There was no speaking in the bus. Not that it was awkward, they’re just weren’t talking.
Yes, conversation had happened before, but it had left over the time spent inside, all of them letting silence come as they focused on their own thoughts.
After the time Keely and Seth had spent locked inside the little change room stall, they’d left the television studio – Keely having changed out of her costume first – to the many whispers of the people inside. But it appeared that what little time they’d taken for her to calm down had been too much, because the paparazzi had already flooded the outside of the studio as they apparently thought she was on the brink of a mental break down and would like to push it along.
The flashing lights combined with the questions being hurled at them – everything from Keely’s denial of a relationship to why she looked like she’d been crying – had been enough to freeze her in her steps, her mind working much slower through the reality of what she’d just done. Scowling around at the reporters, Seth had put his arm around her shoulders practically dragging her from their midst. A clicking frenzy behind them had started, but as the bus was parked just across the road, waiting to whisk them away to Green Bay, there had been thankfully no reason to spend any more time with the reporters.
And the moment she had climbed inside, Seth following in behind her, clapping met her ears.
Colton and Marco pretending to kiss the ground she walked on was enough to make her start laughing, and for a few moments forget. They’d gathered around the table as the bus started moving, she and Seth sitting on one side with the boys on the other. And with Seth’s arm slung across the back of the booth as he leaned back casually, they’d started joking and laughing about the moments of her interview.
All four of them holding back from thinking of the very real possibility that by the time the bus reached Green Bay Keely could be buying a plane ticket back to Bellingham.
But that was until her cell had begun ringing in her pocket.
And everything had gone dead quiet.
Feeling rather hesitant, but gritting her teeth anyways, Keely had stood up from the booth, pulling the phone from her jeans. “Hi?” she’d questioned uncertainly as she pressed the phone to her ear, wrapping one arm around her and making her way to the other end of the bus.
“Apologize, Keely. That’s all you had to do, say you understood what you’d done was wrong and that you’d learnt from your actions. That’s all you had to do.”
Wincing she began to pace in the back room, not oblivious to the silence that had settled over the bus as the boys hung on to her every word. “Well, it really wasn’t that easy,” Keely had mumbled guiltily.
Maureen had just given a sigh. “I have another meeting with Mr James tonight, I’m going to try and smooth it over, but I don’t know what I can do for you, I barely got him to agree to the apology. The show in Green Bay has been cancelled, but I’ll be flying out there to talk to you in person tomorrow night so you lot will still go there until we can figure this out. I’ll have my secretary call you with the details, alright?”
Feeling sufficiently chastised, Keely had hung her head and murmured, “Alright.”
That had been when the bus started to get quiet.
Not a single one of them had gone to bed that night, although Keely did change into a pair of plaid pyjama pants and Seth’s Nirvana shirt.
And it all lead up to them sitting without speaking on the bus at that moment.
Keely was sitting on the ground at the front of the bus, her legs stretched out in front of her and her back against the wall with the couch to one side and the table to the other, an acoustic guitar in her lap.
Seth was lying flat on his back on the couch, flipping through a stack of records that was laying on his hard stomach, stacks of vinyls were also on the ground beside the couch, the pile he’d looked through growing steadily while his left foot tapped rhythmically to the song she was playing. Marco was flipping through a magazine, looking very bored, while he sat forward on one side of the table. And finally Colton was stretched across the other side of the table, doing nothing but staring thoughtfully at the other side of the bus.
She was singing Sheena Is A Punk Rocker easily, playing the chords on her guitar seamlessly as Marco and Seth provided the backup vocals smoothly.
““... But she just couldn’t stay, She had to break away, Well New York City really has it all, Oh yeah oh yeah. Sheena is a punk rocker, Sheena is a punk rocker, Sheena is a punk rocker now. Sheen is a punk rocker-”.”
Yet Keely cut off with a sigh, shifting slightly as the chord died inside the guitar. When she’d begun to play one of the bands that had pioneered punk rock, Keely had been hoping to take out a bit of the anxiety rushing about inside of her that combined with the nerves jumping up into her throat. But it barely soothed the fretfulness, although she was to suspect that had to do with the lack of electric instruments. The Ramones just weren’t the same on acoustic.
Shoving herself clumsily to her feet, Keely propped her guitar against the wall before peeking over Seth to the records in his hands.
“What do you want, rebel?”
Arching an eyebrow, she asked in a quiet voice, “Something loud?”
Making a sound of agreement, his golden eyes sent her a quick look before looking back to his records in his hands. “Well, right now I have two fitting albums here,” Seth said, picking up the last two albums he’d dropped and held them up for her to see, “Paranoid or Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols?”
Sighing, she let her eyes flick back and forth between the album covers. “You know you’re making me choose between one of the best heavy metal albums ever and one of the greatest punk rock albums ever recorded?”
He smirked up at her, and answered simply, “Yeah.”
Rolling her eyes at him Keely took another moment, looking at Black Sabbath and then to the Sex Pistols.
It really wasn’t an easy choice.
“Never Mind The Bollocks,” she decided abruptly, snatching it from his hand.
“Kind of fitting, isn’t it?”
Decidedly ignoring him for the time being, Keely just slipped the vinyl from its jacket and placed it carefully upon the record player. A couple states before – or maybe it had been in Canada? – Marco had hooked up Seth’s record player to the bus’s sound system, he being the only one who wasn’t completely hopeless with technology outside of a recording studio (where Seth was still the undisputed ruler) out of the four of them.
As Holidays In The Sun’s boot stomp intro rang through the bus, Keely cranked up the volume loudly before collapsing on the couch, looking up to Seth. “Did you ever notice the obvious influence of this song on Green Day’s Horseshoes And Handgrenades?”
“Billy Joe has said that the Sex Pistols are his favourite band, although he said it in more words,” answered Seth comfortably as he shifted, putting his hands behind his head.
“Kind of obvious again, isn’t it?”
“More obvious than the Bob Dylan influence on the entire Rubber Soul?”
“Yup.”
Suddenly a new voice broke through theirs, causing both Keely and Seth to look towards the booth. “Have you two done anything but listen to music your entire lives?” asked Marco bluntly, sending the two a steady look over the top of the magazine he was reading.
Surprised – but far from upset – that she gave a giggle at the words, Keely replied breezily, “Oh, every once in a while. I write songs between albums.”
“Yeah, of course,” Marco sighed, looking back to his magazine.
Not wanting for them to fall into the no speaking rut again, since it would give her time to become lost in her own thoughts, Keely quickly questioned, “How far away are we until our stop?”
To the surprise of the other three, it was Colton who answered, making them all send him a quick look in unison. “Twenty minutes... what?” he asked, finding all their eyes on him. “I haven’t been home for like a couple months.”
Grinning Keely turned her gaze to Marco. “How long has it been for you?”
Shrugging, he flipped the page. “I think seven months, right before we started recording the new album.”
“You?” she prompted, looking at Seth.
The third boy was busying himself piling the stack of records on the ground that had been lying on his stomach before grabbing another pile for him to look through. “Two years... maybe, my mom came down to New York a couple months ago so it’s pretty much the same thing.”
Feeling her heart clench slightly at the thought of his mom and childhood, Keely focused her gaze more steadily on him. But he just sent her a half hearted grin that barely turned up his lips before holding up the records in front of him casually, beginning to flip through them, hiding his face from view.
Sighing loudly, Keely slumped back in the couch, leaning her head on the back and staring up at the ceiling. “What are you guys going to do when you get home?” she questioned, unable to help her curiosity.
What would she be doing if they were stopping in Bellingham instead of Green Bay? First thing, she’d hug her dad and avoid all subjects that involved her mom for a while, after that she’d run to go see Joe and then see Haley before meeting up with the rest of her friends. And, eventually, she’d talk to her father about her mother, because as much as she didn’t want to know, she did want to know at the same time.
But she wasn’t going home, at least not yet.
“Lunch at my house with the parents,” replied Marco.
Smiling slightly Keely raised her head, “All of you and all your parents?” At the nods, her smile broadened. “Aw, it’s adorable that all your parents are friends too, do they even like each other or did you lot just force them together?”
Marco and Colton smirked at each other. But it was the later who answered her question, “Our fathers were best friends in high school, the eighties you know; bunch of bad looking leather and listened to hair bands, we have pictures we’re blackmailing them with. All our moms are pretty good friends now, I guess.”
“Sounds nice,” she murmured, sending another glance in Seth’s direction. He was holding Chuck Berry’s The Great Twenty-Eight album, but was frowning slightly at it and remained silent through the conversation.
After a moment of silence, it was Marco who broke the silence, “What are you doing when we get there?”
Biting her lip, she tore her gaze away from the mysterious boy and instead focused on the one who was speaking. “Ah... after Dave drops you off at your place, he’s driving me out to the car place so I can pick up my rental then I guess I’ll go to my motel room.” Keely gave a short laugh, but it really held no amusement.
If she was being honest, she was not looking forward to the time in the motel. It was as if it was becoming hard for her to be alone anymore. Before the tour she would have assumed she’d love the days when she got some time to herself, after all she spent the rest of her time stuck in the bus with people, her only alone time when she was asleep.
However it was almost the opposite. When they got those days to themselves, Keely would always find herself going to their motel room so she wasn’t alone. She couldn’t say if that was because she was building up a steady aversion to thinking about anything when she wasn’t writing a song, but she just couldn’t seem to stay by herself when she was conscious. All her time was spent with those three boys, most of the time doing some very stupid things, such as managing to blow up the toilet in Marco’s hotel room a couple states back. But she wasn’t exactly sure if that was because she was getting rather addicted to Seth’s very presence, though she would deny it to the end of time.
“Sounds... boring,” retorted Colton, looking at the watch on his wrist. “You’re going to hang out in your motel room until your meeting with Maureen? That’s like seven hours.”
Giving what she believed passed as a careless shrug, she answered, “I’ll just work on some music.”
“Like you’re going to be able to focus,” piped up Seth finally.
Arching an eyebrow, Keely turned her eyes to see him watching her closely, a knowing look in his eyes. “I’ll be able to,” she responded, but it was half hearted, she knew he was right. “The lyrics need some work before we record them, I’m not using the word holder to record the first couple takes no matter what Lennon says, we don’t really have much time to spend fooling around in the studio with it.”
“We’ll do a demo,” replied Seth, picking up a different record with a thoughtful look on his face as he focused on the vinyl.
Rolling her eyes, she shoved at his socked feet making him smirk up at her. “We’ve already done a demo,” she told him, “I said “jumping jacks” in the song as a place holder for the last time.”
““Jumping jacks” has a ring to it,” he answered easily.
“Yeah, because it really fits in with the whole love song veiled in a loud guitar rift, right?”
Seemingly unaffected by her sarcasm, Seth just said, “Perfectly.”
When she glared at him, he finally gave a sigh and answered seriously. “We’ll just do another demo, rebel, it’s not unheard of. Anyways the last one you hit the major chord wrong and started swearing halfway through.”
“Well, I’m working on it,” Keely informed him, pushing his feet of the couch and making him sit up. “I don’t have anything else to do, might as well work on it as best as I can.”
Yawning loudly, Seth set the records on the seat between them as he sat up; running a hand through his hair and causing it stand up messily. “Why don’t you just come have lunch with us instead?”
“Its fine,” she told him, “I don’t need a babysitter. I’m just going to call into a radio station and say fuck a lot, insult a few famous people, say I don’t want any fan mail and tell all the children of the world to snort some cocaine. That shouldn’t make anything worse, right?”
This time it was his turn to roll his eyes at her as he slumped back into the chair. “You know what? It probably wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, I’d just like to go on record to say that I’m against the radio station plan,” spoke up Colton, reminding the two of his presence again. “Just come have lunch at Marco’s house,” he continued, “His mom has never been able to cook a meal for less than about a million people anyways.”
She winced, drumming her fingers over Here’s Little Richard. As much as she didn’t want to be alone, imposing herself upon people she didn’t know was not a pleasant prospect either. “But it’s your guys’ families that you haven’t seen since who knows when.”
“I spent seventeen years in their house,” put in Marco, scrunching up his nose, “I’ve spent enough time alone with them, thank you very much.”
“His mom likes to pinch his cheeks when he comes home,” whispered Seth conspiratorially, making Keely giggle loudly.
Marco responded by flinging his magazine at his friend.
Chuckling Seth just snagged it from the air easily as Keely pressed herself against the couch, hoping to hide behind him as she knew very well that objects had a liking to smack her in the head. “Just come over, it’s no big deal,” said Seth, looking at her, his mouth quirked up in the crooked grin.
“What about my rental car?” she asked, her excuses becoming half hearted. “I need to drive out to see Maureen tonight, I need to go pick up my car.”
“I’ll talk to Dave; he’ll drop your stuff at the motel and bring your car to Marco’s place.”
Heaving a loud sigh, Keely crossed her arms in front of her chest, how could she say no when he was grinning like that? Not to mention she couldn’t lie that she was curious about their families... mainly Seth’s mother even though the very thought of her made her stomach burn with anger.
“Yeah, okay,” she muttered, pushing herself off the couch.
“Where are you going?”
Shaking her head at the three voices that had blended perfectly, she glanced back over her shoulder at them. “If I’m going to meet all your parents at once, which is rather daunting if I say so myself – parents used to like me, but apparently not so much anymore – I’m not going to meet them the first time wearing my pyjama pants and Seth’s shirt; it’d just beg very awkward questions I would rather not have to answer.”
Only five minutes later the bus was pulling to a slow halt. Keely had managed to find a pair of jeans that were neither ripped nor faded, not to mention that were clean and a plaid blue flannel shirt she buttoned up over a grey tank top. Even if she had wanted to dress up, which really wasn’t her thing anyways, all her clothes that could fit into that section were for reserved for concerts and they really needed to do their laundry.
Peeking out of the window, she found them pulling down a street covered in snow. Her nose crinkled slightly at the sight of the snow that was falling down from the sky as well, her only problem with snow was the fact that it was cold. Plus she knew enough to know that whatever snow she got when growing up in Washington had nothing on Wisconsin snow.
When she turned around, Keely saw the three boys hurriedly slipping on jackets.
It made a smile touch the edges of her lips. They were grown men by now, legal age to do anything they wanted. They were rock stars that lived in New York City and had probably done things on past tours that Keely wasn’t sure she even wanted to know about.
But they still wanted to see their families, no matter how old they got or whatever they did.
Slipping on her black pea coat, Keely couldn’t help as her eyes travel to Seth who was shrugging his black leather jacket over the black and white long sleeved Motörhead concert shirt, picking up his own guitar case. Was it awful of her to wonder how he could be happy to see his mother after everything he’d told her about his childhood?
As the bus stopped completely she stopped, letting the boys go out first while she snapped her acoustic into its case. Having her guitar was like a little extra protection.
Stepping out of the warm bus, the handle of her guitar case clasped tightly in her hand, Keely dropped lightly onto the just ploughed road that was already gaining layers of snowflakes. And it was just in time to see the people piling out of the large house.
Pausing with her hand still on the door of the bus, Keely couldn’t help but just watch, her stomach sinking uncomfortably as she did. The three boys were being met by the five older people, there was something familiar about every single one of the strangers, but from her slight distance she couldn’t put her finger on what exact features made them familiar. For now she’d have to settle for the fact that those were their parents.
Hastily taking account of the people as she figured the parents would greet their own children first, Keely stayed in place. A man with shortly cropped curly hair wearing kakis and a Green Bay Packers hoodie was hitting Colton in the shoulder, there was a plump woman giving him a hug that was about the same height. A tall boney woman was pinching Marco’s cheeks making Keely smile while a grinning man stood behind her in his jeans and flannel shirt, his arms folded over his chest.
But Keely was turning her gaze quickly to Seth, but more importantly the woman in front of him. She hadn’t been able to get a clear picture of his mother in her head despite everything she’d been told, but Keely hadn’t been expecting what she found. The woman was very petite, shorter than her, with straight blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a weathered face.
Seth smiled down at her, dropping his guitar case on the ground beside him in the snow and hugged her, having to bend down to her height.
Frowning Keely watched as the woman’s arms wrapped tightly around Seth’s back, biting her lip. She knew that she shouldn’t be judging the woman, after all she hadn’t been in the middle of everything that had happened, but she couldn’t help it! It had been partially her fault that he was so damaged, and just the thought of the darkness in Seth’s eyes made her heart begin to ache.
When the parents and boys began mixing up between each other, she finally stepped away from the bus, stepping carefully up towards the house in her combat boots, knowing very well that falling was a probability.
Yet she couldn’t help her wandering thoughts as she made her way up to the group, would her family be that welcoming when she went home? Because whether she was sent home tomorrow or in years, she would eventually go home. Her only conversation with her father over the past months had been bitter, not to mention she now knew that he’d been lying to her most of her life.
And then there was Joe... yes, they’d talked after their fight right before she’d left for New York. But was that really enough?
“Hey mom,” said Marco, making her head snap up as he sent her a smile that gave Keely a foreboding feeling in her stomach as he greatly started resembling the Cheshire cat. It just wasn’t comforting. “This is Keely; she’s one of our friends on tour with us.”
“Keely!” exclaimed Mrs Stevenson, whirling about.
For a moment Keely winced, the tall woman looked as if she might blow away in the wind, and spinning around that quickly on snow did not seem like a good idea. But before she could react, the woman had taken a step forward to her and was pinching her cheeks soundly as she smiled broadly. Not knowing how she was supposed to react, Keely just stared at her with bulging eyes, her grip on the guitar case tightening.
“Aw, aren’t you just adorable,” Mrs Stevenson gushed, still pinching her cheeks. “I think it’s the red hair and big green eyes, don’t you think so Marco?”
He was looking close to doubling over in laughter, and answered in a quivering voice, “Yeah, that’s exactly it.”
Keely sent him an accusing look.
“C’mon, sweetie,” said the man that she assumed was Marco’s father in the jeans and flannel. She could only feel her suspicions were proved when she saw the exact nose and bright hazel eyes on the older man that Marco possessed. His mother had the sandy blonde hair. “It’s freezing out here and I doubt they want to stand out in the snow.”
Still smiling hugely, Mrs Stevenson gestured them all to follow her inside, brushing off Marco’s shoulders lovingly as they walked inside. Keely couldn’t help but think the woman would have greeted anyone with the same excitement that she had gotten, because it looked doubtful that the smile was going to come off her face any time soon.
She was whirled into a hug by first Colton’s mother, then his father, making Keely laugh loudly. Yes, it was a definite fact that these people were happy their sons had come home, even for a short visit, no one was that friendly at any other time.
When they made their way into the house, Colton in between them and leaving her with a big smile on her face, Keely turned around to the only other two people still outside.
This time the smile didn’t come so naturally, and Keely found it faltering as she looked at the woman with the deep lines on her face. Her eyes scoured the woman, but she could only find the shape of their eyes in similarity, but the eye colour was so different that it barely counted. If he looked so unlike his mother, what had his father looked like? But even as the thought passed her mind, Keely discarded it. She couldn’t ask him that with any sensitivity. He didn’t even know what his father looked like, Seth had told her that his mother didn’t have any pictures.
Pasting the smile thickly on her face as she did most times when the paparazzi was around, she held out a hand awkwardly. Hugging was out of the question, at least for her. “Hi I’m Keely...” she trailed off uncomfortably, realizing that Seth had never told her his mother’s name and she couldn’t call her Vaughn.
“Linda,” replied the woman, the smile not reaching her sharp blue eyes as they shook hands.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” Keely returned, hastily breaking the contact behind them.
Linda sent her a tight smile, then turned her gaze to Seth, her eyes softening on her son. “Well, come inside you two, Liz will go crazy if we don’t eat her lunch. She’s been slaving over it.”
Still when she made her way carefully to the house, stepping through the open doorway into the warm looking entry way, Keely found herself lingering behind as Seth picked up his guitar case.
“So this is where you grew up?” she asked, looking up and down the street.
It was a rather nice street, the houses were large but not exactly huge either, just a normal neighbourhood. But at the very least it avoided suburbia. The very idea of suburbia had always scared Keely a little bit, maybe it was the side of her that had grown up in the country mixing with the potent and growing New York City side, but it wasn’t somewhere she wanted to live. Ever.
Seth snorted, pushing a hand through his already messy hair. “No, I didn’t live here, I was more into the city part, there was one time when we rented a basement close to here. Colton’s parents live just down the street though.”
“Where does your mom live now, then?” she questioned interestedly.
“Down the street too, she likes it here so when I buying her the house, I wanted it to be around here.”
She sent him an incredulous look. “You bought your mother a house?”
Giving her a familiar cocky grin, Seth shrugged, nudging her towards the house gently. “I had enough money, hell, I don’t even know how much I have anymore... I should find that out eventually. I’ll probably end up being broke without knowing it like the Beatles.”
Rolling her eyes Keely just stepped inside the house.
Her previous suspicions had been right, it was warm and toasty inside the entry way. Both temperature and colour wise. Kicking off their shoes on the hardwood floor into the already massive pile of shoes, she followed Seth’s example by resting her guitar against the wall and slipping out of their jackets to throw them on a dangerously full looking coat rack. Trailing after him through the halls as he pushed the black sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, Keely let her eyes comb the house.
In addition to the warm colours, the house possessed that rare feel of a home that you could simply be comfortable in. Joe’s ranch house had had that, but her home hadn’t, her home hadn’t felt very welcoming for a long time. There were family pictures on the wall, both formal and goofy and she through a passing doorway caught sight of a hand woven blanket slung over the back of a couch.
Yet they were soon moving into the dining room where they were immediately ushered to sit around the table.
The room wasn’t small, but with eight of them crowding around the circle table it was beginning to feel rather cramped. Keely found herself shoved in between Seth and Colton’s dad – whose name was Ewan she was soon to learn – everyone’s elbows brushing each others.
In the end, Keely found that she didn’t regret going to lunch.
With the exception of Seth’s mother who couldn’t seem to find anything to say to her, she felt very affectionate to the rest of the parents. However she doubted she’d have felt kindly to Linda instantly had the woman spoken openly to her, and had not regarded her with a slight suspicion in her eyes. It had been then when Keely had seen the similarity between Seth and his mom, she could remember that same expression in his eyes when they’d first met.
But the rest just made her smile.
It appeared Seth had been right about Marco’s mother Liz liking to pinch his cheeks, throughout the meal she was constantly reaching over the plates to grab his cheek tenderly. Then there was Colton’s mom – Heather she was told – who was just simply overwhelmingly sweet, she and her son shared the same smile and eyes. And, of course, there were the dads of their misshapen group; Ewan and George. The two kept her laughing throughout the meal, they actually reminded Keely quite a lot of Marco and Colton when they were together, there was that same mischievous look on their faces that she’d seen countless times on the tour bus before the three boys did something stupid.
Plus the enjoyment part of her might have been heightened by the fact that they were eating a home cooked meal, not to mention that Liz was an incredible cook even if their plates were constantly being filled. It felt like months since she’d actually had a home cooked meal. And if she was being honest, it probably had been, for all of them. On the bus their diet consisted of quick breakfasts and fast food as they jetted off to the next show. And even before the tour had started, Keely had never cooked for herself, the last time she’d sat down in someone’s home and ate a meal had been back in Bellingham at Joe’s house.
Even after the meal had been done, Keely feeling filled to the brim as Liz felt they needed to stock up on her cooking as she didn’t trust their tour food – with good reason – they simply kept talking. The dads had been forced to clean up the table as the rest drank coffee together, just laughing, telling stories about just regular life and the tour.
And once the table had been cleared off, more coffee had been made, this time by Linda, and they migrated into the living room that was covered in an enormous Christmas tree.
It was a good distraction, Keely hadn’t once felt her mind drift towards her meeting she had with Maureen later in the night. She liked talking with the families, letting herself laugh and just listen.
They made an odd family all together, but that was what she found that they were. It was as if they just made an enormous family just with separate branches for the Neilson, Stevenson and Vaughn’s. There was that same warmth that she’d felt when she and her father had joined in with Joe’s family, making a little unit and although it made her ache even worse for a Christmas at home, it made her happy to be in it again.
Maybe the boys were some resemblance of a family while on the road, but that was different. As much as she liked to believe that they were a unit on tour, it wasn’t true, she was always going to be the outcast of that group because she wasn’t part of the band, there wasn’t two S’s in NSR. But with the other people surrounding them, it did give her that warm feeling in the pit of her stomach that she’d always thought it would feel like when you were truly surrounded by family in the holidays.
And the fondness they all had for each other was clear as well. Liz pinching Seth’s cheeks as well, George slapping Colton on the shoulder and Linda patting Marco’s cheek, even the bickering was loving.
It really was incredible.
Keely doubted they were this perfect all the time, but at the moment they were just happy to have their children home. They had to have their share of dysfunction, people who love each other fight, it’s a fact of life, even though with Seth’s childhood Keely thought they had enough drama in their lives. She was thankful she got to see them so cheerful though.
Plus, she was so grateful that the parents didn’t seem to believe what was being said about her with the drugs and her bad influence. Well, she couldn’t be sure about Linda. But for the rest, it seemed as if they shrugged off all those rumours. Maybe it was because she was friends with their boys, they just didn’t bother listening to gossip or they simply didn’t believe it; whatever reason, she was indebted to them for it. All that came from the gossip was jokes in the living room.
However she couldn’t stay feeling so blissfully careless for long, no, it just wasn’t possible for her.
Hearing the sound of the clock dinging on the hour, Keely looked up to said clock above the mantelpiece, half hidden by the evergreen. And winced when she noticed that it read seven o’clock, her dinner with Maureen reserved for seven thirty.
And suddenly that satisfied feeling that had come with the family and too much food changed, making the food churn dangerously in her stomach.
“Time?” asked Seth catching the dark look on her face as he cut through Marco’s story about when he, Seth and Colton had filled the tub of a motel bathroom with jello. Keely would have paid to see the look on the person who walked into the bathroom next, but at that moment she wasn’t thinking about the poor maid’s reaction.
Nodding, Keely stretched out her legs that had been folded underneath her while she sat on the couch between Colton and Liz. Placing her empty mug on the coffee table, she stood up stiffly, trying to give the people who were giving questioning looks a warm smile. But it fell short as she thought of what was waiting for her.
“Thanks so much for having me,” she told them, the sincerity in her voice was true at least. “I have to go to a meeting, but I really enjoyed this.”
“You’re still coming with us to the mall tomorrow?” Heather questioned eagerly, her plump cheeks glowing prettily.
Trying not to wince, Keely nodded. It had been decided that she would go to the mall with the three mothers – she hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter – for Christmas shopping, even though it would be the twenty third. But while she’d managed to get presents for her family back in Bellingham, she hadn’t gotten the boys anything yet. She just didn’t have the heart to tell them that for all she knew, tomorrow she might be on a plane back to Washington.
“Yeah, of course, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
As she stepped over Colton’s stretched out legs, she frowned catching sight of Seth shoving himself from where he’d been sitting at the foot of the arm chair. “What are you doing?” she asked, confused.
“Going with you to see Ms Jones,” replied Seth easily, stretching as he did so, making a very appealing sound in the back of his throat.
This time Keely did grimace, sending a wide glance about the cheerfully decorated room. “Don’t worry about it,” she told him awkwardly, not wanting to tear him away from his family, “I can handle this.”
“It’s fine.”
“You’re leaving?” put in Linda, looking up at her son. For a moment Keely felt her heart melt at the disappointed look in the woman’s fac. However she instantly hardened it against Linda again, thinking about the heart breaking way Seth played music when he was thinking about his childhood.
“I’ll be back after the meeting,” Seth assured her, bending down to kiss his mother on the cheek from where she sat on the armchair. “Meet you here?”
Linda nodded, sending him a small smile.
Chewing on her lip, Keely felt her hand tapping away nervously on her thigh. “Seriously, you can stay, Seth, I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t even know the way there, rebel.”
Giving a sigh at the flat look he sent her to pair with the words, Keely said one last goodbye to the people in the room before making her way to the hall the lead them to the front door. As she pulled on her boots, she looked up at him as he slipped on his sneakers, opening her mouth.
“Don’t even say it,” he told her in a bored voice.
Rolling her eyes she just grabbed her guitar, pushing out of the door.
Immediately she shivered, huddling back into her coat against the brisk air that was blowing about the snowflakes in a whirl wind. And she found herself thankful for the thick black coat, thinking to her leather jacket that would be in her bags at her motel room, but that was until she caught sight of the car parked on the road.
Amused, Keely gave a snort, looking around to where Seth was shutting the door behind him. “Since when does Dave have a love for mustangs?” she asked, nodding towards the blue muscle car on the curb. But the colour and the fact that it was old was where her knowledge about the car ended.
“I thought you needed something more bad ass than the sedan Dave would have gotten you,” Seth smirked, slinging his arm over her shoulder and pulling them through the new fallen snow.
“Because I need to get on the more bad side of the press.”
Letting go of her, he skirted the hood, winking at her over the top of the car. “Bad ass is sexy, I thought you’d know that.”
Looking at him over the hood, Keely couldn’t help but agree. With the rumpled dark hair, hazel eyes glinting gold in the darkness, Motörhead shirt and leather jacket; he perfected the bad boy look and it really was sexy. It didn’t even matter that they’d come out of house where they’d spent hours with his family, he really did the bad boy look justice.
When she realized she was staring at him she gave herself a little shake. Trying to make herself look indifferent, she arched an eyebrow at him. “This is my rental car, you know, why are you at the driver’s door?”
“You don’t know where we’re going, I spent more than a couple years around here with Colton and Marco, I can find us the restaurant easier,” he explained, opening his door. “And it’s open!”
Pulling open her door, Keely dropped her guitar in the back seat before clambering in the clumsily while Seth gunned the ignition, turning on the heat right away.
Not waiting for the car to heat up, Seth put one hand casually on the wheel and the other on the shift as he always did while driving before glancing about. And when he found that there was no one on the road with them, pressed down on the gas, sending them out quicker than she would have liked. Keely found herself hoping there were snow tires on the car.
The drive passed comfortably with no speaking between them for a while. She being busy rubbing her chilly hands together, wishing that the car would warm up faster while Seth switched between driving way too fast with his eyes on the road and driving way to fast while he looked at the radio, trying to find a good song. It wasn’t until the heaters had dispelled the breath the crystallized in front of her mouth that she spoke.
“I like your family,” she told him as he finally settled on a radio station, letting Radiohead flood from the speakers. Keely didn’t bother to be specific, she didn’t think that there was a point.
Suddenly he smiled, looking across the car at her, the dimple in his left cheek showing. “You don’t have to go with them shopping tomorrow,” Seth pointed out, “Don’t feel obligated or anything.”
Shrugging at him, Keely found herself smiling back at him. “No, I want to, really, I like them. They’re sweet. Anyways, I do have to do some Christmas shopping.”
“Who for?”
“Not telling,” she answered smoothly, cuddling back into the warm seat.
And once again they slipped into that contented silence that spaced between them, but when the music ended and commercials came on, Keely could feel a question prodding restlessly at her.
“If Maureen is going to tell me that I’m off the tour,” she began quietly. Seth sent her a sharp glance, but before he could speak, Keely continued, “Do you think I’m out? I mean, my album is almost done, could she just trash it?”
“You’re not going to be off the tour,” he told her confidently.
Groaning Keely ran a hand through her messy hair. “And why do you think that?”
“You were always supposed to be a rock star, Maureen didn’t expect you to become a pop star, what you’ve done is nothing next to half the shit that other rock bands have pulled.”
“I know that,” she replied, rubbing her temples wearily as the worry pressed against her stomach. Underage drinking and two arrest under her belt was pretty elementary, at least for rock music. “But that’s not the point, this isn’t a rock tour, whatever music we play. As much as I love Marissa, we’re opening for a fucking pop act, and even if it’s a bit of a slutty one, it’s still a good girl one.”
“If that’s not the point, then what is?”
“My album!” she exclaimed, looking up at him. “We’ve worked for so long on it, we’ve put everything into it, all the music, all the words. What if Maureen decides to cut her loses and kills it?”
“She won’t do that,” Seth responded in that confidant tone that was getting on her nerves, making Keely groan in frustration again. “She can’t do that.”
Powerless to hold her tongue, Keely snapped, “They did it to your first album.”
His gaze quickly snapped to her, but after a moment he kept speaking calmly, apparently not affected. “That was completely different, they just didn’t think our music would sell. C’mon, rebel, think about it from a business point of view. You’ve got so much publicity right now from all this shit, you’re making her so much money this way, she’s not about to drop you off the label. If she did, then someone else would offer you a different contract because they know the power of publicity. And she’s not going to trash your album, she fucking loves that album, she just doesn’t want to say so until it drops.”
Already regretting her words from before, Keely cringed, straightening in her seat. “I’m sorry about that,” she murmured, “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s fine, rebel, it’s true.”
Sighing she leaned her head against the chilly window. It wasn’t enough that she was feeling nauseous about the meeting to come, now she was feeling guilty about her words.
Although Keely was sure nothing she said could really hurt Seth, it wasn’t like she had any power over his emotions, she didn’t even want to think she might have hurt him in any way. Because they were friends, there wasn’t a point where she could look back and say that was when they’d started being friends, but they were now.
Her stupid crush would blow over soon enough, and they would continue to be friends. It wasn’t like they could ever be anything more, it just wouldn’t make sense because he was... well, he was him and she was... her. It just would never work.
The rest of the drive did pass in silence. And when Seth pulled into the parking lot of some restaurant, they exited the car and walked through the continuous flurry until they reached the doors; in silence.
There was no need to introduce themselves to the man working the front of the fancy restaurant, his eyes widened at the sight of them and he hastily lead them to the back. Unlike her memories of similar fancy places with the haughty people looking as if they were dripping money, the two of them didn’t get degrading looks for their casual clothes even with Seth’s faded jeans, concert tee and leather jacket.
Finding Maureen at the back, Keely sighed. She didn’t know whether she should be comforted by the fact that the woman looked exactly the same in the sleek feminine business suit as she had when she’d offered Keely a record deal all that time ago. Because if she could give everything to her so casually, didn’t that mean that she could take it away in the exact same fashion?
“Hi Keely,” she said smiling warmly, her dark eyes twinkling. “And Seth,” Ms Jones continued, arching an eyebrow in his direction. “You two really are becoming inseparable, it’s not just the tabloids, is it?”
Giving a non-committal shrug, Keely quickly shrugged out of her jacket, slinging it over the back of her chair before taking a seat. Seth didn’t even bother to respond, instead moving to the closest table and snatching up a chair as the table Maureen had saved for them was only set up for two people. That action did manage to get him disapproving looks though.
“Well, look at your menus quickly, I just got off the plane, I’m starving.”
Although Keely stared at her for a moment with wide eyes, she hastily looked through the menu. She was far from hungry after the enormous lunch not to mention the queasy feeling that was still plaguing her, but refusing Ms Jones just wasn’t something that crossed her mind. But the furious, though quickly passing, thought wondering how the hell Maureen could think she would be hungry at a time like this did occur to her.
When the waiter came to bring Seth an extra place setting, they were asked what they wanted to drink.
“Nothing alcoholic for you,” Maureen piped up, wagging a finger at her, “I don’t want to be arrested for it.”
Rolling her eyes, Keely said dryly, “I’ll have a water, thank you.”
After Seth ordered in kind, she focused closely on the woman again.
Yet Maureen was either simply becoming oblivious or she was just enjoying the suspense she was putting them through – Keely suspected the latter – she just pulled out her phone casually, flicking her way through it. Silence continued to spread across them soundly, Keely and Seth sharing a perplexed look.
The minutes passed and Keely found she couldn’t stand it any longer, her skin was feeling taut with tension. “Ms Jones, what’s happening?!” she cried out.
“I told you a long time to call me Maureen,” retorted the woman in a jaded voice.
Incapable of stopping herself, Keely said sharply, “Not the point.”
Shaking her head as if disappointed, but her lips were trembling with a smile, Maureen finally looked up, placing her cell phone neatly on the table. “Okay, to the point then, I wanted to wait until we had food first, though.”
“Just tell me,” Keely pleaded.
“You’re not off the tour,” Maureen told her bluntly.
There was a pause.
Keely could have sworn her heart stopped beating for a moment.
But then a smile spread across her face. “So Mr James was just being an asshole for really no reason?”
“Not exactly...”
As quickly as she smiled in the first place was as quick as it fled from her expression. Keely was beginning to wonder if people were just taking bets on what would finally cause her heart to stop beating for good. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That he wasn’t about to let it go, he doesn’t want his artist to have anything to do with you anymore. So, Marissa James has been pulled off the tour.”
“What?!” exclaimed she and Seth in unison.
Ms Jones stared at them flatly, and repeated, “Marissa has left the tour.”
“We got that,” Seth told her hastily, sharing another confused look with Keely. “But it’s her tour, how can she just leave? She’s the headliner.”
“Not anymore,” answered Maureen breezily.
Together again, they asked, “Then who is?”
This time she shook her head, but replied all the same, “NSR.”
“What?” asked Seth sharply.
Maureen raised a shoulder carelessly, taking a sip of the white wine in her glass. “Marissa left, so I had to bump you up. NSR should have been doing a headlining tour last go around, but you refused to do one until you changed your music around. Now you have and now you’re headlining your own tour.”
Seth gave an obvious gulp and Keely just stared between them with wide eyes, until she had the thought of mind to ask, “But what about the tickets? Marissa didn’t get any concerts sold out, but people did buy tickets to see her, not us.”
“We’re going to do a press conference,” Maureen informed her, putting her glass down in her tidy fashion, “Issue an apology first of all for the inconvenience. Then tell the public that we’ll refund their tickets, but they can keep the tickets to go see the new show with NSR headlining, Keely Staub as the second act and The Cavern Jets opening. The new tour starting in the new year.”
Immediately Keely choked on thin air, beginning to cough.
She only stopped when Seth reached out, taking her hand lightly in his underneath the table, running his finger along her palm as if in attempt to calm her.
In a way, it did calm her, allowing her take a breath. But in another way, it did the opposite as Keely felt a shiver run up her spine as his thumb ran across the soft skin of her palm. Swallowing and attempting to look unmoved, she spoke, but her voice shook slightly. “What do you mean, Keely Staub as the second act?”
“Well, I need to make do with what I have with the time I have,” pointed out Maureen. “You probably shouldn’t be doing a second act on a stadium tour yet, but this is just the way it’s happening.”
“But I only have one album worth of original songs so far,” she murmured weakly.
“That’s more than The Cavern Jets have, they haven’t even started cutting an album yet and they’re still doing it.”
Finally the band name clicked in her conscious, and Keely found her eyes narrowing, annoyance was easier to deal with than the daunting act presented to her. “The Cavern Jets? You’re kidding me, right?”
Evenly Ms Jones said, “Not in the slightest.”
“So now they have no problem with their names being tied to mine, even though now I’m a heroin addict, not only the chick getting arrested?”
“Are you going to refuse to play with them, just like Mr James refused to have Marissa play with you?”
Under Maureen’s steady look, Keely felt her annoyance deflate and something like relief came over her as she slumped back in her chair. It was the first time in what felt like much too long since her future in the tour hadn’t been in questionable position, she found that she very much liked the stability.
“No,” Keely assured her, “I’m fine with it.”
“Okay good, now let’s order, I wasn’t kidding about me starving.”
The meal passed rather quickly even though Keely picked through her dinner, probably a combination of the left over nerves jingling around in her stomach and that humungous lunch. Whatever she was suffering from, apparently Seth was immune since he quite happily went through the meal.
With the conversation settled around the new tour that was starting, the talking was kept up through the whole meal as they hashed out the details. Apparently they’d be just continue on with almost the same path that they’d been settled on with the original tour dates, but every once in a while they’d squeeze in another show or two. But they would still end the tour in the same place at the same time.
Yet even as they worked through the logical parts of it, Keely found herself wishing for some sort of emotional release that she guessed would be frowned upon inside the restaurant.
Still even if it was frowned upon, she wanted to give into the urge as the terror had finally left her to be replaced with excitement over the new challenge. She wanted to give her emotional response. After all, she was an musician, she dealt in feelings, she had to let them come out every once in a while.
Saying goodbye to Maureen in the restaurant, she and Seth walked outside to where it had finally stopped snowing. But where there were no cars, the snow had piled up a third of the way to her knees.
She was about to make her way to the car – the thought of the heater clear in her mind – when a hand had grabbed hers, pulling her to a stop. Even if she hadn’t known that Seth was behind her and the only one, Keely would have known it was him by the instant jump in her pulse that came at the simplest touch.
“What?” she asked, turning around but not taking her hand from hers.
“No more “opening for a fucking pop act”, rebel,” he told her, grinning crookedly.
At the warm look in his golden eyes, Keely felt her heart melt and the smile come onto her face.
Just following her instincts, she moved forward, standing on her tip toes as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. For a moment he was immobile, but his warm arms returned the pressure, twining around her back.
With the smile still on her face, she pressed herself tightly to him, her heart racing as she breathed in deeply, her lips unintentionally brushing across the base of his neck right above the t-shirt. As her pulse gave another dangerous leap, Keely pulled back, forcing his arms to fall away from her, wondering if she had imagined that sharp intake of breath from him.
“No more opening for a fucking pop act,” she returned, turning around to where the car was parked.
But she let out a shaky breath as she made her way there.
The drive back to the house was enjoyable, Seth finally finding a station that he approved of for longer than one song. And he was even singing along loudly with her to Blue Öyster Cult’s Burnin’ For You, despite the lack of the guitar.
As they pulled down the road where Marco’s house was, Keely found herself looking out the window as the music had taken a break for commercials. Maybe it was her good mood, but abruptly everything looked more beautiful than before.
There was something peaceful about snow in the night time. People were hiding inside their houses, leaving it untouched and serene, as if it was a muffle around everything, keeping the world protected for as long as it possibly could. But she knew that when the world woke up, the illusion would be gone.
When Seth killed the engine, leaving the keys in the car for her, they both pushed out of the mustang.
However Keely didn’t walk straight to the other side of the car even though she knew sleep would be needed soon, she hadn’t slept in much too long, but she couldn’t seem to pry herself away just yet. So she just moved forward into the yard, not caring when she stepped deeply into the snow and it fell into her boots. She was feeling much too warm for it to have an effect on her yet. And she just waited for him there.
“What’s up, rebel?” he questioned bewildered, pulling to a stop in front of her.
Biting her bottom lip, she tipped her head back to look at him. “Are you okay with headlining now? I get why you didn’t want to before, but what about now?”
Nodding in an absentminded manner, Seth rubbed a hand across his forehead. “It’s great, I want to do it. NSR is never going to escape the first albums completely, so this is the best that we can do.”
“Are you sure?” she pestered, concerned.
Suddenly he grinned at her, reaching out to brush away the lock of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes as he quoted, ““It’s times like these you learn to live again. It’s times like these you give and give again. It’s times like these you learn to love again. It’s times like these time and time again.”.”
Gulping as she stared up at him, Keely could feel her heart give an obvious flip in her chest at the song lyrics. Anyone would be affected if they had Seth speaking like that to them and touching them... wouldn’t they?
Pushing the thought from her mind she sent him a mischievous look. “You’re such a romantic, aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
But instead of answering, she just leaned over quickly, snatching up a handful of snow and was giggling by the time she shoved it into his face.
Seth stumbled back half a step in surprise, wiping the already melting snow from his face. “You really want to do that?”
Her eyes widened at the predicament and almost instantly spun around her heel in hopes of running away. Yet before she could take a step, Seth’s arm had wrapped around her tightly. For a moment she almost sighed, having a moment of realizing his arm was around her, but then she remembered what was going on.
“No, no, no,” she exclaimed quickly, squirming beneath his arm, trying not to enjoy the feeling of his hard chest pressed against her back. “I’m sorry, I swear, don’t hit me with snow,” she told him, laughing despite the apology.
Yet the moment his arm dropped away, Keely stumbled forward a step and immediately gathered a snowball in her hand. “Not a good idea,” she laughed, swinging around to throw the snowball at him.
Still even as her snow hit him, she was sputtering against the snow that had hit her in the face.
Before she saw it coming, Seth had filled in the space between them, wrapping his arm around her waist this time. Giggling loudly, Keely kicked out, lifting her legs in the air, but Seth managed to keep them both stable as she writhed in his grasp.
When she saw his hand come up from the side, snow clutched in it, she squealed loudly even as she laughed.
“What are you two doing?”
At the sound of Marco’s voice, Seth dropped his arm from her, letting Keely dropped lightly to the ground again.
Turning around to see Marco and Colton side by side, she opened her mouth to announce the good news about the tour, but the words died in her throat when she saw that look in their eyes. It was eerily similar to the ones she’d seen on their fathers’ faces, not to mention when they’d been playing a prank on one of the light guys for the tour.
Acting on impulse Keely dived behind Seth, covering her head just as the boys ripped their hands from behind their backs. Even as she hid behind them, her arms protecting herself, she heard the two snowballs hit Seth.
And it was at that moment that the snowball fight really started.
As if it was the most natural thing in the world, the teams were split without even having to be said. She and Seth together against the boys.
And once again Keely found herself forgetting about everything else as she giggled, running around and ducking behind her car with Seth.
It might have been childish, but they were all laughing together, the battle just beginning between them. It was almost like being little kids again, something Keely found she missed because she couldn’t remember the last time she’d just had a snowball fight with anyone. Even as she was grabbed around the waist by Seth as he pulled them into cover, getting tackled into the snow by Colton or being bombarded by snowballs from Marco; she had that exhilarated feeling rushing inside of her.
Most of the time they all acted much too immature for their ages, but in the past couple days Keely had been feeling much older than her eighteen years with the stress of everything piling onto her.
So being a kid, or even just their ages, was a relief.
“Okay, okay, okay! We give in!” called Colton almost half an hour later, covering his head as Seth pelted him with snowballs.
Ignoring the fact that Seth hit him one more time even after his surrender, Keely began jumping up and down, holding her hands in the hair. “We won, we won, we won!” she chanted happily, making her dark haired partner snigger loudly while Marco peeked out from behind the hood of the mustang, coming out of cover cautiously.
Smiling broadly, Keely put her hands on Seth’s shoulders, hopping lightly onto his back while he continued to laugh.
Wrapping her legs tightly around his waist, she kept one arm tight around his neck just to keep herself from falling as she raised one hand in the air triumphantly, Seth holding her legs naturally. “We kicked your asses!”
Marco pointed a finger accusingly at Colton, “He was the one who gave up!”
“And you were hiding like a little bitch behind the car,” put in Seth, making Keely giggle loudly.
Hearing a door open close to them, all four of their head swivelled around to the front door of Marco’s house as they were showered with abrupt light.
For a moment Keely squinted up at the silhouette, but when she recognized the petite figure with straight hair, she felt heat flood her cheeks. She dropped from her piggy back position on Seth, which ended up being quite dangerous when he didn’t let go of his hold around her legs immediately.
“You ready to go, mom?” he called up to Linda.
Turning away Keely sent a smile in Colton and Marco’s direction, who were now shoving each other over their snowball match loss. “Tell your moms I’ll meet them for shopping tomorrow,” she told them before turning up to Linda, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Right, bye Keely.”
She was about to walk away, but Seth’s soft voice had her faltering, “See you tomorrow, rebel.”
Giving an audible sigh, Keely continued on her path around the car to the driver’s door. As she put her put her hand on the door handle, she felt her gaze pulled back up to the front door, not even giving a thought to her clothes that were soaked from their incredible enjoyable escapades in the snow.
And even as she felt that familiar anger burn in her stomach as she looked at the small blonde woman, she couldn’t help that warm glow that grew right beside it when Seth was smiling up at his mom. Not looking sad at all.
Just looking glad to be home.
And she was happy to be there with all of them.
- Listen to the Ramones, it'll make your life a billion times better.
Dave Grohl is my hero. It's really that simple. He just makes me laaaaugh. I watched way too many interviews of him last night when I should have been writing lol, and then there's the one where he's still in Nirvana that's hilarious.
Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm going through my Foo Fighters phase again.
But my other heroes are pretty much every other musician that I've ever liked a song by. I was going to list them, but that would take too long lol. Too much music. Actually, ex that, not enough music! I'm going record shopping this weekend, yaaaay!
By the way, go listen to the Foo Fighter's Wasting Time album, I'm totally in love with it right now.
You know what the best thing is when you're driving around town between getting coffee with a friend, going to do errands then getting an extra large double double on the way home? The fact that you have a radio. And you listen to Wonderwall, then switch the channel and Under My Thumb and then switch it back after just to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit AND THEN you switch it again and Sweet Emotion is on. Those are like the best moments of my life.
And then some stupid commerical about something stupid, but I can't remember right now.
Is it bad that I think it's early for me to be going to sleep and its fucking five in the morning?
Lol, okay, my brain isn't working properly.
Thanks to beautiful_Rainbow who made the awesome banner!
Sex Pistols are on the side, but a lot of music was mentioned in this chapter and I think you should go listen to it all if you haven't already.
Tell me the secret of life.
I'll give you a cookie - sorry, no special cookies - if you get it right lol.