Scars and Songs (11 page)

Oblivious to her effects on the opposite sex, she remained there. Perfect. Sexy. Forbidden. “Holy Crap,” she murmured. “What the hell happened?”  Alex just stood there with his mouth open, drooling, staring at her chest.  His face was bright red.

Lea answered her for him.  He was probably incapable of speaking to her right then, most likely because all the blood in his entire body was pooling in his dick, “Seems that one of the bimbos from last night had a boyfriend. That said boyfriend introduced himself to Alex by way of his fists and a baseball bat.” Lea then started handing out bottles of water and bowls of chips to everyone.

“A baseball bat?” Grace gasped.
Even her gasp sounded sexual! Stop it, Shane
!

“Yeah. The dude jumped out on me from the closet with the bat. I threw my hands up to block it.  Broke both my arms and did some other stuff that I can’t remember now because you’re standing in front of me wearing all that innocent sexiness and my head is all fuzzy,” Alex explained. His face turned even redder. 

“Please tell me the boyfriend looks worse,” she pleaded.

Ethan roared with laughter, “I think maybe Alex hit him with some splatters of blood, but that
ʼs about it!”

Ethan moved closer to Grace. 
Shit, Ethan please donʼt touch her
.
I canʼt control these human emotions, I donʼt know what Iʼll say or do
. 

Fuck, I felt like I was about to burst.  My skin tingled all over my body as if it was electrically charged.  Sweat broke out all over my face.  I wanted Alex and Ethan to get the fuck away from her.  I wanted her to put a damn shirt on that wasn’t freakin’
fucking invisible
!  “Yeah, well, thatʼs all really funny.  But who is gonna play rhythm guitar this weekend, or next?  Or, how about the week after that?  Who the hell are we gonna find who could play as good as Alex, and play his keyboard, and sing, and learn all the fucking songs before Friday night?” 
Damn, I just made myself sound like an inconsiderate tool, all because I’m so freaking jealous I can’t think straight.

Ethan stopped moving towards Grace, which is exactly what I had wanted to do.  Unfortunately, now everybody in the whole room was eyeballing me.  Not until I saw the scowl on Grace
ʼs face did I think I had said it with too much fury.  Little did these people know what really was burning my insides.  Hell, I could probably play rhythm, keyboard and lead guitar; all I wanted was Grace to want me and it was tearing me up inside that she was so out of my reach.  So close to everybody else.

I looked at Conner for help. He must have seen the confusion and craziness in my eyes, because he took over. He waved his hand at me like he was saying,
“I got your back, bro,”
and calmly captured the room. “Listen, itʼs only Sunday. We have until Friday night. You know there is a shitload of guitar players in New York City that have your CDs and know your music by heart. Letʼs ask around, make some fliers and have a small audition on Thursday. You guys can pick the best player. You definitely wonʼt find anyone who could play the piano and the guitar like Alex, but just donʼt do the songs that call for both. Alex, how long do you have to have the casts on?”

“Six weeks or so,” Alex muttered looking down at his casts.

“Okay, so itʼs only for a few weeks. Just
think
of the exposure itʼll get you with having auditions. But if thatʼs not good for you guys, cancel the next six weekends. Take a break,” Conner advised the band, but he was just looking at me. In his own way, telling me to take a break and calm down.

I nodded my head at him and mumbled so no one else but him could hear, “Thanks, Con, I owe you one.”

He offered me a salute in acknowledgment while the rest of the room discussed his advice.

“We can always get Tucker to do it. It
ʼs been a while, but I bet he remembers how to play,” Ethan offered.
Yeah, that would be the worst idea ever. Being on stage would add to his enormous ego. He was in the band with us before and he never took playing seriously. He just reveled in all the attention it got him
.

Lea left the room and Grace jumped up to follow her. I waited maybe a minute or two, listening to the guys talk and then went in after them. Yes, I was definitely demonstrating signs of stalker-ish psychopathic behavior. 
Wonderful
.  Crown me the king of Douchedom.

Lea was in the kitchen sitting at the table. She was giving Grace a pouty face. “They may be jerks sometimes, but they are really great guys, even Shane.”

Okay, this was probably an awkward conversation to be walking in on. I should just leave
.  But my feet just rooted to the spot like a freakin’ tree. I cleared my throat and asked, “Even Shane what?”

Both girls jumped and stared at me with giant open eyes. Deer caught in headlights.

Lea tilted her head, looked at Graceʼs expression, and gave me a sly smile. I didnʼt get what it meant, but I knew she just had some special thought that had to do with me and Grace. “We were just wondering what we could do to help, thatʼs all? Um, how long were you standing there?” Lea smiled.

I looked right into Grace
ʼs wide silver eyes; there was something she didnʼt want me to know, something she was afraid of because I saw
raw fear
. “Long enough to know that we are jerks, but really great guys, even me,” I said still locking my eyes with Grace’s.

Lea giggled at Grace and me standing there, “Yep, that
ʼs how I feel about you guys in a nutshell. So what can I do to help?” She asked, jumping out of the chair she was sitting in.  Grace didnʼt move at all.

“Do you have markers and paper? We could make some posters and put them up in all the local bars,” I said, not breaking eye contact at all with Grace as I answered Lea.  That was what I had heard the guys discussing before I left them. I didn’t know if they really needed the crap.  I was kind of just grasping at straws so I could see what the hell was going on with Grace.

Lea busied herself getting whatever she needed, yanking open drawers and slamming closets, hooting whenever she found things we could use.

Grace still sat at the table as if she was waiting for me to tell her I knew whatever it was I almost walked in on. She looked like a frightened little girl and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her and take her fear away. 
Shit, this was getting worse
.

I leaned back against the counter and folded my arms. “You look like you are terrified. I really didn
ʼt hear anything else you and Lea were talking about, so please take that sad horrified look off that beautiful face,” I said.

Grace didn
ʼt move and didnʼt even acknowledge my comment. I only walked out because Lea came back in asking us what we wanted on our pizza, because she was going to order a few pies. If Lea hadnʼt come in, I could have just stayed there all night looking at those soulful eyes as they looked right back into mine. I had no idea what Grace saw in mine, but I couldnʼt help but hope she looked past Shane and saw the real me.

We ended up lying around the living room designing posters to hang in the bars in the area explaining our predicament. We had a large following in the New York City area, so I was betting that Conner
ʼs idea was going to be a great one.

Each of us sat around a giant poster board and colored in letters while eating pizza on paper plates. A comfortable silence hung in the air and just the soft sounds of markers on paper could be heard. The strong stench of permanent ink stained the air.

I repeatedly snuck glances at Grace as she lay on her stomach and colored her poster. Her legs bent at the knee and she lifted her teddy bear slipper clad feet into the air. She caught me watching her once and her cheeks burned crimson; I could only wonder what her thoughts were of me that she blushed so deeply.  Whatever it was, just the thought of her mind on me made my heart sputter in my chest.

She scanned the rest of the room and giggled. “Does anyone else feel like a five year old on a play date?”

Alex chuckled and yelled, “We always act like weʼre five years old, I mean Brayden even picks his nose and eats it.”

Choking on a mouthful of pizza, Brayden shouted, “Yeah, well, Alex has the cooties!”

“So we look like five years old, huh?” Ethan barreled over to Grace. He wrapped his arm around her and held her in a headlock, giving her nuggies on the top of her head.

Grace screamed when he grabbed her. She dropped to the floor on one knee and easily got out of his hold, which surprised the crap out of me.  It was ninja quick like she was skillfully trained in the art of self-defense; even Ethan’s facial features expressed surprise at her escape. She bolted out of his reach and grabbed her open water bottle. Her lips curled
up in that sexy devilish way and she ran back at Ethan. The look of complete shock was on his face as she dumped the entire bottle over his head.

Conner and Lea went after each other with their water bottles. Brayden jumped up on the table, pulled his jeans down and mooned everyone.  I really could have done without seeing his skinny white ass shaking in my face. 

I held my open water bottle and watched Grace until she noticed me looking at her.  She noticed my bottle first, and then looked at my eyes, back to my open water bottle and to my eyes again.  She bit her bottom lip. I could swear to hide a bigger smile from coming out. Then she ran.

Alex saw the exchange between us and he jumped, broken arms up, right in Grace
ʼs path so Iʼd be able to catch her. “Get her, Shane, get her!” he cheered me on.

She slammed right into Alex
ʼs chest and bounced off of him. She stumbled backward and fell on me, both of us tumbling to the floor. For the briefest moment of complete rapture, she straddled my body.  Her hands on both sides of my head, our eyes locked.  
Holy shit
, I never wanted to grab someone’s face and kiss them as much as I did then.

I felt her body shift to leave me, and hell, I didn
ʼt want her to. I leaned up on my elbows, bringing our faces closer.
Holy crap, she bit her lower lip when I did
. I easily rolled her body over, so I was on top of her. I pinned her down and offered her an evil laugh.

Alex kicked over a bottle of water, since mine flew out of my hands when her body collided into me.

I tried to open the damn thing with my teeth. I didnʼt want to use both hands to open it, because that would mean Iʼd be putting all my weight on her or she’d have a chance to escape.  I didnʼt want to chance either.

She jerked her body up underneath me. The thrust of it almost sent me flying, but I held my position. 
Damn, it felt good to have her under me
.

She still held her lip between her teeth
, a coy smile teasing the edges. A slow rosy glow traveled across her cheeks and down her neck, like the most exquisite sunrise.

I leaned down closer to her; her eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Her lips parted and her body tensed. If we were the only two people in the room, I would have kissed her. I chose not to. I wanted to but I couldn’t, she’d probably try to kill me if I did.  Instead, I lowered my face even more, touching her ear with my lips and breathed out slowly. “She is a mortal danger to all men. She is beautiful without knowing it, and possesses charms that she's not even aware of. She is like a trap set by nature - a sweet perfumed rose in whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush. Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She instills grace in every common thing and divinity in every careless gesture. Venus in her shell was never so lovely, and Diana in the forest never so graceful as you,” I whispered. Lifting my head up, I looked deep into her eyes. She stopped trying to wiggle away from me and seemed to arch her body deeper into mine.

“Cyrano De Bergerac, Shane? For a self-serving man-whore, you know way too many romantic quotes,” she whispered. 
How the hell does she know my quotes?
  She tried to squirm underneath me again, which just aroused me more. I wanted to kiss those beautiful lips so bad it physically hurt me not to. The thought snapped out of my mind when one of her hands got free and she slapped me in the face with her pizza. Then she smashed it in; I rolled off her laughing.

I laughed even harder when Grace launched another slice of pizza and it landed right in the middle of Alex
ʼs forehead, sticking there for a few brief moments before falling.  What made it even funnier was the ass was trying to whack at the pizza with his hands, but because of his casts, he couldn’t bend his arms to reach his face.  So his arms were just flailing in the air like he was trying to land a plane. 
Fucking epic
.

The food fight ended when Lea started screaming about pizza on the ceiling. Without complaint, we cleaned everything; even Alex with his broken arms and pizza smeared forehead. He probably just cleaned up to impress Grace, because he
never
cleaned.  Alex and Tuckerʼs apartment was unbearable to hang out in because of the disgusting mess in it. Brayden complained about it all the time, since he lived there too-but he never did anything to change it. Alexʼs mom once even paid a cleaning service to go there twice a week as a surprise for them. The poor girl quit after a few weeks because of Tucker and Alexʼs over the top flirting with her.  She slept with them both though. Girls always do when they find out about the band.