Intemperance Volume 2 Standing On TopChapter 6A
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The session went reasonably well. The first two hours was spent taking their instruments out of storage cases, cleaning them up, plugging them into the sound system, and tuning everything. The instruments were not the same ones they used on stage. Jake used a top-of-the-line Brogan Les Paul knock-off because its components were superior and it recorded better. Matt used a newer version of the Fender Stratocaster. Darren had a different version of the same Brogan bass guitar. Coop had a different, though identical drum set. Nerdly had an electric piano instead of the Grand he normally used.
After getting everything tuned in and sounding good they then went through the ritual of smoking marijuana out of a water bong. Though there was a long-standing rule about using intoxicants of any kind prior to performing or rehearsing, this rule did not apply to jam sessions when they composed new music. They had found that being stoned during the composition phase actually seemed to help with their creativity.
Matt introduced them to his first new song first. It was called Can't Chain Me. Like pretty much everything Matt wrote, he had composed the main guitar riff first and then wrote the lyrics to match it after. The riff was a grinding, powerful, and complex five-chord progression that Jake and the others were immediately impressed with. They lyrics were quite good as well, dealing with how various people — women, managers, record company executives — tried to control Matt and how he refused to be controlled. It was a more mature version of a typical Matt Tisdale tune and Jake was already thinking that it might just be the title cut of the next album.
They worked on it for almost three hours without a break, refining the rhythm, finding ways to insert the piano and Jake's backing guitar, learning the lyrics and composing when the harmony of the rest of the band would come in. Since this was a subject that Jake could relate to well he had no problem finding and conveying the emotion of the lyrics as he sang them, of getting across exactly what Matt was trying to say.
"Off to a good start," Matt said as they smoked a few more bonghits during their break.
"I agree," said Darren, who, to the surprise and delight of the others, had taken an active and enthusiastic approach to the composition process in a way they hadn't seen since back in their D Street West days.
After the break Jake introduced them to his first effort, the song he thought of as the best of the three he'd composed so far. It was called Cold Reality, a song about how the things you've always dreamed of and anticipated always seemed to be less than expected, sometimes even evil, when you achieved them. Jake wrote his songs by composing the lyrics while strumming out a basic rhythm on his acoustic guitar. In this case — much to Darren's chagrin — he envisioned multiple tempo changes. The main verses would be played with a ballad-like air, heavy on acoustic guitar sound and piano with only supporting solo-chords from Matt's electric. The choruses would be a bit heavier, with Matt doing a distorted electric version of the main riff while Jake played a little heavier acoustic. The bridges, on the other hand — and there were two of them — would be played in classic heavy metal with two grinding distorted electrics and no piano at all.
The complexity of the song meant that they were only able to get the very basics of it settled in the three hours they worked on it. Darren grumbled about the fucking tempo changes, of course, but seemed to remain good-natured about them. Everyone else really liked the tune and was enthusiastic about working it up. The suggestions flew back and forth as to just how fast the tempo should be at each point and how dominant each backing instrument should be put across. Matt, Bill, and Jake, as was usually the case, were the ones to make most of the suggestions.
Before they left for the day Matt plugged back in and showed them the new heavy palm-muted riff he was working on. Heavy turned out to be just the word for it. It sounded nothing like Kirk Hammett's work on Master Of Puppets — Matt, as promised, had adapted the technique and changed it to his own style — but Jake continued to have his doubts about it.
"You got lyrics to go with that yet?" he asked Matt.
"Not yet," Matt replied. "I'm still working on the basic riff. I can pull some lyrics out of my ass later. What do you think?"
"It doesn't quite sound like an Intemperance riff," Jake said.
"What the fuck does that mean?" Matt asked.
"Well... where are we gonna fit Nerdly's piano in with that riff? I don't think it will mix well."
"That's true," Bill said. "It's too fast of a tempo for a piano to keep up. And a riff like that needs to be the domineering sound on the recording, just like Metallica does it. My piano would just be lost in the noise. I don't see any way to mix it in."
Matt grumbled and even threw out some profanity, but he was musician enough to know that Jake and Bill were right. There was no way to mix a piano in with a heavy palm-muted riff without it sounding like shit. "I'll work on it some more," he said. "Maybe I can find a way to slow it down some."
And that ended their first session.
"See you all tomorrow," Matt told them as they headed for the door. "Same time, same fuckin' channel."
They went out to the parking lot where a limo from Buxfield Limousines was waiting to take Coop and Darren home. Jake had his Corvette and Bill had a brand new Ford Escort he'd bought shortly after coming off tour ("It's practical, economical, and environmentally friendly," he'd explained when Matt had called him a fuckin' faggot for buying such a pussy car). Matt had a new car he'd just purchased the week before. It was a silver 1987 Maserati Biturbo that he'd paid $75,000 cash for. It was obvious that he loved the car almost as much as he loved his Strat.
"Anyone wanna grab some dinner?" Jake asked.
"Not me," said Matt. "I've got some bitches coming over tonight and I'm gonna have a little orgy."
"How about you, Nerdly?" Jake asked.
"Maybe tomorrow," Bill replied. "I'm going to go take a shower and then head over to the Flamingo. I feel the need to engage in some meaningless fornication. You gonna come tonight?"
"Naw," Jake said, "I'm still a little burned on the meaningless fornication after the tour."
"That didn't stop you from pounding that little punk rock chick in New York," Matt said.
"I didn't say I was stopping anything," Jake said. "I just said I'm not up for it tonight. I'll see you guys."
They said their goodbyes and Jake climbed into his car. He headed toward a little restaurant he'd discovered last year while rehearsing the Balance Of Power tunes.
The Brannigan Station Café was on Wilshire Boulevard at Gayley Avenue in the Los Angeles district of Westwood. It was just a few blocks south of the sprawling UCLA campus but the UCLA students rarely patronized the establishment. Instead, the target clientele were workers from the huge Veterans Administration complex just across the San Diego Freeway and from the Federal Building just two blocks west. Both of these groups routinely trooped to Brannigan Station for breakfast, lunch, and, to a lesser degree, dinner as they headed home for the day.
Jake had discovered the place one day after leaving the rehearsal warehouse on nearby Olympic Boulevard in Sawtelle. He had wanted to stop for a bite to eat before heading to a bar frequented by UCLA students where picking up a nineteen year old slut willing to do anything for Jake Kingsley would be easy to accomplish. The restaurant was everything he looked for in an eating establishment. First of all, it was family owned and run and not a chain restaurant. Second of all, the time he tended to be there — around four o'clock in the afternoon — was the slowest time of the day for Brannigan Station since lunch had ended and dinner had yet to begin. Often he was the only customer in the place at this hour. The most significant reason — the reason that kept him coming back — was that even if there were customers in the place, they tended to be older people in their late-thirties to mid-sixties which meant that very few of them even knew who Jake Kingsley was and had no desire to talk to him if they did know who he was. It was a place where he could eat good food in peace without constantly having to make small talk with fans or sign autographs or deal with religious freaks wanting to tell him he was going to hell for his corruption of America's youth.
He pulled his Corvette into the parking lot at 4:16 PM and walked in the front door. The restaurant was completely empty of customers except for an elderly couple in their seventies — probably patrons of the VA Hospital — sitting in one of the booths near the front. They looked up as he came in, gave him a distasteful look when they saw his long hair and tattered jeans, but otherwise showed no signs of recognition.
Jo Ann Brannigan, the owner of the restaurant, was manning the hostess podium. She smiled delightfully when he walked in.
"Jake," she said, beaming, walking up to give him a hug. "Welcome back. We haven't seen you in ages."
He hugged her, feeling her large, surgery-enhanced breasts pushing into his chest. Jo Ann was quite attractive, appearing to be in her late twenties or early thirties instead of the forty-four years of age she actually was. She was an astute businesswoman who had leased the building and opened the restaurant ten years before using money from her second divorce settlement. She ran it like a well-oiled machine, taking advantage of her location and catering to her projected clientele by hiring well-schooled and well-skilled cooks and friendly, eye-pleasing but non-slutty looking waitresses and waiters. This had allowed her to be financially stable in the upper-middle class when the alimony payments and child support finally ran out.
"It's good to see you, Jo," he told her as their embrace broke. "You're looking hot, as usual."
She blushed in a way that was quite erotic. "Oh you," she said, slapping at his shoulder. "That's nice of you to say but after all those young things you hook up with out on tour I'm sure I look like a sack of old bones."
"Not at all," he said. "You look like a sack of young bones. I promise."
She giggled like a schoolgirl. "It's good to see you, Jake. You up for a little dinner?"
"Do you still have the Philly cheese steak on the menu?"
"You know it," she said. "We wouldn't get rid of our most popular item."
"Then I'm here for some dinner," he said. "You think you can squeeze me in?"
She looked around at the empty dining room. "I think a table just opened up," she said. "Go pick your spot and I'll send Rachel over to take your order. Anything to drink?"
"Corona with a lime," he said. "And keep 'em coming."
"You got it," she said.
He sat down in a booth near the back of the room, the place where he would receive the least amount of notice if a crowd suddenly showed up unexpectedly. Soon Rachel Madison, Jo Ann's daughter from her first marriage, came over carrying a bottle of Corona with a lime in it. A student majoring in English at UCLA, Rachel worked afternoons and evenings at her mother's business. She was nothing but a younger version of her mother. She was naturally blonde (so it appeared anyway), petite, quite cute, and looked considerably younger than the twenty-two years of age she actually was. She could have easily passed for a high school student had she wished. She was wearing the standard uniform of Brannigan's waitresses — a simple pair of tight jeans and a bright red T-shirt that was tucked into the waist. Her medium breasts bulged quite alluring beneath the restaurant's logo.
"Hi, Jake," she said, setting his beer down on the table. She then leaned down and gave him a big hug, pushing those breasts into his shoulder, and a short kiss on his cheek. "It's good to have you back. I was starting to think we'd never see you again."
"I just couldn't stay away," Jake said. "Ever since the tour ended I've been craving a good Philly cheese steak sandwich and a gander of you in your Brannigan's T-shirt."
She blushed in a manner very similar to the way her mother had just minutes before.
"How was the tour?" she asked. "I saw what happened in Cincinnati. What a horrible place that must be."
"I don't think I'll be moving there anytime soon," Jake said. "The freakin' villagers would probably show up at my house with battering rams and torches."
She giggled. "I saw on the news the other day that the judge dismissed the charges against you. At least someone there has some sense."
"I'm sure he didn't like dismissing the charges," Jake said. "He just knew that the first court I appealed to would overturn him and probably issue a reprimand."
"So the system works?" she asked.
"Well, I've been arrested three times now for a variety of charges and so far... yes, I'll have to say that the system works. At least if you're rich and have expensive lawyers like I do."
"Justice for money," she said with a smile. "What can you say? We all know it's the American way."
He laughed. "Styx," he said, impressed with her musical knowledge of an obscure tune and her ability to quote it in correct context. "Half-Penny, Two-Penny. A good lyric."
"Not as good as yours are," she said. "You never did tell me if you really did it or not."
"Did what?" he asked, although he knew what she was talking about.
"You know? Did you really snort coke out of that girl's butt?"
"That would be a total violation of the health code if I'd done something like that," he said.
She slapped at his shoulder again. "You," she said. "I bet you actually did it. You seem all nice and sweet but I bet you have a wild side."
"I'll have to plead the Fifth here, hon," he told her. "That's what my lawyers suggested."
"Someday you'll tell me," she vowed. "So anyway, what can I get you? Mom already said you want the Philly. Anything with it? You want a salad or some soup maybe?"
"Naw," he said, "just the sandwich. That'll hold me until I get to my next coke sniffing from the butt-crack session."
She disappeared long enough for Jake to drink a third of his beer and light a cigarette. When she came back she had a glass of diet soda in her hands. She sat down next to him, uninvited, knowing that Jake liked chatting with her when he was in.
"So how's school going?" he asked her as she sipped from her soda. "Are you taking complete and total advantage of the educational opportunities that California offers you?"
"Now you're sounding like Nerdly," she said. "But school is going okay I guess. I haven't been able to pull a full schedule this last year because I'm working here a lot in the afternoons, but I'm more than halfway to my degree."
"Good for you," he said. "You still want to be a teacher?"
"More than anything," she said.
"Follow your dreams," he told her. "That's what I did and look at where I am now."
"You're in our restaurant now," she said. "Is that where your dreams brought you?"
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"What mistake?" She pulled a piece of paper from one of her desk drawers. It was an official looking legal form with numbers printed all over it. "This is a breakdown of your tour revenue as of last week. It lists all forms of expenses and all forms of income, including merchandising. When you read the bottom line it says that we made $1,116,428, or, to round down a bit, $1.12 million." "Wow," Jake said, whistling. "That's not bad." "Not bad at all," Pauline agreed. "It's a...
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South Island of New Zealand January 24, 1989 10:24 AM, local time The rented Cessna 172 leveled off at thirteen thousand feet above mean sea level, just five hundred feet below the maximum operational ceiling of the aircraft. Jake was a little nervous. He had never flown this high before and he didn't like the sluggish way the plane responded to the controls in this thin air. "You're doing just fine," Helen told him. She was sitting in the seat next to him, handling all of the...
Jake did not stand, did not rise to the bait. "I've told you this before, Matt," he said mildly, "and I'll tell you again. This isn't high school. You don't win just because you can kick my ass. I will tell you that if you lay a hand on me in anger, you and I will never play music together again." "Gentlemen!" Crow said, now truly alarmed. "We must stop this! We must..." "Shut your ass, Crow," Matt told him without even glancing in his direction. He continued to glare at Jake...
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The back of the stretch limousine was filled with a thick, pungent could of marijuana smoke, a cloud so dense the passengers could barely see from one end to the other. All five members of Intemperance were back there as well as Janice Boxer, their publicity manager, and Steve Crow, the man identified as the producer of The Thrill Of Doing Business album and all the songs featured on it. There were two fat joints going around, the band members smoking them with enthusiasm, the two management...
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Jake's stage outfit consisted of tight red leather pants and a black, loose-fitting shirt that came down slightly below his waist and covered about half of his arms. For shoes he was given patent leather, ankle-length boots that had been polished to a high shine. The moment he got dressed he began to sweat. He knew it would only get worse out beneath the heat of the stage lighting. "Fabulous," crooned Reginald Feeney, the wardrobe manager. "It accents that nice ass of yours but hides the...
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Later, Jake, his mother, and Nerdly's mother took their places at the front of the room to perform the wedding song Jake had written for his friend. Jake picked up the battered acoustic guitar he used when composing. His mother removed the $18,000 Nicolas Lupot violin she played onstage with the Heritage Philharmonic from its case and put some rosin on her bow. Nerdly's mom sat down at a baby grand piano she'd arranged to have trucked here from her house. As he had done with Celia's...
Jake and Helen did continue to socialize with each other outside of the classroom. He took her out to dinner on a few occasions, to a Los Angeles Dodgers game one Friday night, and to a party at Matt's house. Everywhere they showed up, the media soon followed, dying to get a glimpse of Jake and Helen in some sort of compromising position. The public was fascinated with Helen for some reason Jake could not even begin to put his finger on. Not even Matt's newfound relationship with the famous...
"You know something, Nerdly," Matt said. "All kidding aside, I have to tell you, that bitch of yours is all right. She's a good sport." "Uh... thanks," Nerdly said. "I like her a lot. She's got a good ear for music." "How's her titties?" Matt asked. "It's hard to tell with those baggy clothes she always wears. She got a premo rack, or what?" "The specification of Sharon's breasts are not your concern," Nerdly said. "Oh come on, Nerdly," Coop said. "Give it up. Was...
"Got another one of those?" Celia asked him, taking up position on the rail next to him. She, like everyone else at the rehearsal, was dressed informally. She had on a pair of khaki shorts and a white sleeveless blouse. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail. "I think I can spare one," he said, pulling out his pack. He shook one out for her and then lit his lighter so she could ignite it. She drew deeply on it and then exhaled, sending a plume of smoke out over the beach where it was...
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Los Angeles, California September 18, 1987 10:30 AM Jake sat shirtless in one of the chairs adjacent to the wet bar out on his patio. Sitting on the bar next to him was an ashtray that contained half a dozen cigarette butts and half of a joint he'd lit earlier. There was also a potent rum and coke sitting there — his third of the day even though it was only 10:30 in the morning. Sitting next to the drink was a notebook and a pen he was using to transcribe lyrics from his head onto paper....
Palm Springs, California November 11, 1988 5:24 PM "Wow," Helen said as the limousine came to a stop in the circular driveway at 210 Jacinto View Drive. She was looking out the window at the huge house that towered above them. Even though the sun had just gone down, bringing an inky twilight to the desert city, she could see enough to be quite impressed. "That is a big motherfuckin' domicile," Jake agreed, managing to combine a Nerdlyism with a Mattism and successfully pull it...
Buying land, even in one's own country, was not simply a matter of walking into a real estate office, writing a check, signing a few documents, and then walking back out again with ownership papers in hand. When such a purchase was being made in a foreign country, things became even more complex. Though to Jill, Jake seemed to be acting on foolish impulse, in reality he planned to proceed very carefully. The first things Jake wanted done were to make sure of all the legalities involved in...
Santa Monica Municipal Airport November 24, 1989 Celia Valdez stood on the tarmac of the airport, looking at Jake's twin-engine plane nervously. Jake had just finished the exterior pre-flight inspection of the aircraft. He had checked the control surfaces, the tires, the brakes, the fuel sumps, the propellers, the antennas, the lights, and had visually verified that his two tanks were actually full of fuel (true, he had watched the fuel truck pump both tanks full just thirty minutes before,...
Austin, Texas June 7, 1984 They moved about the stage, their motions pulsing, frantic, as they closed out Almost Too Easy. As the last beats were hit in a carefully timed crescendo, Jake, Matt, and Darren moved backwards, entering the safety perimeter that would keep them untouched by the coming explosion. By now they were well practiced in this maneuver and there had been no mishaps. The last beat was hit, the last strings strummed, and the two canisters detonated, sending a boom and a...
Heritage, California January 2, 1985 It was well past 9:00 PM and Pauline was sitting behind her desk on the sixteenth floor of the Markley Building. The ultra-modern, thirty-two story building was the tallest, most exclusive high rise in Heritage. Situated directly adjacent to the Sacramento River, its westward facing offices featured spectacular views of the waterfront. Pauline didn't have one of these offices. In fact, she had no view at all. Her office featured no windows and was less...
The movie premier that Jake and Matt had been pretty much ordered to attend (their contract stated they were required to make themselves available for public appearances as arranged by the record company — this was without compensation, of course, with only travel being paid for) was for a film called Thinner Than Water. Neither Jake nor Matt knew anything about it other than it starred Mindy Snow and Veronica Julius, two of the hottest young female actors on the movie scene today, though two...
They met with Steve Crow. He was a young, hip-talking man in a loud but fashionable suit. He had long platinum blonde hair styled in punk rock fashion. He wore sunglasses even though he was indoors. He was intelligent and articulate and he sat and went over each of the previously rejected tracks with them, rating each on its relative merits. "The only one you're absolutely forbidden to record is Its In The Book," he told them. "Which is one of our best songs ever," Matt said...
February 24, 1984 Los Angeles, California "God I hate these fucking leather pants," Matt barked as they emerged from the makeshift dressing room and made their way towards the back-stage area of the rehearsal warehouse. "That ain't no shit," Jake agreed, pulling at his for the twentieth time to keep it from constricting his testicles. "I forgot how hot and uncomfortable these get-ups are." This grumbling was met by more grumbling from the rest of the band. Coop complained about the...
They put in their normal jam sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, with none of the core members speaking of the conspiracy they were hatching to Darren or to Coop. Not that it was likely to matter if they did. The drummer and the bassist were both so strung out on what Matt, Jake, and Bill were increasingly coming to suspect was heroin that it was chore enough just to keep them focused on their musical tasks. On Wednesday, Coop actually fell asleep a few times — nodded off you might say —...
Jake, Matt, and Bill all received multiple phone calls over the next two days. They received them from Doolittle, from Crow, from Shaver, even from William Casting, CEO of National Records — the big guy himself. These phone calls were all in the same vein — demands to submit recordable music by the deadline, threats of what would happen if they didn't, promises that National would not cave on this issue no matter what, that they would sacrifice the millions they stood to make even if they...
Two days later, Jake was sitting in his living room, sipping a rum and coke and flipping through a collection of apartment brochures that had been sent to him. Manny was already gone, his fate unknown to Jake and uncared about. Jake himself had thirty days to find new lodging. He now had $79,780 in his bank account, his share of the $500,000 advance minus Pauline's twenty percent and the amount he'd spent on groceries for himself and the monthly insurance payment for his Corvette. On...
July 8, 1983 Los Angeles, California "Jake, where are you going?" Manny asked as Jake picked up his key ring and headed for the front door. It was 9:25 AM and Manny had just finished cleaning up the mess made from the light breakfast he'd served. "Out," Jake said simply. "But you didn't call a limo," Manny said. "Just taking a little walk, Manny," Jake told him. "Don't worry about it." "But, Jake, you can't just..." "Don't worry about making lunch," Jake said as he...
It was eleven o'clock the next morning when Mindy dropped Jake off in the usual place. As was the usual routine, they did not kiss or hug or show any sort of affection toward each other. They simply smiled, said their goodbyes, and parted company. Jake was limping as he made his way back to his building. He was tired, having gotten less than two hours of broken sleep the night before. He and Mindy had spent the entire night naked in her bedroom, lustfully boffing each other's brains out....
Jake was actually quite concerned that Mindy would do just as he'd suggested and call an end to the relationship in the name of imagery. He knew, based on phone calls the two of them had shared, that Georgette was pressuring her to stay as far away from Jake as possible and to start repairing the damage the photos had inflicted. "She's trying to set me up with Joseph Clark," Mindy told him during one such conversation. "Can you believe that?" "Joseph Clark?" Jake asked, lying in bed...
Jake stopped the Corvette before the closed gate that guarded access to Mindy's property. There was a mailbox, a newspaper delivery box, and a small intercom box that could be used to communicate with the inside of the house. Jake pushed the intercom button, holding it down for several seconds. He hoped he was wrong about what he was thinking — he hoped that sincerely and with all his heart — but he rather suspected that he wasn't. No matter how hard his brain tried to twist and distort...
Afterward, as they lay naked on their backs, staring up at the ceiling, smoking their cigarettes, she turned to him. "I really am going to make it up to you," she said. He grunted in response, feeling his usual post-coital guilt at giving into her emotional blackmail. She gently kissed his ear. "Jake," she said, "I know I've been unfair to you. I've been parading you around like a toy, exposing you to all kinds of things and people you don't want to be exposed to. I've ruined your...
That night, after eating the dinner Manny had prepared for him — something with an unpronounceable French name that was made out of chicken breast and rich white wine gravy — Jake walked into the office of his new place. There, beside the computer desk and the filing cabinet was a black case that had been moved from his apartment in Heritage to his apartment in Hollywood to a storage house during his first tour to his first condo after it to another storage house during the second tour and...
Los Angeles, California November 19, 1984 Jake's Corvette moved slowly down Hollywood Boulevard, caught in the thick Monday afternoon traffic. Jake was behind the wheel, feeling the usual frustration that came with driving a high performance vehicle he could rarely get out of second gear. Bill sat next to him, his thick glasses perched firmly upon his face, his hand playing with his crewcut, trying to determine if it was time to get another haircut or not. They had just finished a jam...
DAY AND KNIGHT VOLUME III Chapter # 1 by Lewis Chappelle Note: this is a very long, multi-volume, story beginning with ?Day and Knight Volume I? published in early March 2007. A LOOK BACK and A LOOK FORWARD? In volume I of this story, two dancers were introduced; Patti Day who was white and Susan Knight who was black. The girls were professional dance partners in point of fact, but were as different as their last names. They were now the featured act at Clairet?s Musical Review...
Well back at the end of volume 3 we had all come back in from our play time in the barn and playing in the rain naked. Grandma had gone to the kitchen to get Supper ready, We went to the kitchen and sat at the table, I asked can we set the table in the dining room for you Grandma? She said yes that would be a big help. So we proceeded to do just that. It was Friday and Tony's mom was coming to pick him up in the morning. He said I don't want to go, but his mom insisted because they were...
Thanks. Copyright 2010 Sidney dropped her head on her desk. It was Thursday morning. She looked down at her hands and groaned. “God, I hate my life.” Sidney was naked, and held a fluid-covered vibrator in one hand and was wiping the other with a paper towel. “I hate my life,” she repeated, trying to convince herself otherwise. She sat up and closed the window where she had been viewing some porn while masturbating. It was her favorite type, but she was getting tired of watching...