Brooke found it difficult to keep her mind on what she had hoped would have been a quick day of finishing up. Now, even as she packed up her belongings, her mind drifted off to home and what would be waiting for her there.

“So, do you think we did alright, Brooke?” Peter waited for her answer noting the distant look on the woman’s face. “Hey, Brooke.”

“Uh…Oh…” Brooke tried to regroup her focus on what Peter was saying. “Sorry Peter, what did you say?”

“Daydreaming about Sam again, weren’t you?” The man teased but meant no harm by it.

“Yeah, I guess I was.” The red-tinged cheeks showed her embarrassment at being caught. “So…” she raised a lone eyebrow, “What did you say before?”

“I said…” Peter cleared his throat, “do you think we did alright? The recording I mean.”

“I think you did great.” She smiled at Peter. “James could’ve been a bit more cooperative, but I really like Eddie. He seems like a great kid.”

“You know James,” Peter shrugged, “always the difficult one.”

“Always.” Brooke closed her suitcase and placed it by the door of her hotel room.

“Yeah, Eddie wasn’t too bad for a kid. You really showed him some stuff.”

Brooke laughed at how receptive the young man had been, learning from his idol. “He’s not bad, Peter. I’m glad I could help out.”

“You’re sure I can’t entice you to be our drummer?” Peter winked at her from across the room and grinned.

“If it were just you…” Brooke looked at him for a long moment, and then smirked, “Maybe.”

The man went back to gathering up the boxes of tapes and packing the notation slips with them. “James…huh?” Peter made a face knowing that was indeed the reason.

“Trust me, Peter.” Brooke shook her head. “I really can’t get into all of that with James again. I didn’t like who I was then. I was starting to get cocky…”

“You, cocky?” By this time he had crossed the small motel room and pushed against her shoulder teasingly.

“Hey now.” Brooke went with the push. “Yeah, I watched some of those old tapes and I really didn’t like who I was becoming.”

He reached out a hand to steady her, fearing that he’d pushed too hard. “But the ones that matter knew who you really were.”

Brooke grabbed his hand and held it for a second. “There was more Loran than Brooke and I couldn’t have that.” She left his hand go. “Can you hand me that smaller bag out of the closet?”

“Ah…yeah.” Peter acknowledged what the touch had meant from his old band mate. “That Sam is something else.” He watched the woman smile at the mention of the young blonde’s name. “Where’d you meet her?”

“C.C. brought her over for dinner one night. Sam’s her roommate this year.” Images of that first meeting came to Brooke’s mind and she quickly fought to get back to the present. “I talked to her online last night before we went out.”

“And?” Peter smiled, waiting to be filled in. “She’s craving to get her hands on you again, eh?” His bushy eyebrows wiggled like caterpillars inching their way along.

“Well…” Brooke loosened her collar, feeling the heat of the blush creeping up her neck. “I don’t know about again, but…”

“If it’s anything like I see coming from you,” he pointed at the shade of redness that her skin was taking on. “She’s craving. Hey, does Sam have a sister that’s straight maybe?” The man looked hopefully to his friend.

“Yeah, but she’s a little too young, even for your tastes, Peter.” She clapped him on the shoulder then leaned in, whispering into his ear, “But I’ll have you know that Sam does have a cousin who just so happens to have a major crush on you.” Brooke winked at him when their eyes met, then she moved away.

“A…a cousin?” Peter gulped.

“Yeah, I think she’s a little older than Sam.” Brooke smiled and went back to her task of packing up to go home. “I can’t wait to see Sam and tell her about your new piercing. She’ll flip.”

“And exactly what would you tell her about my new piercing…huh?” The man started fumbling nervously over the new additions to his body.

“That you’ve got this thing in your nose and through your belly button.” She cocked her head to the side and studied his face for a few seconds, then commented. “I like the eyebrow though.”

“Stop it. I do not.” Peter’s hand reflexively went to his navel to see if she were right. “Well, at least not yet.”

“I can’t believe you did all that sober. I was with you last night Petey,” she teased him. “You didn’t drink a drop…” Brooke chuckled, “You left that up to me.”

“God I must be having flashbacks from the drugs I took in my youth.” The fretting man looked in the mirror at his reflection, studying the new piercing and wincing at the thought of the pain he had endured the night before.

Brooke laughed, “Yeah…like you’re so ancient now.”

Giving the nose ring a more intent look, Peter asked, “So, why did I do this again?”

“Because I dared you.” Brooke smiled grinning from ear to ear. “I saw you looking through the window into that piercing parlor.” She moved over toward him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. “Come on, we got our first tattoos together.”

Knowing that one dare always begot another, Peter looked over at her. “And what did I dare you to do?”

“You dared me to get my nose pierced.”

Peter eyed her suspiciously. He held her chin in his hand, turning her face from side to side, “I don’t see any holes. What happened? I thought you were supposed to get pierced the same time I was.”

Pursing her lips first, she wet her lips and stuttered out, “I…uh…I…um… chickened out.”

The man laughed out loud. “Afraid of what Sam might say, or was that too much like Loran?”

“Well, I don’t know. Sam hasn’t seen the navel ring yet…” Brooke sighed. “Yeah, I guess it is a little too much like Loran.”

Peter’s brow furrowed as he dropped his gaze to her abdomen. “Not seen it yet?” Puzzlement was written all over his face. “What the hell are you waiting for?”

The woman was silent. Casting her eyes down to the floor, she took in a breath and released it with a shrug. “I guess, I just want it to be perfect.”

Grabbing his chest with both hands as if exaggerating a heart attack, “You mean you two haven’t…” his wide eyes pleaded with her to prove him wrong.

“No.”

“I don’t know about you, Brooke.” He shook his head. “You’re sure not the person that the studios painted Loran to be. But then again, you never were.”

“I never was, Peter. I’m still not.”

“Maybe that’s what saved you from becoming like me and James.” Peter moved away from her, ashamed of the path he had taken earlier in his life.

“What…” Brooke paused then asked, “the fact that I decided to keep my virginity?” She smirked, thinking of the many times she was seduced but never gave in. “The music was everything to me. I never cared about the sex or the drugs.”

Peter looked up at her after sitting down at the small table that was in the room. “Maybe that’s what was wrong. We only cared enough about it to get the sex.”

“What about now?” She calmly asked.

He thought for a moment, and then answered her. “I know that’s what it is for James,” Peter nodded, “even now.” The man grew quiet for a moment then closed his eyes and sighed out the word, “Me? I think I’m past that. I’d like to look back at my life, say I did that and be damn proud of it. Yeah, there’s more to life than just sex, Brooke. I see that now.”

“Good boy!” She was proud of his turn around on life and let him know it. “So…” She gauged that the seriousness of the conversation needing a little lifting, “Do you think Sam would mind if I pierced my nose?” She tried to stay as straight-faced as she could. “Small hoop, maybe?” Brooke looked at her friend eagerly awaiting his answer.

“Hmmm…” the man looked at her nose, evaluating the potential. “I don’t think she’d be real crazy about it. I can’t see her wanting to mar that pretty face of yours with any more holes.”

Brooke chuckled as she sat down and grabbed for her cell phone, “You want to say ‘Hi’ to her?” There was a twinkle in her eye as she added, “She could tell you all about her cousin.”

The man’s face lit up. “Where? When?”

Holding the phone up for him to see, Brooke hit the speed dial number for Sam and winked as she raised it to her ear, waiting to hear the young woman’s sweet voice. “It’s ringing…” she cautioned him.

Twisting in his chair, Peter turned to look at his reflection in the darkened television screen, straightening the part in his hair and slicking down errant locks with a good dose of his own spit.

“It’s a phone call you idiot.” Brooke bust out laughing at Peter’s sudden attention to how he looked. “No one can see you.” She watched as the man scowled at her and pouted.

The phone was picked up on the other end and the warmth of Sam’s being was broadcasted through the air with the sound of her “Hello.”

A smile came to Brooke’s face when she heard Sam’s voice. “Hi there, Sexy! Is C.C. taking you to the house?”

Sam giggled, then answered in a sultry tone, “Yeah. Sexy…hmm?”

“Hey, I think you are. Keep talking like that. I like it,” Brooke purred her answer right back at the woman.

“I like the way you think, Brooke.” Sam could feel herself beginning to melt with the soft sexy tones that were being generated from the other end of the conversation. Struggling to stay on track, she moved the conversation along. “Ah…C.C. said that she would, just as soon as her last class is over.

“Baby?”

Sam had let her mind wander and absentmindedly answered, “Yeah, what?”

“Do you think I should pierce something? Peter and I went out last night and he pierced his eyebrow.” There was absolute quiet on the other end of the phone, “Sam…what are you doing?”