Loving Jemima

13. Off limits

Jemima

"Is Jemima ok Sandra" I heard Matty ask her when she and Jackie emerged from the house
"Oh, yeah, she just felt a bit sick after the nutrition juice thingy, Max is looking after her, he's doing a good job Matty" she told him.
"Ok what is with this music?" He asked the group "it seems very random, not Jem's usual taste, it's not very....partyish" they all sniggered at him "What? Have I missed something?"
"I'm not sure mate to be honest" Milo smiled
Max and I emerged from the house holding hands, we sat at the edge of the group and I sat snuggled up to max while he wrapped an arm around me caressing my stomach with his thumb, occasionally stroking my leg with one of his fingers.

"right! time for live music!" Sandra announced "Jemima you going first?" She smiled at me encouragingly, I looked nervously at her
"Oh no someone else go first I'm not ready yet"
"Come on boys, lets show her how it's done. Max you want do that new one you've been working on? His creative juices have been flowing since we got back from tour, he was sending me lyrics from his hospital bed." Matty jumped up to save me.
"Sure" Max lent in whispering "it's about you, but he doesn't know, he means I contribute more to the writing process when I'm off meds, he just doesn't want to say in front of mum" he grabbed his drum sticks and the boys played their new song 'we could be something good' I tried to control my smiling while I watched him enthusiastically sing along with Matty and the other boys, drumming away on his portable electric drum machine his dad had bought for him while he was stuck in hospital, I'd often walk in to see him sat in the hospital bed with his head phones on drumming out whatever beat was stuck in his head.

Laura came and sat next to me, I contemplated getting up and moving, I saw Ed glance with a hopeful look, I took a deep breath and decided to grow some balls for him, so just shifted a little away so she wasn't touching me. when it finished I leant over to Laura and told her this was the part where we did crazy impressions of their fan girls, she laughed and joined me wolf whistling and shrieking, jumping around like loons. Ed smiled at us appreciating my effort to interact with Laura. Ed jogged over kissing me on the forehead thanking me before scooping up his girlfriend for a kiss.
"Get a room you two! Jemima's here! Don't make me angry again dude!" Matty protested covering my eyes.

The dads went next and I helped them put a karaoke backing track and they jumped around doing their best dad dancing to some old rock song. Laura was shy about singing, she couldn't really sing but enjoyed singing, I remember Ed telling me how she belts out tunes in the shower, he'd shown me a video he'd recorded from her bed where you could hear her, he really was smitten with this girl, so I said I would sing with her. she picked some pop song and we sang along doing mock sexy dancing with Max and Ed leering at us and Matty covering his eyes not wanting to see his little sister shake her booty around, he complained loudly which made us do it more. I took the big notes so Laura didn't have to. I whispered to Laura and we did a comedy mic drop telling the boys to "beat that losers", making the boys laugh wildly at us. The mums sang an 80's tune and tried to mimic some of mine and Laura's dance moves, making all the boys all turn their backs to them covering their faces and complain, the dads got very excited cheering on their wives making the boys cringe even more.

"Jemima's turn!" Max announced grinning at me, I shook my head at him, I wasn't ready.
"Max you ok if I sing one about felix?" i whispered, He looked at me confused "just to remind Matty how bad he was for me before I sing your one." He gave me a small smile and nodded "don't cry!" I warned pointing a finger at him and he saluted back at me. I set up a backing track on the laptop. "Umm Matty" I waved him over to me "it's about Felix is that ok, I'm too tired to do another upbeat one. I wanted to make an effort with Laura for Ed, but I think I over did it." He kissed my forehead, gave me hug and told me to go for it, I could see him relaying the message to everyone then he sat in anticipation as I started to sing 'your love came with consequences', it's one of the more open and raw songs I had sung about Felix in front of the boys, and definitely in front of the parents. I could see all of them welling up as I sang, poor Laura completely lost it, Ed was whispering in her ear presumably explaining about Felix, she had tears rolling down her face as did all the mums, I could see both my brother and Max just itching to jump up and engulf me in a protective hug. As the song ended I excused myself before either of them could and went into the house curling into a ball on the sofa.