The Beginning of Us (70 page)

His eyes are closed while he plays and I can tell right now there is something very deep about this guy.

"Ev, I've never seen you look at anyone like that."
  Ivy gets in my ear so I can hear her over the music.

I notice that my heart seems to skip a beat every time I look at him. I start to struggle trying to breathe again as it seems all of the oxygen has been sucked out of the room.

I can’t get comfortable as he starts to stare deep into my soul and it feels like he's inside of it.

All of a sudden, I feel arms come around me and it pulls me out of my Talon trance. It's my cousin Asher, Luke's brother. "How are they doing tonight?"

"Hey Asher, they're great."

"Is Luke killing it?"

"Yea he is." Okay, how terrible am I? I haven't even looked in my own cousin's direction to see him play guitar. I'm pretty sure he had a solo back a bit, but I couldn't take my eyes off of this gorgeous shirtless creature.

I glance back up to Talon. He's staring at me again. I'm locked into his eyes and can't look away. The expression on his face is full of sorrow and the intensity of it gives me goose bumps. I can feel him deep inside again. How does he do this to me? The song ends and he pulls away.

I notice there is a girl playing bass. She's drop dead beautiful. Luke is rocking that guitar like I've never seen him do. The two of them make a great team as they cover the stage and get the attention of the crowd.

After an hour or so, the band is done. Taron jumps off stage and grabs three girls to head to the back. Talon stands and turns around to adjust some of the equipment in his drum set. That is when I see the massive tattoo that covers nearly his entire back. It's a male angel, with his huge feather wings expanded across his shoulder blades then down the entire sides of his back. The body of the angel is kneeling with his head down, resting on his left arm. The angel looks devastated and defeated. My heart breaks as he exits the door to the right of the stage.

Ivy grabs my hand and heads towards Luke who is rather enjoying his minute of fame from all the girls.

“Seriously Luke, you are going to get a disease from these bitches.  Take us back stage to see Talon.”  Ivy scolds my cousin as she waits impatiently for him to reply. 
Asher joins in on all the left over groupie groping and we quickly realize that my cousins are not helping us back stage.

Ivy looks towards the exit and says “It’s not like this is a concert and we need passes. I have already seen where we need to go. Do you want to go back and see if we can find him?”

I quickly tell her “Yes”, which surprises her.  We enter the area in the back and Talon
is
leaning up against the wall right outside their dressing area. 
He's
looking down, but quickly notices us.  Ivy is in front of me, but his eyes meet mine.
He has yet to ever speak to me. Why am I so intrigued with this guy?
  Thank God he put his shirt on.  I’m not sure my restraint would have lasted. 

As we approach Ivy tells him “Great job tonight, you guys rock!”

His eyes still have not left mine. Ivy notices and decides to slip down the hall
. 
I'm
left there with him and our awkward silence.  I decide to break the little quiet game we have been playing.

“You did awesome tonight.” Pause. Nothing.

Since this is the first time we are standing together I notice that he's probably a good foot and a half taller than I am.  I look into his eyes hoping he will reply to me.   

“I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you.”  Pause.  Nothing. 

I'm getting a little frustrated now. The intensity that radiates off of him is suffocating me. I have obviously misread this guy. He doesn’t even have the decency to speak to me when I'm trying to talk to him.

“Are you mute?” Pause. Smirk.

Now I'm confused. Why has he been staring at me all night?

“Why do you stare at me like that?” Pause. Nothing

“Well o
k then, I guess, uh… it was nice to meet you. 
I'll see you around.”

I begin to turn to walk away as he takes a step forward and then slowly edges me back against the wall behind me. His hands grab me on each side of my hips, and he
lowers his mouth to mine.  He begins to very slowly brush his lips over mine. 

I see his eyes darken as he stares into my eyes with only a few inches separating us.  He exhales and closes his eyes.  His hands glide up my sides and he softly cradles my head in both hands.  He
starts to move his thumbs slowly and I'm
completely lost in this moment. 

He opens his mouth just slightly as the tip of
his tongue slides over my lips from side to side. 
I'm
watching his sensual movements and waiting patiently for him to kiss me.  Talon opens his eyes and brushes his lips across my forehead
as he pulls away and exits out the door down the hall.

I can’t move. My body is frozen in this spot. I lift my fingers to my lips just as I see Ivy looking at me.
 

“That was freaking hot! My heart is beating out of my chest from watching you guys. Ev, did he get your phone number?”

“No.  He never said a word to me. 
I'm
so confused.  He seems into me, but hesitant about something.  I really like him Ivy.”

“I can tell. He obviously likes you too or he wouldn’t have attacked you like that.”

~Chapter Two~

Talon

This girl is getting to me.  Can I do this?  Damn it.  I just need to get my ass in that bus.  If Taron would quit thinking the dressing room is his personal fuck pad, I could have just regrouped in there.  I haven’t had an urge to get to know a girl in a long time.  I can’t even seem to speak when
I'm
around her.  I feel like this girl is going to rip to shred
s the wall that I have built around myself.

I hate feeling like this.  I was just so used to being with Nicole.  We dated for almost three and a half years, but we knew each other since we were kids.  We graduated high school together and moved here as freshmen two years ago.  We were inseparable.  I thought I loved her.  It seems I didn’t even know what love was. 

She had a rough time before we started dating.  Her parents were going through a terrible divorce and she started taking pain pills to ‘deal’ with it.  She never would tell her parents that she was taking pills.  I was able to help her get past it our junior year in high school.  I was at her house enough to go through her things and make sure she wasn’t taking pills again.  She seemed happy that we were dating and her parent’s divorce was finalized. 

Last year when we moved here, our relationship became even stronger.  I was
even considering the thought of moving in with her once we finished our
sophomore year in college.  She was taking birth control pills. 
I'm now very aware that they're
not 100% effective.  When I found out she was pregnant, I’m not going to lie, it scared the shit out of me.  But as the days went by, I realized that we had created a life together.  It really hit me hard the day we got to hear the heartbeat.  I knew at that moment I would do anything for my baby.  That is the day I realized what love is.  The due date should be tomorrow.

“What are you doing out here brother?” 
Holden snuck up behind me.

“Just getting some air. Where is everyone? I thought we were going to finish this night off at the house.”

“They're
coming.  Hope you are ready, this bus will be full tonight.”

Of course it will be.  I need to get the hell out of here.  The damn air is suffocating me.  I have been carrying this weight since the day I lost everything.

“Talon, are you alright? You look pissed off about something.”

“Yea, I just need to get away from this place.  It reminds me of that fucking horrible night.” 

“I'll
go round everyone up.” 
Holden
knows I don’t really want to talk about it. 
I'm
tired of thinking about it. 
I'm
tired of hurting over it. 
I'll never recover from it.

“Hey,” I hear a soft voice from behind me. Eaven has found me. I look over at her.

“I’m sorry, I should leave you alone. I didn’t mean to make you angry.” She lowers her head and starts to walk away. Angry? She didn’t make me angry.

Shit, she must have read the
expression on my face and assumed it was something she did.  “You don’t have to leave,
I'm not mad at you.”

She stops and turns to look at me. I can’t seem to do anything except
look into her eyes.  I want to crawl inside her soul and stop feeling.  If I could just stop this pain for a minute everything would be better.  She walks up to me and grabs my hand and places it on her heart.  She closes her eyes and wraps both of her arms around my hand and hugs it tight against her chest.  I can feel her heart beating as fast as mine is.  She doesn’t even know me and I can tell she sees my pain.  She leans her body against mine and we stand there.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Eaven

He's
hurting.  I just want to take it all away for him.  I can feel my heart beating so fast.  If I lean into his chest, I bet
I'll
be able to feel his beating.  I can feel him tense up.  I don’t think
he's
breathing.  I squeeze his arms a little tighter and nuzzle my face against one of his hands.  Finally, he exhales and leans his head on mine.  We are not saying a word, but saying so much to each other at the same time.  We stand like this until we hear people coming out of the club.  He takes his hands from mine, but only moves back a couple of inches so that we aren’t touching. 
Holden is following everyone trying to herd them all to the bus.
  I see Ivy falling back with
Holden.

“We should probably get on the bus before everyone else.  Otherwise, you might just have to sit on someone’s lap.”  Talon warns me. 

We walk toward the bus.  I don’t know if I should try to sit with him or not?  I decide that
I'll
lead the way so that I can sit first and see what he does.  This bus is just a huge RV that used to
be my aunt and uncle’s. Luke took it over as his band bus,
and apparently the drunk cab for the club.  I can’t even imagine trying to drive it.

I walk to the very back and sit on the left side of the bed. Talon follows me back there and sits with me. He smiles and says “This should be interesting.”

What is he talking about?  Luke takes a seat beside us along with a cute little redhead.  Asher files in and sits at the table area with his arm candy.  The bus fills with people I have never met.  I hear
Holden yelling, “Taron, get in the bus before I leave you here.”

Taron makes this grand entrance. He stops midway and glares at me. He prowls towards us and says,
“Lil bro, what have you brought me?” 

Talon quickly says, “Not a damn thing.”

“This is my bed.  Everyone knows this.” 

Talon stands and looks his brother in the face and says,
“Not tonight.” 

Holden grabs Taron by the shoulder.
“Sit your ass down.  We are just
going home. You can sit somewhere else.”

Great I have chosen to sit in the bed of the self-absorbed horny twin.  How many body fluids are in my vicinity from prior ‘rides’?  I need a shower.

I notice Ivy in the front of the bus right behind the driver’s
seat.  Taron sits with her.  I feel really bad for making Ivy have to deal with him.  She won’t mind sacrificing since she knows exactly where
I'm at and who I'm
with.  She makes a great wing man. 
It's kind of nice to give her a break from always being the pilot.

Holden
finally gets everyone situated and starts up this beast.  Luke decides
he's
going to stare down Talon for sitting with me. 

“What is your deal, Luke?” This is awkward since Talon is sitting between us and I have to lean over him to talk to Luke.

“Why aren’t you sitting with Ivy where you belong?”

“What are you talking about? I can sit where I want.”

“What made you choose to sit here?” Luke says while glaring at Talon.

“Luke get over yourself, I'm
not dealing with you tonight.”  I say
, hoping he will drop his whole demeanor.

“The hell you are not.  You will listen to me.”  Luke snaps back at me and I can feel Talon tense up. 

“Luke, talk to me some other time. I want to enjoy the rest of the night. I don’t want to fight with you. Please don’t try to be my big brother and save me from myself. You were just telling me earlier that I don’t have any guts and I need to live a little.”