I can’t help but grin. She was our first fan. She’d dance and sing and go wild with all our stuff: our equipment, posters, amps, Nuke’s drum set. You name it, it’s in the garage and it’s fucking awesome.
We even have a minibar. A neighbor was giving away a cabinet and some old barstools. He offered them to us since he digs our music.
I frown as I smell marijuana. It’s so pungent I can smell it thirty feet away.
Jason and David are sharing a pipe with Axel as Nuke twirls his sticks in between pounding on his drums.
“’Bout fucking time.” Axel inhales, his eyes narrowing on me as he holds, then releases. “Everything okay, man?” He motions with his head to the couch in the corner. “How much longer do we have to deal with this?”
I look over at our sad excuse of a couch that’s being held together mostly by silver duct tape. Stephanie’s sitting there, still crying and looking like a wreck, surrounded by some of her girlfriends.
“Christ. I thought she was going home.” I rub the back of my neck and motion for him to hand me the pipe.
“Sucks, brother, but at least she’s gonna take care of it,” Jason says all this while staring at one of the girls who’s comforting Steph. He’s good friends with Axel. His dad is the president of a biker club called the Disciples. I can’t remember how we started hanging out with them, but they’re cool as fuck.
“Snatch. All of them nothing but liars.” I arch a brow at David, Jason’s cousin, as he slurs slightly and brings a bottle of Jack Daniel’s to his lips. I’m actually better friends with him than Jason. David writes poetry, so we have a lot in common.
“Granger,” Skylar purrs as she sashays by us. She leans over to open the minifridge, her dress so short we all stare at her ass. David shakes his head and tosses himself onto the mattress.
“Fucking snatch. Although, you might like that one, dude. She’s pierced in special places.” He snickers, pointing the bottle at Skylar. He brings the bottle of Jack to his mouth but spills a good portion down his chin and onto the mattress.
“Christ, David.” I grab the bottle from him.
He grins. “Go get her, Granger. But wrap up your dick.” He shakes a finger at me then passes out, the smell of spicy bourbon coming from the mattress.
We probably need to think about getting a plastic cover for it. It has to be crawling with all sorts of dried fluids, most of them bodily.
“We gonna rehearse or just talk about Granger and his dick?” Nuke pounds the drums and sits back staring at us. Stephanie starts to cry louder, and I feel like punching Nuke. He’s been kind of a dick throughout all of this. I know he’s had a rough life, but who hasn’t? His lack of patience is making me want to leave, because without me, the Dicks don’t really exist. I’m the lead singer. Axel and I create all the songs. He needs to give me some space to at least try to get Steph and her girlfriends out of here.
“Heyyy, that’s not nice, Nuke,” Gia yells.
I turn to Axel. “Gia should not be hanging out with these girls. She’s starting to understand things.”
Axel frowns and takes the pipe back. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, she knows that I knocked up Stephanie. She needs to be playing with kids her own age.”
“She’s seven,” he growls and looks over at Gia who’s sitting on the end of the couch talking to Jenny, one of the girls Jason likes to fuck. Her small hand twirls her dark mess of hair as if she’s twenty instead of a child.
“Gia?” Axel scowls at her. In return, she rolls her eyes dramatically at him and turns back to Jenny.
“What the…?” Axel says and looks at me as if I can explain why the brat is the Brat. “Get over here.”
She stares at him, then mimes that she’s talking to the groupies.
“Christ.” I shake my head, ready to grab her by the hair and drag her over here.
Jason cracks up. “Gia kills me. Fucking kid’s got balls.” He crosses his arms and smirks at both of us.
“Are you kidding me?” Axel roars, causing Gia to finally move and the girls to scream.
She stomps over as if she’s missing out on a chance for a million dollars. “What?” she huffs and stands with her hands on her hips. “I’m comforting Stephanie.” She stares up at us, her big green eyes defiant, and for a second I almost grab her and put her over my knee.
“I don’t want you hanging out with them anymore,” Axel states, then turns for his guitar.
I almost choke on the swig of bourbon I just took because that can’t be it.
“Why?” she whines and stomps a foot. “Is this because they all said Rhys is a dick and that he will never be happy because he’s not capable of feeling true—”
“Gia, watch your fucking mouth.” Axel glares down at her.
Jason just stares at her as if she’s some sort of genius. I look at her smug face and then at Axel who starts strumming his guitar.
“You kidding me? That’s it? That’s all you’re saying to her?” I ignore Jason who’s laughing.
Axel grabs the baby powder for his hands. “Dude, relax. She’s seven. She doesn’t understand what those gashes are talking about.”
My hands clench because this is fucked up. “Axel. She needs friends her own age, not this shit.” I motion to the crying mess of Stephanie and her posse.
Axel looks at me and Gia who is sticking her tongue out at me. “Knock it off, Gia. What happened to your blond-haired friend… Katie?”
“You mean Kelly. Her mom won’t let her come over if Mommy isn’t here. Apparently, she thinks you’re scary.” She rolls her eyes.
Axel frowns as if this is a shock to him. It dawns on me that there is a reason Axel is Axel. He’s completely out of touch. Either that or he doesn’t care. Which is fine for him, but he’s allowing Gia to become exactly like him.
He does one loud strum, nodding his head as he smirks. “Well, fuck her then.”
“Christ.” I shake my head and glance down at Gia who stares at me victorious. “Go play in your room,” I snarl.
“You’re not the boss of me, and I’ll never be like those girls, crying because you don’t love them. When I grow up, I know you’re gonna love me the best,” she announces, spins around, and walks back to the girls.
“Fucking Brat.” I take another deep swig of Jack.
“Granger, you did this, man.” Axel glides his hand up and down the neck of his guitar. “Wrap. It. Up. That’s what we all do. That’s what you didn’t do.” He stares at me as I fight the urge to throw the bottle against one of the walls.
“And leave Gia out of this. My sister is fine.” He starts to strum and tune his guitar.
I nod, the blood pumping in my temples. “Fuck this.” Just one day it would be nice if I could play my music and not have drama. As long as I can remember, drama has followed me. My mom, and then the girls, and now this. I look around the garage and take a deep breath. Everything seems to be pressing down on my chest like a fucking heart attack that takes away your breath.
“Skylar?” I bark at the one David says has piercings. She looks up and smiles as she pushes off the wall.