A girl burst into the practice room. She was painfully thin, with a chunky asymmetrical haircut. She sported thick eyeliner and several dangling earrings from each ear. She wore a tiny tank top that gaped open, exposing the swell of her tiny breasts and her impossibly flat belly. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What the fuck is going on in here?”
We stopped playing.
Bailey pulled his bass over his head. “What are you doing here, Daveigh? I thought you got all your stuff last week.”
She glowered at him. “You’d like it if you never had to see me again, wouldn’t you, Bailey?”
Bailey crossed to her. His voice was quiet. “Tell me what I can help you with.”
“You replaced me pretty quick.” She gestured at me. “She’s cute.”
Why was everyone saying I was cute? And was this girl the lead singer that Bailey said had left the band?
“Come on,” said Bailey. He glanced at me apologetically. “You’re the one who wanted out of the band.”
Daveigh laughed, but she didn’t sound amused. “You’d see it that way, I guess.” She walked around Bailey and yanked out the cord that was plugged into one of the amps. She picked up the amp. “This is mine.”
Crux came out from behind his drums. “Don’t be a bitch, Daveigh. We need that amp. You have like five.”
“It’s mine,” she said. She stalked out of the room, carrying the amp.
Bailey’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry. I guess that’s the end of that practice.”
“Don’t worry about it, dude,” said Crux. “I’ll borrow an amp from Sully tomorrow.” He turned to me. “You’re not bad.” Then he left the room too. I heard him clomping up some steps somewhere else within the house.
“Was she the singer of the band before?” I asked, looking at Bailey.
“Among other things.” He studied the floor. “We kind of had a thing. She got really possessive and weird, and I called her out on it. She got all kinds of psycho after that.”
A thing, huh? So, she was like his ex? That was the kind of girl Bailey was attracted to? She was so thin. And she was sort of striking. She was like a force. I was...cute. I didn’t stand a chance. Not that I thought there was a chance, anyway. I mean, Bailey was older than me, and he was just hanging out with me to play music. And because of Eric. That was it.
“You wanna see my room?” said Bailey.
“Sure,” I said.
Bailey’s room was upstairs. It contained little more than a mattress, which sat on the floor. There were clothes strewn all over. The walls were covered in the same kind of graffiti that decorated the walls downstairs. He looked around. “Guess there’s not much of a place to sit.” He settled on the mattress.
Gingerly, I sat down next to him. “It’s fine.”
Bailey lay back on the bed. “This blows. I can’t believe she showed up and did that.”
I twisted around to look at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Especially because you sounded so good.” He propped himself up on one elbow to look at me. “Your music’s so raw and alive. Like it’s just pulsing with energy. Kind of like you. I didn’t realize that you’d make me feel...” He picked at a sheet on his mattress. “Sorry, maybe that sounds creepy.”
Actually, his whole speech had thrilled me—made my stomach turn inside out. I made him feel something? He was Bailey Westfield, and I’d had a crush on him forever. All I’d ever wanted was for him to feel something towards me. “You don’t sound creepy.”
“It’s like,” said Bailey, still not looking at me, “for so long, I’ve just been feeling really, I don’t know, dead inside. I guess because of Eric and stuff. And I just kind of threw myself into whatever I could to forget about it. I thought I wanted to be numb. But then, when I saw you, something almost sparked inside me. I felt alive again.” He looked up at me. “I had no idea how lonely I was. But there’s something about you, Jane.”
Okay, whoa. That completely sounded like the kind of thing a guy says to a girl he likes more than just as a friend of his brother. “I’m not anything that special.”
“No, you are. You’re from before. You’re so alive. You’re so warm and exuberant.”
I didn’t think I was. Not from what Danny said to me recently anyway. “Maybe when I’m around you,” I said. “You remind of before too.” Before Eric died in the car accident. But I didn’t say that out loud, because I didn’t want to remind him that before he’d always seen me as a bratty little sister of his best friend.
Bailey grinned. “Lay back. I want you to see what’s written on the ceiling.”
I did, realizing that I was lying down on a bed next to him. We were so close. I looked into his green, green eyes. He pointed up, and I shifted my gaze. On the ceiling, someone had spray painted, “Thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
“Cool, huh?” he said.
“It’s Shakespeare, isn’t it?” I looked at him.
“I don’t know.” He smiled at me, and his eyes lit up. Jesus, he was beautiful.
“I think it is. It’s a sonnet. We studied it in English this year.” I looked back at the ceiling. “Shakespeare thought he could immortalize his lover in verse.”
“Immortalize?”
I turned back to him. “Yeah, you know, make her live forever.” Of course, my teacher had said that the scholars were pretty sure Shakespeare had written that poem to a man. Danny was convinced that meant Shakespeare was actually gay. I didn’t know what to think.
“Living forever would be cool,” said Bailey. “If you could be sure that you’d really still be alive and still feel things. If you could be sure that you wouldn’t somehow become hollow inside.”
“Hell,” I said. “I’m alive. And I still feel hollow inside.”
“No,” he said. “No, you’re not hollow. You’re electric.” He reached over and stroked my cheek.
His touch was feather soft, but his fingers were cold.
He sighed. “When I touch you, I feel it. You can’t know how powerful it is.”
If I told someone he’d said that later, it would sound cheesy. It would sound like a stupid line. But right then, at that moment, it just made my heart thud against my rib cage. It was perfect. Hesitantly, I touched his cheek too.
His hand went behind my head, tugging me closer to him. “God,” he murmured. “I feel like I’m on fire.”
And then he pressed his lips against mine. His lips were cold too, like his hands, but they felt like a refreshing, cool breeze on a hot summer day. They moved against mine, and I opened my mouth to his tongue.
Bailey’s hand slid down my back, pulling my body against his.
The length of him was solid and cool. Every place that our bodies touched, I felt a relaxing, sweet feeling seep into me. I felt deliciously sleepy, a pleasure that pulled at me, like I was being pulled deeper into a cold spring. It tingled. It was wonderful.
Bailey’s mouth left my lips to explore my jaw and neck. Shivers ran through my body. A small moan escaped my lips. It felt so nice, so wonderful, almost the way the music had felt before. Like I was being swallowed, lost, sucked down, down, down into pleasant, cool drowsiness.
Abruptly, Bailey shoved me away from him. He was on his feet, on the other side of the room. It seemed like he’d moved so fast. I sat up slowly on the bed. My whole body felt heavy. “What happened?”
He sucked in air audibly. “This is wrong.”
“No, it was nice. I didn’t want you to stop.”
“I didn’t want to stop either. That’s the problem.” He opened the door. “You should go.”
I felt confused, but my thoughts were sluggish. I struggled to stand up. “I don’t understand, Bailey.”
“You’re Eric’s little sister,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never want to hurt you. Just go, okay?”
There it was, of course. He just didn’t see me that way. I’d always be a kid to him. I hugged myself, feeling cold and alone. “I need to get my guitar before I go.
”
“Sure.” He started through the door, then stopped and turned to me. “I still want to play together, if you do. But we shouldn’t do anything like that again.”
I shrugged. “Fine.” But it was anything but fine. It was almost worse, having been so close to him and having him reject me after kissing me. Before, I hadn’t known what it felt like. Now, I knew how amazing he was.
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Undeadly Sinful: A Jeana Keller, Killer Vamp--er, Vampire Killer--Story Page 3