Unbreakable

It’s been days since my last run in with Aiden, and I’m still anxious. I see him in every shadow, and every dark corner. He lurks in the depths of my mind like a monster hides under the beds of small children. I just wish someone would turn on the light to make him leave.

I’m sitting by the bay window looking over the tour schedule when Stephen plucks it from my hands, and sits down across from me. “You,” he starts. “Need to get out. Relax a bit Tum, let loose.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. “I’m loose right now?” As I speak, I can feel the knots in my neck flare.

Stephen looks at me in disbelief. “Yeah I don’t believe that for a second. You’re stressing yourself out as usual, and you know that’s not healthy.”

“I know,” I sigh. “But I have to stay on top of all of this so I don’t drown in it later.” My shoulders slump, and my gaze flicks out the window.

“Hey,” Stephen’s voice brings me out of my pity pit. “You need to go to a party. A good ass rave that you DJ and just have fun.”

I feel my lips spread into a smile, and my mood lighten. “At Eli’s?” I grin.

“I’ll text him right now,” Stephen smiles. “In the meantime, I want you to go pick up party supplies, and invite whoever you want. None of this work garbage got it?”

“No promises,” I wink.

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An hour later I find myself in Walmart with Ashley and CC. “I want all of the alcohol,” CC laughs as he rides the cart around the store.

“Pick two,” I laugh. Ashley wraps his arm around my waist, and pulls me close to him. Stephen and Ashley took all of my papers and my work laptop so I can’t do any tour related things. The stress is definitely there, but being out with the people I love is helping. “Between my family and Eli, and everyone else we’ll have just about anything you’d want. And remember that I’m bartending so I’ve got you.”

“She makes a mean whatever you want,” Ashley says. “For someone who can’t drink that is.”

CC is grinning from ear to ear as he puts two bottles of alcohol into the cart. “I can’t wait to find out for myself,” he laughs. “I’m all set so you can do whatever you want now.”

“Wow, thank you for your permission,” I joke. We start walking to the chip aisle, and I grab one of each kind. The guys give me a strange look, and start laughing. “What? Eli told me to bring chips.” They shrug, and we continue through the store.

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“So tell me again,” Andy starts. “Why do we have to sneak out of your house to come here later?”

I fasten the speaker to its stand, and take the wrench out of my mouth. “Gram will probably visit tonight, and she really doesn’t like it when we go out. She thinks we’ll go out and party,” I smirk.

“Her intuition is strong,” he laughs. “But why can’t we just leave? We’re all legal adults here.”

“She like to be the one in control,” I sigh, tightening the stand as I speak. “She wants everything to go her way, and everyone to be all prim and proper like her. It doesn’t help that she still thinks of all of us as children. All of us meaning me and my brothers.” I move on to another speaker, and think about all of the times Gram dragged me by my ear to dance or figure skating classes.

“Now I see,” Andy says. “She’s one of those weird blue blood, old generation people right?”

“Right,” I reply through my wrench filled mouth. “Sse achullay deshended from woalty hough.”

“Tum I really can’t understand you,” Andy chuckles. He hold the speaker up for me so I can take the wrench out of my mouth.

“She’s actually descended from royalty,” I repeat. “Some Irish lord or something. She goes to balls in England all of the time, and she expects all of us relatives to act like royalty too.”

“I’m sure you love that.”

I rise to my feet, and sling the wrench over my shoulder. “You and I both know that I’m actually the queen.”

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“So Derek tells me you’re all musicians,” Gram says over a glass of wine. We are all sitting around our dining room table, dressed to the nines, and eating a dinner of steak and potatoes Uncle Derek prepared. And by all I mean that Vanessa and Aiden are here as well as the guys from Stephen’s band Starstruck. Big dinners like this are my favorite part of being home. I love the feeling of togetherness within our large extended family.

“You could say that,” Andy smiles. “Jinxx is actually classically trained.” I look over at Jinxx, and see his face redden a little. He’s almost too modest for his own good.

“Jinxx…” Gram hums. “Which one of you is that again? I’m sorry I just haven’t seen enough of you all to match faces to names yet.”

“That’s fine,” Jinxx smiles. “I’m Jinxx, you can call me Jeremy though if you’d prefer that.”

“Yes I do, thank you,” Gram says in her snide, but elegant way. That’s the thing about Gram, you can’t tell if she’s looking down on someone unless you really know her. Right now Jinxx has her interest, but he is on thin ice. One wrong word, and she’ll condemn him. “What is it you play?”

“Well I play rhythm guitar in the band, but I’m classically trained in the string instruments, and piano. I play them in some of the acoustic tracks.” When Jinxx finishes talking, he looks at Gram expectantly. He wants her approval. Bless him.

“You and Annalyse should play together before you leave!” Gram exclaims. There you go Jinxx, you’re in. “Oh Annalyse,” she sighs and turns to me. “I haven’t heard you play in so long. Why don’t you play us something?”

“Right now?” I ask. Gram gives me one of her rare excited nods.

“Um, maybe some other time,” Uncle Derek says, saving me for tonight.

“Oh alright Derek,” she flicks her gaze to Ashley. Oh boy here we go… “So, Ashley is it?”

“Yes ma’am,” Ashley drawls. His accent comes out more when he’s nervous. Hang in there baby, you’ve got this.

“What an interesting name,” she starts. “What is it you do in this here… band.” I can hear the contempt in her voice, and I know this is not going to end well.

“I play bass ma’am,” he replies, ever the gentleman.

“Not the stand up bass I’m sure,” the hardness in her voice makes me want to leap across the table and punch her in the face. She does not get to look down on the love of my life. But fighting with Gram must be done with words and eyes not fists. “What a shame.”

“Mom,” Uncle Derek starts.

“Hush child,” she spits. “I’m getting to know my soon to be grandson-in-law.” Uncle Derek sits back in his chair defeated. Rage grows inside me. I wish she would just give him a chance.

We sit in an awkward period of silence that seems to stretch on forever. I keep making uncomfortable eye contact with everyone at the table. We can all feel the disapproval hanging in the air like a heavy fog. It’s almost too much to take. “Well… I’m going to bed,” Stephen says. He walks over to Gram and kisses her cheek. “Goodnight Gram.”

“Goodnight Stephen,” she coos. Stephen gives me a nod before leaving the room. It’s time.

I yawn, and raise my arms over my head. “I think I’m going to head off too,” I say.

“But it’s not even nine o’clock yet dear,” Gram protests.

Tick tick boom. “Oh so it’s okay for Stephen to go to bed but not me?” Gram opens her mouth, and closes it. I’ve got her in a box and she knows it. “Good night everyone.” I stalk off to my room with the icy stares of Aiden and Gram on me, but I don’t look back.

When I reach my room, I slam my door closed. The sound echos throughout the hall. My back rests against the door as I slide down. I am so done with Gram and her stuck up attitude. Let it go Lace. Don’t let her ruin your night. There’s a knock on the door that makes me jump. “Hey Rose can I come in?” Ashley asks. I get off the floor, and open the door for him. He sees the look on my face, and pulls me to him. “It’s going to be okay,” he says as he kisses my forehead.

“I know,” I sigh. My face breaks into a wicked smile, and I pull him into my room. "Now let’s go party."

--------

After sneaking the guys out of the house, and a jam fest of a car ride, we pull up to Eli’s house. Ashley and I walk in hand in hand, a smile is plastered on my face. When we get into the main part of the house, I find everyone just sitting around. “Where’s the party?” I ask.

Eli grins, and rises from the couch. “Why she just walked in of course! Everyone out back, the fun is about to begin.” He opens up a sliding glass door, and we all crowd through it. I walk over to my already set up DJ booth, and start the music off right with “Party Rocking,” by LMFAO. The crowd cheers, and bodies move to the beat. This is the best part of being a DJ.

More and more people file into Eli’s back yard, and within ten minutes it’s packed. My phone buzzes, and a message from Phoenix pops up. I’m here bitch. I smile, and cut the music. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I say into the microphone. All eyes snap to me. “My I introduce to you, the baddest of the bitches, the queen of the bees, the life of the party Phoenix Cater!” The masses lets out a deafening roar, and Phoenix emerges behind me, smiling, waving, and blowing kisses the whole time. I roll my eyes, and restart the music. My eyes fall on my best friend, and I smile as much as I possibly can. “Damn girl that outfit,” I cat call.

She does a cute little bounce, and smirks at me. “Thanks girly, great music.” She pulls me into a tight hug, and kisses my cheek. “So where is this beau I’ve been hearing so much about?” her eyebrows waggling, and I burst out laughing.

“He’s down there with his friends,” I smile. “They’re sitting at one of the tables by the pool. They’re the ones who look like a biker gang.”

Phoenix cranes her neck to look at the guys. “And who’s that handsome hunka hunka walking this way?”

I put my face next to hers to see who she’s looking at, and see Ronnie walking toward us, his eyes locked on Phoenix. Boy is he in for a wild ride. “That’s Ronnie,” I tell her. “He’s my best friend in L.A.”

“Is he single?” She asks. Ronnie makes it to the bottom of the stairs, and I can see his predatory gaze set on Phoenix. He may think he can play her, and she’ll let him think that he is. I can’t wait to hear how this goes down.

“He is very single,” I whisper. “Now go get ‘im tiger.” Phoenix gives me a playful growl, and skips down to meet Ronnie. Watching their interaction is like watching two lions go after the same prey. It’s funny.

“Are you having fun yet?” Ashley purrs in my ear.

I chuckle deep in my throat and lean back into him. His arms wrap around my waist, and his hips move to the slow groove of “Miss Jackson” by Panic At The Disco. “I’m having a lot of fun,” I reply.

He touches his lips to my neck, and slowly moves them up to my ear. My knees turn to butter and my stomach starts doing backflips. He knows this all too well. “Do you want to go have more?”

“But I’m working,” I whine. I really do want to go with him, but we may as well play this game before we go.

“But your computer is on autoplay hotness,” he says. I roll my eyes, and walk him backward to the door. Phoenix and Ronnie give me a thumbs up just before we go inside.

Inside the house, I lead Ashley up the stairs and into an empty bedroom. The door barely clicks shut before I wrap my legs around his waist and attack his lips with mine. He growls low in his throat and kisses me back, hard. I lick his lip and he opens his mouth for me. My tongue takes in the addicting taste of Ashley, and I pull him harder against me, digging my nails into the exposed skin of his neck. He moans, and holds me like he’s trying to fuse our bodies together. “I love you Rose,” he breathes.

I open my mouth to tell him I love him, but a knock on the door ruins the moment. “Lace...” Greg says. Oh great just who I wanted to see right now. “I don’t know what you’re doing in there but you better stop. Gram is here and she’s pissed.”

Notes

hey guys, i'm so sorry this took so long to put up. It's hard for me to find inspiration now, but I'm going to finish all of the stories I have going now. Thank you all for the support, you really don't know how much each and every one of you means to me.