Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 92

"Hi!" Lucifer says, waving.

"Castiel!" She gestures for him to come closer, so he bounces on his butt and crawls over, so they're closer to eye level. "You're supposed to be making me look good!" she hisses.

"And?"

"And the fact that my adult cousin is using a trampoline is not helping!"

"Okay, first of all, I'm only twenty-one. That's not even four years older than you. And second, I showed up when I could be back in Sioux Falls with my boyfriend, so it could be worse. At least I came."

"But this is not what I meant!" she snaps. "You look like a child. You're killing your reputation at my school, which is going to kill my reputation, too. At least Benny knows how to be normal."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be using me as a popularity stunt," Castiel replies. "I'm not just going to sit still and look pretty for the next few hours, if that's what you're expecting."

She groans in frustration, as if that's unreasonable and a huge inconvenience to her. "Fine, but if you're going to do something, do something that'll help me out. There's a guitar in the basement. Go do something with it."

"But —"

"It's my party, and it's my rules," she interrupts. "Go make yourself useful." She walks away, throwing her cousin a warning glance over her shoulder.

Castiel sighs. "Hey, Balthazar?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you show me where the basement is?"

~~

Castiel sits down inside by an open window, the guitar in his lap. She probably wanted him outside where people can see and stare, but he'd rather just sit inside, away from the scary people that are high schoolers. He plays a chord, then realizes how majorly screwed up the tuning is on it. Has anyone even used this thing? Does anyone in this family even know how to play a guitar?

It takes a few minutes to tune it, and then he begins playing. It's just random chords at first, practicing switching between different ones so he can remember what options he has. He closes his eyes, not letting the unfamiliar surroundings distract himself as he falls into a pattern of sorts, just playing the same chords at first, then adding dynamics. Within ten minutes, he has essentially written an entire acoustic karaoke version of a presently nonexistent song.

"Well, now I wanna head you sing something."

Castiel opens his eyes to see Hannah standing in front of him. He stops playing, giving her a smile as a greeting. "Hey, kiddo. Where have you been?"

"My bedroom, hiding from these guys." She gestures to the high schoolers in the yard. "But I heard guitar and knew it had to be you. Figured it was worth coming out of hibernation early for."

"Well, I'm glad you did," he replies. "I was getting kinda bored, but Hael doesn't want me embarrassing her, so she stuck me doing the one thing I'm good at."

"Guitar?"

"Shutting up."

"Ah, right," Hannah replies as if she sees it a lot. "But hey, we're out of her way in here. No need to actually be quiet. Let's sing something."

He raises an eyebrow. "You want to sing?"

She shrugs. "Might as well. You've already got the guitar out. Pick a song, any song."

Castiel think about this for a moment. "Alright..." He begins playing the introduction he's become so familiar with since he started listening to pop stations, even if it is technically a country song. Hannah's face lights up immediately at the sound.

There's no cue for them to start; no silent countdown for the lyrics to begin. They just both start singing at once from knowing the song so well.

"You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset. She's going off about something that you said. She doesn't get your humor like I do." They finish the song together, then burst out laughing.

"Beautiful!" Hannah announces.

"Best performance so far!" Castiel adds.

"Another one?" she asks hopefully.

"Hell yeah!"

And that's how, half an hour later, they find themselves singing Shawn Mendes' "Stitches" and trying not to laugh because they're having so much fun. It's during the bridge that Hannah points out, "Hey, people are looking at us."

Castiel follows her gaze to the open window behind him, where he sees a few people quickly look away. The only two who don't are Benny, who seems entertained as if it's just a normal live band, and Dean, who gives his boyfriend a silent round of golf claps. Castiel gives him a small wave before returning his attention of his cousin.

"They're just jealous," Castiel replies. "Everyone wants to sing with us."

"Well, duh! You're famous, Castiel. They're just jealous they aren't gifted in the cousins area."

"You are pretty lucky," Castiel agrees. "Everyone would kill for a YouTuber like Lucifer to be their cousin."

She giggles. "Not him, Castiel. You! You don't even know what it's like, with everyone at school knowing I know you. It's insane."

"Which you don't seem to thrive in like your sisters," he observes.

"Popular's not my thing," she replies. "I'll just have to hope I can stay like that when high school hits next year."

"Just do you and it'll be fine," he assures her. "And if you're ever feeling down, call me. And if anyone pisses you off, call Lucifer and he'll murder them."

"Lucifer?" she repeats incredulously.  "But he's so... Fluffy."

Castiel laughs. "Believe it or not, he's actually very good at hurting people, so your classmates better watch their backs. Michael can track them down, and Luci can kill them." It's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but he's actually very intimidating when he wants to be.

"Hey, what's up with Michael, anyway?" Hannah asks, glancing at her cousin, who's talking to Amara outside. He's never been the most excitable person, but he's especially monotone lately, and it shows, even from afar.

"Don't ask," Castiel replies. "Just... Don't. I don't think we want to know."