you are so tired you don't even want to move, you want to have sex again." I thought for a moment and took a swig from the JD bottle.
"Well, that isn't abnormal. It happens."
"Yea it happens. But every time, all the time, no matter how many times or how long you have sex you want it. You manipulate people into having sex with you. Woman and men, young and old. No matter who it is. You spend all your money on it. You always have porn, you never go a day without it. You could have sex five times a day every day. Use your breaks to find someone to have sex with. You cheat on your girlfriend or boyfriend, husband or wife. You never stop, your never satiable, and the only thing you ever want is that split second where you are on top of the world. It gets harder and harder to reach an orgasm, and by the time your thirty you almost never reach that point. That is what a sex addiction is like." She sat back and I looked at her dumb founded. She knew a lot about this. She spoke as if she had experience. I wouldn't ask though, we had just met, this conversation was just about her work.
"Wow, ok I don't have that problem." She looked at me and smiled.
"Yea I know you don't. You wouldn't be sitting here right now if you did. That black hair chick over there would be in the tour bus with you right now if you did." She motioned over to the girl that was holding the papers.
"Oh, yea, her." I chuckled. I forgot about her while I was talking to Alura.
"I better go home and pack anyway. I have to tell my family where I will be. Thank you so much for paying for this vacation. This is going to be a great week." She stood and hugged me goodbye before she hugged all the other guys. She and Eliza left with the key to their hotel room at a hotel we were staying at the next couple of days. The woman I picked out walked up to me and handed me the papers, fully signed and legally binding. I handed them to Andy and led her off to our van. It was going to be a good night. I wonder if she was a virgin.
Notes
A/N: So we have our winners!!! I'm not much for Author Notes anymore, but I'll be sure to try and make them for you all since you know we are a family and all ;)Star
