My Misery Muse (16 page)

I shrugged, “They didn’t like some of my choices, but they were my choices to make not theirs.”

I knew what he was referring too, my naming Jaks after him. When I had told Drake I had named the baby Jackson Seth he hit the roof.  We ended up having a screaming match in the ob ward which got him kicked off the premises.

“Thanks, by the way,” Seth said quietly.

I gave him a watery smile and a nod, not trusting my voice.

“So what are you working on?” Seth asked gesturing at the sketch I had been working on.

“A commission piece for one of my clients,” I said. “It’s turning out better than I had first expected when she came up with the idea.”

I sat back down, gesturing for Seth to join me. I showed him the sketch I had been working on, and explaining what the client wanted, showing him what I had added to the piece.

“It looks terrific,” Seth said. “You’re talented, but I’ve always known that.”

“Thanks,” I said. “So how’s practice with Eli going?”

“That man is a fucking genius on drums,” Seth said. “He’s blown all of us away.”

I smiled; he wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know about Eli.

“It’s been amazing working with him, we actually look forward to practicing again. I forgot what that felt like. And the label’s rep was blown away with him, since then the label’s been making noise of us just hiring Eli instead of working things out with Alex.”

“What do you think about that?”

“I think they may be right,” he said softly. “We’ve tried a few more times with Alex, but he doesn’t want help.”

“I’m sorry, Seth,” I whispered.

“Nothing to be done about it, if he doesn’t want help, then we can’t help him,” he shrugged. “But it still hurts, watching him throw it all away.”

I bumped his shoulder with mine, “You hungry?”

He laughed, “Always, you cooking?”

“Hell no,” I laughed. “I’m ordering, how about Chinese?”

“Sounds good,” he said with a smile.

I ordered dinner while Seth looked through my sketches. I went and sat back down with him, we talked about my work until dinner came.  We ate dinner on the floor, talking, laughing, joking just being Seth and Devi for a change.  It was nice, almost too nice, this is what I wanted with Seth, I realized.  I wanted the Seth I knew and loved, not Seth the bassist of My Misery Muse. I wanted the man behind what everyone else saw, the Seth that I had  feelings for didn’t come out very often away from Dallas.

“Why don’t you guys move back here?” I asked. “I understood when you first got the deal, but what’s stopped you from coming back?”

He shrugged, “Never really thought about it, never really had time to think about it. This is the first real break we’ve had in three years. We were on the road and we were recording on the road.”

I nodded, “And now?”

“And now, I think we’re all leaning towards taking it easier, this break has helped us a lot. I think we were all close to burning out. Being here has reminded us that there’s more to us and life than what we’d been living the past 3 years.”

“I hope you guys decide to stay,” I said quietly.

“Really?”

“Yea.”

“Why, for Jaks or for you?”

I swallowed hard, “For all three of us.”

He nodded, leaned over and brushed a kiss across my lips. “I’m going to head out Devi, you coming to the show Saturday?” he murmured against my lips.

I nodded, Seth stood up and offered me his hand, I took it and followed him to the door, still holding his hand.

“Yea, I’ll be there.”

“Good,” Seth said before brushing a kiss against my lips. “I look forward to it,” then he left.

I closed the door after he had pulled off and banged my head against it, what am I doing? I shook my head then went back to finish my work.

¯¯¯

“You ready for this man?” I asked while slapping Eli on the shoulder looking him over, he looked a little green.

“I guess,” he said.

“You sure you’re ok?” asked Sam.

Eli shrugged, “Just a little nervous, that’s all, it will be better after I get behind my kit.”

I nodded, “You’ll be fine.”

He nodded, and then looked back down at his feet.

“Fuck, who is she?” Xavier said.

I followed his line of sight and saw a girl with her back towards us, I would recognize her anywhere.  I smiled, “That would be Devi.”

“No, that couldn’t be,” Xavier said. “Drake would never let her leave the house wearing something like that.”

I laughed, but couldn’t help myself feeling a little possessive. Damn, she looked good.  She was wearing a long black skirt that reached the top of her boots and silver buckles down the front resembling a pair of bondage pants I have.  
[V5]
 
The shiny black cloth that was her shirt looked to wrap around her neck but she had a long black scarf wrapped around it.  I couldn’t tell, but the back was open and tied leaving her back bare, along with her ribs and the sides of her breasts. It stopped well before her skirt ended showing a sexy amount of toned stomach, the shirt perfectly showed off the tattoo that covered her back. She was always sexy, but tonight she had outdone herself.  She glanced in my direction as if she could feel my stare on her, but couldn’t see me from where I stood.  Jules, Cin, Mags, Drake, Cris, and Max stood with her all laughing, drinks in hand, looking like they were having a good time. 

I walked out the back way from the stage and walked up behind her, and wrapped my arms around her.  She melted instantly into my chest and raised her arms up so they looped behind my neck; I took the opportunity and nuzzled her neck.

“Hey baby,” I said in her ear.

She looked up at me and smiled, over the past few days we had decided to try and take things slowly and see where they lead.  I couldn’t help but stake my claim on her tonight though. I had noticed one too many pairs of male eyes on her, so I kissed her deeply letting all the other men know she was mine.

“Did you get Jaks all squared away?” I asked when we broke off the kiss, she gave me a look saying she knew exactly what I was doing but I really didn’t care.  I knew she had been nervous about leaving him over night with Cris’s mom. She had watched him for a few hours before, but he had only ever spent the night with Drake or Mags before.

She nodded. “When I left he was at her table drinking milk and eating homemade chocolate chip cookies,” she said in my ear, the only way to really hear over the noise.

I kissed the back of her neck and felt her responding shiver. 

“I got to get back, but I’ll find you when were done,” I murmured against her ear.

“Alright, break a leg.”

I leaned down and captured her lips with mine, not leaving a part of her mouth unexplored, claiming her as mine.

“See you soon, baby,” I murmured against her lips before letting go, waving at everyone watching us and headed back to the band.

“You know you’re not supposed to go to the front of the house, especially before the show, Seth,” Ray the label rep said.

“Yea I know,” I said with a smile on my face.

Ray just shook his head and laughed, “Can’t blame you though, she’s fucking hot, who is she anyways?”

Xavier laughed, “That would be Dev, Seth’s baby momma.”

I glared at Xavier which only made him laugh harder.

“Really?” Ray said. “I didn’t know you had a kid.”

“It’s a recent development,” I said. “Devi and I go back a long time.”

“I see,” he said.

“Don’t worry Ray, Seth’s a pro he won’t let his personal life effect anything, accept maybe those lyrics and bass riffs you guys all seem to love,” Sam said.

“Oh, I’m sure he won’t,” Ray said then strolled off.

“What’s the matter with you Xavier?” Sam asked.

“What did I do?” he asked.

“They’re already riding our asses,” Sam said. “We don’t need them on us after our personal lives.”

“Sorry, didn’t think about that,” Xavier said with a shrug then walked away.

“Ray’s cool, he won’t do anything, unless he thinks it a problem,” I said. “And there won’t be any problems.”

“I know,” Sam said. “Let’s go get ready.”

An hour or so later, we were being introduced on stage. We were following a kickass local band I had never heard of before, but was definitely going to follow now.

“Back to Bush’s after being gone for far too long, let me introduce My Misery Muse!” the emcee yelled the last of it out.  The crowd screamed, god I loved playing in front of people. I especially loved playing smaller venues like this one.  We walked out on stage, and the crowd got even louder, we didn’t make them wait for long. As soon as we were on stage and ready, we went in to Stardust, one of our hits off our second album.  The crowd was pumped which only pushed us more, a good crowd had always made shows better, and I had yet found a better crowd than the one at Bush’s.

After we finished our first song, Xavier went into his usual spiel of introducing each of us, since news of Alex hadn’t been announced yet we decided to say he was sick, and that we had Eli replacing him for the night.  We played a set that was a mix of old already released stuff with some of the new stuff we had been working on, the new stuff went over with the crowd better than we could of hoped.

After about 45 minutes on stage Xavier said, “Ok guys, were going to take a bit of a break,” the crowd instantly started booing, “but I do have a little surprise for you,” he said when they quieted back down.  “We’re going to try something we’ve never done before,” he said putting his mic up and walking off stage with Eli.  While Xavier had been talking to the crowd both Sam and I had switched to acoustic guitars, we sat down on the stage on the drum riser, and a mic was sat in front of me.

Sam started into “Broken” on his acoustic and the crowd went louder than ever, I joined in both of us playing a few bars, then I started singing the lyrics that had haunted me for years.  The club went quiet, it was surreal then people began singing along, I never sang in front of people, I was always happier hidden behind my bass.  I looked out in the crowd and found Devi in the front, where she’d been the entire show, swaying to the music and singing along. It looked like tears were falling down her face, I watched her as I sang and she never took her eyes off of me.  When we were finished, the crowd went absolutely nuts.

Sam and I got up then walked to the side of the stage where the rest of the band stood.  I handed off my acoustic to one of our roadies, and accepted the water Xavier offered me.

“Fuck man, I always forget you can sing like that,” Xavier said.

I shrugged, “Thanks, X but I don’t want to do it all the time.”

“I know, but you should,” Xavier said.

Ray, the record label rep, walked over shaking his head, “I wish you would have told me what you had planned, I would have had cameras here recording it.”

I glanced over at Sam, we didn’t say anything for this reason. “It was kinda spur of the moment,” I shrugged then finished downing my water.

We headed back out on to stage and finished another 45 minute set, by the time we were finished I was so pumped with adrenaline and had a hard on that wouldn’t stop.  I helped get my bass and acoustic packed back up, then headed to the front of the club to find Devi.  I found her at the bar with everyone else, ordering last call.

“Hey, baby,” I said coming up beside her, sliding my hands down the exposed skin of her ribs, and side of her breasts.  She spun around and wrapped around my neck kissing me, a hard quick kiss.

“That was fucking brilliant,” she said.

I smiled, “I’m glad you liked it.”