When the Dead Come a Knockin'

by B. L. Brunnemer

  “You don’t have to-”

  “It’s good to talk about it, I haven’t in a while.” Asher took a deep breath before continuing. I just rested my cheek against his chest and listened. “So, there all of us were, taking care of her. And we knew she wasn’t doing so well. The only thing she’d ever eat was Maria’s soup, that’s the twins’ mom. The guys got me the recipe. I still know it backward and forwards.” Tears started falling down my face. I couldn’t help it. When someone you care about is hurting, you hurt too. “I went in one morning with her breakfast and found her. She passed away in her sleep. The funeral was a week later. And Dad disappeared after we turned sixteen. He shows up for a week every three months or so.” Asher's hand moved to the back of my neck, he brushed against my cheek. He went still. “Ally, are you crying?” I sniffed and tried to use my most normal voice.

  “Me, cry? Never.” It didn’t work. He snorted.

  “I’m tall enough to see your face, you liar.” He said. His voice was still thick, so I knew he was holding back tears too.

  “Nah, you put too many peppers in the eggs. This is just a reaction.” I countered as I got control of myself. He snorted. The tightness in my chest eased.

  “I didn’t put any peppers in the eggs.” He pointed out, his voice almost back to normal. I barked a laugh.

  “Now who’s the liar?” I shot back. We both laughed. He was still holding onto me, so I didn’t let go. “I didn’t mean to ruin your morning,” I said quietly.

  “You asked about her, Ally, not how she died.” He pointed out, one of his hands ran through my hair, playing with it. “I guess I just needed to talk to someone about it. Jessica refuses to.” I gave him another squeeze, before letting go. I looked up at him. His eyes were full of shadows that I put there.

  “You can talk to me anytime, Ash.” I told him honestly. He gave me a half grin.

  “I will.” He promised. I took a deep breath and stepped further away.

  “Now that I’ve upset us both,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “What else can I ruin?” Asher burst out laughing as I picked up my plate. He was working again by the time I finished washing it. We were quiet until we were done.

  We were in the living room talking about games to play with 11 people and were having trouble coming up with them. We finally resorted to looking up party games on our phones.

  “Truth or dare,” Asher said, still looking at his phone.

  “You asking, or the game?” I asked. I looked up to see him smirk.

  “The game.”

  “Oh, no, no, no. With our group? You’d have to increase your house insurance.” I told him honestly. He chuckled. My eyes went to the pictures on the wall. They had bothered me since the first time I came over. I knew I probably shouldn’t, but I was going to ask.

  “Ash, this is probably a bad question after this morning, but,” Asher looked up from his phone. “Where are the pictures of your Mom?” He blinked. I rushed to explain. “I see your Dad, your sister, and you. But never your Mom.” Asher’s jaw locked, then he swallowed hard.

  “Dad took them down, and refused to let us put them back up.” He said, his voice was hard. My mouth dropped. That fucking dick head.

  “Ash, do you want them back up?”

  “Yeah.” His voice was quiet.

  “Then put them back up,” I told him. I didn’t care if I was crossing a line here, if Ash wanted the photos up then he should have them up. Even if I had to do it myself.

  “It’s Dad’s house.” He sounded like he was repeating his father. I snorted.

  “Your Dad is here, what, a month out of the year?” He nodded, his jaw unlocking. “This isn’t his house Ash. Yeah, he pays for it and for everything else. But you're the one who pays the mortgage, you're the one who pays the bills. I’ve seen you do it.” I met his warm eyes with mine.

  “This is your house. If you want the photos up, put them up.” I shrugged looking at the pictures still up on the walls. “If he comes back, take them down. When he leaves, put them back up.” I couldn’t seem to shut up today. “Ash, you like making other people happy.” He swallowed hard. “You do it in a thousand little ways. Cooking is the most obvious example I can think of right now.” I licked my lips sure he was going to be mad. “I just, want you to make sure you're happy too.” He was quiet for a while. I was starting to think I should apologize.

  “I’ll think about it.” He said his eyes unfocused. I gave him a small smile and went back to looking for party games. “I haven’t seen any photos of your Dad.” I went still, my heart dropped as pain tore through me. “No one’s been in your bedroom. So, I’m assuming that’s where they are.” It took everything I had to look up from my phone and give him a sad smile.

  “I don’t have any.” I said. He blinked, his face became confused. I explained through my tightening throat. “Mom refused to take any of our photos with us when we lost the house. She wouldn’t even let me take a picture of him.” I was still pissed about that, but it is what it is. “That fucking bitch.” I sniffed looking back down at my phone fighting back tears. “They’re probably in a landfill somewhere.”

  “I’m sorry, Ally.” He said, his voice soft.

  “Not your fault. It’s hers.” I shrugged. “It is what it is.”

  “Okay, maybe we should stop talking today. We keep making each other cry.” Asher pointed out. I laughed looking back up at him, the tightness in my throat easing.

  “Yeah, maybe we should.” I chuckled as I got to my feet. “We just can’t seem to stop.” I went into the foyer and pulled my shoes on. I was pulling on my jacket when he walked into the foyer. I looked up at him and smiled. “I promise, tonight I will not make you cry.” He smiled.

  “I promise, tonight I will not make you cry.” He repeated back to me. I gave him a long hug and headed home.

  The house was empty when I came in and sat on the couch. My stomach was knotted up from my conversations with Asher. I really didn’t mean to upset him. I was still grousing myself when my cell phone rang. It was Dylan.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey Sunshine, you busy?” Dylan’s husky voice rolled through my ear. It made me smile and instantly feel better.

  “Nope, just got back from Asher’s. Everyone else bailed on snack making, so I had to help.” I took a deep breath. “What’s going on?”

  “I just wanted to nail down a time to pick you up tonight.” My stomach knotted. Pick me up? Here? With Rory? Shit.

  “Um, if you do that you’ll have to meet my Uncle Rory.” I pointed out hesitantly.

  “Yeah, I figured.” He didn’t sound worried. He didn’t get it.

  “He’s a cop and overprotective, and always armed,” I told him honestly. He went quiet. Now he was getting it. He cleared his throat.

  “I’m going to have to meet him sometime, might as well get it over with.” He offered. He didn’t sound so confident now. I smiled.

  “Okay, how about six?”

  “Six it is, just send me your address.” There was a bell sound. “Shit, customers, gotta go.” He hung up quickly. I smiled and texted him my address. I had an actual, real date tonight. The butterflies went crazy. How was I going to tell Rory?

  I got a text from Ethan to me to be ready by one, he was going to pick me up. The bastard was on time for the first time in his life. I grumbled the whole way as Ethan drove me out to the house of their drummer. Apparently, their practice space was in the garage.

  “Beautiful, you’re going to do fine,” Ethan assured me again.

  “I’m going to crash and burn, and you know it,” I grumbled back. He burst out laughing. I flipped him off. He just laughed harder. Ethan drove into a weed lined alley, then parked behind an old beat up van. My stomach was in knots as we got out of the car and headed towards the sound of the occasional drum beat. Ethan took my hand and pulled me with him up to an open garage door. Ethan’s two band mates looked up from what they were doing to watch us walk in.

  “Guys this
is Lexie, she’s going to save our asses,” Ethan announced confidently. I snorted and looked at him like he was crazy.

  “More likely crash and burn destroying your band's chance at keeping the venue.” I countered my voice snippy. Both guys chuckled. The guy sitting behind the drums smiled at me.

  “If we don’t try, we’ll lose the venue anyway, and it won’t matter.” Drummer boy pointed out in a deep, smooth voice. Well, when you put it like that it didn’t sound so bad. Drummer boy was kind of cute, in a big, burly way. He had brown hair, buzzed close to his scalp, nice gray eyes, and a nice grin. But what drew my attention was the horseshoe shaped ring through the septum of his nose and an eyebrow stud. It actually didn’t take away from his face. Instead, it seemed to add to it. Drummer boy’s eyes ran over me quickly before looking away. Then he stood up, he was a head and a half taller than me, he had wide shoulders and a wide chest.

  “I’m Ryan, it’s nice to meet you, Lexie.” He said, holding out his hand. I shook his hand, smiling up at him. “Ethan has told us almost nothing about you.” I snorted.

  “Nice to meet you too.” I smiled. “And that is actually comforting.” Ryan chuckled with a killer grin on his face as he sat back down behind the drums. The bass player stepped up. He was a head taller than me with thick curly light brown hair and hazel eyes. He was lean with wide shoulders.

  “I’m Oliver.” He smiled. He had a great smile and a fucking dimple. Dimples were so cute. I shook his hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “We really appreciate this.” Oliver said sweetly, “We really don’t have the stomach for pop songs.” I chuckled.

  “Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t heard me sing.” I grumbled. Ethan walked back over with his acoustic guitar plugged into an amp as he blew a raspberry at me.

  “Knock it off Beautiful, you’ll be great.” He strummed a few chords. I flipped him off. Ryan smiled, trying not to laugh. “Did you warm up like I told you?” Ethan asked. I rolled my eyes.

  “Yeah,” I grumbled, frowning at him. Ethan ignored the look on my face and went to the microphone on the stand. He crooked his finger at me. I walked over regretting that I even thought to agree to this.

  “Okay, we practice like we would be on stage.” Ethan pointed out the garage door to the alley. “That’s the crowd. This is where you’re going to stand.” Ethan reached out and turned on the microphone. “On stage we have one for vocals, so we’re sharing.” I nodded. “When we sing together you take that side I’ll take this one.” I nodded again. He gave me an encouraging smile before looking at the guys. “Let’s start with Broken.” The others agreed. I took a deep breath and focused on ignoring everything but Ethan’s playing. Ethan started playing, singing into the microphone. Everything else dropped away. Then I joined in with Ethan, I sang the way I knew, with Ethan’s corrections from the night before. Soon Oliver and Ryan were playing. Then Ethan joined me again. At some point, Ethan switched to his electric guitar, and we continued to sing until the end. Then there was a heartbeat of silence as I cringed.

  “Damn Lexie.” Ryan’s voice had me turning around. He had that grin back on his face, his warm gray eyes were on me. “That was perfect.” I rolled my eyes.

  “So, you’re delusional too?” I asked dryly. They all burst out laughing. I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling my oversized sweater slip down my shoulder. Ryan’s eyes met mine.

  “Do you know any other songs?” He asked smiling. I groaned. They were insane.

  “She does I Will Not Bow, pretty well. We should be able to get that one down fast.” Ethan offered. Wait. What?

  “Whoa, I thought the deal was one song, Ethan.” I pointed out. Ethan shrugged.

  “One might not be enough, we might need a few to convince the manager.” He winced. I glared at him.

  “You shit head.” I bit out.

  “Sorry, Beautiful.”

  “You’re dead,” I stated simply. Ethan nodded, cringing now.

  “But, will you do it?” He asked, his eyes begging. I growled at him before leaning my head back so I could glare at the rafters.

  “I can learn a song fast, so, what do you guys know,” I grumbled. Ethan all but tackled me. I didn’t hug him back. The shit head had lied to me. “How many are we talking?” I brought my head back down so I could see the guys. Oliver was beaming, Ethan was glowing, and Ryan had that grin on his face again. We sat down, over the next hour and went over what songs they knew, which ones I knew, what they could learn in the next two days. Thankfully I already knew a good number of their songs. I did suggest some more girly songs that had a nice edge to them. They agreed it was probably a good idea. We got back into position and practiced. And practiced. We ran through the list of songs that I was going to do Saturday night, Ethan only had to correct me twice. The others found that rather impressive. While we were taking a break, gravel crunched in the alley. I turned to watch Isaac and Miles walk into the garage. My stomach knotted. Miles looked apologetic. I glared at Ethan.

  “You need to get used to singing in front of people, Beautiful.” Ethan explained before taking a drink of water. “Isn’t it better it’s them and not strangers?” I flipped Ethan off.

  “I’ll buy you jewelry.” Ethan offered. I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “You still owe me jewelry, you ass.” I shot back. Ethan thought about that for a moment.

  “Oh shit, I do.” He cringed. I nodded as Ryan and Oliver snickered.

  “Come on Lexie, it’s not that bad. You’re going to do great.” Ryan offered sweetly. I sighed, took another drink then we got back to work while Miles and Isaac sat in old folding chairs in front of us. I missed my cue on Broken. We had to start over. I hit my cue but missed the next one. I cursed and glared at Ethan.

  “Relax Beautiful. It’s Miles and Isaac, you know them.” Ethan tried to sooth me. I shot him a look. “Let’s try a different song for now.” I nodded. We tried I Will Not Bow. I looked at the floor of the garage and hit my cue. I looked up and missed my second. I cursed as everyone stopped again. Asher and Zeke walked up to join the other two. I shot daggers at Ethan. He cringed.

  “Lexie,” Ryan called to me. I turned around to look at him. His eyes were understanding. “I had the same problem playing in front of people. When you look at the crowd your mind goes blank, right?” I nodded, hating that I was letting them down like this. Ryan gave me a small smile. “When you start to sing, close your eyes. I played our first three gigs that way.” I raised an eyebrow at that, he saw my question. “I practiced a lot with my eyes closed.”

  “Alright, I’ll give it a shot,” I grumbled. I closed my eyes and listened to the music. It let me concentrate on the music and my voice. I made it through the song. Then the next, and the next. As long as I kept my eyes closed, I could sing in front of people. Then we ran into a problem. On Broken, we needed to share the microphone.

  “It’s a duet.” Oliver chimed in. We all looked at him. “Keep your eyes on each other. It might give the girls the drama they crave. You know, will they or won’t they shit.” I shrugged willing to give it a shot. So, when we sang Broken, Ethan and I kept our eyes on each other. I was able to hit every cue, pitch, and note. By the end of the song, my voice was getting rough. Ethan called my practice over.

  “We need you Saturday night, go home drink some tea, no shouting, even at Zeke,” Ethan advised me as he pulled his guitar strap off his shoulder. “We’ll have you on stage for a song, then hop off for a couple, then back on.” Ethan looked at the others. “How does that sound?”

  “With her songs, we could just go in a row,” Ryan suggested as he and Oliver came to stand in a circle. “They line up well.”

  “But she doesn’t have the stamina to flow from one to the next.” Ethan pointed out. Ryan thought about it then nodded.

  “I still think you're all nuts.” I felt the need to point out. They chuckled.

  “We’re not as crazy as we seem,” Ryan reassured me. I snorted. I didn’t b
uy that one bit. The guys agreed on the set list I was to sing four songs tomorrow night. This was fucking nuts. I said bye to them and headed out to the others. Isaac swept me up in a big hug, taking my feet off the ground.

  “Red, that was fucking awesome!” Isaac said squeezing me. I hugged him back and rolled my eyes.

  “We’ll see about that.” I rasped, then swallowed hard as Isaac put me down.

  “Ally, that really was great,” Asher reassured me. I gave him a small smile. I couldn’t help but feel that something bad was going to happen. I shrugged, not wanting to use my raspy voice.

  “Lexie, if you like, I’ll give you a ride home.” Miles offered. “The others are probably going to practice for a bit more.” I nodded. He gave me a sweet smile. I waved to the others and got into Miles’ car. On the way home, I expected him to want to talk to me about Jacob and that night in the park. When he didn’t bring it up, I relaxed. Instead, he told me I really did sound amazing, better than some of the other woman singers that had performed at Vegabond in the past. I really wanted to believe him. When he dropped me off I made sure to drink some tea, and I tried to be optimistic, but I still felt disaster coming.

  Chapter 6

  Friday Night

  “Lexie! Your date is here!” Rory’s shout made me jump, thank God I was done with my makeup.

  “One sec, I’m just grabbing my wallet!” I shouted back. I tucked my wallet into my back pocket and my cell phone into my bra. I considered the mirror. The boot-cut blue jeans hugged my curves. The green long sleeved Henley brought out my eyes, and the two buttons undone gave me enough cleavage for me to be happy and Rory not to have a fit. My hair was down and everywhere as usual. I had kept my makeup light since we were hitting Asher’s later. I grabbed my keys and jacket then headed downstairs. My gut knotted. Oh yeah, Rory was going to meet Dylan. My chest grew tight as I stepped off the stairs. Dylan looked just as cute as usual. He was wearing a black long sleeve shirt, dark blue jeans, and his blue snow jacket. He didn’t even bother with his hair. I liked that about him.