True to You

Foolish Lies

"Ouch," Brian winced in sympathy and took a convulsive swallow of his beer. Matt, Johnny and Brooks all cringed and reached for their drinks. Zacky couldn't blame them, he was fond of his balls.

"Jesus, I don't know how you managed to find yourself a woman who is simultaneously cool as fuck and terrifying. And she's my sister-in-law," Matt reflected.

"I'd just like to point out that my wife bought me a boat and the only things she does to my nuts are good things," Brooks pointed out with a small smile. Damn, the dude was so fucking cool, Zacky wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

"And I introduced my wife to Thor and my balls have never been happier," Johnny interjected with a smirk and a salute of his wine glass.

"Oi, asshole. I like your wife, is sharing that shit absolutely necessary?" Zacky frowned at Johnny and flicked his bottle cap at him as Matt tossed a balled up piece of paper and Brian threw a guitar pick in the same direction. Johnny just grinned in the face of their assault.

"Hello?" a soft voice called down the stairs. Along with the sound of approaching footsteps came the scent of pizza. Laine appeared in the doorway with two pizza boxes. Ever the gentleman Brooks jumped up and took them from her. "I've been instructed by your wives that you need to line your stomachs. Apparently the empties accumulate at a rapid pace when you're working down here."

"Thanks Laine," Zacky smiled at her. Damn it was crazy how much like Elliot she looked. He wished that it had been easier back then to take and save photos. Of them all Elliot had been the only one who had regularly carried a camera. Kids these days with their camera phones had no idea how easy it was to take and save photos as opposed to when he was a teenager. They didn't have a clue how good they had it. Shit, he was a heartbeat away from shouting at them to get off his lawn.

Laine seemed to be a nice kid, quiet but nice. It was strange although she was quiet she didn't seem shy just...self-contained, that was it. It shouldn't have been surprising, her mother had been the same except when she and Brian had been raging at and tormenting each other. Still there was something about her, her mannerisms or something, that wasn't entirely Elliot but still tugged at his memory. When he'd asked Brian about it he'd not noticed anything. Maybe it was a Haner thing - although Elliot hadn't been a Haner – maybe genetics had supplied Laine with some mannerism that belonged to Brian's family that Elliot had never shared.

"Thanks Laine," Brian was gesturing to a seat, "Do you want to join us? Maybe get some first-hand insight into the process of writing and recording an album?"

It was interesting to see Brian so awkward. As his friend, Zacky knew that the guy was one of the best friends you could ever have but to say that Brian gave a lot away emotionally to strangers would be wrong. He was generous with his time but not his emotions. It was one of the reasons Zacky had initially had an issue with Brian bringing Steph around, Brian had lots of friends but few made into the inner circle. Zacky had felt it was disrespectful of Brian to introduce a hook-up while he was in the middle of a divorce from the woman who was not only family but a long-time friend. When Zacky had realised exactly who Steph was it had set the alarm bells ringing even louder. Zacky had worried that Brian hooking up with Steph would have detrimentally affected his, at the time only platonic, friendship with Kelly. It hadn't taken long to realise that for what might have been the first time in forever Brian had attempted to open himself up to Steph almost immediately. It seemed as though Brian was trying to let Laine in as well.

Laine glanced around the room her gaze pausing briefly on each of them before she said, "Thanks for the offer but I have stuff to do upstairs."

"Like what?" Brian asked and Zacky wanted to smack the overly confident smirk off his face, that was not the way to get this girl to trust them. "I know that Matt's boys are at school and my kid is with Michelle. I'm almost positive that Sloane is sleeping like the tiny angel she is after keeping her parents awake all night like a tiny demon which means that Kelly is also asleep. And you can't even pretend that Caitie isn't either napping or holed up in her craft room sketching. What's stopping you?"