My Misery Muse

by Betzold, Brei

  Sitting outside Devi’s house trying to get my lust addled brain calmed down enough to drive home; I heard a tap against my window. I glanced up and found Cris standing there, he looked like shit, his face drawn making him look years older than his 25, clothes wrinkled in a very un-Crispin like way. I rolled down my drivers said window, “Hey Cris.”

  “Don’t fucking hurt her this time,” he said then walked away.

  I glanced back at Devi’s house and saw a light on in the living room. I knew Devi was inside and upset, it made me want to jump out of the car and hold her tight so nothing could ever hurt her again, but knowing Devi that wouldn’t go over well. So instead, I turned on my car and drove away from the woman I loved.

  Chapter Ten

  I woke with smell of coffee filling the house and Jaks’ bubbly laughter from the direction of the kitchen; I glanced over and saw it was a little after 9am. I grudgingly got out of my comfy bed to the bathroom to take care of morning necessities then headed to see two of my most favorite men in the world.

  Drake glanced up when he saw me walk in, “Hey sis, long night, you look like hell?”

  I walked over and gave Jaks a kiss on his forehead and ruffled his soft black hair. I looked over and saw my brother standing by the coffee pot, he handed me a cup of coffee which I gratefully took.

  “Yea,” I answered.

  He looked at me over the rim of his coffee cup, “You and Seth get things settled?”

  “Kinda, still not sure what we will do when he leaves, but for now he wants to spend time with Jaks.”

  “You’ll figure it out,” he said. “What about the two of you, work any of that out?”

  “How was Jaks last night?” I said in a try to change the subject, because I still didn’t know what was going on there.

  Drake chuckled at me, “He was good, stayed up late drinking beer and watching porn.”

  I rolled my eyes at my brother and his typical response to that question. I could see he wasn’t going to let the subject of me and Seth go though, so I was relieved when my doorbell chimed. I jumped up in escape of my brothers questioning look. I looked through the peep hole in the door and found Seth standing there looking as delicious as ever his hair rumpled like he just rolled out of bed. He ran his fingers through it, his jaw slightly stubble, the stud of his labret glinting in the sunshine, sunglasses hiding his grass green eyes under the dark lenses. He was wearing in his typical style, a vintage Ramones shirt and a worn pair of 501’s that molded to his body perfectly. I opened the door and couldn’t help the smile at seeing him; I was rewarded with one of his heart melting lopsided grins.

  “Hi beautiful, what do we have planned for the day?” he asked, stepped up and brushed a kiss to my lips; before it could go any farther we were interrupted by Drake clearing his throat.

  He looked over my shoulder to where Drake stood, then leaned back down and brushed another kiss across my lips while brushing his fingers down my neck.

  “Hey Drake,” he said without looking away from my face.

  “Hey man, so since you’re here does that mean I am off babysitting duty today?”

  “I have to be in the shop at 1. I have an appointment at 1:30 today then another at 3, I should be done around 4,” I said.

  “I was thinking about hanging out with the boys today, you interested Drake, we’re just going to be messing around writing some. I know they all want to see you,” Seth said.

  I bit my bottom lip, not really liking the idea of Jaks hanging around with Seth’s band. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them all well enough, it’s just that I know them and they weren’t exactly the type of role models I wanted in my son’s life. I looked up at Seth and found a smirk on his mouth; I could tell he knew exactly what I was thinking.

  “Don’t worry, I told them to clean house before I come over,” he said. “I won’t let them corrupt Jaks, Devi.”

  “It’s not that exactly,” I started but was interrupted.

  Both Seth and Drake at the same time said, “It is that, Devi,” then they started laughing.

  “Fine,” I said, “just keep an eye on them, and if he comes back smelling like pot I am going to kick both your asses.”

  “Dev, have a little faith in me,” Drake said.

  I looked back at my brother, and bit my bottom lip again; “Fine,” I said then went back to the kitchen.

  “I told the guys we would be there around 11 or so, if that’s cool with you Dev?” Seth said walking into the kitchen, just then Jaks caught sight of him and gave a huge grin.

  “Daddy!” he squealed.

  “Yea that’s fine, his bag’s in the living room, do you want to come to the shop later or me go over to Xavier’s?” I asked.

  “Why don’t you come over to Xavier’s, all the guys want to see you too.”

  “Alright, I’ll head over when my appointment’s done, do you want to take the mini cooper and leave me your car?”

  “Yea, guess so since I still don’t have a car seat. Maybe tomorrow when you’re off we can go get one, so we don’t have to keep on trading cars?”

  “Yea, we can do that.” Seth gave me another chaste kiss, grabbed a squealing Jaks and headed out with Drake for their testosterone filled day.

  ¯¯¯

  “So do the guys know about Jaks yet?” asked Drake.

  One of the reasons I like Drake so much, he didn’t pussy foot around something, he just came out and said what was on his mind.

  “Sam does, Max told him after he saw me in the shop. I haven’t told anyone yet, I wanted to wrap my head around the situation before I had to answer a lot of questions.”

  “Makes sense,” he said. “So what did they say when you told them to clean up?”

  “Xavier was a dick as always, but Sam told him to stop his bitching and do it. Xavier wasn’t happy about it but said he would.”

  “I hope he did for your sake, or my sister will have your balls in a vice,” he replied and I knew he was right.

  I pulled my phone from the console and called Sam to double check they were cleaning out the house. Beside me Drake chuckled, he and I both knew he wasn’t joking about my balls being in a vice.

  We pulled up in front of the house Xavier had bought off his parents a few years ago. He’d had a lot of work done to the place since then, adding a studio in the back for when he was home. I walked into the front door holding Jaks, and let out the breath I was holding, for once they did what they said they would. All the beer cans were gone, the ashtrays were no longer littered around the room, even had windows open airing out the place, and most importantly whatever women had stayed the night before were nowhere to be seen.

  I walked to the back of the house where I knew everyone would be congregated around the Xbox. All my band was there as well as Max, Sam’s little brother and few other friends I hadn’t seen in years.

  “Hey who’s winning?” I asked.

  “Me of course,” said Alex our drummer without looking up.

  Sam looked over at me and smiled, “So this is Jaks, huh, poor guy took after you instead of his mom.”

  With that the game was paused, and everyone looked up going quiet. I think that was a first time everyone in my band was quiet at the same time.

  “Yea, this is Jaks, Jaks, these are the idiots I spend most my time with,” I said.

  Xavier as always had to open his mouth, “What the fuck, Seth?”

  “Watch your mouth X,” growled Drake.

  With that Xavier snapped his mouth shut, no one wanted to piss off Drake, when he needed to be he could be a mean son of bitch.

  “Can’t blame us for being a bit surprised Drake, I mean Seth waltzes in here with a mini me that we didn’t know about, so I am guessing that means Seth didn’t either,” said Alex.

  Drake growled at that, which seemed to startle Alex.

  “Oh shit,” Xavier said, “no way no way in hell.”

  “What the hell are you talking about X?” said Alex.

  “Drak
e would only be acting like that for one reason, the kid is Devi’s,” said Xavier.

  Alex let out a curse. Xavier may be an egotistical, bastard but he wasn’t dumb.

  “Everyone meet Jackson Seth Porter, Jaks for short,” I said.

  With that everyone looked at each other, and then the cursing really began. We all knew this would change things.

  Chapter Eleven

  I arrived later at Xavier’s than I had planned. I finished my 2 custom pieces then took in walk-in as well; the shop was busy as is normally the case for a Saturday. I wasn’t in a hurry to get here, so I was somewhat relieved when Cris asked me to take the walk-in. I’d gotten a phone call from my brother earlier in the day, he said things hadn’t gone as well as Seth had hoped. They weren’t exactly happy about Jaks, Drake had said, which meant he was pissed. He said at one point Seth and Xavier almost went to blows and had to be pulled apart by Sam and Max, while Drake had taken Jaks to get lunch. I guess it was lucky for Xavier that Drake wasn’t there, whatever he had said or done to push Seth to that point would have probably gotten him murdered by my brother.

  I banged my forehead against the steering wheel a few times, I didn’t want to mess up Seth’s life, and I knew he and his other band members are like brothers. I also knew they wouldn’t exactly be thrilled by the situation, but nothing could be done about it now. My day hadn’t gotten any better after the phone call. When I showed up to work, Cris ignored me for the most part, the only time he acknowledged I was there was when he barked orders at me or griped that I didn’t do something, I didn’t know I was supposed to do. I had never been more relieved for Vic to show up in the shop.

  I knew I couldn’t sit here any longer, so I made myself get out of the car and walk up to the front door, I was about to knock when it opened and Max emerged.

  “You heading to the shop?” I asked.

  “Yea, I have to be in at 7. How was it looking when you left?” he asked.

  “Busy as normal, Cris and Vic were both working on a couple of walk-ins and Jules had a couple looking at flash.”

  “Great, sounds like I will be busy tonight,” he said with a smile. “Good luck in there, things are a bit tense.”

  He walked off to his car and I went inside quietly shutting the door. I walked through the house noticing all the work Xavier had put into it, it was looking good. I walked into the game room and found a couple of the guys playing Xbox, but the sight that stopped me was Jaks sitting on Seth’s lap. He was watching Seth‘s every move as Seth played his acoustic guitar singing quietly. Jaks had a look of rapture on his face, the same look I noticed that Seth had when he played.

  Drake and Sam walked up from behind me, Drake putting an arm around my waist Sam an arm around my shoulders, I leaned into Sam giving him a half hug. Sam was always my favorite out of Seth’s other band mates; he was originally in the same garage band as my brother and Seth. Sam was very ghandiesque, always calm, collected. He didn’t talk much but when he did you listened, he and his brother were like night and day.

  “Hey Dev, long time no see,” Sam said.

  “Hi, Sam, yea it’s been way too long,” I responded. “How long has that been going on?” I asked tilting my head at Jaks and Seth on the couch.

  “About an hour now,” Drake said. “If I knew that’s all it took to keep the Taz still I would have dragged Seth’s ass here years ago.”

  I had to laugh at this, Jaks was definitely an active 2 year old, never stopping and getting into everything.

  “You’ve done a great job with that little boy, Dev, you should be proud,” with that Sam walked into the room and plopped down beside Alex.

  Jaks looked up where I was standing and gave me a lopsided grin, “Mommy!” he yelled pushing away from Seth to get to me.

  I bent down waiting for the impact I knew was coming. “Hey little man, how was your day with daddy?”

  With that he took off a mile a minute telling me about his day, and all I could do was nod and smile at the right places. When he was finally finished telling me, he jumped off me and attacked Drake. I knew he and Drake would be horsing around for a while so I walked over to Seth who had been watching me since Jaks announced my arrival.

  I sat down beside Seth and ignored the dirty looks both Xavier and Alex were shooting me, I didn’t care if they were mad or not.

  Seth sat his guitar down and wrapped his arm around my shoulders tugging me closer then brushing a kiss across my lips.

  “How was your day?” I asked.

  “It was fine, got some bass lines down, how was yours?” he asked.

  I shrugged, he was going to try to get out of telling me how his day really was, but I wasn’t about to let him get out of it that easily, he must of seen that on my face because he let out a groan then scrubbed his hand across his face.

  “Ok, who told you, and what did they tell you?”

  I had to smirk, “Drake called earlier.”

  “I asked him not to,” he growled. “Jaks wasn’t here for most of it; Sam talked Drake into taking him and going to grab lunch.”

  “I know Drake told me.”

  “Drake tells you a lot doesn’t he?”

  I simply shrugged at this.

  “I see both you and Xavier are whole and healthy so I am guessing Sam pulled you off each other before any real damage was done?”

  It was his turn to shrug, “Yea unfortunately, I still owe him a good solid beating though.”

  With that comment Xavier turned around and flipped him off; Seth picked up something off the coffee table and flung it at Xavier, yea all was well and good with them now.

  “Hey Dev,” said Xavier.

  “Hey X,” I said in return.

  Seth laced his fingers through mine and started playing with my hair.

  “You couldn’t have had Seth give us some warning before he sprung his kid on us?” Xavier said.

  “I didn’t even know he hadn’t told you until Drake called me earlier about all hell breaking loose, and since when can anyone tell Seth anything?” I asked.

  Xavier just snorted then went back to his video game.

  “Hey, Alex,” I said and got no reply, Seth squeezed my hand. Well that was normal, Xavier was always one to blow up fast, and recover quickly. Alex though, held on to a grudge like no one else.

  “Ok I need to get Jaks home so he can eat dinner and get ready for bed, you coming Seth or you going to stay here and get some work done? I know you couldn’t have gotten much done with Jaks around.”

  “No, I’ll come,” he said. “We still working Monday?”

  “Yea, get over here sometime Monday morning, we’ll see what we have to work with,” said Xavier, “night Seth, night Dev.”

  “Night,” I said then looked at Drake. “You staying or going?”

  “I think I’ll stay we were talking about hitting a couple clubs tonight.”

  “Alright, don’t forget your car’s at my place,” I said leaned over, gave my brother a kiss on a cheek and gathered my son.

  ¯¯¯

  “Can I drive the Chevelle?” Devi asked while I was buckling Jaks into his car seat. I had to roll my eyes at this, she had always wanted to drive my car instead of her own when she could get away with it.

  “Fine,” I said straightening up and shutting the door of her 4 door MINI Cooper, with the union jack on top, it was such a perfect car for her. “What happened to your Mustang?”

  “I still have it although it’s sitting in Drake’s garage. I got the MINI Cooper before I had Jaks, thought it would be easier getting a car seat into than my old mustang,” she said. “On weekends I sometimes get it and drive it when the weather’s nice and I can put the top down.”

  I leaned down and brushed a kiss against her lips “Take it easy on my car, woman,” I said then popped her on the ass for good measure. In return she stuck her tongue out at me, turned and headed for my Chevelle. I watched her climb in and turn it on, System of a Down came blaring out of the speakers, I shook
my head at her and watched her take off towards her place.

  I got into her car, and looked back at Jaks in the rearview mirror, “Your mom is something else.” He smiled back in return, at least we agree on something I thought. I had found out today what a two year old during a temper tantrum looked like, not an experience I wanted live through again anytime soon.

  A short time later, I pulled up to her house, got Jaks out of his restraints, and walked inside. Devi sat on the couch already changed into a pair of cut off shorts that hid very little, and a Breaking Benjamin tank top. I felt another wave of lust when I saw her, damn I didn’t think I would ever get used to seeing her like that.