Stereo

by Trevion Burns

  “Blech, who doesn’t? What’s to like?” She cringed. Since she could remember writers and journalists had been making up lies about Adam, twisting his words and all around being the scum sucking slugs that they were. She was certainly not a fan, and neither was her brother. She knew that he had no patience for journalists who went too far and, from the looks of it, this most recent one had been playing right on the edge by bringing up Shaun.

  “It’s over now,” she said, reassuringly. “Now we can go home, start the barbeque and have delicious food and cocktails with friends and fam.”

  “Who’s having cocktails?” he asked, eyeing his baby sister incredulously.

  Katie’s big blue eyes bore into him. “Oh, please. Come on. Who are we kidding? I drink. We both know it. The barbeque is at your house and I know you didn’t invite Dad. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

  “You really think I would let you swallow a drop of liquor under my roof? You’re thirteen! What kind of degenerate do you take me for, baby? Really?” Adam was dumbfounded.

  “You started drinking when you were, like, ten years old!”

  “This isn’t about me.”

  Katie rolled her eyes and looked away. “Whatever, dude.”

  “Whatever dude,” Adam mimicked, staring hard at the back of her head as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. She must have been out of her mind if she thought he was going to let her drink in his house. He kept his eyes on the back of her head as he dialed Janelle.

  “Hey,” he said once she answered. “Where’s Shaun?”

  “You can’t call her and ask her that yourself?”

  Adam sighed deeply. It was becoming clear that every woman he came in contact with today was determined to bust his balls. “Will you give me a break, please? Give me a break.”

  “You’re embarrassed about that tantrum you threw yesterday, huh?” Janelle asked. “You should be.”

  Adam prayed for patience. “Where is she?”

  “She’s at a shoot with Vogue. It’s not a full spread but… whatever.” Janelle sighed heavily on the other end of the line. She wasn’t used to losing. “We’ll get the fuckers next time.”

  “Vogue?!”

  “I know. She’s gonna be huge. And don’t show up there spewing any negative energy at her. This is an important shoot for her.”

  “I’m not going to show up. I was just wondering where she was.”

  “And why’s that?”

  Adam almost hung up on her.

  “Look… I’ll set something up with the two of you later tonight. I’ll have you appear at a party or something.”

  “I can’t tonight. I’m having that barbeque at the house, remember?”

  “Even better. It’ll look good for her to be seen at your house with your friends and family.”

  Adam chuckled. “Run that idea by her and report back to me with how she responds.”

  “She’ll respond the way I want her to respond. You know what…”

  Adam groaned. How did he always manage to turn what was supposed to be a five minute conversation into a twenty minute argument?

  “I’m not sure why the two of you are so confused about just who is steering this ship, so let me clear it up for you right now. I am the captain of this damn vessel, okay? Not you, and not Shaun. Me! What I say goes and if I say the two of you are having a beautiful family barbeque tonight then you are having a beautiful fucking family barbeque… tonight. Understood?”

  Adam’s eyes were stuck at the top of his head in a permanent roll. His skull was pounding. “Is that all?”

  “Yeah, that’s all.”

  “Good talk.” He hung up and immediately turned to Katie, who was no longer ignoring him. She now watched him with an expression that was a toss between amused and concerned.

  “She’s crazy,” Katie said.

  “Fucking nuts,” he agreed.

  “Does Shaun not want to come to the barbeque?”

  Adam blinked. He’d completely forgotten that Katie had been sitting next to him during the conversation and wanted to kick himself for running off at the mouth the way he had. Katie didn’t know about the arrangement with Shaun, neither did his band mates, or anyone else in his life. Adam planned to keep it that way.

  “We’re just taking things slow right now. We don’t want to rush into anything. We’re playing it cool.”

  “We or she?” Katie asked, specifically.

  Adam faltered. “We.”

  “I hate to break it to you, Brother, but you have been, like, the farthest thing from cool since the minute you stepped out with that girl. She has you wrapped, like, all the way around her finger. It’s super obvious to everyone.”

  “We,” Adam reiterated, defensively. “We came to the agreement to take things slow… together… okay?”

  “Sure.” Katie shrugged. “Well, I guess I wouldn’t mind meeting her. You know, whenever she’s ready.”

  Adam searched her eyes. It was taking everything inside of him not to leap from that car to escape this conversation.

  “I love her hair,” she added, her entire face lighting up. “It’s big.”

  Adam recalled saying those exact words to Shaun the first time he laid eyes on her and struggled to remember a time when all she was to him was a head of big hair. He couldn’t even comprehend it; she now possessed too large a space in his mind and his body for him to even begin to recall the person he was before he’d met her. If he’d only known then what he knew now Shaun’s big, luscious hair would have been the least of his worries. He allowed Katie to lock her arm in his, staring ahead.

  “I’m sure you’ll meet her one day. Soon.”

  If Janelle had anything to do with it, maybe sooner than either of them imagined.

  --

  “Whoa, shit!” Adam leapt back from the grill when a huge flame of fire leapt from the red hot coals, aimed straight for his neck. In the background he could hear Katie giggling wildly at his near death and reminded himself never to throw one of these things, again. A Rihanna song blasted so loudly from the speakers situated next to his swimming pool, which was teeming with various friends and family of his and Katie’s, that he could almost feel it shaking the grass beneath his bare feet. Friends and family were spread out all around his backyard, and inside of his mansion drinking, dancing, talking and all around having an amazing time creating new drunken memories at the barbeque. Once the fire died down Adam looked over his shoulder at Katie, who was lying in a chair poolside soaking up the sun.

  “You think that’s funny? Me almost dying a fiery death?”

  Katie could only giggle in response.

  “All right, I’ll remember that. Keep laughing.” Adam turned away from her, twirling the spatula in his hand.

  “Just don’t burn my hot dog, Wolfgang.”

  “Haha,” he gave her a fake laugh as he fingered his ringing phone out of his pocket. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Adam… it’s Shaun.”

  The spatula was immediately forgotten on the table next to the grill and Adam turned to the last person he would trust with an open flame, Noodle, and waved him over. “Hey… come watch the food.”

  He turned and made his way towards the doors of his backyard before he had the chance to witness Noodle burning his entire yard down.

  “Hi,” he said, with a hint of uncertainty, as he walked through his house, nodding to familiar faces. He began moving up the grand staircase in his foyer. He was thrilled that she’d called but he had no idea what to say to her. She hadn’t called him back since he’d left that embarrassing message on her phone. When had he become such a chump? He had some serious damage control to do with her, so he ‘d made a pact with himself that the next time he saw her he would completely keep his cool. Pretend she was just any other chick.

  “I’m sorry… Janelle called me and told me that you were having a family barbeque. I would never bother you…”

  Adam attempted to think of something cool and passé to say.
Something he would have said to some girl he didn’t give a shit about. “You’re not bothering me.”

  “I’m at this photo shoot for Vogue, which is pretty incredible, but…”

  He stepped into his bedroom, the only quiet haven in the entire house, and closed the door behind him. He held onto the handle tight, leaning against it. “But…”

  “But they have me in this freezing cold pool. It’s freezing, Adam. I’m wearing three bathrobes right as we speak and I can still feel every inch of every bone in my body because I’m so cold. I’m not sure how I can feel something so succinctly and be completely numb all at the same time but somehow I’m pulling it off.”

  “Okay. Get the hell out of there immediately. You don’t have to put up with that.”

  “I can’t just leave. Janelle put her ass on the line to get me this job.”

  “She’ll get over it.”

  “Adam…”

  “Babe… if you let them work you ‘til you drop they will. You have to set limits with these people. Walk away.”

  “The director says he doesn’t have the shot, yet. He keeps enunciated the ‘the’. The shot,” she said, dramatically. “They’re bringing me tea and hot packs, so they’re not totally terrible.”

  “Do you want to die of hypothermia today?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then you need to tell them to fuck the fuck off.”

  “No one tells Vogue to fuck the fuck off.” She laughed on the other end and Adam felt himself relaxing against the door behind him. “Adam, I swear I didn’t call to get you all riled up. I guess I just wanted to hear your voice. I figured it might warm me up a little bit.”

  Adam pressed his eyes closed as his entire being spun out of control with warmth at her words. “And…?”

  “And… it’s working.”

  He ran his hands slowly down his face, feeling his zipper growing slowly tight with each word she said. What he wouldn’t give to have her in his bedroom with him right at that moment so he could show her just how warm things could really get between them.

  “I’ve been totally psychotic these last few days, Adam.”

  “I haven’t exactly been easy on you.”

  “This is all just so… confusing and... unlike anything I’ve ever known in my reality before this. I feel like I can barely remember the person I was before I met you.”

  Adam felt exactly the same way. “I get that.” He looked down at his shuffling feet. “More than you know.”

  “I want you to know how thankful for that I am. I’m realizing that if you hadn’t come along I would still be so stuck in this rut that I didn’t even realize I was stuck in. You opened my eyes, you woke me up! No one has ever had that kind of effect on me and… I guess it scared me.”

  He heard the words she was saying to him and couldn’t bite his tongue. “Come to the barbeque. Noodle is burning burgers and hot dogs right as we speak, there’s plenty to go around.”

  A long silence followed. “Maybe I’ll stop by.”

  “Are you serious right now?” He couldn’t help the shy smile splashing across his face and was eternally thankful she couldn’t see it. “What about the rules?”

  Shaun hesitated. “Fuck those rules,” she finally whispered.

  “Ah…” Adam looked up towards the ceiling of his bedroom and bit back a ‘hallelujah’. “A more beautiful three words have never been spoken, babe.”

  She giggled. “I’ll call you when I’m almost done here.”

  “I’ll answer,” he whispered.

  “K.”

  He waited for her to hang up first, which she did, before slowly ending the call on his end, as well.

  --

  Shaun sat on the edge of the pool, shaking like a leaf and baffled as to why the bright afternoon sun overhead had done nothing to warm her up in the three hours that she’d been wading around in that freezing cold pool. The director’s assistant, Brenda, continued to run around, grabbing her more hot tea and draping towels and robes across Shaun’s trembling shoulders. At that moment Shaun was sure that if she never saw another chamomile tea for the rest of her life it would be too soon. It had now been over three hours with her in that soaking wet couture Versace corset and dark washed jeans, trying to be the model she had never been in a sub-zero pool. She was slowly starting to realize that Adam had been right. They had done take, after take, after take and nothing she did seemed to be good enough for the French photo editor. He was now staring at her shots on a computer screen as she sat there freezing. She could see the disapproval in his eyes from all the way across the pool.

  “No, keep your legs in the water!” Brenda, the assistant, cried when she saw Shaun beginning to climb out.

  “But I’m f-f-f-f-freezing,” Shaun managed to sputter, her teeth chattering loudly as she did.

  “If you keep your legs in the water it will be less of a shock when you get back in again.”

  “Again?!” Shaun cried. This wasn’t over yet? She slowly felt tears touch her eyes. “How can he not have a useable shot yet?”

  “He’s not looking for ‘useable’, love, he’s looking for perfection.”

  “But I’m s-so c-cold.”

  Brenda threw her jet black hair over her head and bent down so she was on Shaun’s level. “I know you’re new to this industry so I’m going to give you some solid advice today. Nobody cares about the model. You’re nothing but a coat rack with a pretty face, and if you want to last in this business you need to learn how to be freezing cold, burning hot, and completely uncomfortable in every way without uttering a word of unhappiness about it. Okay?”

  Shaun’s mouth was hanging open at the assistant’s candor, but she managed a struggled. “O-o-o-okay.”

  “We have the shot,” the director exclaimed from across the pool.

  Shaun felt her heart--or the parts of it that weren’t frozen, anyway--leap with joy.

  “That’s a wrap!”

  “Oh my god!” She leapt out of the pool yelped out loudly when she turned and was immediately wrapped up in a pair of arms. She’d expected it to be the overly honest assistant and when she saw the green eyes that had grown so painfully familiar to her, she gasped, “Adam!”

  “You’re shaking like a leaf, Jesus fucking Christ.” Fury took over his face.

  “Adam, I got the… the, g-g-got the…” She closed her eyes and fought to stop her teeth from chattering so she could speak a full sentence. “I got the shot,” she finally bellowed, her eyes growing wide with joy. “Can you believe it?”

  Adam was raging. “No, I can’t. Let’s get you inside.”

  Once they were alone inside the warm confines of the make-up trailer, Shaun was still stammering on as Adam patted her face down with warm wash cloths and rubbed her arms through the many towels draped over her. “This is so b-b-bizzare!”

  “You said it,” Adam mumbled.

  “I can’t believe V-Vogue got a picture of me that they actually think is g-good. Vogue!”

  Adam didn’t know if her non-stop chatter was a direct result of the fact that she was freezing to death, or if it was helping her cause but he didn’t have to heart to shut up her up. “Why would they make you swim around in a pair of jeans and a corset? This is fucking ridiculous.”

  “It’s f-fashion dah-ling,” Shaun said in her best British accent, with a wave of her hand.

  “Who is the director?”

  “It d-doesn’t m-matter.”

  “But it does, though. He needs to know that it’s not okay to do this. Not to you.”

  Shaun was surprised when she felt a little wave of fear at the idea of Adam confronting the photo director. Since when did she give a damn about this ‘modeling’ career of hers? She wasn’t a model. She was a writer. Right?

  She tilted her head at him. “W-wait. Aren’t you supposed to be at the barbeque? I-I t-told you I would c-call you when I was d-done, didn’t I?”

  He draped two more towels over her body, frustrated that she didn�
�t seem to be getting any warmer. “There’s enough alcohol in my backyard for the whole of Los Angeles. The barbeque is not going anywhere.” His eyes ran across her shivering face. She looked beautiful. Cold, but beautiful. He yearned to tell her but bit his tongue.

  Shaun was suddenly hit with the realization that he’d been worried about her. She smiled at him at the thought. “Were you w-worried about me?”

  “Of course I was worried about you. Look at you.” Even as he took in the warm smile on her face he was unable to smile back. He’d never been so sincerely pissed off in his life. “I have no idea how you’ve made it this far in life on your own.”

  Her smile fell. “Hey.”

  “I’m serious.” He finally let a hint of a smile hit his lips. “You’ve got to be the dumbest smart girl I know.”

  It was finally hitting Shaun that Adam was actually angry. It made her think back to her conversation with Celia, and she was hit with an equally sweet and sour realization. She didn’t have to test Adam to see if he would be her Prince Charming and come to her rescue. He’d already done it on his own, without her even having to ask. The familiar wave of guilt hit her like a ton of bricks and as her body seemed to shake her to her very core physically, she was experiencing the same ice cold shift emotionally, as well. She stood from the high chair she’d been sitting on and looked up at him. Her knees shook. “A-Adam?”

  “Shhhh.” He continued to run his hands violently up and down her arms.

  “I-I…. I want it to be you. I want you to be my… my first.”

  Adam’s hands froze on her arms as he watched her carefully before slowly beginning to move, again, much more gingerly than before. He wondered if she was delirious from the cold or if she was actually aware of the words coming out of her mouth. “Do you know what you just said?”

  “I-I-I…” She jammed her eyes shut when the freeze seemed to penetrate her more. “I—“

  “Okay, you’re not warming up, at all. We have to take these clothes off.” He grabbed the bottom of her corset and pulled at the perfect velvet bow that held it together at the bottom. The boning of the corset immediately gave way, opening just enough to show a hint of her chocolate-y skin and black bra. Adam had a moment where he wondered if he could do this. It was short lived as the need to get her warm overwhelmed everything else. “I can’t fucking believe they did this to you. You should have called me.”