Lasting Lyric (2 page)

GIVE ME SOME CLARITY, GIVE
me some transparency, give me some evidence that your tits are as big as I imagine them
- Fuck! I so suck at song writing. Could never do it. I rip out the page from my notebook and throw it on the floor. Every time I start to write a song, tits and pussies come to mind, and I begin to lose focus. Speaking of sweet pussy, what I wouldn’t give to have it in my bed right now. I desperately need sex. Too bad we’re not on tour, I definitely would find a few hot pieces to get me off. But we’re not on tour. Instead I am alone in a house I co-own with my best bro, Wayne and his new wife, Melody. They just got hitched a couple weeks ago, but are still shacking it up in Puerto Rico on their honeymoon. Out of all the guys in the band, Wayne Priest was the first to get married; the least expected to land himself a ball and chain, since he was the one who had a different girl every night. He’s our bass player and was a male slut. However, that all changed when he set eyes on Melody Kruse - or better yet, set his dick inside her mouth. Life for my best friend changed in an instant. She seduced him. He got blown inside a small dark janitor closet and has controlled his fuck radar ever since. Those two were meant to be together and I couldn’t be more happy for them, but you know….I don’t like things changing. I’m not feeling sorry for myself, or anything, it’s just…there are two of us left - me and Jason. Everyone else - Lucky, Danny and now Wayne have the love of their life stuck to their dicks for eternity. Or so it seems. Lucky and Danny aren’t married, but they might as well be.

Here’s the low down of things: Lucky Jones is the lead singer in our band,
JINKS.
He’s in a relationship with Faith Montgomery - who owns Montgomery Suites, here in San Diego. They met…hell, who knows how many years ago, and had some fucking probs with Faith’s old man, broke up over something he did to Luck and parted ways. They reunited through June Tyndall. June is the owner of
Bitch Tours2090
- otherwise known as BT2090. She signed us up and got us to where we are today. June and Faith are best friends, so that’s how Faith and Lucky became inseparable again. Like I said, they’re practically married.

On to Danny Jay and Harmony Kruse. Danny is our lead guitarist and best buds with Lucky. They moved to San Diego to get a fresh start on a new band. That’s where the rest of us come in. But first, I need to explain Danny. Here’s a complicated one. Danny and Faith are siblings, though Faith did not know it for a long ass time. Long story short - Danny was a cranky ass dude who hated Faith, hated their dad too. He had an affair with Faith’s Aunt Lucy, Danny’s mother and walked out on Danny and his mother to join Faith and her mother instead, so that led to Danny’s grudge. Faith had no idea they were related, but two years ago all hell broke loose and Danny spilled the beans. Shit, how did I go off topic?
Rambling.
Anyhow, Harmony and Danny connected next. Harmony works at the Montgomery Suites hotel and manages events/parties with Faith’s mom, Helene. Harmony is Melody’s younger sister. Danny and Harmony had some problems along the way too; Danny had his anger issues to work out and Harmony played a little cat and mouse game that involved Wayne. Again, long ass story and a complicated web. Whatever Wayne and Harmony cooked up, it didn’t work out. Danny hated Harmony and Wayne for making himself look like a fool, but in the end things worked out. Danny let go of his childish behavior toward Faith and finally decided he couldn’t live without Harmony.

This is where Melody comes in. Melody and Wayne are from the same mold. They love sex - I mean who doesn’t, right? What I mean is…they fucked around with so many other people they thought they were never going to end up wanting to be with anyone forever. Crazy how things ended up.

So I believe the clock is ticking before Jason finds the chick who belongs with him, so that will leave me. Not that I want to be bound to someone for life, but I’m not a total loser. I don’t play games with women. They know when it’s only for sex. I don’t give them any promises or tell stories to get their hopes up. Once we’re done fucking we both part ways. It’s all good and no one ends up getting hurt.

Back to Jason. He’s our drummer. Wayne and I bumped into him at a concert before we met Lucky and Danny. He had a small band already formed and was looking for some new members. He took us under his wing like a big brother and helped us expand our music. To escape his dysfunctional life, music became a part of his daily ritual. He hasn’t ever talked a whole lot about his childhood, it’s a subject he’d rather keep to himself. From growing up in such horrible living conditions at home, Jason rarely stuck around. He made many friends in the many places giving him many connections throughout the county. We went from doing gigs at weddings and stuff to playing at various casinos and bars. At that time, Jason was friends with one other person who did the lead singing, but he turned out to be a total junkie and undependable. So we broke up the band and went back to square one. We knew we wanted to be bigger than a three man band. Luck and Danny were playing in some bar and we happened to be hanging out there. We got to talking with them, one thing led to another and
JINKS
was born.

I didn’t always want to be a musician. I wanted to work with my dad when I grew up. He owns an air and heating company called, McQuaid Heating & Air. He was and still is someone I can look up to and admire. He has worked extremely hard for his family my entire life, to make sure we always had food on our table and a roof over our heads.

My family and I moved from Ireland when I was a little boy - around three or so - to San Diego. My older brother, Max, was a couple years older than me. He was into playing the electric guitar and wanted to start up his own band. The year before I started my freshman year in high school he died of heart failure. He was born with some heart defect that I still don’t understand today. My parents’ don’t talk about it and I never question them. I just know Max was a good brother, a good kid and loved music. When he died, I decided to take up the guitar and live his dream. His dream became my dream. Unfortunately my mom couldn’t handle living in the States any longer. She and Dad separated and she moved back to Ireland. I was given the choice to stay here with my dad or go back to Ireland with my mom. There was no question what I wanted to do. San Diego was my home and no matter how much I miss my mom, I made the right choice.

I met Wayne our freshman year. We played on the football team together and definitely had skills, but slowly we became enthralled with music instead. We spent hours in his garage, you’d have thought we’d taken up residence there. His parents’ became good friends with my dad, and invited us over for dinner every Sunday. To this day they still have those Sunday dinners. It’s something I’ll never grow tired of. Since being home from the last tour, I’ve been able to go over and have home cooked meals with family. Being on the road for so long you get tired of eating things that are catered or delivered from the hotel kitchen. Eating from your own kitchen, something that you cooked up yourself, definitely is the highlight of being home. I love to cook. I love to cook for others. Any chance that I can get I’ll make a meal for myself or my family. Food, family, music and sex is what makes me happy.

Okay, so there ya have it. Not only am I sex depraved, I am one hungry bastard, and I miss having Lyric around. In just a short amount of time of knowing her, I’ve gotten used to seeing her, or talking to her on the phone every day. I hate to admit it, but I’ve been a bit depressed about not knowing what’s going on with her. It doesn’t feel good, nor right to me that I can’t even reach her without her phone going to voicemail every time I try to call her. I’m worried she’ll forget about me, forget about the band and we’ll have to find someone to replace her. I don’t want that happening. Plus, I just miss my friend. I am realizing I’ve been having feelings that shouldn’t be stirring. Whenever I think of her as more than just a good buddy a big red light pops into my head. We can’t be anything more than friends. It’s even weird thinking about it. Why I can’t take my own advice when I give it to others, is beyond me. Why not Lyric? I think I am clearly fucked.

As I am about to scroll through my phone, the unexpected happens. Lyric’s name and picture pop up. She’s calling me? This is just too friggin’ strange. It’s almost like she knew I was thinking about her.

I practically jump out of bed, almost hitting my head on the ceiling. My heart accelerates when I answer the phone, shouting, “Lyric!”

“Tell me one of your stupid stories,” she calmly asks.

What the hell? I stop pacing my room, confused as fuck. “Huh? Lyric -”

She cuts me off, “Tell me a story.”

I am ready to yank her through the phone, this is all kinds of crazy. “We haven’t spoken for weeks and you call to ask me to tell you a story?” I raise my voice. “I want to know what happened to you!”

“Stop arguing,” she snaps. “I just need a story, Hot Stuff.”

“Lyric -”

“Story!”

I swipe a hand through my hair and groan, “Hell…fine!” I walk into the living room and prop myself in my recliner and tell a stupid story to her. Apparently she likes when I tell her stories about my past; I’ve always had stupid shit happen to me. “Okay, here’s one. I was in the fourth grade. A really cute chick moved into my neighborhood and was the new girl in my class at school. One small smirk from her and I was head over heels for her. I did everything to get her to notice me. Asked the teacher to get her to sit next to me in class, opened doors for her, carried her books, bought her lunch - anything to get her to like me too. I even joined a break dancing class with her because she thought it was cool.”

She starts laughing. “Break dancing? No way.”

She continues to laugh, which leads me to get more irritated with her. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was such a douche. Anyways, after all I did to get her to like me, she didn’t carry a torch for me like I had hoped. She had eyes for some other guy in class. As I was riding my bike home from school, I caught them kissing behind some black van. I was pissed as hell and went riding off like a pussy. I never talked to that girl again. She tried to make nice, but I wouldn’t have it. I moved on and…well…that was it.”

Again, she laughs. “That’s so sad, but so hilarious. Tell me another one.”

Is she crazy? “Hell no.”

“Please?”

“No. It’s your turn, Charlie. I’ve been worried as fuck over you.”

“Don’t call me Charlie. I’m sorry I’ve worried you. It’s all so complicated.”

I kick my recliner back to allow my feet to prop up. Comfortable. “I’ve got time. Plenty,” I reply with a smirk. “We’ve taken a small break, since the accident, so I am all yours. And I won’t stop calling you Charlie. I like it.” There’s a slight pause between us before I ask, “What’s going on, Lyric? Why has it taken you so damn long to contact me? Is it your dad?” When we were in the hospital no one was allowed to see Lyric. Her parents’ are super famous - like Brad and Angelina famous. So when Mr. Donovan Crow’s thugs ordered me to leave the premises I was pissed and annoyed as fuck. This all continued when Lyric went home. He behaved like he was her keeper or something, and that just pissed me off even more so.

“Even though you may think my dad is a jerk, he’s not.”

“Did I say he was a jerk?” He was and is, but I won’t tell her that.

“Well…no, but I know he’s been overly protective and not letting you call me.”

“This sounds a whole lot like Faith and Lucky’s story, but the difference is we’re just friends.” Yeah…
just friends
. I have to remember that.

“From what I’ve heard about Faith’s dad, he is nothing like him. Not even close. He just…” Lyric pauses.

“Doesn’t like you working for us, and he wants you to quit? Are you? Going to quit, I mean,” I quickly ask.

“No, of course not! That will never happen. Listen, I grew up in a house, with two very famous parents’. The paparazzi were always trying to get pictures of us kids; we never had any privacy when we’d go out and do things as a family. My dad is afraid of my privacy getting stripped away from me if I continue to work as your manager. He doesn’t hate you guys. Like I said, he’s very protective of me - of all his kids.”

“Acting as manager doesn’t get you hounded by the paps.”

“The bus crash did. My parents’ property was surrounded for weeks.”

I can sort of understand that, but I wasn’t buying it. “Still…it doesn’t make sense, Lyric. You’re a fucking grownup and shouldn’t be taking orders from him.”

“Slim, I wasn’t taking orders. No one tells me what to do,” she firmly argues. “Honestly, I needed time away. I went to London after I finally recovered. It was a good break. So please, don’t be mad.”

Now we’re getting somewhere - the truth. “You needed time away from me?”

“I didn’t say that,” she huffs. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“You didn’t need to say it, Charlie. You needed a break from the band, from me. You’re afraid of the paps are gonna think you’re gettin’ it on with one of us.”

“Good grief, stop it! You’re being ridiculous!”