Whisky Melody: Rock Star Romance, New Adult College Romance (Tennessee Romance Book 2) (8 page)

Guys
, she thought, shaking her head at their ridiculous egos. She was truly desperate to put an end to all the drama, nonsense, and misunderstandings, because she simply had no room on her plate for it, but she truly didn’t want to get in the middle of any of Charlie’s relationships with anyone. “I’m sorry, Charlie, but I won’t be the go-between for you and him. If you want back in, you have to ask him yourself. You need to ask yourself why you left in the first place.” She sucked in a deep breath. “You also need to tell him you put up the money for the Royale registration fee. It’s not fair to make me keep secrets from him.”

“I know, but—”

She felt she’d done enough listening and wanted her turn to speak, so she cut in, “It’s not fair to ask me to intervene either. Tell him you want back in, and I’ll tell him it’s cool with me. Otherwise, no dice.”

He groaned. “Come on, Ashley! Can’t you do me this one solid? You know I’m good for the band.”

She wanted to scream, but instead she said, “I am doing you a solid, Charlie. He’s your brother, and it’s not good for either of us to keep secrets from him. You have to tell him…or I will.”

“Tell who, what?” Kaylee asked, her voice low and deadly. She stood in the doorway, one hand resting on the frame. Her eyes went from Charlie to Ashley, bouncing back and forth like she was watching a tennis match. “Just what the hell’s going on here?”

“Nothing,” Ashley said, none too happy that she would now have to explain Charlie’s presence in their dorm room. She knew Kaylee, who was already pissed at her over that near-assault, would surely take that as a sign of something else.

Ashley’s worries became a self-fulfilling prophecy when Kaylee slammed the door and advanced into the room. Ashley knew she had to head her off at the pass, but she wasn’t sure how. She wanted to tell her everything that had just been said, but she knew damn well that Charlie had never told Kaylee any of it. Even before drugs started stealing her brain cells, Kaylee had never been much of a listener. She had never been much for sympathy either, and empathy was beyond her.

Even though she was Kaylee’s cousin, Ashley realized in that moment that she really didn’t like the girl very much, even if she did love her because she was family. Because of their family connection, she had disregarded a lot of the stuff that bothered her: The selfishness and the constant bragging about how much money her folks had, but she’d let it slide. She didn’t put much thought into her gloating over her designer clothes and many material possessions. She’d ignored Kaylee’s undeniably immature, bratty behavior for years because that was just how Kaylee was, and everyone knew it. Nobody else seemed to mind, so she’d never minded much either. Now she realized she actually minded a whole lot—so much that she wanted to tackle her right there in the middle of their dorm and smack some sense into her.

“Kaylee, chill out,” Ashley said, as calmly as she could.

Kaylee advanced on them. “Chill out? Did you just tell
me
to chill out? The two of you are in here fucking, and I’m supposed to be cool with that?”

“What?” Ashley cried, looking down at her fully-dressed self. “How can you even think that after—” she began, but before she could finish reminding Kaylee of her history with Charlie, Kaylee swung toward him.

“So
this
is who you’re seeing? You dumped me for my own cousin?”

Charlie groaned. “No, Kaylee, not even close. For heaven’s sake, get yourself together. You’re acting crazy. I don’t need any more crazy in my life right now.”

“Well, you already kicked me out of your life, didn’t you?” Kaylee hissed with a scowl. “You broke up with me, remember? And for what? So you could have
her
? She’s not even as pretty as me, and she’s broke! She’s only in this dorm because my parents felt sorry for her. Her mom couldn’t even chip in on this place! Her dad didn’t even want to.”

“Gee, Kaylee, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?” Ashley spat, nearly numb. “I’m so sorry I’m burden on you and your family.”

“You’ve always been a burden! Your folks are always barely scraping by!”

Heat hit Ashley’s cheeks, and rage spilled through her. “That’s bullshit, a complete lie. My folks work hard, and while they might not have as much money as yours, we’re not starving or homeless. We’re certainly not knocking on your folks’ door, asking for handouts!”

Kaylee screeched, “Mom told me a long time you’d get me in trouble. She warned me how jealous you are, so jealous you’d do anything to get back at me. I just didn’t think you’d stoop so low that you’d take my guy from me!”

What? Did my aunt really say those things about me?
Ashley wondered, horrified. She wasn’t sure if Kaylee was making it up or not. It was hard to say, but either way the words hurt, and they also made her very, very angry. Rage swelled within her, like a volcano about to erupt, and she could barely contain it. “I’ve never been jealous of you, Kaylee,” she barked. “Why would I be? And I’m damn sure not sleeping with him. I’d never sleep with someone you’ve been with. For one thing, you’re not very…choosy, and for another, you’re damn sure not careful!” As soon as the words slipped out, she knew she’d gone too far, but it was too late to take it all back. She had hit as hard as low as she could, so low that Kaylee was reeling from it. Remorse sank into her, but she had no idea how to apologize for hitting her cousin so far below the belt with her words.
Very true words, though,
the little voice in her head pointed out. It was an ugly truth, but it was the truth.

“Uh…well, okay. I’m out,” Charlie stuttered. “This whole thing just got fucked up. Kaylee, believe whatever your messed-up brain wants to believe, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong with your cousin. We were only talking, and we’ve never hooked up.”

“Never? What about that night of the party?”

“That was all my fault,” he said. “I let you blame her because I didn’t wanna take any responsibility for it, but Ashley didn’t do a single thing. I know I’m an asshole for all that, but blaming her is stupid, so you can stop that shit right now.”

Kaylee shouted, “She was teasing you! I saw it!”

Charlie rubbed his face. “Yeah, and you told me that right after, too. I should’ve told you different, but I didn’t. Instead, I just went along with it. That was wrong, and I was wrong. What’s more, you sound like an idiot right now. I can see how high you are. You need to come down off that dope and get your pretty little spoiled head out of your uppity ass and start acting like you have some sense, or I won’t be the only guy to dump you. Nobody wants a druggie except maybe a druggie. If that’s the kind of guy you want, keep right on doing what you’re doing. I didn’t break up with you because of anybody else. Maybe that’s easier for you to believe, because you can’t accept that I broke up with you because of
you
. Maybe it is easier to believe there’s someone else than to blame yourself for being a pathetic junkie.”

Kaylee shouted over him, “I’m
not
a junkie! I can quit any time I want to.”

“Spoken like a true addict.” Charlie shook his head and headed for the door.

Kaylee yanked a shoe off her foot and sent it flying, hitting him right in the back of the head with it. Horrified and already moving to protect Kaylee, in case he decided to retaliate, Ashley managed to get between them. Kaylee shoved her so hard she knocked her to the floor.

Without another word, Charlie opened the door and left, shutting it softly behind himself.

Ashley scrambled to her feet, still stunned by the whole encounter. The whole thing had spiraled out of control, and she wasn’t sure how to get her very high and unreasonable cousin down to any reasonable place of logic and common sense.

Charlie’s diagnosis was spot on: she was so high that her pupils were huge, and her cheeks were splotchy and red.
What’s she taking? Molly? Ecstasy? Or worse, meth?
Ashley had heard a rumor that some of the frat boys had been cooking up batches of that nasty concoction in their upstairs bathroom and selling it at their parties. The master chef for that little operation was a chemistry major. Everyone claimed he was some kind of genius who knew what he was doing, and they swore he wouldn’t create anything that could actually kill anybody, but she had no way of knowing that. She’d seen plenty of drug-addled people in her lifetime; it was impossible to grow up in New York City without coming across a few now and then. Just walking down the street had put her in contact with drug users every single day, some functional and others who could barely even walk. At the moment, Kaylee was among the latter. She was high, angry, and paranoid. That, coupled with her already impulsive and spoiled behavior, was not a good combination for Kaylee or anyone in close proximity to her.

Ashley held out her hands. “I don’t want to fight with you, Kaylee. We’re cousins, and I love you.”

Kaylee said nothing and just stared, unable to focus her stare on anything in particular.

But I don’t freaking like you, especially right now,
Ashley thought but didn’t say. Looking back, she remembered a lot of times when Kaylee had done horrible things, things she’d held her tongue about. Kaylee had a reputation of going too far, but no matter what messes she made someone always came along behind her and picked up the pieces.

At Kaylee’s 14
th
birthday party, Ashley was locked in a closet with a girl while the other kids stood outside the door and chanted, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Since Kaylee was drunk on the schnapps she’d smuggled in, and was the one who tossed them in the closet and locked them in, Ashley was sure she would never speak to her cousin again. She told her parents, and they were angry about it, but after a talk with Kaylee and her parents it seemed everything was smoothed out and over, and they all went on as if nothing had ever happened. It had always been that way, Kaylee getting away with anything and everything, and she was tired of it.

“I don’t care if you don’t want to fight with me!” Kaylee said, right in her face. Her hands met Ashley’s chest, and she shoved her into the wall. “I hate you! You ruined everything! This is my freshman year, and you show up and make everyone like you and take your side. Then you steal my boyfriend, and now everyone wants to know why I couldn’t keep him but you can!”

“Nobody has ever said that, Kaylee.”

“Bullshit! I hear them!”

“Then maybe you need to quit taking whatever you’re taking, because you’re obviously hallucinating.”

“You’ll be sorry for this, Ashley. Boy, are you gonna be sorry by the time I’m done with you. Also, I want you out of my room. Tell your broke mommy that your free ride is over, you moocher!” she yelled before she turned and ran out the door, almost toppling over on her one heel she still had on.

Ashley stared after her, shocked, hurt, and angry. Once again she was reminded that there was nothing she could do for her cousin; apparently, there was nothing she could say either. She shook her head, recalling a bumper sticker she had once seen, one that sadly seemed to apply to her struggles with Kaylee now. “I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person,” she said, and the irony was just too painful to laugh at.

“Kaylee, Charlie isn’t here,” Logan said, then attempted to close the door. The last thing he needed was her drama. Things were tense enough with the band.

She quickly moved a hand to hold the door. “I know. I’m not here for him.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you. It’s about Ashley.”

“Ashley? What’s wrong? Is she okay?” he asked, frowning and stepping back to let her inside.

Kaylee darted her eyes around the room, as if she was searching for Charlie anyway.

“What’s going on, Kaylee?” he demanded. “I’m kinda busy.”

Once she was sure they were alone, she twisted her fingers together. She was a pretty girl, but the effects of too much partying were starting to show. She bit her bottom lip and said, “Look, I don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but someone has to.”

Working hard to stifle his anger, and in no mood for her silly games, Logan took the bait. “Tell me what, Kaylee? Just spit it out.”

She swallowed hard, and her hands reached up to smooth her wild hair. She did her best to straighten her shoulders. “I have to tell you what’s really going on.”

Right. That’s a new one. A drugged-out junkie’s gonna fill me in on reality,
he thought with a smirk, leaning back against his desk. His eyes went past her to the lyrics he’d been working on. “Tell me what’s going on then.”

“Ashley and Charlie are sleeping together. They’ve been seeing each other behind our backs…well, I guess behind yours at least, since Charlie and me are done already.”

Wait. What?
He blinked, trying to digest her words. “Come again?”

“They’re sleeping together. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but I caught them in our dorm room. Charlie walked right out of her bedroom, Logan. Seriously. Of course she said I’m being ridiculous, but Charlie told me he’s been seeing someone else. He said that’s why we had to break up.”

Logan shook his head and stood silently for a moment. He didn’t want to believe a word of it, especially since he was sure Ashley hated Charlie’s guts.
No way would she invite him into her bedroom.
“Stop trying to instigate drama, Kaylee. I mean, I’m sorry if Charlie broke your heart or something, but that doesn’t give you the right to—”

“I’m not instigating anything! You can ask anyone who lives in our building. We all got into a fight, and Charlie stormed off down the hall, cussing and shouting. Everyone heard him. We already broke up, so he didn’t have any reason to be there. And like I told you, he said he was seeing someone else.”

Logan recalled Charlie saying that to him, too, saying he was ready to be with someone else because Kaylee was just too wild and was destined to get him in trouble. It wouldn’t be the first time. Charlie had a nasty habit of sneaking off with whatever girls he liked. For their whole lives, the boys had been caught up in some in kind of competition with each other, and girls were just another way to keep score.

Red obscured his vision, and as hard as he tried to shake it off it wouldn’t go away completely.

Before Logan could say anything more Kaylee moved closer, her eyes shimmering with tears. “I can’t believe they did that to us,” she said, her lower lip trembling. “I just can’t. I mean, what did I ever do to deserve that? Maybe Ashley has never told you, but her parents aren’t doing so hot money-wise. If my dad hadn’t paid for her room, she’d be screwed—my room, I mean. I wanted to be nice, to make sure she had a place to stay, and then she turned around and totally betrayed me. She knew how much I cared about Charlie, and she’s supposed to be with you.”

Supposed to be? She is with me…isn’t she?
he thought, his fists clenching tightly. “Where’d Charlie go?”

“How am I supposed to know? He dumped me, remember?” Her shoulders lifted and fell, and she drew closer, keeping her eyes on him. “I say we get even.”

“Do what?”

“Get even. Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine.”

He pushed her back, none too gently. “Are you nuts? No way. I don’t really know what’s going on here, but you’d better not be lying to me.”

Her lips trembled faster. “I’m not! Why would I lie? They’re together, and we’re just…outta the picture. They’re cheaters, Logan, entirely selfish. I saw them with my own eyes.”

“Bullshit,” he spat, but he wasn’t quite sure.

Kaylee tossed her hair over one shoulder and glared at him. “Suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Then, without another word she turned and sauntered out of the room. It was then that Logan noticed she was in bare feet.

Logan slammed a fist into the wall, so hard his knuckles burned and ached. He didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t bear to. “It’s not possible!” he screamed to no one in particular. He knew Ashley hated Charlie, seriously and with good reason. “There’s no way she’d ever sleep with him.”

He had to know, though, what Charlie was doing in her room or if Kaylee had made the whole thing up, and there was only one way to find out.

***

Ashley was irritated to the extreme. First, Charlie had barged in on her, and then Kaylee had come in, screaming insane accusations that the two of them were sleeping together. Her mood was soured further when she walked into her advanced music theory class and discovered, just as she sat down, that she’d left a large part of the composition she’d been working on back in her dorm.

Confused, angry, and distracted, she struggled to get much of anything done, and that bothered her for a lot of reasons. The band was already taking up a lot of her time, and she had to keep her grades high so she wouldn’t lose her scholarship. She couldn’t afford to let the band come first, but Logan had already made it clear that he expected that. She stared down at her laptop. Neat lines of musical notes on staffs ran past her eyes, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of them right then; it was something like trying to read a menu in Japanese.

She knew she had to move or make peace with Kaylee, and neither option was a good one. Kaylee was acting crazy, and Charlie was driving a huge wedge between them, something they’d never really experienced before. It hurt, and she hated it, but she didn’t know how to fix it.

Class dragged on, but Ashley couldn’t focus on a word the professor said. All she could think about was Kaylee screaming at her, accusing her of sordid things that turned her stomach; Charlie was the last person on Earth she would ever sleep with, and she certainly wouldn’t sleep with the man her cousin had been dating. Dread rolled in her belly.
Talk about sleeping with the enemy!

By the time class ended, she had accomplished and learned nothing. A creeping sense of despair filled her. She had no idea how she was going to maintain her grades and finish her classwork when so much crap was going on around her, swarming around in her head. She had to sort some things out fast, or she was going to flunk out and have to go home.

Still irritated, she headed out. She planned to go get a slice of pizza and a soda for lunch, then head straight to the music hall, where she could get some work done and find a little peace and quiet. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards. She stopped short when she saw Logan stalking toward her, anger evident in his face.

“Hey,” he said, taking her by the arm, “Kaylee just came to see me.”

Ashley looked around at the other students. None were in earshot, but she kept her voice low anyway. “Of course she did. There’s nothing going on, Logan. She just… I don’t know.”

Logan planted his feet, and his eyes looked frightening, as if they were on fire. “What
is
going on then?”

“Whoa! You’d better back the truck up, mister!” she said. Suddenly, all the things about her ex rose up in her mind. Fear set in, and behind it came the instinct to protect herself. She pulled her arm out of his grip. “Nothing’s going on. Why would you even think that?”

“He was in your room, wasn’t he?”

“He was in
our
room, Logan, in our dorm. He came to talk to me, and that was all. Kaylee walked in and freaked, kinda like you’re doing now.”

It was obviously the wrong answer, because his face grew even angrier. “Ashley, if there’s something—”

“There isn’t!” she screeched, then looked around at the onlookers and lowered her voice a few decibels. “I shouldn’t have to tell you, of all people, that there’s nothing going on between Charlie and me.”

He raked a hand through his hair. “I really want to believe that.”

“Then do.” Her voice was cold, but she couldn’t help it. She was angry, but she was also scared, and panic was quickly rising within her.

Logan shuffled his feet nervously. “Okay, so you’re saying he was just there to talk?”

“Yes.”

“He broke up with Kaylee, and she said he was there for you, not her.”

“That’s true, but there was nothing to it. He got a little pissed because I told him he should talk to you and not me.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“Logan,
he
gave me the money to give to you for Rock Star Royale.”

His face went blank. “What?!”

There was no way out of it now, so Ashley repeated, “Charlie gave me the money for the fees. He wanted to make it right, but he didn’t want you to know. I told him to tell you, but he refused and made me keep it a secret, too. Look, I’d never accuse him of being any sort of good guy, but… Well, he did try to fix something he screwed up, so I guess that’s a start.”

“And you didn’t see fit to tell me? You listened to Charlie instead?”

“Look, I can’t keep being the go-between for you and Charlie. You two need to work out your own stuff. I have plenty of my own right now. I might need to find a place to live, and I’m not exactly swimming in cash. Kaylee is mad at me for no reason, and now you’re getting in my face over something stupid.”

“Stupid? I have the right to know what my girlfriend’s doing!”

Her head began to swim, and the panic button had been pressed. “I told you, Logan. Now stop freaking yelling at me!”

“I’m not yelling.”

It sure sounded like yelling to her, so she took a step back and looked at him in disbelief. “Logan, I won’t say I wasn’t wrong in not telling you about the money before. I get that. Still, the two of you are acting like assholes, and it’s causing a lot of tension between us. That’s also bad for the band. On top of that, Kaylee is causing me a lot of stress, and that’s bad for me. I’m behind on everything, and I can barely breathe right now.”

“Maybe you need to slow down.”

“Slow down what, Logan? The only thing I can really live without is the band.”

There. I said it,
she thought, and it wasn’t until that moment that Ashley truly understood just how much pressure Whisky Lullaby was putting on her, how much it was interfering with everything else.
It’s becoming more like a whisky hangover,
she realized.

“The band, huh? Hmm. Well, if the band’s too much for you, maybe you don’t need me either.”

“What?!” she said, gawking at him. “So if I can’t stay in the band because I wanna keep my scholarship and stay in school, we’re just…over? That’s really fucking mature, Logan. Maybe you’re more like your stepbrother and my cousin than I thought!”

“I didn’t say that,” he said, looking even more pissed off. “I
never
said that.”

“You’re right. You don’t have the balls to say what you mean,” she insisted. “You know what, though? You’re right. I can’t do this. I have way too much on my plate. I can’t be with you, and I can’t be in the band. It’s way too much, and I’m losing sight of every reason that I came here in the first place.”

He reached for her, but she evaded his grasp. His forehead puckered and creased. “You came here to make music, Ashley.”

“Yes, I did, but nobody said I have to be in your band or your bed. You just made it sound like—”

“You know what? You can take all that and just shove it,” he said, his eyes dull and flat. The set of his mouth told her they were both way too angry, and her brutal honesty had cut him deeply. He was angry like a wounded animal, and she knew he was just going to continue biting at her.

Ashley opened her mouth to apologize, to try to take it back, but it was too late. She could tell that just by the way he was looking at her. “Shove what, Logan?” she finally said. She was angry now as well, too angry to think, to apologize, or to stop the thing she had somehow set in motion. “Shove my scholarship? Shove the fact that when this is all over—college, I mean—I can either be a trained musician, doing what I love, or I can just be one more singer in a local band, playing bar gigs to make enough money for a week’s worth of ramen noodles? Should I just shove the fact that I’ve spent my entire life trying to get here?”

His face went white. “You don’t have a drop of faith in me or our band, do you? You never have.”

Of course she did, but it was obviously too late to tell him that.

He took a step back and gazed at her with hooded eyes. “I’ll tell you what. I don’t need you and all the drama you bring with you. I damn sure don’t need Charlie or your lunatic cousin.”