Finding Ever After (6 page)

           
Arrogant jerk!

           
I turned to fix him with the most piercing glare I could muster, but before I
could tell him what an arrogant jerk he was or call him any one of the other
fifty names that came to mind, a girl came up and wrapped her arms around his
waste
and nuzzled into his neck.

           
“Hey baby, you guys were amazing tonight.” She was beautiful; tall with long
raven locks. Her tight tank top showed off her ample cleavage and tiny waste,
and her short denim skirt and six inch heals revealed long tanned legs. She
could've been a model. She was the perfect match in beauty for him, exactly how
I might've pictured his girlfriend, and she had the attitude to match.

           
“How cute, another groupie of yours Kyden?” When she looked me over I realized
she was one of the girls that had been playing on stage when I got to the bar.
“You can run along now, and just a bit of advice, I’d change hair stylists. I‘d
recommend anyone who actually finished beauty school.” Apparently this place
had an abundance of hot, talented musicians with repulsive personalities.

           
“Kaylie, chill.
She’s with Christian’s brother.” I
still hadn't figured out where Bas went, but he was getting a stern talking to
for deserting me.

           
“Oh, how lovely.”
Her expression was anything but. “I
thought he was dating that uppity violinist. Chris really needs to talk to his
brother about his taste in women.”        
Seriously?

           
I was not taking this. I was way past letting people talk down to me,
especially those who didn't even know me.

           
“Well it was great meeting you Kylie.” Yeah, I pretended I didn’t know her name
was actually Kaylie, real mature of me, but this girl ticked me off. The sneer
on her face told me she knew what I was doing. “Oh and just a bit of advice,
you should try shopping in the women’s department instead of the little girl’s;
you might find a skirt that actually fits you.” Her eyes narrowed but Kyden’s
eyebrows shot up and he choked on a laugh. She looked like she was seconds away
from scratching my eyes out after that.

           
“Hey Jaxyn, everyone’s heading over to our place, Sebastian asked me to come
see if you want to join. He had to go call his woman.” Ace saved me from having
to demonstrate eight months worth of kickboxing lessons on the harpy. The
friendly smirk he was giving me, said his timing was not coincidental. He was
quickly someone I could like.

           
“Yeah, sure.
If Bas is going, then I’m fine with it.” That was
more appealing than going back to my own house and spending the night in the
past. I might’ve come back home, but it didn’t mean I was completely done
avoiding emotional distress. I think I had done enough confronting for now. The
crack of dawn would be just as good of a time as any for a hysterical meltdown.
Tonight I was going to hang out with my best friend, his brother and their
completely inappropriate friends and not think about insufferable, pompous,
egotistical, completely kissable lead singers.

           
The house was a lot bigger and much
nicer than what I was expecting. I was impressed by the lack of empty pizza
boxes, stale beer cans and the usual untidiness of an all male habitation. The
only obvious indication that it was in fact a giant bachelor pad was the
enormous entertainment center, with a giant flat screen hooked up to every
imaginable game console, and the array of guitars and music paraphernalia on
display.

           
All four band members shared the place along with Danny, and Ace’s younger
brother Marcus, who was about as different from the rest of them as you could
get. He was
more shy
, techie than rocker. Very clean
cut in a cute nerdy way. Apparently he was a computer genius who just graduated
from MIT at 19. He was so soft spoken and polite when I was introduced to him I
didn’t see how he could possibly fit with these guys, let alone be related to
two of them.

           
Along with the guys who lived here, Bas and myself, roughly fifteen or so
others were hanging out in various states of drunkenness, a lot of them female.
I was hanging out around the makeshift bar in the kitchen with a large group
including, Bas and most of the band. Kyden was the only one absent, and I kept
telling myself I wasn’t the least bit interested in where he was or who he was
with. Only I wasn’t actually buying it.

           
Danny and Ace had some drinking game going around the kitchen table. The intention
of the game appeared to be to get Marcus as drunk as possible. It had taken a
lot of cajoling and taunting to convince him to play. The two of them were
relentless until he caved. As low as his tolerance seemed to be, I presumed he
didn’t participate in many of their nights of drunken debauchery.

           
Thanks to some random chick
who’s
name I didn’t bother
to try and catch, we were all treated to a shirtless Spade strutting around the
kitchen. Nameless girl had shared how sexy she thinks tattoos are, of course
prompting Spade to start stripping so everyone could admire the ink that
covered much of his torso and arms.

           
I had to admit it was a mighty fine chest and he had some pretty incredible
tats, but I wasn’t about to go rub myself up on him like the other girl was
currently trying. That earned her several dirty looks from Blondie, who had
followed us from the bar as well. The girls seemed to be as interchangeable to
Spade as socks so I didn’t see much point in taking time to learn their names
when they probably weren’t going to be around long. There were at least five
different girls in the room waiting for their opportunity to swoop in.

           
I just rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the conversation Bas was
having with a fellow med student who had come out to watch Ashes and Embers
play tonight. They were nursing a couple beers and discussing some prestigious
internship they had both applied for. Once again I was reminded of how in the
dark I was about the particulars of Bas’ life now, because of my absence.
Suddenly I didn’t know what my place was here, or how I fit into this new life
he had made for himself. I didn’t know if we could go back to being Bas and
Jazz or if things had changed too much.

           
“Hey, where’d you go? What’s going on in that colorful head of yours
Jazz
?” I hadn’t even noticed that it was now just the two of
us standing here.

           
“Trust
me,
you don’t want to be in my head right now.”
I was saved from further explanation when his phone went off.

           
“Sorry
gotta
answer this,
it’s
Liss.” He stepped out of the kitchen to find a quieter spot.

           
“Hey, did you know that Einstein wasn’t just brilliant but also quite the
ladies man and a sexual deviant?”
Turns out that after a few
beers Marcus isn’t so different from the rest of them after all.
He
walked up and put his arm around my shoulder.

           
“No I didn‘t know that.” I tried so hard not to laugh, but even drunk and
pervy
he was sweet.

           
“It’s believed he had an IQ of around 160. Mine is 172, would you like to come
upstairs and I can show you just how knowledgeable-”

           
“Not her killer, I’m sure
there’s
some ladies in the
living room that would be very interested in the size of your IQ.” Danny
steered Marcus out of the kitchen, barely containing his own laughter.

           
“Sorry about that, we’re just trying to loosen my brother up and expand his
horizons by broadening his social circle.” Ace grinned apologetically.

           
“You mean you got him wasted so you could try to get him laid.”

           
“Yeah, pretty much. I’m afraid I’m
gonna
come home
one day and find him building a robot girlfriend. Sometimes he’s too smart for
his own good, most girls find it intimidating.”

           
“He’s sweet, when he isn’t trying to sleep with me.” Ace snorted out a laugh.

           
“Sweetheart, when is a guy ever not trying to sleep with you?” I felt my skin
heat with embarrassment and I looked down to hide my flushed face. He let out a
soft chuckle, obviously amused at my awkwardness. Even though my best friend
was a guy, I was uncomfortable around assertive males, and I was in a house
full of them. Thankfully he sensed my discomfort and didn’t push it.

           
“Don’t worry I’m not hitting on you. Chris and Sebastian are like family, and
you’re Bas’ family. We might be a bunch of assholes but there are some lines
even we won’t cross.” I could tell he was being genuine, and I felt a little
more at ease.

           
“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” Bas asked returning to his seat on my
other side.

           
“I was just asking Jaxyn how you convinced her to be your friend, she’s much
to
nice to hang with a jackass like you.” Ace responded. He
was growing on me. I knew he was just giving Bas a hard time and beneath all
the taunting and jeering these guys did, they were a tight bunch.

           
“Very funny dick.
But if you must know, she simply
couldn’t resist my charm." He smirked playfully. He enjoyed telling this story,
or at least his version of it. "She moved in next door to my dad’s house
when we were five. A couple days after they moved in, she was riding her bike
up and down the block and her pink princess bike got a flat tire. Being the
chivalrous kindergartener that I was, I kindly offered to pump it back up for
her. She was practically begging me to be her best friend after that.”

           
“What he left out is that earlier in the day he slipped into my driveway and
loosened the valve cap so that my tire would go flat and then he sat out on
their porch swing waiting for his chance to swoop in and save the day. The
whole thing was a set up so that he could talk to me.” Ace was cracking up as I
related the duplicitous acts Bas had omitted from his telling of the story. “Of
course I didn’t find that part out until years later when he finally confessed
to sabotaging my beloved pink bike. So I spent all that time thinking he was my
hero, and by the time I found out otherwise I was stuck with him.”

           
“Don’t even act like you weren’t riding back and forth past my house hoping I
would talk to you. Besides I had to do something, you were the only kid my age
to move within three blocks of our house. I was desperate and tired of being
ganged up on by Chris and the jerks he ran around with.” It was true that
Christian and his big bad third grade friends loved picking on us, but we
always had each other’s back after that day, and we got them back good plenty
of times.

           
“You needed a girl to protect you from your big brother?” Danny had joined us
and was enjoying ribbing Bas as well.

           
“Laugh all you want but teaming up with this girl was the best decision I ever
made. My brother learned real fast not to underestimate her and you’d be smart
not to either. You can just ask Chris about some of the times she got him.
She’s an evil genius, and
there’s
a million stories
I’m sure Chris would love to tell you.” Those were the good days, even though
we almost always ended up in trouble, it was worth it. We were a team.

           
“I knew you had fire, but I didn’t realize you were so devious Princess.”
Kyden’s husky voice rolled over me, prickling my senses causing a familiar
shudder to course through me. How does he have this effect on me? And damn it, that
knowing smirk said he was aware of exactly what he was doing. I steeled myself
and met his penetrating gaze, returning it with one I hoped showed
indifference.

           
“You don’t know me so you can save the Casanova routine. I’m not one of your weak-kneed
admirers.”

           
“Give up
man,
it’s obvious she wants me.” Spade threw
his arm around my shoulder and planted a kiss on my cheek. “It’s okay Rainbow,
I’ve seen you checking me out all night. I know I’m irresistible.”

           
“Sorry to disappoint you, but it
wasn’t
you so much as
it was your ink that I was checking out. That’s some impressive work you’ve got
on your body. Not the typical generic stuff you see a lot of either.” A genuine
smile spread across his face, instead of the smug grin he usually wore. I was
willing to bet each piece had significant meaning. Maybe Spade wasn’t quite the
shallow blockhead I thought.

           
“Thanks beautiful.” He still had his arm wrapped around me and he brought the
other up to ruffle my hair affectionately. “I’d be happy to let you familiarize
yourself with each and every detail in private
.“
And
he was back.

           
“I think I’ll pass.”

           
“You change your mind, just let me know.” That wasn’t going to happen. “You got
any tats Rainbow?” They all looked at me curiously, even Bas waited for an
answer. He knew I was ink free when I left.

           
“What do you think?” I deflected back on him.

           
“I’d bet that you don’t. You’ve got the rebel girl hair going, but you’re
peaches and cream, so sweet. You practically sparkle with innocence.” I think
that was a compliment, at least I was choosing to take it as one.

           
“Nah, she’s not a virgin.” My jaw dropped at Kyden’s blatant declaration.

           
“Excuse me?” He just smirked

           
“Tattoo virgin, Princess.” He clarified.

           
Ugh!
I wanted to knock that salacious
grin off his face.

           
“She’s got ink. I’d bet
Red
on it.”

           
“Red?”

           
“It’s a guitar Princess, belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan.” Wow, he was pretty
sure of himself. How could he be so presumptuous?

           
“Please tell me he’s wrong Rainbow, I want that guitar. It’s like a crown jewel
of guitars.” I looked from him to Kyden, and back to meet his hopeful face.

           
“Jazz?”
Even Sebastian was anxious to know.

           
“Sorry Spade, he gets to keep the guitar.”

           
“Damn it man. How did you know?”

           
“Lucky guess.”
I was skeptical about that. He had been
too confident for it to have been just luck.

           
“So Rainbow, where is it?”

           
“What makes you think there’s only one?”

           
“Shit, girls with tattoos are so damn sexy. How many you got?”

           
“More than one.”

           
“Oh come, on! Where are they?”

           
“Nowhere
you’re
going to see.”

           
“Aw, you’re killing me Rainbow. Help me out
Ky.
” Kyden
looked me dead in the eye, with that unmistakable confidence.

           
“Nope.
I’ll see them eventually.” His dead serious
tone and wicked smile sent a jolt of longing straight to my core, and I had to
fight not to betray my calm façade.

           
“In your dreams.”
Quite possibly in
mine as well.
Crap.
I really needed to get control of myself. I
was not this girl.

           
“You don’t want to know what’s in my dreams Princess. It’d make your cheeks
turn that adorable bright red and then I’d be tempted to show you just what
that does to me, and that would be very bad in a room full of people” I felt
the blush rise up my neck and spread onto my face. I pulled my bottom lip
between my teeth to keep myself from gasping.

           
“Hey
Ky
, where’s Kaylie?”
Bas barked out.
Always my protector.
I didn’t want
this though, they were friends. I couldn’t let Kyden’s lascivious behavior get
to me. If I could remain indifferent then he’d get bored and move on. I had to
make it clear nothing was going to happen between us.