by S M Olivier
I had to fight the urge to feel jealous. Once again, I had no right to. Jace was with me all night. How hypocritical would it be if I expected him to honor our connection?
Drake gave me a side hug. “How does strawberry pancakes sound?”
“With whip cream?” I asked hopefully, hoping the jealously wouldn’t come through.
“You know it,” he dropped a kiss on the top of my head before he started whipping up some new batter.
I felt like we had been in the music room for hours. We only had a few kinks to work out, but Ben was a perfectionist when it came to his band and he wanted everything to be perfect. He had created this band when they were freshmen in high school. They had originally played for family get togethers, school dances, and even competed in some local competitions. It wasn’t until this past summer that they had branched out and sought bigger venues and better paying gigs.
Ben told me I had come at the right time, because he knew some of their fans wanted something different. He hoped they could get a different fan base with the addition of me.
My reservations with becoming a part of the band had worn off a little. Dr. Allen even encouraged me to continue playing and singing with the band. Which was surprising since most professors generally encouraged a strong classical background and believed any other music was just distracting noise. He knew I got some of my ‘edge’ by being influenced by my eclectic taste in music.
“Okay,” Ben said. “One more time from the top and then we can call it quits.”
I groaned. I was hungry…again, and I heard Sue was treating us with some more Korean food. After having her bulgogi and egg rolls, I couldn’t wait to taste the next dish she was making us. “Food!” I exclaimed.
“Are you sure you don’t have an eating disorder?” Taylor joked. “I saw how much you ate at breakfast. How can you be hungry already?”
“I’m hungry too!” Mike chimed in. “And I ate breakfast here and before I left the school.”
“But you’re a teenage boy, it’s normal,” Ben’s eyes twinkled as he looked me up and down. “Not a five foot nothing, one-hundred-pound girl.”
“One ten,” I huffed jokingly.
“Have you been using your gifts lately?” Rick asked with narrowed eyes.
“Nope,” I answered, seeing where this conversation was leading.
“Yo,” Mike said with his eyes wide, like he just remembered something. “You can compel people and you didn’t even tell us!” He said accusingly. “Or have you been using it on us the whole time.”
I snorted. “It’s not like I can bring it up in normal conversation and you would know if I compelled you.” I rolled my eyes.
“Not necessarily,” Ben said slowly. He looked at my confused expression. “You have no clue the extent of your gift, do you?” He breathed in shock. “You do realize you can compel people to forget anything they may have done?”
I sat down heavily on the stool I had been standing next to. “I what?”
“Ughh,” Mike groaned in frustration. “What a waste of a gift if you don’t even know how to use it right.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Mike, you would abuse it and you know it. I’m just surprised the Bell’s didn’t tell you that.” He looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“I just learned I had this gift recently, now let’s get this practice over with,” I insisted.
“How did you just find out? You’re what seventeen, eighteen? You should have known for years.” Rick stated.
I sighed. “I did things before I found out about my gift, but I thought they were a part of my imagination, I didn’t connect the dots. Now seriously, let’s practice.”
“You know, for a smart girl you can be pretty dense,” Mike mumbled.
Ben shot him a look but started to play, knowing I was over this conversation.
It didn’t take much twisting of arms for the boys to stay for lunch. Sue, with the help of Drake and the girls, had made rice, dak dori tang (spicy chicken) with potatoes, kimchi, and some steamed dumplings. We ate it family style with all the dishes piled in the middle of the dining room table and I fell in love with a new culture.
I really liked Sue and you could tell she preened at the compliments thrown her way. I was impressed at the amount of food they cooked for this mini army. Drake had happily become her sous chef for lunch preparations. He admitted to me that any exposure to any other culture's way of cooking was very enjoyable to him.
I still didn’t know why he didn’t change his major. I could see him being a great psychologist , but he loved cooking. I wondered once more, how much Rose had influenced him in his career choice.
I made sure to take a Snapchat for Troy of all the food. After last weekend, I knew he was an Italian with a Korean boy living inside him. He craved Korean as much as Italian.
He immediately sent back a pic of him with water splashed on his face. Crying, the text read.
I giggled.
Noah leaned over to look at what I was giggling about, and I showed him. He chuckled as well.
We annoyed Stacey…again. Surprise. Surprise.
“Have any idea what you’re wearing tonight?” Ben asked me as he leaned back in his chair.
“Clothes,” I decided to be evasive as I grinned at him around a mouth full of food.
He rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”
“Well, clothing can be optional for her,” Mike leered at me.
“Think again, buddy,” Remy said. It was clear he wasn’t a huge fan of Mike’s abrasive nature either.
Noah chuckled. “You’re barking up the wrong tree there, little man.” His lips were smiling but his eyes were deadly serious.
It would appear that my guys had no qualms if I got attention from one of them, but any other male, better think again.
Mike bristled. He had the true definition of little man syndrome. He was maybe five feet four at the most but strutted around and peacocked like a man twice his size.
“Rachel and I already have her outfit picked out,” Jemmy clearly was trying to diffuse the situation. She gave me wicked grin and it didn’t help that Rachel had an evil glint in her eyes too.
“I won’t wear it if I don’t like it,” I huffed at them.
Jemmy snorted. “Relax, have I ever steered you wrong?”
“It’s the only driving Jemmy’s good at,” Jaxson laughed as he winked at me.
“I’m a superb driver,” Jemmy stated crossing her arms across her chest.
“Who has only been in four accidents in the last year and totaled two vehicles,” Noah added with a smile.
“Three of those accidents were not my fault,” she declared with a petulant smile.
“And you guys let me ride in the same car as her?” I asked in mock outrage.
“Keep it up,” Jemmy pointed a fork at Noah, Jaxson, and I threateningly.
“Putting on her makeup is very important. It was the other person’s fault that they stopped for the stop sign.” Ben chimed in.
“Finding her cell phone that fell on the floor, running off the side of the road, and hitting a parked vehicle, was not her fault,” Jaxson added.
“Slamming on her brakes for the turtle crossing the road and getting rear ended, wasn’t either,” Rick smiled winking at Jemmy.
“Enough, enough!” Jemmy stood up. “I’ve had enough. Want to go swimming, girls?”
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!” Noah yelled at her retreating back.
Jemmy made sure the girls were in front of her as she turned holding up her pointer finger, middle finger, and ring finger. “Read between the lines!”
The guys and Rachel laughed as she hurried the girls along.
“I’m going to hop in for a little while too,” I said as I stood up laughing. “Thank you, Sue, everything was delicious. Rachel, wanna join?” I asked knowing I had been neglecting my roommate, although she didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Sounds good, any of you boys want to ru
b some sunscreen on me?” Rachel said suggestively.
I giggled.
Mike looked really confused. “But it’s an indoor pool.”
It was Mike’s turn to be the butt of the joke.
The afternoon sped by too fast. Noah, Stacey, Remy, Jaxson, and Drake had also joined us in the pool and the guys had put up a volleyball net in the shallow end. We had separated in to teams of five, splitting up Ella and Nadia, and played volleyball most of the afternoon. It was really fun, and I liked watching my guys in all their athleticism. They proved to be distracting, even Remy who still refused to take off his shirt. With his blond hair and bluish grey eyes, I assumed he was fair underneath the shirt and didn’t want to show his fairer skin.
Rachel had shamelessly flirted with them all and I stopped letting the ugly green-eyed monster rear her head. She was my friend and those were my guys. I knew they had no interest in her. She annoyed Stacey to no end, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Rachel had flirted openly with Noah as well. Noah seemed to preen under the attention, but Stacey was becoming increasingly catty.
Drake finally hopped out of the pool, “Time for me to throw some sandwiches together,” he called. He towel dried his hair and I hopped out next to him.
“Now it’s four on four,” I called. “I’m going to help him.”
Together we went back into the mansion. We already decided to eat light, because the gig was at a bar/ restaurant. They could always get something at the restaurant and I could eat between sets if I was hungry. We worked in companionable silence making roast beef sandwiches on whole wheat bread with provolone, a horseradish spread, lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions. For the girls, we made them simple roast beef and provolone sandwiches.
Nadia’s parents were watching them tonight, since we watched Nadia for them last night. I had only found out a little while ago that they had a date last night.
Looking up at Drake I finally asked, “How do connections stop the jealously between them? Do they get jealous? Does Nadia call both Beth and Cora ‘mom’?”
Drake looked over at me with one of his gentle smiles and I noticed he hadn’t put his glasses back on. His vivid blue eyes were so much more noticeable without them. “I’ve heard of some connections that struggle with the multiple bonds at first, but they learn to adapt. If they have a selfless nucleus they realize they each have qualities the other does not, and their uniqueness sets them apart.
In the gifted community, it is rare for a family to have more than two children. Even if the nucleus has two connections. Some have tried to circumvent the situation by having a non-gifted person carry their child using their gifted sperm and egg and they weren’t successful. No one can understand it. Even when the donors and carriers were perfectly healthy and viable candidates.
“Nadia calls both Beth and Cora mom. Unfortunately, Cora is unable to carry a baby to term. Beth decided to have Nadia for them. Beth never wanted a child of her own. She came from a troubled background with no real mother, so she thought she would fail as a mother. Her love for Steven and Cora changed her mind. Although, Cora is the more maternal of the two.”
“Wow, just wow,” I muttered as I cut another sandwich in half.
“What’s wrong, Blake?” he stopped and turned me gently, so I was forced to look at him. He lifted me and put me on the counter in front of him.
“I would be a terrible mother,” I spoke quietly, suddenly trying to fight tears that I had no clue where they came from. I just met my connections. We technically hadn’t even had sex yet, I don’t know why I was worrying or thinking about these things right now. For all I knew none of us wanted children. Maybe I couldn’t have them either. My thoughts were a jumbled mess and warring with each other. I was becoming a mental case. “Say I can only have maybe two children, and all of you guys wanted a way to have your name go on, then what? Do we plan it out month by month until I become pregnant, so we know who the father of my child is? Will you guys grow to resent each other? What happens if I don’t want to be a mother?”
“Oh, Blake,” Drake took me in his arms and hugged me close. He felt warm and comforting. “You really shouldn’t concern yourself about stuff like that now. You will be an amazing mom, if you choose to be one, but I don’t think you should worry about that for some time. Look how you are with Ella. You couldn’t be a better mother if you would have given birth to her yourself. Ultimately, we all want you happy. Children, no children. We can cross those other bridges when we get to them.”
His soft, melodic voice soothed me once more. He was right. I should be focusing on my performance tonight, graduating high school, deciding what my next step was, and other high school related issues. I had plenty of time to navigate the other stuff.
“Always so wise,” I smiled up at him and grabbed his face. “Thanks, Drake.”
A look crossed his face before he bent and slowly placed his lips on mine. His lips were soft and exploring against my own. It was the embodiment of him. Gentle, undemanding, hesitant, and sweet.
“Well Rose was quickly forgotten,” Stacey’s cold voice came from the doorway. “But it’s no wonder someone fell for her charms, because of the disgusting way she continually throws herself at you guys.”
Drake turned, his eyes cold. I had never seen him so…angry. “You forgot Rose cheated on me…many times. I just finally got the wake-up call to end it. And maybe if you paid a little more attention you’ll notice that we-”
“Is it almost time for dinner? You need to get ready soon!” Jax came into the room in his usual outgoing fashion, but I noticed his eyes were calculating. He was doing a great impression of his normal rambunctious self, but his eyes said he had heard the conversation and he was preventing Drake from saying anything accidentally before we were ready to be exposed to the gifted world for what we really were…a threat.
Chapter 26
The guys came to pick me up, so we could do a final sound check and lighting check before the show. We were resting our voices, but they still wanted to make sure we got our stage placements correct and projected the images we wanted for each song. As the time drew nearer for the actual show, I felt my anxiety mounting.
Finally, it was time for us to go backstage and I found myself pacing. Ben handed me a bottle of water.
“You’re going to do great,” he reassured me.
I feigned a smile. “Thanks. Is it bad I feel more nervous than I did when I auditioned for the music program?” I joked.
He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “But tonight, you have us on stage with you,” he grinned. “You look great by the way.”
I smiled once more. “Thanks. Good ol’ Jemmy to the rescue once more.”
He chuckled. “She has her moments.”
Tonight, she had dressed me in black leather pants, black ankle boots, and a white racer back tank top, my black bra straps were purposely on display. We decided to keep my hair down and in its natural curly state liberally tamed by product, so it was a frizz free and controlled mess. She said it gave me more of the look we were trying to achieve tonight. She gave me some somewhat gaudy rings to put on my fingers, silver bracelets, and a long silver necklace with a black pendant that fell directly on top of my cleavage.
The guys took the stage first and sang a few songs before I heard Ben introducing me.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special surprise for all our fans out of the loop, we have asked one of our friends to join us tonight for a few of our songs. Please help me show some love to Blake.” Ben’s sultry voice crooned in the mike.
I swallowed and walked out onto the stage. I could hear yells and shouts as I came out on the stage, the lights nearly blinding me. I distinctively heard Jax yell my name and I had to smile. I wasn’t comfortable enough to speak yet, so I waved my greeting as I took my spot to the left of Ben, behind the piano.
“Look at me, if you have to,” Ben said comfortingly in my ear in the guise of giving me a hug.
After looking at the surprisingly
large crowd, I knew I would have to take his advice until the nerves settled. He started strumming the opening to “I Just Wanna Love You”. We purposely arranged our songs, so we were taking the audience on a journey of love. It wasn’t our journey, but it was a journey almost everyone could relate to.
This song was full of hope. This song was the beginning stages of love where you felt like nothing could ever get between the two of you. I almost lost my cue to join in, as I looked out at the crowd for just a moment. I quickly refocused and jumped in.
I could hear the nerves in my voice, and I wished I had taken a shot of liquid courage. When I looked up at Ben, I was able to focus once more, and I lost myself in the music. The nerves disappeared, and I embraced the tension vibrating through my body.
Before I knew it, the song was over, and the crowd was clapping. I looked up at Ben in surprise and he gave me a knowing smile. He waited until the crowd quieted down before beginning to play “Kiss Me” by Ed Sheeran. I took Taylor’s guitar as he took my seat at the piano.
We wanted to convey more intimacy to this song. We stood feet from each other, staring at each other. It was easy to not let the crowd get to me as I stared into his eyes and listened to his sultry sound. I could see why girls went gaga for him, but I felt…nothing. Absolutely positively nothing.
As I started to sing my part I had to think of my guys. As crazy and as disturbing as that sounded. I could pour my heart into the song if I felt like it was them I was singing to.
When that song ended, we both placed our guitars down and sat on stools on opposites sides of the stage. The lights went out and as Ben began to sing, a single spot light shined down on him. When I joined him singing “Say Something” by A Great Big World, the spotlight shined down on me.
This is where most relationships broke down. The lack of communication, the feeling of complacency where you gave up trying. We made our way towards each other, singing as if we both wanted to convey the same thing to one another, but our pride wouldn’t let us. By the end of the song we were standing back to back with our arms crossed.