My Misery Muse (12 page)

“Seth’s,” I said.

“Ooo is the hottie here?”  Cin asked. “I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, ya know get to know him a little better.”

I glared at my cousin.

“How is it you don’t know him Cin?”  Mags asked hopping onto my counter and sticking her finger into the pitcher of margaritas and licking it off. “I mean with you two being related and all, you would think at some point you would have met him?”

“Ok that’s gross Mags,” Cin said and Mags just shrugged, “and I never met him because my parents thought Drake and Dev were bad influences on me and Eli.”

I had to laugh at this, if anyone was a bad influence on anyone in this room it was Cin.

“Hey, I was a good girl until you corrupted me or so my parents think,” she smirked.

“Drake tried to keep all his friends away from Cin, he was afraid she would try and seduce them all,” I said pointing at Cin, “which by the way he wasn’t wrong about.”

“Hey Drake had hot friends, hell, he still does. I met Xavier and Alex last night, damn where had he been hiding those two?”

“LA,” I said.

She looked confused for a minute before it sunk in, “Seriously that was that Xavier, damn he’s even hotter in person.”

“He’s a dick,” said Mags.

I laughed, Xavier
is
a dick.

“So is Seth available?” Cin asked, Mags glared and I shrugged.

“I dunno, don’t really care what Seth does or who he does,” I said.

“Bullshit, Dev,” Mags cried, “don’t even try and pull that shit. I know better, you still love that man, you’ve been in love with him since you were 13 fucking years old.”

There was a knock on the door. “Cin, can you let Jules in?”

“Why doesn’t she just come on in like the rest of us?” Cin muttered but took off to answer the door.

“Because she has more respect than the rest of you,” I yelled in her direction she just left.

“Fuck you!” she yelled back.

“Hey, who’s the guy sitting on the porch?” Jules asked when she made it to the kitchen.

Mags and I both looked at each other, confusion clearly shown on both our faces.

“What guy?” we asked at the same time.

“I don’t know, he was just sitting on the swing on the front porch, kinda creeped me out actually,” said Jules.

“Oh you mean Eli?” Cin said walking back into the kitchen. “He was pissed at me the last time we had one of these things, he said I drank too much and shouldn’t have driven home.  So ‘to ensure my safety’ he said he was coming with me tonight.  I, of course told him no, it’s a girls’ night, but he insisted and said he’d sit out on the porch all night if need be, so that’s where he is.”

I looked at my cousin in disbelief, she wouldn’t would she?  Then again this was Cin and she most definitely would.

I ran out of the kitchen and threw open the front door, “Eli Griffin, get your ass inside my house now.”

“Hey Dev, how are you?”  Eli asked and got up from the swing.

I reached out and gave him a hug, “I’m doing good, what the hell were you thinking? Were you really going to sit out here all night?”

He hugged me back then shrugged, “Yea, if need be, that damn girl needs a keeper.”

I laughed, and walked arm in arm with Eli into the house; both Mags and Jules were in the living room, and both obviously checking Eli out.

“Eli, this is Mags and Jules,” I said gesturing to each of them. “This is my cousin Eli and the unfortunate soul who has to claim Cin as a sister.”

“I heard that bitch,” Cin yelled from the kitchen.

Eli chuckled, “Where’s Drake, I saw his car, but didn’t think he would be inside.”

“He took Jaks to the park, he should be back soon though, he said he wanted payment in food for getting Jaks out of my hair so I could clean. I think he only volunteered so he could finagle a meal out of me though,” I said and walked over to my stereo. “So what is it tonight guys?”

“
Chevelle,
” Jules said.

“
Saving Abel,
” said Mags

“
Ozzy!
” Cin yelled.

We all groaned, Cin has an obsession with
Ozzy Osborne.

“Do I get a choice?” asked Eli and at my nod said, “
Flogging Molly.
”

“I like the way your mind works Eli,
Flogging Molly
it is,” with that I found my
Drunken Lullabies
CD and cranked my stereo up.

Eli walked over to me and draped his arm around my shoulders, “So Seth huh?”

I mentally cursed both Cin and my brother, “Yea Seth.”

“How did he take it?” he asked.

“Better than I expected, nothing was broken, and no one got punched.”

Eli nodded, “So I heard, you know if you need anything just let me know.” At my nod, he said, “I’m going to go check on my lush of a sister.”

“So what are you going to do about Seth?” asked Mags.

“I’m going to let him get to know his son, figure out how were going to work out custody and go on with my life,” I said.

Mags gave me a dubious look but left it at that, and for that I was grateful.

¯¯¯

Sam and I sat in the recording studio that Xavier had built in his backyard, Xavier was laying down some killer lyrics to one of the songs Sam and I had done the tracks for back in LA.  No one had heard from Alex since he left, and no one has spoken of him.  I loved Alex like a brother, but something was wrong, he hadn’t been himself in a while. I know what we were all thinking but none of us have given a voice to the possible problem yet. 

There was a knock at the door; I waved Sam off who was sitting at the mixing board working with Xavier.  I walked into the small entrance and looked out the glass paned window, and a smile broke over my face, Jaks stood there smiling back at me. 

I quickly opened the door. “Hey there, buddy,” I said kneeling down to his level. “Who brought you?”

“Unca Ake,” he chimed I tried to keep the disappointment off my face.

“There you are Taz,” said Drake coming out the back door. “Damn kid’s quick.”

I laughed, and reached over and gave my son a hug and a kiss on top his head.

“That he is,” I said.

“So what are you two up to?” I asked.

“Decided to save my nephew from yet another girls’ night,” Drake said.

I raised my eyebrow at this. “Dev has a girls’ night?”  I asked a little shocked. “The same Dev I know, the one who hates most women?”

“The one and only, they get together every other Sunday with Jules from the shop, our cousin Cin and the pain in the ass Mags.”

I laughed; Drake and Mags had been at each other’s throats since they met.

“How long has this been going on?” I asked while I scooped Jaks up and walked into the studio with Drake a step behind.

“A little over a year or so, since Cin moved back to town,” he shrugged. “Damn, nice set up you guys’ have here.”

“Xavier had it built shortly after he bought the place, first time we’ve used it though.”

Jaks was instantly drawn to all the flashing lights and buttons, making all of us laugh.  Sam held out his arms and Jaks instantly wiggled his way towards Sam and the sound board.

“Keep a good hand on him Sam,” Drake said. “He’s wily like his dad.”

Sam smiled, “I have experience wrestling people away from the board; I got to keep Seth’s his hands off the shiny buttons too.”

“Oh, come on man, I know what I’m doing,” I responded getting me snorts in chorus.

“Xavier’s sounding good,” Drake said.

“Yea, he definitely is,” Sam said, he looked over at me and gave me a grin. We both knew this could be the best CD we’d done yet.

Drake picked up a lyric sheet then looked over at me, “Your
words
[V4]
 
?”

“Yea, how’d you know?” I asked.

He shrugged, “Depressing as hell, that’s how.”

I snorted.

“It messed you up just as bad as it did her, huh?”  Drake asked.

Luckily I was interrupted by another knock on the door, so I took off to answer it while thinking about what he said.  Did my leaving mess up Devi?  She never spoke of it, I know I had told her I had missed her, but she had just shrugged it off.  On the other side, she hadn’t taken another lover since I was gone, yea but she was a single mom working a demanding job, my inner voice said.

“Hey Max, what’s up?”  I asked when I opened the door.

“Nothing, just bored thought I would come see what trouble you guys were causing,” he said.

“Come on in, nothing much happening but getting some work done.”

“Sweet, I always like listening to you guys.”

I headed back into the studio, I noticed Xavier, Drake and Jaks were in the sound proof room we used for recording, and Sam was fiddling with the tracks on one of the songs from our first CD.  Sam removed the vocals and guitar and had just the bass track playing, a few seconds into it, Jaks squealed “DADDDYYYY!”

I stopped, there was no way he had seen me yet, and I was nowhere near the window that faced into the other room.  Sam looked up and smirked at me.

“What the fuck?” I asked.

Max and Drake both laughed.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked shocked while Jaks clapped still calling out daddy over and over, both Drake and Max looked smug, Xavier looked confused, and Sam looked thrilled.

Max clapped me on the shoulder, “You didn’t know she talked to Jaks about you?”

“She said she did, but how does he know that’s me playing?”

“Dev had me play around with your first CD, also a couple of your demos and I made a special CD for Jaks, it’s nothing but your bass stuff,” Drake said. “She played the demo stuff to him while she was pregnant, then she played the first CD stuff when he was a newborn, hell he still has a CD player in his room and he listens to you play.”

“So he knows my stuff?” I asked.

“I don’t know if he knows your stuff specifically, never tested it against it being you playing or any bass line,” Drake said with a shrug.

I stood there stunned staring at Jaks while he ran around the studio looking at everything, for a 2 year old he did pretty well about not touching the instruments, guess that would be Drake’s influence.  I didn’t know what to think about what Devi had done, she had wanted Jaks to know who I was, and she went through a lot of trouble to make sure he had something of me with him.

“She told me she had a picture of me in his room and that she talked about me to him, but never about this,” I said still in awe.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” said Sam. “She always understood what your music meant to you, also that it would be something you would want passed to your child.”