The Beats in Rift (3 page)

“Okay, sure,” I agree, with a little oomph in my voice.

“Good stuff. Meet us in parking lot.”

AFTER THAT DAY we became inseparable; the boys took me under their wing. I spent every day with them, and if one was busy the other never was, so I always had one of them to hang with.

They bought me my own guitar for my fourteenth birthday; Jared and I wrote songs together. I called him Rift because he inspired my rifts. When I first told him this he laughed so hard he actually cried. When I asked what was funny he informed me I had mistaken the word, and in fact it is guitar
Riff
but it was too late. Rift stuck and that was what I called him. My nickname, Beats, was used by everyone except for Justin. He would call me either, Beats or Meadow depending on his mood.

The twins were so different in personalities, but so close as brothers. Jared was a musician. He was rougher around the edges, and he was into rock and heavy metal. Justin was a high school dream; he played football, dated the popular girls, and had good grades. The dynamics of their home life reflected this. Their Dad, Markus, was all for Justin. He was into the football dream and pushed Justin hard. Their Mom, Josie, on the other hand, had a soft spot for Jared, and Jared’s adoration for her was evident whenever they were in the same space. She also loved having me there but their Dad didn’t. He wouldn’t speak to me and often I caught him glaring at me. He, like everyone else, assumed there was more to my relationship with his boys than just kids being friends. I heard him talking about the apple not falling far from the whore tree once to Josie, but I ignored it because the truth was, for the first two years of our friendship there really was nothing more to my relationship with them.

I loved them both. They changed my life, made me feel worthy and not trashy the way everyone else had always treated me. But things were about to change.

“HEY, GUYS,” BEATS says, walking into the music room where me and my band are practicing a new song. I had asked her to go over the lyrics last night. Her pretty hair sways over her shoulders, and her violet eyes find mine. God, she’s cute. Not just in the
I’m a teenage boy and every girl with tits now grabs my attention
cute. She is, without a doubt the prettiest girl in the school and I’ve crushed on her from the first day she handed me her lyrics. Just looking at her makes me tap out a new beat. She’s my muse but she’s so scared of being judged by her mother’s reputation, she never dates. She hides her figure under baggy clothes; to this day I don’t really know what type of figure she has. She won’t wear makeup, not that she needs to because her face is perfect. I’ve admired, loved and protected her, while being what she needs - a friend. Every time I kiss my sort of girlfriend, I see Beats in my mind. I know that’s shitty but she doesn’t see me or anyone that way, so I have no chance with her. When Jess asked me out in front of all our group of friends, I couldn’t really say no. We had been make out partners for a few months, but I’m in love with Beats, so I kill time with Jess. I may be young but I know how I feel, puppy love or not, It was still love.

“Hey, Rift. I rewrote a couple of the lines in the chorus but apart from that it’s really good.”

She smiles and my heart skips like a pussy-whipped choir boy.

“So, who’s the lucky girl, Jess?” she asks about my lyrics.

I grin; her innocence is so adorable. I want to kiss her and snuggle her at the same time. She’s had a hard home life and that has made her tough. She learned from me how to handle herself. I taught her self-defence after I went to pick her up from her house one day and her Mom’s boyfriend had his son around, and he was pushing Beats around for being frigid. I kicked his ass but wanted her to learn how to do it herself.

She’s close to me and my brother, but she’s more like me. She shares my personality, we’re two sides of the same coin. We love the same music and films, we like to push boundaries and when I manage to get her to open up her inner minx, she follows me into whatever adventure I cook up for the day. One time I convinced her I could drive the digger that was left on a work site at school. I hotwired the machine and she rode that digger with me even when I admitted I couldn’t control it, and we ended up in a ditch and had to run from site security. She’s bright and works hard at school. She’s relying on getting a scholarship so she’s reluctant to let her wild side out too often. I have to coax it out of her most of the time but when I do, she’s fantastic.

“What makes you think it’s just one?” I smirk, and she slaps my shoulder and rolls her eyes.

“You will leave a wake of broken hearts in this school, Jared Jacobs,” she mutters.

I tap out a few beats as she turns on her heels and hurries out the room.

“Beats,” I call just before she closes the door. She turns to me. “I’ll take your heart with me when I go.”

Her laugh rings out into the room. “You better. I can’t be left here bleeding in your memory.”

Damn, that chick can write lyrics that go straight to my heart. The door clicks shut behind her retreating form.

“Dude, put your tongue away. Just ask her out already.”

My head snaps round to Luke. I had almost forgotten my band members are even here; no one has ever caught on to the fact I have feelings for Meadow. They think I see her as a sister of sorts and even with my subtle hints, like telling her I’ll take her heart with me, she just shrugs it off like I don’t mean anything real behind it.

“What?” I ask, my voice shaking slightly.

“Drake. He has a thing for Beats. He almost drooled on his guitar.”

I snap my eyes to Drake who’s flipping the bird. “Eat shit, Luke.”

“Man, you’ve been drooling over her for long enough. Ask her out.”

“She doesn’t date,” I state.

They both look up at me. “She might now. No one’s had the balls to ask her out since she told Mason no in front of the whole cafeteria, but that was years ago. Things change. Drake, you should ask her to the dance.”

My heart races erratically, even though I’m confident she won’t accept his invitation. The small possibility that she might has my head spinning and my body tense. I know Drake likes her, but I never worried about it before now.

“Can we finish up here? I’m starved,” I say, trying to change the path of the conversation.

“Yeah, me too. Come on, let’s see what lyrics she changed.”

Meadow is my co-writer; she always knows how to make the right changes to my lyrics. We’re a team and when she’s ready to date, it will be me she dates.

“HEY,” I CALL as I open the front door to our house.

I love our house, and Mom takes great pride in keeping it immaculate. The plush cream carpets are steam cleaned once a week to keep their color. The white kitchen and bathroom are always spotless and the living space is hardly ever used as there are just too many rooms to use them all, but the rich warm colors on the walls give the vast space a homely feel.

“Hey, baby.” Mom smiles.

She hasn’t been herself lately. She and Dad have been arguing more often. I found a bruise on her wrist last week. She swore on her life it wasn’t from him, but his temper has been flaring more lately, even in front of Justin and me so I know it must be worse when we aren’t around to witness it. The way he looks at Mom makes my stomach coil. He has no love in his eyes for her; more like she’s dirt from his shoe. Justin doesn’t share my concern. In his eyes our Dad is God and can do no wrong. That is what has always separated us.

“Hey, Mom. You look nice.”

Her smile widened. “Your Dad’s taking me out.”

“Really?” The surprise is evident in my tone but she says nothing. She kisses my cheek and then hurries out of the front door.

Justin is at practice, and Beats has to pick her Mom up from the bar so she’s coming over later. I kick my shoes off, grab a soda, and go to shower the day off. I stay in there longer than normal, the water scalding my skin. I switch the shower off and wrap a towel around my waist, opening the door that leads to my room.

This is where I find Beats lying on my bed with an arm flung over her face. Her chest is rising and falling in rhythm to her sighing

“Hey.”

She lifts her arm, mumbling a weak “Hey.”

“What’s wrong, Beats?”

“Yo, Jared! You home?” Justin’s voice booms.

“Yeah, man. In my room.”

His footsteps carry down the hall before he saunters into my room.

“Hey, you want pizza?” he asks, turning to see Beats lying on my bed in a world of her own. He gestures towards her with a head nod. “What’s with her?”

I shrug, tapping her leg with my foot. She sighs, sitting up with her dramatic flair. She squirms a little and a blush creeps up her cheeks when she takes in my attire. I almost forgot I’m only wearing a towel. Her eyes scan my body with curiosity. I feel the heat from her eyes burn my skin with every inch of me she absorbs.

“What’s up?” Justin asks, breaking her concentration. He sits down next to her, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

“Drake asked me to the dance,” she rushes out in almost a whisper.

My stomach knots. Justin smiles up at me nervously. “And?”

“I said yes.” She speaks softly, biting her bottom lip as she finishes.

My head spins and the room tilts. She said yes? I want to punch something, preferably Drake’s face.

Her eyes shift from me to Justin.

“That’s great, babe. About time,” He tells her. I debate punching him instead. A whiny noise crawls from the back of her throat as she throws herself back on my bed, gaining a chuckle from Justin.

“So, what’s the big deal, Beats? Spill.”

“I’m nervous! I’ve never been out on a date before and I know what you boys are like.”

I clear my throat. “You’re worried he might want something from you?”

She looks up at me from behind her hand that’s now covering her eyes and nods.

“Beats, me and Justin will break his fucking arms off if he tries that shit on you,” I tell her, already planning a way to stop this date.

Justin nodded his head in agreement. “Drake’s not really like that though.”

She groans, sitting back up to look him in the eye.

“I like him. I want to kiss him but I’m nervous because I’m not experienced and I know he is.”

The bile in the back of my throat burns as it makes its way up. Justin pats her knee, both are seemingly oblivious to my brain exploding inside my head.

“Kissing is easy, just go with the flow,” he reassures her.

“My first kiss sucked. The girl was all saliva and teeth,” I say.

Her eyes grow wide and I have to dodge the incoming assault from the rolled up pair of socks Justin throws at me.

“Way to make her feel relaxed about it, man.” The socks bounce off the wall and land back at his feet.

“Teach me,” she murmurs.

I’m sure my eyes are the size of saucers right now. Who is this new girl taken over the body of our timid, never been kissed, never been on a date and was happy about that Beats?

Justin’s cough and choking brings my attention to him. “Teach you?”