Unchained Melody (20 page)

‘You should have contacted us Cal!’ Hunter looked green. ‘Do you have any idea what my senior year was like after those accusations were made?! You just left! And you left us as pariahs!’ He nodded to Ryan. ‘He was disowned. Had to get a job instead of graduating so Marnie was basically my only friend in all of HSH!’

‘Hunter, you can’t blame Cal for the fact that I had shitty parents,’ Ryan had moved with them, still watching Callie anxiously. ‘They disowned me after my name was cleared Cal. In fact, mum only just started speaking to me again last year when dad died.’

Callie hadn’t known about Ryan’s father, and her tummy rolled. ‘Oh no! What happened to him?’

Ryan sighed and looked away. ‘Stroke. Too much stress and work…’ his brows knitted together but he seemed to shake the gloominess off before looking back to Callie with a weak smile. ‘Hasn’t made my mother work less though so….’ He took Callie’s hand and squeezed it. ‘All that matters to me is that you’re back now. I said good-bye to them both a long time ago.’

Callie hugged him again, inhaling his scent. Ryan was the living embodiment of ‘the poor little rich boy,’ and she thanked the stars above that his life had led him to music, not behind some desk where he might have grown as cold and remote as his father had been. ‘I wish I’d been there for you,’ she whispered.

A hand stroked her hair. ‘Be here for me now.’ He pulled back. ‘You are staying, right?’

‘I don’t know.’ Callie turned out of his arms and away from Hunter. When she addressed them again, it was from the kitchen bench, where the scent of leftover spaghetti muted theirs and allowed her to think straight. ‘I don’t know why I’m here, or how long I intend to stay. All I know is that I’ve missed you both so much...’

‘Wouldn’t have known it from our end Callie!’ Hunter kicked the coffee table so hard that Callie flinched. It skated across the tiles before slamming into the T. V unit. His jaw was tight, his face beet-red as he turned back to her, the tendons winding around his muscles straining against his tawny flesh. ‘How could you have done this to us? After what we had?’

Callie the human girl was shaken by Hunter’s rage, her heart spasming and leaking bitterness. ‘You mean after what we shared?!’ She demanded. ‘Or tried to share? Oh yeah, you and Ry had a connection all right! Until, of course, you had to decide who took the lead, and then look out!’ Ryan blanched. Hunter’s face contorted. They looked at each other, both seeming lost. Callie cackled. ‘And you’re doing it again! Having one of those silent eye discussion that best friends share- except I was supposed to be in on it, guys! Not haggled over! Not then and not now!’ She knew she was losing her wits and so she paused to draw in a breath, placing a hand over her heart and squeezing her eyes shut. She felt the shift in atmosphere immediately. ‘You shouldn’t have tried to steamroll me like that.’

‘Callie! Crap are you okay?’ Hunter’s voice was hoarse.

‘Callie we acted like jerks!’ That was Ryan of course. ‘And we can never say how sorry we are. That might be literal for Hunter because he can be a stubborn ass, but I’ll never stop trying to make it up to you. To make you see how precious you are to me! Always have been!’

‘Precious?’ Callie’s eyes opened. ‘You both acted like I was a hot potato, tossing me back and forth. In a love triangle between high school kids, that’s to be expected, maybe. But for a supposed trio of best friends? It was disgusting.’ She treated them each to a hard look but let it linger on Hunter. ‘You gave me shit about what happened to you after I left but have you for one second thought about what my senior year would have been like if I’d stayed? Callie Clay the girl who got double-teamed during a cyclone by the boyfriend of the most popular girl in school?’ She snorted. ‘I would have been tarred and feathered! Not to mention how I would have felt about myself! So I’m sorry if the twelfth grade sucked for you Hunter, I really am; that one part of your golden existence wasn’t perfect! But I haven’t been able to forgive myself for getting into that situation, and now you’re saying I should have risked the straws of mental health I’d managed to grasp onto, to haul ass back here and absolve you even though neither of you actually gave a fuck about me? No freaking way!’

Hunter looked taken aback. ‘How could you think we didn’t care?’

‘Because hooking up with two guys at once is disgusting! It’s cheap! As my best friends, you never would have encouraged me to do that with two other guys, would you? Like Reece and Sean?’

Hunter looked green. ‘You couldn’t have trusted them!’

‘I shouldn’t have trusted you either! I was so fragile Hunter, and I was trying to hang onto you, terrified that if I didn’t change with you, that I’d be left behind. That was why I kissed you back- because for the first time in over a month, I finally felt like I mattered to you again.’ Hunter winced and she went on. ‘I loved you guys as mates and I could have stayed like that forever. I get that you were confused about the changes in dynamics between us all too- but if you think for one second, that trying to share me behind Meredith’s back while I was hysterical was okay, then- ’ Callie was interrupted as a massive clap of thunder sounded overhead. The guys both flinched, both reached for her, but Callie remained motionless, unfazed before going on: ‘-then you really didn’t care about me, or know me at all. And you definitely don’t know who I am now.’ Lightning streaked the room neon blue, like Ryan’s eyes. ‘Things have changed.’

Hunter was gaping at her. ‘You’re not scared!’

‘Of a little thunder?’ Her lip curled in a smile. ‘Please. That’s as Ninety-Eight as The Spice Girls.’ She pushed off the counter, still smiling slyly, wondering if Thespia, who was due to pull up at the house to get her soon, had orchestrated the light show for effect. ‘It’s you two, that terrify me. Can’t live with ‘em… heartbroken without them…’

Hunter’s entire demeanor shifted at her words. He waltzed towards her, playing with a flat silver chain around his neck with a hooked thumb. ‘So you’re back because you can’t live without us, hmm?’

‘That’s not exactly what I said…’ Callie hedged.

‘Oh? Then where’s your man? Nathan or whatever?’

Callie smiled softly, knowing that she’d been caught and had to go along with it. ‘Let’s just say, he wasn’t the one for me.’ She paused. ‘Where’s the girl you were at the ballet with?’

Hunter’s eyes sparkled. ‘I ended things with Eva.’

‘When?’

Hunter was all teeth. ‘The night of the ballet. When I saw that Nathan wasn’t the one for you as well.’

‘What a coincidence, huh?’ Callie asked.

‘It’s no coincidence.’ Hunter lifted the chain to clench it between grinning white teeth. ‘I dumped her so I’d be free to see you Callie- and you know it.’

Electricity shot through Callie. Maybe they were adults now but she suspected that she was still blushing as furiously as she had at seventeen, when Hunter had floored her on the phone with that darn panties remark. ‘Maybe.’ Was all she could say, as she smiled stupidly at him. ‘I’m not making any promises though.’

‘And maybe one of us has never had a girlfriend, because he’s been waiting for the love of his life to come back.’ Ryan interjected, stepping forward, smiling at her in a way that made her blood simmer. ‘And maybe you’ve already promised to go to dinner with me tomorrow night, remember? So I can get you to start falling in love with me right back?’

Callie reached for her handbag, trying not to let Ryan’s open earnestness drill an actual hole into her heart. She wanted him to be an asshole- a real rock star. A drunk and a gambler with commitment issues. His destiny was to be a pawn in her quest to make Hunter a star, and she suspected that using him just to hurt Hunter was going to sting her more than breaking Hunter’s heart would.

But Ryan was the sharpest tool she had at her disposal; she could actually feel Hunter’s desire for her expanding from across the room just because Ryan had her attention now. It was pathetic on Hunter’s part, but understandable. He really was only human, and a competitive one. Sooner or later, Ryan was bound to show an ugly side of himself too.

‘I’d love to go to dinner with you,’ she said softly. ‘But you have to understand Ry...’ she glanced over at Hunter and saw that his cocky expression had now become anxious. ‘I was confused then too; I felt for both of you. And I still do, as friends and maybe something more.’

‘I know that Callie,’ Ryan said softly, caressing her cheek. The blue collared shirt he was wearing was just mean when paired with his electric eyes, as was the way it tapered from his broad shoulders to his ridiculously narrow hips. ‘I know there’s a risk here- but I’ll jump, if you will.’ He smiled. ‘Dinner at eight? I’ll pick you up?’

‘Better make it six.’ Hunter intercepted, reminding them both of his presence. ‘Unless you’ve forgotten a certain gig we have…?’

Ryan’s posture sagged. ‘Shit.’ He looked at Callie. ‘Sorry. We’ve got the Battle Of The Bands tomorrow night. Our slot is at ten.’

But Callie had already known that. She grinned, reached into her bag and pulled out a simple white business card with her phone number on it. She tucked it into the black pocket of Ryan’s shirt, felling his heart pounding just beneath. ‘That’s even better. Dinner and a show.’ She reached up and tucked his hair behind his ear. ‘Call me in about half an hour okay? We’ll make arrangements.’

‘Elderly person arrangements…’ Hunter muttered.

‘You’re leaving already?’ Ryan asked, his expression falling. ‘You just got back!’

‘I know but I have a special date to get all pretty for, so beauty sleep is needed.’ Callie winked at him as she turned to leave and nodded towards Hunter. ‘By the way, what’s your band called?’

‘Lonesome October.’ Hunter leaned against the corridor wall crossing his arms and giving her a loaded smile. ‘Funny story behind that actually…’ His brown eyes twinkled. ‘Want to hear it?’

‘I think I know it already.’ Callie was both pleased and embarrassed. She knew damn well which October may have been a lonely one for Ryan and Hunter. ‘And if you don’t wipe that smile off your face Hunter Marks, your next band will be called: Kicked in the blue balls.’

Ryan laughed. ‘Catchy. I like it.’

‘Anyway-’ Callie opened the front door. ‘I can’t wait to see you guys perform again!’

‘I’ll bet you can’t.’ Hunter teased. ‘And don’t worry Cal- you don’t have to leave with the one that brung yah. I think we owe it to you to let you decide who goes first this time, hmm?’

Callie shot him a baleful look. He only winked and grinned which made her heart skip an appreciative beat. Hunter was still infantile but now that he had the body of a man to go with his boyish playfulness, it was downright disarming.

‘Well that’s easy.’ Ryan muttered. ‘You always go first… in fact if memory serves correct you went before you had your jeans off-’

‘Shut the fuck up Ryan!’ Hunter snapped. His face was as red as the feature wall in the kitchen behind him. ‘I was seventeen!’

‘I was seventeen too man. It’s not about age but muscle control. You see the trick is-’

‘I said shut up Ryan...!’

‘Don’t get worked up now!’ Ryan shot back. ‘I just mopped these floors.’

Callie knew it was wrong but she was laughing when she shut the door behind her.

19.

Hunter stared around the crowded bar the next night, knocking back his fourth shot of Tequila and making a face as the liquid burned down his throat and poked at his gag reflex. He chased it with a swig from his XXXX Gold and swung around on the bar stool to make a face at Nick. He held up his watch and shouted over the woeful sounding Rummin Razin, who were doing a cover of Maze Of Torment and killing it dead: ‘Eighty-thirty man. Tick-tock.’

Nick rolled his eyes. ‘Ryan’s never missed a slot man. There’s nothing worth missing a gig for, especially one like this. He’d be insane.’

‘He’s never missed scoping out our competition before either and yet…’ Hunter held out his hands to demonstrate that Ryan was the one musician in Araulen Valley who wasn’t crammed into The Blue Moose that night. ‘Do you see him? Because I don’t!’

‘He’ll be here.’ Nick said shortly, turning to talk to their bass guitarist’s, Rathe. Lonesome October had only been together as it was for six months but for Araulen Valley, where musicians were always coming or going and being replaced, that was a pretty good run and it gave them a tight sound. As angry as Hunter was at Ryan, he knew that Ryan was the best vocalist out of all of the guys there that night, and judging by how out of it or boring the other four bands had been thus far, Hunter just knew that if they performed as good as they had in rehearsals, they had it in the bag. And then they’d qualify for regionals, which was a laugh because the Araulen Valley bands were the most talented in the region thanks to all of the musicians from the CVPAC so winning that night almost guaranteed them a slot at the Central Coast comp in Bundaberg in August.

If Ryan didn’t show because he managed to charm Callie out of her panties instead, Hunter knew that he would never ever speak to his ‘best mate’ again. It would be like slicing Hunter with a double-edged blade and if Callie, who must still have sensed how important music was to him took Ryan home when she knew Hunter was waiting on him, then she wouldn’t be the girl he’d thought she was was and she could jump off a cliff too and use Ry to break her fall.

Hunter hated his own spiteful thoughts and he blamed Callie for every single one. She’d done a spectacular job of growing up. In fact, he felt like a total scrub when he mentally compared her career resume to his own. She had always hunched into herself before but now she stood tall and owned her femininity instead of constantly hiding it under baggy shirts and his damn hat. He was still angry with her, despite his own guilt- but damn but he wanted her too! And more than that… he squeezed his hands around the neck of his beer, feeling like he could crush the thick brown glass with his fist for the intensity of the fear he felt at the idea of her belonging to Ryan when he knew, he just knew, that she’d been created for him. Maybe he’d tried to ignore how he felt about her when she left, and yet he’d spent the summer after listening to All My Life and All Cried Out and weeping all the time!

Hunter sighed in exasperation and drummed at the bar top, trying not to think about her and how good she looked and how good she smelled and how he hadn’t slept a wink the night before because he’d been mentally penning lyrics about how good she looked and how good she’d smelled…

Hunter glanced at his watch and frowned to see that only three minutes had passed. He looked over his shoulder and scanned the room, hoping to see Ryan bounce through the door, preferably alone, but there was still no sign of him and only twenty minutes left until they had to gather back stage and go over the set list.

‘Geez you’re really stressing out aren’t you?’ Nick had turned back to him, pushing his thick golden brown and completely unkempt ponytail over his rounded shoulder. He was the best drummer at the school, and possibly the best in the region, and it was yet another reason why he didn’t want Ryan to fuck up, because Nick was a pro, and there were other bands trying to poach him as often as they sniffed around Ryan. If Ryan stood them up, Hunter would have a damned hard time convincing Nick not to bail.

‘I am.’ Hunter confessed, deciding that honesty was the best policy. He checked his watch again. ‘He’s on a date with the girl he thinks might be the girl of his dreams.’ Even though I’m pretty sure she belongs to me. He added silently. Which is the real reason why I’m freaking. ‘If it goes as he hopes…’ Hunter cringed, then took another swig of his beer, staring at a poster for Ro’Ar Mutani and thinking that they needed their photographer for a shoot of their own. ‘It won’t.’ He muttered, mostly to himself. ‘Never mind.’

‘Well look, Ryan’s the shit, but this is just covers man. If he flakes, there’s not a song on that list you can’t pull off.’ Nick sounded less bothered than Hunter had expected. ‘You’ll just have to front us. I mean, we’ve got a bass, two leads, one me… if we lose a lead, we’ll be right. For tonight.’ He motioned towards Rummin Razin. ‘Fuck I’d let you have a beat on the drums while blind-folded and I reckon we’d still whip those guys.’

Hunter laughed, but mainly to cover his sudden flood of insecurity at the idea of having to fill the room the way Ryan’s voice did. Was it his dream to be offered to front them? Yes. But in his dream, he had more than ten minutes to prepare. And in that dream, the hot girl was in the front row, trying to get off her panties and aim them at his feet- not distracting him by being elsewhere getting her gear off for someone else!

‘He’ll come.’ Hunter repeated, twisting his watch away from his eyes before he went insane. He pulled the rest of his beer down in one gulp, and tried to think of something that didn’t matter. But there was nothing. Because everything that mattered to Hunter was running late.

*

Callie wiped her mouth with her napkin and sighed happily over the remains of her stuffed mushrooms. ‘Those were incredible,’ she confessed, glancing around the restaurant. ‘You were right about this place.’

Ryan wiped his hands on his linen napkin and picked up his glass of wine, taking a small mouthful. ‘They’re good, right? Growing up where we did… well there were never many restaurants to choose from. I just love being in a city now, and getting to test out new places.’ He grinned at her. ‘And you’re a much better dinner companion than Hunter. He’s still getting used to having a KFC within walking distance. Getting him to try somewhere slightly nicer is like pulling teeth.’

Callie thought it would be weird to have Hunter’s name come up in conversation, but it wasn’t. Despite the years that had lapsed within their odd little three-way friendship, they were still ‘them’ and Hunter was a big part of that. And Ryan loved Hunter. They both knew that going on a date without him was a betrayal of sorts and yet Ryan’s candor about it all made it feel sort of okay.

‘I don’t like those fast food places much anymore. I mean, they were a novelty when I first went off on my way but they grew old fast.’ She leaned forward and took a sip from her own wine. ‘This is much more my style now although-’ she leaned forward and giggled. ‘Do you kind of feel like we’re playing at being grown-ups?’

Ryan’s eyes were shining. ‘You feel that too?’ He leaned closer, so close that their glasses were almost touching over the single tea-light in the centre of the romantically small table. His hair was brushed so it curled as perfectly as it always had just beneath his ears, and he’d shaped the line of hair around his chiseled jaw so despite the fact that the ring glinting in his left brow and his polished black military style boots screamed ‘Rocker’ he looked classy and svelte. ‘I thought it was just me or rather, your affect on me.’

Callie smiled. ‘And what affect would that be?’

‘Oh honey you do not want to know…’ Ryan’s voice was low and comely. His eyes were still glittering, like he was thinking a million thoughts, half of which were x-rated, half of which were of unicorns and sparkles. She rolled her eyes as she despaired over how much time she had spent in her life, trying to describe Ryan’s eyes to herself. Imogen had a lot to answer for, thanks to the invention of ‘purple prose.’ In reality, Ryan’s eyes were just a bluish-green. Through a veil of romance however, they were shards of blue topaz and aquamarine. And Ardos’s! She shook her head, just thinking about those eyes of his, which were still the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes at night and tried to imagine a dream.

Then she realized that she was swooning instead of thinking and smiled at Ryan. ‘Maybe I do.’ Callie pressed the tip of her Volley against his leg and leaned forward on her elbow, resting her chin in her palm as she’d seen Thespia do. It annoyed her that she had no actual idea of what flirting ought to feel or look like- sometimes she did it by accident but whenever she tried to do it, she felt like an impostor. ‘You know, just to see if we’re thinking the same things…’

Ryan bent over, clutching his heart. ‘Dear Diary… Callie Clay flirted with me today!’ He looked up at her and grinned. ‘God you’re beautiful. I wish…’ he sighed, some of the light going from his eyes. ‘I wish I didn’t have this gig tonight Cal. When I asked you out last month, I had this whole seduction scenario planned which was going to take longer than we have.’ He smiled bashfully at her surprised expression. ‘Still, maybe it’s best that I don’t get to try it out. I mean, a guy can only put so much pressure on the one fantasy for so long before it snaps and falls ass first, right?’

‘How long have you had this fantasy for?’ She asked, touching her brow, mirroring the spot where Ryan’s ring glinted on his own.

Ryan took another sip of his wine and darted his eyes away. ‘Never mind.’

‘No.’ Callie pressed the tip of her shoe against his leg again. ‘Tell me.’

Ryan held the glass to his lips, and kept his eyes as on the bar across the room as he answered: ‘Maybe like… eight years?’

Callie inhaled, and he was the scent cycling through her lungs again. ‘Okay now you have to tell me what you were gonna hit me with when we were what… sixteen? And it better be better than the whole cyclone menage thing. Cos that sucked.’

‘Maybe for you.’ Ryan bit his lip but could not bite back the smile. ‘I’ll admit to being ashamed of it Callie, but that…’ he shook his head and blew out through pursed lips. ‘When you were in my arms and…’ he shifted in his seat and looked away. ‘Okay change of subject!’

‘Hell no.’ Callie felt a flash of hurt. ‘Was it that hot for you? The prospect of sharing me?’

Ryan’s eyebrow ring twitched when he frowned. ‘Sharing you wasn’t the appeal Cal. Taking you for the first time was.’ He dipped his head lower and said while looking earnestly into her eyes: ‘I loved you. I couldn’t keep you from going to him, from reacting to him- but if Hunter had insisted on going first, I was going to knock him clean out. There was no way you were losing your virginity to a guy who didn’t know how fucking lucky he was.’ He stroked his fingertip along the three rubber charity bands she had around her wrist. ‘And when I entered you, I was going to tell you so, and was hoping like hell that it would make me enough for you, and that maybe, you wouldn’t be shared after.’

Callie’s sex clenched and she knew that she had just heard the most perfectly rehearsed line in her life, or the most romantic statement anyone could ever make to anybody. She leaned forward, emboldened by the wine which was sweet on her tongue. ‘So what was the plan, Mr Weaver?’

Ryan’s tongue darted out to lick a dewdrop of wine off his upper lip. He smiled goofily, blushing and then looked down at the table, holding out his hands. ‘Okay fine… here goes…’ He placed his palms flat on the table and looked up at her. ‘If you laugh, I will probably weep out the set-list tonight okay? So be kind.’

Callie nodded, smiling encouragingly. ‘I’ll be good.’

Another self-conscious grin quirked Ryan’s lips and Callie realized that this was one of the first times that she’d seen him light-hearted, and that it was a side of him that was even sexier than the brooding prince of darkness thing he usually had going for him. ‘Okay so I was going to drive you up to the gorge…’

‘You have a car now?’ Callie interrupted, then realized how dumb that sounded. In her mind, they were closer to nineteen than twenty-four. ‘Oh, of course you do.’ She’d had Thespia drop her off, and had met Ryan inside the restaurant and hadn’t seen him pull in.

‘I have a HSV commodore, and Hunter and I own a second-hand Torago together; the band one.’

Callie wasn’t all that knowledgable about cars but she knew what a HSV was. It was as luxurious as an Aussie made car could get; a staple of Australian pride. ‘What color and how can you afford one when you guys are getting a few gigs a month?’

‘Yellow. And I got it… well there’s the inheritance thing.’ He shifted in his seat and Callie instantly felt awful for prying. She knew what it was like to have painful parental problems. ‘Of course.’ She said. ‘Go on with your story but Ryan… I am sorry.’

‘It’s fine.’ He smiled weakly at her. ‘Anyway, I was going to drive you up to the gorge, grab a blanket and one of the acoustics from the back and lead you up the mountain.’

‘It’s a good thing I wore comfortable shoes then…’ Callie joked.

‘As I knew you would. But I was still imagining the Docs.’ He kicked her Volley’s under the table. ‘So while we were walking up, I was going to you know… inch closer,’ his fingers glided back down on the inside of her wrist and traced her heart line on her palm. ‘And closer… and when you stumbled- which you would of course because it’s pitch black up there and hard to navigate- I was going to catch your hand, and then not let it go. You know, like I didn’t even notice I was holding it…’

Callie blushed as she imagined him doing that, the unspoken tension he was creating there and then by slightly stroking the webbing between her fingers, making her wish he’d lace his fingers between hers. ‘Yep these are definitely the moves planned by a seventeen year old,’ she said, a little breathily.