“What about the time we got hammered with the guys from Static White and they made us play strip poker with them?” Pete chimes in. “I haveneverseen anything scarier than Leo dressed in nothing but a sports bra, Lucky’s shorts and one sock, trying to beat the hell out of a naked Ross White because she was convinced he was cheating.”
I start laughing so hard I snort. “He was! I don’t know how, but that fucker was totally cheating.”
“He was completely naked, princess. Where exactly was he hiding the cards?”
“I don’t know, but Ross was cheating.”
“I still think they just wanted to play so they could get Leo naked.” Mark smiles and nods. “And it’s probably the only reason any of us let it happen.”
Lucky shrugs in agreement while Pete and Norm nod, too.
“Perverts, the bunch of you.” I might be laughing with the rest of them but my blood pressure is rising and it’s not because I’d still punch Ross White in the dick if he was here right now.
Nope, it has everything to do with this conversation, and the way I can’t seem to stop thinking about things that haven’t even crossed my mind in years.
“Oh, come on! Do not even try to convince me you didn’t have that same thought running through your head at the time.”Mark chides. Then he winks at me and I decide to ignore how that made me feel. “You were theonlyone out of eight people who had any clothes on at the end of that game.”
Pete leans forward, arching his brow and not helping my case. “Face it, princess, we were all curious. You wanted a look just as much as we did, and you know damn well every band we ever toured with had at least one member who wanted in your pants.”
I watch Lucky lose the lighthearted playfulness and narrow his eyes. The last thing I want is for this to start a fight, like it always has. Which honestly makes a lot of sense now that I’m thinking about it.
Any time Lucky and I fought it was usually over some groupie or whoever we were seeing at the time. We defended each other way more than we fought, and if it came down to us or our current fling, we always chose us, but he was fucking pissed when I ended up dating Luke White, Ross’s brother. Luke was theonlytime I ever dated someone else in a band, and if we keep this conversation going everyone will end up duking it out.
They all liked Luke until I started dating him, and that never really made any sense to me until now.
Huh.
“So,” I practically yell into the silent tension. “I’m diabetic.”
Four sets of eyes snap toward me, and I giggle.
I guess Justine didn’t tell Luckyeverything.
“I am no longer the proud owner of seventy percent of a pancreas, along with several other internal organs, therefore I have quite a bit of maintenance I have to do in order to not die.”
“Way to come right out with it, Leo,” Norm says eyeing my shit on the counter.
“No point in beating around the bush.” I give him a nonchalant shrug. “You guys need to know in case somethinghappens, and I definitely don’t want you to think I’m reliving thedark years.” Not anymore anyway.
“Hold on.” Lucky gets up from the island and starts rummaging through my junk drawer, pulls out a notebook and pen then sits. “Ok, I’m ready.”
My brows lift in surprise. “You’re going to take notes?” Then I roll my eyes. “Of course you are. Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to for a minute.”
“Smart. Ass.” He glares.
“Are you type one or two?” Mark asks as he grabs for my meter.
“I’m kind of in between, closer to two, I guess. I have to take a pill twice a day but I only inject insulin before bed.” My eyes flick to Lucky’s hand as he starts writing. “I have chewable tabs in case I drop, and emergency insulin for extreme scenarios. Those are both marked with red duct tape, basically so I don’t get confused and accidentally inject myself at the wrong time. The meds I take in the morning all have a strip of yellow duct tape with suns on it, and my night meds all have blue duct tape with moons on it.”
In unison all four of them ask, “Justine?”
“You know it.” I separate my pill bottles and show them her handy work. “I take these generally by eleven in the morning, these by eleven at night but no earlier than nine.” I point to the ones with green duct tape. “These are my enzyme pills?—"
“And your Lactaid.” Lucky smirks. “They have the same wait time?”
I love that he remembers that.
Nodding, I motion to the red ones. “My chewables can’t go in the fridge but my insulin has to. Anytime I leave I have to bring that with me in a small portable cooler so it stays cold.”
