American Love Songs (4 page)

“Nice to meet you,” she said, batting her eyelashes and shaking his hand. To Jake, she added out of the corner of her mouth, “Can we keep him?”
¹³

“Not in the way that you mean, you little deviant.” Jake nudged her with his elbow. “Now get out of the way so we can sit down, yeah? Were starving.”

“Jake, get the milk, would you? Parker, would you prefer water?” Jakes mother interjected.

 

“Please,” Parker said, smiling shyly. His cheeks were flushed. Jake winced internally. Becca was going to eat him alive.

Somehow, Jake managed to wrangle Parker a seat between himself and his mom, where there was minimal elbowroom but also much less risk of overhearing awkward teenage girl whispers. Or being groped under the table—he and his sister had grown up in the same house, after all. They had all the same tricks. His mom did help by running interference when things got out of hand—”Rebecca Lee! You will either stop flashing those breasts around at the table or go put on a sweater, do you understand?”

Becca wasnt too much of a teenager not to be embarrassed, and she turned bright red at the admonition. So did Parker, which even Jake thought was kind of cute. “Yes, Mama.” She straightened her posture and adjusted her shirt.

“Thats better. Now eat your beans.”

Later that night, when they were finally back at the apartment and free of the giggles and stares of teenage girls, Parker slumped into the second-hand rocking chair and thunked his head back against the wooden rails. “Your family is nice,” he said. “Do I have to see them every week?”

¹³
This would turn out to be the standard teenage girl reaction to meeting Parker for the first time.

Jake snorted and tossed a GameCube controller into his lap. “That depends on whether you can feed yourself. And you should meet my dad—hes in the city during the week, only comes home on weekends, but hes the black sheep.”

Parker stopped mid-yawn to turn and raise an eyebrow, something Jake considered an impressive feat.

 

“Dads kind of weird,” Jake explained, and Parker broke out of his frozen yawn face to cough incredulously.

 

PRODIGAL: OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE WAYWARD SONS

 

Date: Friday, March 13, 2009 Author: Jake

 

News Unfit to Print

 

Hey guys, Jake again, checking in with some good news and some bad news and some other good news.

The bad news: still no update on when that CD will be ready. I promise you, were working as fast as we can (without sacrificing awesome sound).

The good news: as everyone who was at Rock Lobster last night can attest, we have a rockin new lead guitarist. This is Parker. Hes a Pisces.

The bad news: we were unable to find a replacement for Kylies 32Cs. The good news: ladies love the new guy. No panty-throwing yet, but Im hopeful.

 

PRODIGAL: OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE WAYWARD SONS

 

Date: Friday, March 20, 2009 Author: Jake

 

APB on blue leopard

Uh, so anyone missing a pair of size XS blue leopard
-
print panties should e
-
mail Chris at the address listed on the contact page. I know you threw them at Parker, but hes shy. Anyway, Chris says e
-
mail him. (You should probably just cut your losses.)

J
AKE plonked the bottle down in the middle of the living room table, distracting Parker from his place in
Breakfast of Champions
. Rubbing his eyes with one hand—hed been at it for hours—Parker lowered his glasses with the other. His eyebrows lifted as his gaze lighted on the bottle of amber liquid.

“Were going to play a game,” Jake said firmly, but he made sure to smile just in case Parker thought he was a psychopath
¹⁴
. “Is it the one you play on your knees in front of a toilet?” Parker asked. “Because I hate that game.”

 

With a flourish, Jake produced two shot glasses from behind his back.

“Oh,” Parker sighed. “It
is
that game.” But he folded the corner of his page over and set the book aside, so he obviously didnt hate it
that
much.

“I had to bribe Jimmy to buy this for me,” Jake told him, which wasnt strictly true. Jimmy pretty much bought him booze all the time, but he was sure Jimmy would call in the favor someday. “I dont have to work tomorrow, and I know you dont, either, so….”

“So?” Parker gave him a tiny, knowing smile. “You know Im old enough to buy booze too, right?”

 

¹⁴
In case you were wondering? It didnt help.—PM

 

Jake waved him off one-handed. “Yeah, but then it wouldnt have been a surprise.”

 

After a long moment of just staring, Parker leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “Alright, Ill bite. Whats the game?” “Tit for tat,” Jake said. “Roommate game. You ask me a question, I answer or do a shot if I dont want to. Then its my turn.”

“Why do I get a feeling theres not a lot of questions youre going to refuse to answer?” Parker asked. “Youre kind of an open book, whereas I am mysterious and unknowable.”

“Youve also been reading too much today, apparently,” Jake said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I never said the game was fair. You in or not?”

He could almost see the internal debate, quick though it was, played out on the features of Parkers face. “No sneakily asking the same question a bunch of different ways to get me drunk?” he clarified.

“If you catch me doing it, its a two-drink penalty,” Jake agreed. He wondered what juicy secrets Parker might be hiding and why it was he didnt want Jake to know. “So?”

Parker gestured to the glasses. “Pour.”

 

Jake grinned and poured two perfect shots, setting one down in front of Parker. “Since youre the newbie, you can go first.”

“So generous,” Parker mocked, leaning back into the couch cushions and studying Jakes face. Finally the corner of his mouth quirked up in a little smirk like hed made up his mind about something. “How long have you had a crush on Chris?”

Jake spluttered. “Jesus, you dont waste any time.” Part of him was embarrassed that he was so transparent—he really thought hed been doing a good job of keeping that little secret under wraps—but on the other hand, it was nice to know there was someone he could talk to about it who obviously wasnt going to judge him. Even if, by the sounds of things, Parker might rib him a bit. He sighed. He was nowhere near embarrassed enough to take the shot, though. “Tenth grade, I guess. Its not really a thing—I mean, Im over it.” He was, mostly, thank God, though it had sucked enormously for three or four years, and his mother would never forgive him for choosing Chris and the band over finishing school. “Man, why couldnt you have shown up years ago so I had someone to talk to about it?”

“My invitation mustve got lost in the mail,” Parker said, rolling his eyes. “Your turn, I guess.”

 

Jake thought for a second. “How come you always put the guitar away as soon as I get home?”

Scratching a hand through his hair, Parker looked from Jake to the shot glass on the table and back a few times before answering. “When I lived at home, I had to be careful not to get caught playing the wrong thing. It was easier not to play when there was someone else around.”

That was interesting. Jake nodded along, accepting the explanation, but then Parker reached forward and grabbed the shot glass, throwing back the spiced rum inside it and grimacing. “What was that for?”

“That wasnt the whole truth,” Parker admitted, which Jake kind of figured, but it wasnt like theyd made a rule for that. “Besides, Im going to need it if thats what kind of night this is going to be.”

“Fair enough.” Jakes curiosity was piqued, but he figured he had plenty of time to weasel Parkers secrets out of him if they were going to be living together. “Your turn.”

Now that he had some alcohol in him, Parker was beginning to slouch in his seat, his posture loosening out of its usual contained ball. “Hmm. Whats your worst nightmare?”

“Actual nightmare, or worst possible conceivable scenario?” “Hmm.” Parker ran a distracted finger around the edge of his shot glass. “Your choice.”

Jake thought about it. There were a lot of really bad scenarios out there—losing the use of his eyes or hands, for example, or a family member. Those were all equally horrifying in a remote, terrible way; none of them really stood out as the worst. “When I was a kid,” he began at last, suppressing a shudder, “my sister and I were playing hide-and-go-seek. It was her turn to count, and I went into the cellar to hide. It was one of those old cellars you cant get to from inside the house—dark, musty-smelling—and my sister was terrified of it. There was no way she was going to look for me in there.” The memory made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “Unfortunately, I didnt count on the fact that we didnt use the cellar, and the ladder was rotted through. I broke three rungs on the way down. Once I was inside, I wasnt tall enough to reach the doors. I was stuck down there for hours.” In the dark with only his imagination for company, Jake had startled at every unfamiliar sound. Every creak or breath of wind had been another horrifying, unimaginable creature come to take him away where he would never see his family again. “I had a panic attack. I havent had one since, but I had my share of nightmares about it. I used to dream I was back there, that I was standing on my tiptoes, banging on the doors and shouting, but no one came for me, and all I could hear was someone breathing in the dark, getting closer.”

When hed finished, Parker handed him his shot glass. “Go on, you look like you need it after that.”

 

Jake smiled weakly and gulped down the burning liquid, feeling it warm his belly. “This games not going exactly to plan, is it?” Parker spread his hands. “I guess that depends on the plan. You got somewhere to be tomorrow?”

 

“Fair point.” Stretching, Jake propped his feet up on the table and thought for a second. “Okay, I got one. Why cant you go home?”

Parker sighed so long it actually ruffled Jakes hair. He held out his glass to be refilled. Jake obliged wordlessly; he hadnt really expected Parker to answer that one, but now he was
really
curious. Parker downed the shot without fanfare, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said, “Okay, desert island. You get to bring one thing. What is it?”

“A boat,” Jake answered as though the answer were obvious. “Duh.”

 

Parker rolled his eyes. “Come on, thats cheating.”

“Okay, okay.” Jake considered for a second, shaking his head. He thought about it: sun, sand, and water as far as the eye could see. Something to distill the salt water would be nice, but he wouldnt last a day without someone to talk to. It had to rain sometime, right? “Man, Id have to bring somebody for company. I suck at being alone. Not, you know, in the romantic sense, but Id drive myself nuts, you know? Im too social. So I guess Id have to drag somebody else with me. Chris, maybe, or my sister, even you. Not that youre third string or anything, just that we kind of just met and I dont really know you that well—”

Parker laughed at him, and Jake shut up, aware the alcohol was hitting him already. “Oh, fuck you,” he said, laughing back. “Alright, I got one. How come you can play so many instruments?”

“Prodigy,” Parker grinned, then shook his head to show he was kidding. “Nah, I just—dont tell Chris, alright? I majored in music in New York.”

Holy crap
. Jake whistled low, impressed. “Yeah, I mean, you couldve put that on your resume, asshole. You finished a degree?” “Longest four years of my life,” Parker smiled. “It was worth it, though. I learned a lot.”

“So Ive heard.” Logan, the owner of the local music store, had been impressed enough with Parker that he had hired him more or less on their first meeting, and every time Jake had been there since Parker started, hed made sure to mention Parkers encyclopedic knowledge. It was like he thought he was bragging to Parkers mom or whatever, which was kind of messed up, but it was cute anyway. “Thats awesome. I started college, but I never finished.”

“How come?”
“That your official question?”
Parker shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Jake settled back against the couch to tell the tale. “I wasnt eighteen yet, and Mom said I had to go. I had a couple of ideas of things I wanted to study—philosophy, education—I was sort of just trying stuff out. I enrolled in some general courses, trying to get a feel for things. Chris and Jimmy got jobs instead and started a band. They needed a bassist and a guitar player a couple nights a week, and I had met Kylie in my residence, so we started hanging out with them more and more, especially once Kylie and Jimmy started seeing each other. Of course, the more gigs we played, the worse our grades got. I finished out the semester and told my mom I wanted to be a rock star.”

“Howd she take it?”

“She cried,” Jake recalled, wincing a little. “We made a deal; if music isnt going to be a viable career option by the time I turn twentyone, I said Id go back. That doesnt mean Ill quit playing, just that Ill have a better backup plan.”

“Wow.” Parker seemed impressed. “How long you got left?”

Jake did a quick mental countdown. “Uh. Four and a half months, I guess.” He shrugged, then flashed a quick grin. “Never said Id go back full time.”

It was his turn to be curious again, and he wanted it to be good this time. Parker kept dragging longer and longer answers out of him without really reciprocating. It was very mysterious, and Jake thought maybe kind of sad, too, but while Parker was his roommate and fellow band member, they werent exactly friends yet, and he didnt feel right pushing too hard. Finally, he decided on, “When are you going to man up and give the band one of your songs?”

“When Im sure Chris wont kick me out for having more talent than he does,” Parker scoffed.

At one point in his life, Jake would have been jumping to Chriss defense—the defense of his musical talent, at least—but he lived with Parker. No matter how much Parker tried to hide it by stashing the guitar whenever he thought Jake was in earshot, he
knew
Parker on his worst day outclassed Chris any day, no contest. “Chris wouldnt do that!” he said instead, feeling obliged to defend his character. Off Parkers disbelieving look, though, Jake relented. “Okay, he would. But we wouldnt let him.” A second eyebrow joined the first on Parkers forehead, and Jake conceded total defeat. Chris just wasnt ready for Parker to upstage him. It took time for him to warm up to people.
¹⁵
“Okay, okay! You have a point. But Id make sure he knew it was a really dumb idea.”