All Strung Out Read Online Free PDF Page A

crumble with ice cream. After the waitress brings it out, Jen digs in right away, like she hasn't had anything to eat all day.
    "Are you sure that'll be enough?" I say. "If we order now, I'm sure the next one will be ready by the time you finish that one."
    "Nice. Go ahead. Pick on the skinny, starving girl."
    She drains her water glass to wash down the pie and puts it on the edge of the table for the waitress to refill.
    "I think we jumped into the tech business too fast," I say. "We should have hit the eating contest circuit first."
    "Keep it coming, my friend," she says. "My retribution will be well-timed and swift."
    While we wait for the check, I look away, suddenly at a loss for words. Since we met, I've never had trouble talking to Jen. We started working at our old graphics firm within a week of one another. And almost from the beginning, we had this idea for You4D. The stars and planets and moons aligned for us, and here we are, eating dinner for thirty dollars a plate, knowing that this break is the only one we'll get for a long, long while.
    Fifteen minutes later, we pull up in front of Jen's apartment building. She hops out of my car and grabs her bag from the backseat before I can even open my door. When she comes around to the drivers side, I open the door and get out.
    "I'm glad we took a break," she says. "See you tomorrow."
    She leans in and steals a kiss before she heads for the building stairs.
    As I watch her climb the stairs. I wonder why she would go out of her way to do that. I then realize that I'm warm. Way too warm. I take off my jacket.
    That's when I realize I have an erection. A full-on, let's-get-to-it-now erection that feels like static electricity all over my body. All I can do is stare down at myself. This does not happen to me. The only erections I get are of the morning wood variety. I even saw a doctor once to make sure I was all right physically, but they didn't find anything wrong. As we left the exam room, the doctor told me to try porn. It didn't work. Nothing worked. I finally accepted that I'm different.
    I look up at Jen's window, knowing that I must now question everything I thought I knew about myself as a man.

Scene 9 ~ Mark
    When I wake up on Saturday morning, I realize I'm stuck. Being with Sophie doesn't help. Sitting in Lang's studio, surrounded by his incredible guitars, doesn't help. I can't afford to be stuck. I have to write songs. Without songs, I don't have a solo career. It has never been so damned hard for me to write.
    My phone rings. Braun. God dammit, what's he doing up so early on a Saturday? I answer the call while I walk to the laundry room in search of jeans.
    "Dude, you have to turn yourself in," he says. "You fucked up. Don't be such a douche about it."
    "You think I'm going to jail over a stupid assault charge? Hell, no," I say. "I'll just be a fucking fugitive for the rest of my life. All I did was knock out an idiot who was begging for it."
    "Everyone is giving the band a hard time about it. You can run from the cops all you want, but leave us the hell out of it. Sign the fucking papers, and go away."
    "Give all the shit to my lawyer. He'll get it to me."
    "You need serious help, man. You should go back to rehab," Braun says, suddenly all holier than thou. I think about all the times I pulled his sorry ass out of the gutter.
    "Yeah, fuck you, too, you goddamned ingrate. Call me when you're sober."
    I end the call and toss my phone on top of the washing machine. I'm standing here in my boxers, but I'm too furious to do anything at the moment. This is why I can't move on. I'm still dragging the shitheads around with me everywhere I go. I have to forget about what's going on in L.A. and focus on my new work.
    And forgetting is going to require something a little stronger.
    When I pick up my phone, I see Trent's name at the top of my favorites list. I put it first on purpose. At the time, I reasoned that just because I didn't want or need to be in rehab any