"Lav." I hear my name being whispered. "Lav. Wake up."
I groan and open my eyes. I see Lyric looking at me, smiling. "Yes?"
"I think Rose and Toby are awake."
I nod. "I probably should go out there, huh?"
He nods. "Yeah. Probably."
"But I don't want to." I whine.
"Why not?"
"I like it here."
"In your bed?"
"With you." I say quietly.
His smile widens and he kisses my nose. "You need to go tend to your guests."
I sigh. "Alright." I climb over him and out of the bed.
"I'm loving those shorts."
I look down and see I have on a pair of black and blue polka dotted shorts with bows at the bottom of the legs of them. I smile. "Thank you." I walk out of my room and to the kitchen where Rose is searching the cabinets. "What are you looking for?"
"Coffee?"
I walk to the cabinet it is in and take it and the tea out. I hand her the coffee. "Here you go."
"Thanks. Do you guys have any creamer?"
"French Vanilla or hazelnut?"
"French Vanilla."
I take creamer out of the fridge and hand it to her. "Sugar is by the coffee maker."
"Okay. Awesome."
I start making some tea for me and Lyric. I'm pretty sure Rose doesn't know Lyric is here. "Is there anything specific that you and Toby eat?"
"No, but you don't have to cook."
"But I'm going to."
She sighs. "Fine." I start to make some chocolate chip pancakes. She leans against the counter while the coffee brews. "So do you and Lyric have any plans today?"
"Other than your sister's birthday party?"
She nods. "Yeah."
I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe."
The coffee finishes and she makes two cups of it. One with creamer and sugar, the other with just sugar. She walks back to living room. When I'm almost done with the pancakes, someone walks in. Hands go around my waist and I smile. I put my hand on his. "Hey Lyric."
"Hey Lav. What you making?"
"Pancakes."
"Yum. Is that tea?"
I nod. "Mhmm. Could you fix those?"
"Yeah. Milk and sugar, right?"
"Yep." He goes and fixes our cups of tea.
Rose walks in. "Hey Laven- When the hell did you get here?"
"I've been here, love."
"Since when?"
He looks at me and smiles. "Since a while."
"Uh-huh. What are you saying?"
"That I'm magic"
"Oh my god Adams. Don't start your crap." I finish the last pancake and lean against the counter and watch them. Lyric hands me my cup of tea.
"Aw. Why not? It's fun this way."
She looks at me. "How do you handle him?"
I shrug and walk to where Toby is. "Food is done."
"Awesome. Thanks." He follows me back to the kitchen.
I walk in and see Rose looking pissed. "Stop torturing her." I whisper to Lyric.
"Okay."
"So when did you get here?"
"Last night."
"How?"
"I left a key above the door for him." I say getting down plates for everyone.
"What did you two do afterwards?"
"Sleep." Lyric says.
"Uh-huh. Sure."
"We really did Rose."
"Whatever you say."
I look to Toby and he shrugs and starts making his plate. "Seriously Rose. All we did was sleep."
"Okay. If you say so."
"I do."
"She's frustrating sometimes." Lyric says.
I nod. "Yeah, but she's fun."
An hour later, Rose and Toby are leaving with promises for us to see them at the party. The door closes and Lyric kisses me with me against the door. "We need to get ready." I say between kisses.
"Yeah." He continues to kiss me. He starts to travel down to my neck and I gasp as he nips me.
"Lyric."
"Hmm?"
"We need to get ready."
He sighs. "Alright." He pulls back, looking sad. I touch his cheek and kiss him softly on the lips. "It's okay."
I walk back to my room and grab an outfit out of my drawers. Lyric walks in with a duffle bag and he pulls out an outfit. "You can go first." He says.
I nod and go to the bathroom and take a quick shower. I walk out of the bathroom and walk to my room. I sit on my bed and start doing my make-up. Lyric walks to the bathroom. The outfit I am wearing is a grey tank top with the words 'Life Is Music' on it in blue. I also have on a pair of blue skinny jeans. I do my eye shadow a light blue and put on eyeliner and mascara. I run mousse through my hair. Lyric steps out of the bathroom and starts straightening his hair. I notice he has on black and purple striped shirt with a pair of black jeans. He pulls a leather jacket out of his bag and throws it on my bed. When he finishes his hair he puts on a pair of purple vans and his jacket. He looks at me. "Are you ready?"
I nod. "I need to go to Toby's store first. I told him I was coming by to get some music." I grab my laptop and a flash drive to put the music on. I also grab the list of songs. We walk out to Lyric's car and go to the store. We walk up and see Toby standing outside. "I'm 'bout to close for the party, but I remembered you needed music."
I nod. "Yeah. Here's the list and my flash drive. Put it all on there."
He nods. "Come on in."
We follow him inside. "I'm going to walk around while you do that."
"Alright. By the way, this is a free of charge thing since you're a deejay and it's for my girlfriend's sister's party."
"Okay. Awesome." I walk around. I go through the CDs and find a couple that I've been looking for. "What you got there?" Lyric asks.
"Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance."
"Which CDs?"
"American Beauty/American Psycho and Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge."
"You don't have those?"
"Nope. I've been meaning to come by and get them."
"I'm all done!" Toby yells from the front of the store.
"I want these too."
"Okay...Since you're paying for those it'll be twenty-five sixty."
"Did you give me the discount?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know why you do that."
"Because you're a friend and my best customer."
I smile and give him the money. "Here."
"Thank you. Here's your flash drive. By the way you're gonna love Haley."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. She loves different types of music. As you can tell."
I nod. "I can. She seems to like a lot of rock though."
"She does. The theme of her party is actually a masquerade."
"That sounds kick ass."
He nods. "Come on let's go." We all walk out of the store and he locks the door. "Do you know how to get there?" He asks Lyric.
Lyric nods. "Yeah. We'll see you there."
He nods and gets into his old Camaro.
"What kind of music did she request?"
"A lot of stuff. The 1975, Adam Lambert, Sleeping With Sirens, Aerosmith, Skrillex, Anna Kendrick, Echosmith, Red, Shinedown, Pierce The Veil, Miranda Lambert, Skillet, Fall Out Boy, Owl City, Neon Trees, My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, Melanie Martinez, MGK, Linkin Park, Korn. Anything you can think of really."
He nods. "She's very diverse."
"No kidding."
"Why don't you put that new Fall Out Boy on?"
"Alright." I put the CD and smile as the intro to Irresistible comes on.
We listen to the CD on the way up there with me singing the words to the songs that I know. About thirty minutes later, we pull up to the hall. We are thirty minutes early so I can set up. I grab my laptop and flash drive. We walk in with Toby and he leads us to the main hall where I see Rose, a woman, a man, and a girl. Rose turns around and sees us. "You made it!" She runs up and hugs me.
"Whoa! Rose! Careful." She leans up.
"Sorry. Did you get all the music?"
"Yep. Thanks to Toby. Where am I setting up?"
"Before that, come with me and meet my parents and sister."
"Okay." I follow her over. I grab Lyric's hand and he follows behind us.
"Lavender, this is my mother and father, Jack and Jess."
I nod. "Hey."
"And this is my sister, the birthday girl, Haley."
I nod. "Hello and happy birthday."
"Thank you. Did Rose get you that list?"
"She did. Would you like to check everything?"
"If you don't mind?"
"I don't...Umm...Come here." I set my laptop on a table and pull up the music on the flash drive. "This is it." I scroll through it.
"That looks awesome."
"Haley?" Rose's mom, Jess asks.
"Yes?"
"We need to go finish with your hair."
"Oh! Right." She turns back to me. "Thanks again."
I nod. "It's no problem." Jess and Haley walk out of the room.
"Do you want to see where you're going to be?" Jack asks.
"Yes sir."
"Alright follow me." I follow him and Lyric follows behind me. Jack leads me to a huge booth set aside in the back that is also facing the dancefloor. "How's this?"
"This is awesome."
He smiles. "I'm glad. People will be arriving in about twenty minutes. Whenever you get set up, just start playing music."
"Alright. I can do that."
He walks off and nods at Lyric as he passes him. "Can you help me set up?" I ask Lyric.
"Sure. What do you need me to do?"
"Work on connecting the lights to the audio and such."
"I can do that." I connect my computer to everything and connect my flash drive. I pull up the music and start setting up a playlist. I put my earbuds in so I can hear the music and concentrate. I finish that and take my earbuds out. I see Lyric is still bent down. I see a guy that I recognize and I don't know why I do. He is talking to Jack. When he looks over this way he narrows his eyes. What the hell? Does he have an issue?
"Are you done Lyric? People are showing up."
"Almost...and done."
He stands up. I start out playing It's All Over by Three Days Grace. Lyric smiles. "Nice choice to start out with."
"Thank you."
Jason walks up. "Hey guys."
"Hello." I say
"Hey." Lyric says.
"How are you two doing?"
"We are awesome." Lyric says smiling.
I smile slightly and look down at my computer while they talk. I scroll through the music and set up a playlist. Before I know it, there is a lot of people walking in and dancing. "Hey Lav?"
I look up at Lyric calling my name. "Yes?"
"We'll be back. Toby needs our help with something."
I nod. "Okay. I'll be here."
They walk off and I look back down at my computer. "It's nice seeing you again." I look up and see the man that was looking over here earlier.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, I'm Alex. I saw you the other day at the station."
"Oh. You were the guy talking to Lyric."
He smiles. "I am. So why were you there?"
I freeze. "That's a little bit of a personal question, don't you think?"
He shrugs. "I could find out either way. I just figured I'd ask you."
"Isn't it a tad bit illegal to go into a person's files unless you are working on their case? And if I recall, you are not on my case. Officer Laura is on my case. Not you."
He narrows his eyes and steps closer to me. "You got you a really smart mouth, don't you?"
I take a step back into the wall of my booth. "Get away from me."
He smiles then steps closer. "What? Are you scared because your boyfriend isn't here to save you?"
"I said get away from me."
"Awe. Why? Maybe I want to have some fun. You're pretty talented with music. I wonder how talented you are with your voice."
"You can't do anything. We're in a public place."
"You'd be surprised what can be done in the span of five minutes."
I scan the crowd and see Rose and her father walking up, both looking furious. Jack pulls Alex away from me and I breathe out. Rose walks up to me. "Are you okay?"
I nod. "Yeah."
"I didn't do anything to her, chief."
"We'll see about that." He types something into my computer and a disc pops out of the disc slot of the equipment my computer is hooked up to.
"What's that?" I ask Rose.
"We had a feeling Alex would try something so we put a recorder into the equipment. It has recorded every conversation that was had since you were here. This is going to be listened to and if he did something, he'll either be suspended or kicked off the force."
I nod and see Alex has gone pale. Jack walks him out of the building. I see Lyric running to us. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine." I hug him and he kisses my head.
"You're sure?"
"I'm positive."
Rose smiles. "You have a playlist set up, right?"
I nod. "Yeah. It'll last for the rest of the party."
"You two go out there and have fun. You deserve it. I'll get my older brother to watch your equipment."
"Really?"
She nods. "Yeah. Go."
I smile and Lyric grabs my hand and takes me out to the dancefloor as Favorite Record by Fall Out Boy comes on. I smile and dance to the beat of the song. Lyric and I seem to move as one. Never looking away from each other. Samuel walks up with Josie and they dance near us. Eventually, I am dancing with Samuel and Josie is dancing with Lyric. "So, what's the deal with you and Lyric?" Samuel asks me.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, are you two a thing?"
I smile and look over at Lyric. "Mmm... Possibly."
He smiles. "Well, then I better let you go back to him." He twirls me back to Lyric and I laugh as Lyric catches me.
"Hey there."
"Hey."
"I missed you."
"You missed my flailing that's known as dance moves?"
He shrugs. "I think that was a good imitation of a fish, but it was really adorable." He says smiling.
I push him. "You aren't supposed to agree!"
"Then what am I to do?"
"I don't know. Lie and say I'm the most wonderful dancer in the world."
He leans down and kisses my head. "But you are in my eyes and there is no reason to say it all the time. I just know it."
I smile and wrap my arms around his neck as a slow song comes on. We slowly sway to the music and I notice Haley is dancing with her father. I smile sadly. "What is it, Lav?"
"I'm just happy for Haley and her father. I never got to do something like that with my father on my sixteenth birthday. Some girls don't know how lucky they truly are. They take advantage of how much they see their father or have opportunities like this with their father..."
"I thought your dad was with you your whole life?"
I shake my head. "No. The man I called dad was not my biological father..."
"What happened to him?"
"He got killed years ago...or at least, that's what I'm told."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I live with it now. It used to upset me to no end." I lean back and grab his hand. "Come on let's get back to the booth."
We walk silently back to the booth and I take my place behind my computer. When the song goes off I am signaled to play music for everyone to sing happy birthday to. I play the song and a cake is brought out to where Haley is standing with her family. I smile as she blows out her candles happily. She honestly looks beautiful. She has on an old Victorian styled dress that stops at her knees. It is black and purple. It has lace on the hem of the dress and on the sleeves. The sleeves stop at her elbow and she has on a matching purple and black mask that covers her eyes. Her dark hair is curled in ringlets and she has on bright red lipstick and grey eyeshadow. She looks gorgeous.
When she has finished with blowing out her candles I start up the music again. Everyone gets a piece of cake. Jess, Rose's mom walks up with two plates and hands them to me and Lyric. She also hands me a check. "Here you go sweetheart. This is for tonight. You're really good at this."
"Thank you."
"Alex didn't give you too much trouble did he?"
"No ma'am. Rose and Jack handled it."
She nods. "Good. We will be done in a few hours and you can wrap everything up."
"Alright. Thanks."
A few hours later, everyone has left and we are packing all the equipment up. The only people left are Haley, Rose, Rose's parents, Lyric, and me. I lean against the wall by the booth and see a man that looks about forty walking to us. He stops when he sees me and looks like he has seen a ghost. "Can I help you?" Rose says.
"Uh... Yeah. I was coming to get the key to the building back."
Rose looks around. "I'll go get it from my parents."
I nod and she walks off. "So, what is all this?" The man asks.
"Oh. It's the deejay equipment."
"You were the deejay?"
I nod. "Yep. I haven't really been one long, but everyone seems to like what I do. What do you do here Mr....?"
"Steven...Steven Blaine."
I stop everything I am doing as I hear his last name. Only my father and his family has that last name. Well, and me of course. I nod slowly. "And I'm the manager of the hall."
"That's cool. Lyric." I call him from across the room. He jogs over.
"What's up?"
"Can you take this stuff to the truck that's outside for the equipment?"
He nods and grabs most of it then walks out. "So what's your name?" Steven asks me.
"Lavender Blaine."