Surrender (4 page)

Jeremy

I can’t believe the fucking nerve of the guy. Why the fuck would I want to go to his house and watch him suck face with my girl? When Jo called me this morning to tell me about the plans for dinner and drinks at Brody’s tonight, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Does he think that everything is going to go straight back to normal and I will just forget that he stole my fucking girlfriend. Best friends don’t do that to each other and if they do they weren’t really best friends to begin with.

Aww, fuck. If I don’t go, I’m going to look like a damn sook.

Grabbing my keys, I quickly check my hair in the hall mirror and lock the door behind me. Tonight could get very interesting.

I knock on the door and hear the sound of a few muffled voices. I almost just walked straight in without knocking like I normally would, but that just wouldn’t feel right anymore. A few seconds later the door flies open and I am greeted by Jo, looking gorgeous in a black one piece playsuit. The suit has short sleeves and the neckline is a deep v that cuts down between her small perky breasts. The bottom of the suit is shorts that sit at the top of her thighs, showing off her long legs, the black heels on her feet making her legs look even longer.

“Cool outfit, Jo.”

She grins.

“Thanks. It’s one of my latest designs.”

“Yeah? It’s hot.”

She blushes softly as she steps aside and motions for me to enter. Scanning the room, my eyes fall on a head of long wavy hair and I can’t stop my eyes from roaming up and down her body. Old habits die hard, I guess. Ava looks really pretty tonight. She is wearing a short white sundress and brown cowgirl boots. On anyone else that outfit would look horrendous, but it just suits her completely. Movement to her left catches my eye and I see grey eyes shooting daggers at me from across the room. Grinning, I think to myself ‘now you know how it feels, fucker’.

Hunter walks up beside me and pats me on the back.

“Hey, Stone. Good to see you, man.” I’ve kind of been laying low since Ava and I had our little chat. Apart from taking Jo around to look at apartments, I haven’t really seen anyone over the last two weeks. Travis has been trying to call me to arrange another gig, but I’ve been dodging his calls. I don’t think I’m quite ready to get up onstage with the traitorous bastard yet.

Luke walks over and places a beer in my hand and I throw it down before he can even say ‘cheers’. I head over to the fridge and pull out another one straight away. If I’m going to make it through the night I’m going to need a lot of alcohol.

An hour later and about six…seven…fuck it, I lost count of how many beers I’ve consumed, we sit down to eat the dinner that Ava and Jo prepared. I guess now that they aren’t fighting over me they are getting along. I’m sitting directly across from Brody and I still haven’t said a word to him. He hasn’t made any effort to talk to me either though, so I don’t feel too bad.

“Guys this is delish.” Says Tori with a mouthful of food. “Ava, I didn’t know you could cook like this.”

“Yeah, she’s a girl of many talents.” I say with a grin on my face. Silence falls over the table. You could hear a fucking pin drop.

Ava looks a little embarrassed “I didn’t really do much, Jo is the real talent. I just chopped a few vegetables and stirred the sauce when she told me to.” She giggles nervously and I down the rest of my beer.

Emma tries to steer the conversation elsewhere, “So, have you guys got any gigs coming up soon?”

I bite my tongue for a few seconds, but can’t resist. “We had one lined up a couple weeks ago, but lover boy over here skipped town.” My eyes come to rest on the steely grey ones and I swear I can see a vein throbbing in his neck. Good. He’s pissed off. Hunter tries to defuse the situation.

“Travis is working on lining a few up for us over the next couple of weeks. He’s just working out a few details.”

“Yeah, like whether any of us are going to be fucking off back to Australia anytime soon.” My mouth is on a fucking roll tonight. It seriously has a mind of its own.

Ava

Placing the last plate in the dishwasher I walk over to the lounge room where everyone is sitting around watching a movie. Hunter is sitting in the arm chair while Tori is snuggled into his lap. Jeremy the jerk is sitting on the far side of the room on the three seater sofa with Emma and Luke, and Brody is sitting on the two seater sofa with Jo. Sliding down onto the floor in between Brody’s legs I lean back and watch the movie. A snort from the far side of the room draws my attention. What the hell is it this time? He hasn’t stopped all night and it is really giving me the shits.

“Hey, Dundee don’t you want to be between my legs, you know it’s more fun?”

Brody stiffens behind me. Turning to look up at him I see the anger cross his face.

I’ve had enough, standing up I walk over to Jeremy’s chair I stop in front of him. “Come with me!” I snap at him but he is pushing the limit tonight.

“I hope you are going to use that pretty little mouth of yours.”

Not even responding I walk away before Brody can do anything. With Jeremy close behind me I walk into the kitchen. Stopping in the middle of the room I stare at him.

“What the fuck is your problem Jeremy?”

“He stole you from me. You’re
my
girl.”

“Jeremy, YOU pushed me right to him, you broke us up. YOU! You were the one that cheated on me with those slut face groupies. Nothing happened with me and Brody when I was with you, but you never cared about me the way he does.”

“Fuck off, Ava. He was trying to get you the entire time we were together.”

Looking past Jeremy I can see that everyone is watching us like they are waiting for some action to start.

“Jeremy it’s your fault. You wouldn’t have been all over those girls if you really cared about me!”

“Baby, I do care about you. Please just give me another chance.”

Jeremy steps right up to me and places his mouth on mine. For a small second I am frozen and unsure what to do. Shit! I push him away from me, ready to blast him with a piece of my mind. Before I can stay anything Brody appears right behind Jeremy and grabs him by the shirt, pulling him hard.

“Oh, of course, Prince Charming to the rescue.”

“Don’t you ever lay one hand on
MY GIRL
ever again.”

“My hands and mouth have been all over that sweet little body. She tastes divine.”

Brody takes a step toward Jeremy and pushes him hard in the chest. Jeremy stumbles backwards, and then regains himself. Taking one step forward Jeremy swings a left hook right into Body’s cheek. Hunter Jumps over the back of the couch and runs into the kitchen grabbing Brody and holding him back from Jeremy. Luke has a hold of Jeremy and he’s dragging him towards the door. Before he gets there Jeremy takes one look at me and smirks.

“Baby, when you get sick of him, my bed will be waiting.”

Brody makes another move for Jeremy just as Luke shuts the door. Standing there I’m just in shock. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. Jo walks right past me to the freezer and grabs a frozen bag of peas and hands it to Brody.

“I’m just going to go and check on Stone.”

“Yeah.”

Brody barely acknowledges Jo. He sits down on the couch and takes a sip of his beer.

“Fuck.”

“Coops give him time mate, he’ll come around.”

“Like Fuck he will, Hunter. You heard the way he was talking to her. He is the one who fucked their relationship up, not Ava. I can’t stand him talking to her like that. ”

“I’m sorry I never meant for this to happen, it’s all so messed up. I hate that I’ve come between you two.”

“Ava you mean more to me than anything. I’m not lying when I say you’re the best thing to happen to me. I won’t ever give you up, so long as you want me.”

“I know Brody, but he is like your brother.”

“Not after tonight, the things he said, the way he kissed you… He can’t respect me and us so no, he’s not.”

“I really hate this situation, Brody.”

“I know you do, Baby. But if he wants to act like a jackass there isn’t anything we can do to change his mind. Come on, let’s go to bed.”

I follow him to his room and let him strip all of my clothes off me, before laying me down under the covers of his bed. He tears his jeans and t-shirt off before climbing in beside me and pulling me into his arms.

“I’m so sorry he is treating you like that Ava. I expected some animosity, but I never expected such childish behavior from him.”

“It’s not your fault Brody. I should have been more honest with him all along about my feelings for you. The whole time we were seeing each other I knew deep in my heart that I was with the wrong man. I should have told him; maybe it never would have come to this.”

He moves so that he is on his side leaning over me and staring into my eyes.

“Ava, we can’t change the past. We can only try to move forward and hope that he will do the same. I am madly, desperately in love with you, Ava Flores, and nothing is going to change that.”

I feel tears welling in my eyes as I see the intensity in his. This beautiful man always knows the right thing to say to reassure me that our relationship is right. I reach my arms around his back and pull his body down onto mine as I feel the tears fall.

“You are so perfect, Brody. What did I ever do to deserve you?”

He grins before claiming my mouth with his soft lips. The kiss we share is intense and heated, and goose bumps break out all over my body. All it takes is one kiss from him and my body is his. My body will always be his.

Jeremy

As I stagger in the direction of my car, I hear heels clicking on the footpath behind me. Thinking it’s Ava, I turn around feeling a little disappointed when I realize it’s Jo.

“Oh, it’s you.” She stops and glares at me.

“Were you expecting Ava? Sorry to disappoint your drunken ass, but she won’t be chasing after you. She’s not yours anymore Jeremy.”

Kicking my foot against a small rock on the ground I almost fall on my ass but manage to regain my balance.

“Fuck, Jo. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Everything was different with her. I wanted to be better for her. She made me want something more. I just can’t stand seeing them together knowing that she belongs with me.”

Jo walks toward me until she is an arm’s length away. “Is she really meant to be with you? Do you love her, Jeremy?”

“Yes…maybe…I don’t know. I want to love her. We were good together.”

Shaking her head at my words, Jo smiles. “It’s not enough, Jeremy. Without love, relationships never last. She has found love with Brody. You need to let her go.”

“I don’t know if I can Jo. I had her first. She belongs with me.”

Jo places her hand on my shoulder. “Jeremy, I love you, but sometimes you act like such a spoiled brat. Ava is not a possession, she is a person. She deserves love just like everyone else and she has found that with Brody. He loves her. You love the idea of you and her. She made you open your mind to the possibility of having someone, of being monogamous and building a life with someone. She just isn’t that person for you.”

I stare into her eyes “And, what? You think you are?”

She looks sad as she says “Maybe, maybe not.”

Before I think about the consequences, I grab her around the waist with one hand and pull her body up against mine. With my other hand I brush the blond hair off of her face and tuck it behind her ear. I hear a small gasp escape her lips and I lean in and claim her mouth. Her body tenses and her soft pink lips snap shut as she tries not to respond to the pressure of my mouth, but I don’t care and I force my tongue into her mouth. She moans softly and I feel her body relax against me. She wraps her arms around my neck as she deepens the kiss, her tongue darting out to lick mine. She sucks my bottom lip into her mouth and I run my fingers through her hair.

Suddenly I realize what I’m doing and I push her away from me. “I’m so sorry, Jo. I have to go.”

Before turning away from her I can see the despair in her eyes. What the fuck am I doing? She doesn’t deserve to be treated like a piece of fucking meat I can use to take my mind off Ava, and that’s exactly what I need right now. Scrolling through the contacts on my phone I search for a name that I know will help me forget all of my problems. I know I’ve had way too much to drink so I walk past my car and head straight to the bar down the road where I call some chick called Candy and arrange for her to meet me there. I don’t remember who the fuck she is but with a name like Candy, I’m sure she knows how to suck cock.

Brody

Three days after the disastrous dinner party we all meet up at the studio for a meeting with Travis. A few minutes after I arrive Jeremy walks in and takes a seat without greeting or even acknowledging anyone. He’s wearing dark sunglasses and doesn’t even bother removing them, which means he must have had a big night last night.

When I spoke to Jo the morning after our wonderful dinner party she expressed some concern over Jeremy’s behavior. She told me about the kiss they shared and how he then just walked off and left her. His head is obviously screwed up at the moment for him to do that to Jo. He has always treated her like his little sister, and knowing that she’s in love with him, to kiss her like that and then leave her is pretty fucked up.

Travis clears his throat as he stares around the room.

“Okay, boys. I’ve lined up three gigs for you around L.A over the next two weeks.”

As he starts walking around the room handing out sheets of paper he says “I’m giving you a list of the dates and venues, there are also a few publicity ops listed on there as well and for each one of those we will meet here and travel together. The tour was a huge success and we want to keep the momentum going so that we can reach our goal of a National tour by the end of the year.”

He goes back to his chair and looks around at the four of us. “Why are you all so fucking quiet?” There is silence.

“If there is a problem I need to know now, we can’t afford to cancel any more of these gigs. You’ll get a bad rep and no one will fucking hire you.”

Hunter looks from me to Jeremy and back to me again.

“It’s all good; Trav. Everyone’s just a little hung over this morning.”

Jeremy stands up “Is that it? I’ve got somewhere to be.”

Travis frowns and holds up his hand. “Before you all rush out of here, I expect a couple of rehearsal sessions over the next few days. Jeremy said he’s been working on some new songs, so you all need to get familiar with those.”

As Travis leaves the room with Jeremy close behind him I glance over at Hunter and Luke who are both sitting across from me looking like they want to say something.

“What?”

They look at each other quickly and then back at me as Hunter says “We’re really worried Coops. Jeremy seems to be self-destructing and it’s going to fuck up our chance of securing that tour.”

I shake my head at them “What the fuck am I supposed to do about it? If he wants to act like a child that’s his problem, not mine.”

Luke shrugs “If it gets worse it will become our problem. We’ve got one shot at this. We can’t afford to have him fly off the rails. He’s our front man Brody, this band relies on him.”

I know they have a point, but I just can’t bring myself to care.

Hunter leans forward in his chair “Can’t you talk to him, sort this shit out?”

“Hunter, I don’t think he cares one bit about what I have to say to him. He’s pissed at me because he is convinced that I set out to steal Ava from the beginning. But you know what? I met her before he did, we had a connection first, and I pushed her toward him because I didn’t think I would be good for her. I didn’t think I deserved someone so beautiful and sweet. I knew she liked me but I knew she also liked him. I encouraged her when she started seeing him as I thought he was the better option for her. But you know what? He fucking hurt her. Not me; him. I love this girl so fucking much and I am not giving her up for anyone or anything.”

Hunter looks thoughtful as he stares at me across the table.

“I understand completely dude. But for our band to be successful, we need him. We need him to be at his best, not wasted all the fucking time. This shit between the two of you is not going to fix itself. You two need to talk and sort it out together.”

I sit in my chair for a few minutes after they both leave wondering what’s going to happen. Knowing how fucking stubborn Jeremy is I can’t see it improving anytime soon.