Tommy was in his third year at the University of Missouri. It was April, early on a Friday afternoon. It had been raining all week, but today there was finally a respite. The sun was shining, birds singing, flowers blooming in bright colors. Tommy and his friend Chris, a sophomore who still lived in the dorm that Tommy had lived in the year before, had been jamming together on their acoustic guitars for an hour outside in a park next to the dorm. They decided they wanted to smoke a little pot and then continue jamming, so they went back to Chris's dorm room to puff a bit. Tommy produced the weed and Chris had a small glass hash pipe. They smoked a couple bowls and decided to jam in the common room of the dorm.
Tommy hadn't really missed living in the dorm. He liked having his own space, he liked not having to be wary of the RA whenever they smoked some pot. Chris made sure the pot smoke was blowing out the window, so no worries today. While Tommy was happy he didn't have to live in the dorm any longer, he did miss all the young college girls. Since it was a nice warm day, and the first one in a while, the girls going to and from class were all wearing short shorts and tight little tee shirts. Tommy sat back on the sofa and watched the girls come and go through the common room. Some of them were really cute, a couple were really sexy, and there was one girl that was drop-dead gorgeous. She was talking on a cell phone as she walked through the commons. "Who was that?" Tommy asked Chris after she had passed.
"Lauren McCain," he said. "She's nice enough. She's got a boyfriend on the other side of campus. She's a freshman."
"Interesting," Tommy said. He played a little riff, and Chris played it back at him. Tommy hit a couple E chords and Chris played that riff again, over it. They jammed it out for a few minutes, before Lauren walked back through the commons, still on the cell phone. She was visibly upset. A few moments later, they heard her yell.
"Fine! Do whatever the fuck you want!"
Tommy and Chris looked at each other, shrugged. Lauren came back to the common room and sat down on a sofa near Tommy and Chris. "What's going on, Lauren?" Chris said.
"My boyfriend is an idiot," she said.
"What did he do?" Tommy asked her. She looked at him. He looked right back at her.
"I'd rather not talk about it right now," she said, crossing her arms across her chest, just below her perky, full tits. She was wearing a tank top, black and tight, and tiny denim shorts, cut off with ragged, torn hems. "You guys keep playing. I was enjoying hearing you. I'm Lauren, by the way," she said, looking at Tommy.
"Tommy Orion," he replied. Chris played a riff, and Tommy recognized it from a Grateful Dead song they knew. Tommy played the next riff, and Chris played the one that followed, and then Tommy hit the E chord, followed with an A, and they started singing "St. Stephen." Lauren didn't seem to know the song, but she enjoyed watching them play it. Suddenly, without stopping playing, they flowed from St. Stephen into a Buddy Holly song she did recognize, called "Not Fade Away," which was all about being in love and thinking it will last forever, and she sang along with them. They changed it up in the middle, breaking into a song, singing about "going down the road, feeling bad... don't wanna be treated this old way," before rolling back into "Not Fade Away" to finish it all off.
"That was really cool," she said.
Chris shrugged. Tommy said: "The Dead do it better."
"Who?"
"The Grateful Dead. We're just ripping off them."
"Well you did a good job. That was really cool, how you went from one song to another," she said. Tommy smiled, shrugged, played another little riff. "So what are you guys doing tonight?" she asked them.
"I'm going to a show at the Blue Note. Split Lip Rayfield is playing," Chris said.
"Who are they?"
"Kind of a honky-tonk garage-rock punk string band. They rock."
"Cool. What about you, Tommy?"
"I don't know yet. I was thinking of driving to St. Louis to meet some friends of mine for a jam session."
"Oh yeah?" she said. She was suddenly excited. "I was supposed to go see U2 tonight in St. Louis at the Savvis Center. My boyfriend was going to drive me, even though he didn't have a ticket to the show. Anyway, he's an idiot, like I said, and he forgot and he's getting drunk with his buddies right now, so I don't have a ride anymore. I'm supposed to meet some friends at the show. Tommy, I'll pay for your gas if you would take me with you to St. Louis tonight."
Tommy didn't have to think twice. "That's a deal," he said. He checked the time on his cell phone. "We should probably leave in a couple hours."
"Oh shit, what time is it?" Chris asked.