Saving Grace (23 page)

Shane stormed into the studio
with
Brayden
and a group of four horribly dressed girls. I swear, each one was prettier than the next and I loathed all of them.
A
whole
gang of real life porn stars,
how nice
.

"Oh man, make them go away," Ethan whispered under his breath. He gave a tight glance to Alex who nodded in agreement. "It's going to be a long sleepless week."

The dark haired girl walked herself right up to me and smirked, the other three followed suit, circling me.
Like vultures
or sharks
about to attack
.
From my peripheral
view,
I watched Ethan get really tight and uncomfortable about how the girls were reacting to me.
Alex grabbed his arm and pulled him back as he tried to move forward to help me. "Dude, it's Grace. She'll be fine.
Let her piss on her turf.
"

"Hey there.
Grace
. We're the Vixen4," the dark haired girl sneered
,
flipping her long brittle hair behind her shoulder
. "They call me
Bliss
," she hissed.
They surrounded me closely and I was momentarily floored by how different they looked up close. Old, worn and
half-dead
, holy
crap,
Shane slept with the
Crypt
Keeper!

"Oh, is that what they call you?
I wonder what
they call you when you're not
around.
"
I
stated
sweetly.

Her smile disappeared.

I wanted to vomit thinking that Shane may have had sex with the
thing standing in front of me
, it burned the back of my throat and I swallowed it down hard
. She may have once been pretty, but a hard life oozed from her pores and what looked like track marks scarred her arms.
Stupid, dumb Shane
, I will hate you forever for choosing her over me
. Her eyes were dull and bloodshot, ringed with mas
ca
ra that heavily hung in clumps from her eyelashes.

Bliss stepped
even
closer to me and grimaced.
She outwardly ignored my remark and continued her introductions. "This here is Scratch," she said pointing to a pink haired girl wearing a tutu that matched. "You might want to ask Shane why we call her that, unless you've already seen the scars on his back?"
she whispered.

I knew the
skank
was lying. I can tell you that I have seen every inch of that man's back and committed
its perfect contours
to my memory, her damn nail marks aren't there.
I giggled. "Wow,
Bliss
. The color jealous bitch doesn't suit you, why do you
bother
wearing it?"

Her mouth opened and closed
,
and then
she laughed sarc
astically
.
"Wow, the little shit has a mouth on her pretty little face. How fucking sweet is that," she laughed again and gave me a snide look. She pointed a bony finger at the two remaining girls. "This is Cream," she said about her blonde haired friend. "And this here is Essex," she jabbed her thumb at the last girl who wore a
short military style buzz cut.

Bliss charged at me and stopped an inch in front of my face. I didn't move. I didn't even flinch, not even a tiny bit of eye widening or a gasp. NOTHING! There was no way I was lett
ing this waste of human skin
make me feel that I was inferior to her.
Because I wasn't.
Shane may have thought so, but that doesn't make it true! The
minute she opened her mouth to say something
,
I thought I was truly done for. The stench of alcohol was harsh and bitter, but I held my ground, burning eyes and all.

"She don't look like very much to me
,
gentlemen," she turned to face Shane and my eyes locked to his.
Brayden
was holding him b
ack, his eyes were full of hate, and he was looking right at her. I guess he still thought that after
screw
ing
her,
I'd jump on her sloppy seconds and he didn't want her to mess it up. I laughed. I laughed out loud right in her face, and I watched Shane's anger turn in to
what seemed to look like
awe.
What the heck?

"Wow,
Blis
s,
how long did it take you to come up with that one? Did it keep you up all night?"

"No Shane kept
me up all night
," she sneered.

I lifted my gaze to Shane and watched the absolute horror dawn on his face.
His beautiful face.
He shook his head no and tried to struggle out of
Brayden's
hold. Ethan jumped up and helped hold him back, but I think it was more for me to see him and send his encouragement. I looked dead in her eyes and smiled another sweet smile. "
S
o,
Bliss
, tell me how much semen do you swallow to actually become that st
upid? Why would I care who kept
your creepy looking ass up
all
night?
And Shane, well we all know,
you could slap a wig and stilettos on a fucking three legged chair and Shane would try to fuck it.
I wouldn't be bragging about getting
a piece of Shane, anybody could.
" I stepped closer to her, bumping into her, like I was a badass street fighter
. My adrenaline started shooting
fireworks off under my skin and I was about to go all
Bruce Lee
on her ass
Return of the Dragon
style
.

"Ah man," Alex murmured. "I love that girl. You guys are so lucky I broke my arms to get her."

I walked right past Bliss
thrusting my shoulder into hers, spinni
ng her around like a rag doll. "You guys ready to play?" I asked walking over to my guitar and
hauling the old worn out strap over my head. "Or you guys going to bring in the mud and watch Bliss and I go at it for your viewing pleasure."

Alex jumped out of his seat, ran over to me and picked me up twirling me around. He nestled his face near my ear, "You're my favorite girl ever."

Shane pulled him off me and Alex held up his hands laughing. "Relax, bro. She's all of ours, not just yours."

"
Get
off
her
,
Alex," Shane said as he yanked me out of the studio and into the hallway. He raked his hands through his hair and stood waiting, "Say something to me Grace. Tell me that you know me better than that."

I leaned my back heavily against the wall, my guitar tugging on my shoulders
as
I strummed a few chords. "Lie to me Shane. Tell me that you didn't leave me and spend the night with her
."
He stepped back like I slapped him.
I shook my head and laughed pulling myself off the wall, "You know what? Don't
bothe
r,
Shane. We were
just friends
,
so there's no bad crap between us, it's none of my business what and who you do. Let it go
, I know we didn't have anything more between us
. Let's just do what we do best together
,
okay?"

He swallowed hard and shook his head slowly, color draining from his face. God, I wanted him to say something to me.
Make it better Shane! Take away this freaking pain,
take it away please
,
I don't want
it
anymore
!
It was
physical;
I felt it in my gut, like someone had just ripped my insides
and pulled them
right down to hell.
I wanted him to deny everything that I pictured disgustingly in my head. His lips on her, her hands on him
, oh God, I really, really wanted him to love me.
J
ust me
.

But he didn't. And before my body could crumple in on itself
,
I walked past him, letting him go.

When I went back into the
studio,
I jammed my chord into the huge amps and I know Ethan caught me wiping the tears from my eyes by the way his
body stiffened and the look he
gave Shane.

Without waiting for Shane's cue
,
I started playing Mad World's set and felt pretty damn high when I watched
the expressions of Vixen4.
I slammed violently on my strings like I was colliding my fist
s
against their faces. My voice exploded against them like sla
ps across their cheeks, and I tore through riffs with a fury like I wanted to tear through Shane.
I
wrecked their sorry asses
, without even touching them.

When we played the entire set of all the songs Mad World had ever composed, I walked over to my guitar case and
started packing
up without saying a word.

"Hey, how about some
Janis?" Shane
plead
ed into the microphone
, his voice breaking
.

The studio went silent when I lifted my face to him. "I don't really feel like I
have any more
pieces of my heart
to give
right now Shane
."

I walked out of the studio without looking back.
Opening my
cell,
I pressed Lea's icon and waited for her to answer her work phone.

"Hey
,
girlie!"

"Hey, Lea. What are you doing after work?" I asked.

"I don't have any plans. What's on your mind?"

"I was thinking about a Boys Hater Club Night, are you in?" I said.

"What happened?" her voice took on a serious tone.

"I walked into Shane's apartment and he was with one of the girls from Vixen4," I explained.

"What do you mean by
WITH?" Now she was yelling.

"Exactly? What I saw was Shane pulling a shirt over that chest that you love so much while she trailed behind him without one on herself." I heard Lea gasp on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, she was only wearing a little sliver of panties," I sighed.

"I don't BELIEVE HIM!" She was yelling even louder.

By the time I reached our front door
,
she had called him every obscene word I'd ever heard, and of course since this is Lea, a bunch I've never heard.
We planned to
go
Boozer's
for some
dinne
r,
because
I knew for a fact that Vixen4 had a show at a club on the West Side and the guys were all going, oh yeah, and I was hoping that Ryan would be there.

Throwing my guitar onto the
couch,
I raided the refrigerator and ate the first thing I could grab, which was some sort of frozen prepackage
d dinner. After
cleaning,
I chan
ged into
sweats, threw on my hoodie and opened my front door to go for a run. Lea wasn't going to be home for at least another three hours and the thought of staying by myself and thinking about Shane was not happening.

Shane was outside, and of
course,
he was dressed in his running gear. My stomach fluttered. "Yeah, I thought you'd be ready for a run," he said.

"And you thought this because..." I prompted closing and locking the door behind me.

"Because you're pissed off at me and when you get angry you run. It's what helps you think, clears your head."

"You are very arrogant, Shane
Maxton, to think that I'd be thinking of
you or
feel
angry with you
." I started stretching while I watched his expression
closely.

"No,
babe.
You do think of me
, you are angry with
m
e,
and
Grac
e,
you want me every
damn
bit as much as I want you
."

"
Well
c
rap
,
Shane
,
now
I really need to run."