Falling Down

by Anne Mercier

  I turn around and note Cage, Damian, the guys from Falling Down, and another guy working the boards watch with straight faces. Sheesh, hard crowd today. I close my eyes as I reach deep and just lose myself in the music.

  When we're done Trace belts out, "Cage, dude, where'd you find these guys?" He fist bumps with Jace.

  Cage grins. "I'll let them fill you in on that."

  We all walk out of the room and into where they're all standing. Jesse's grinning.

  "Crazy vocals," Ben says and smacks my ass. I yelp. My ass is seriously sore from yesterday. Jesse smirks.

  I laugh. "Thanks. Seems Trace wasn't the only one being tested today."

  Trace shrugs. "If I'm going to sign on with a no-name band, they better be fucking good and I needed to see it for myself. No offense to Cage or you, X."

  "None taken," Cage replies and Xander shrugs.

  "Fair enough," I say. "I don't think I'd respect you very much as a musician if you didn't want to see what we were capable of."

  He nods. "I'm in if you all are."

  "Fucking A," Jace says and Sera and I laugh.

  "Sera?" I ask.

  "Oh yeah."

  I nod. "Absolutely. Let's do this."

  Trace grins.

  Cage shakes his head. "Somehow I knew that'd be a perfect match. Good suggestion Xander."

  Xander shrugs. "Only the best for our friends and that goes both ways."

  "Oh Xander, I love you so much right now," I say dramatically and run and jump hug him, wrapping my legs around his waist. He's laughing so hard he nearly drops me and then he smacks my ass(the same cheek as Ben, mind you) and I squeal rubbing my ass.

  Jesse smirks again and I narrow my eyes. I point my finger at him and his grin widens. "Don't do it."

  He holds his hands up, palm out as if saying, "Hey, I didn't say a thing." He may not have said anything, but his smirk said enough. That man. Everyone's snickering.

  "Trace, why don't you stick around and help us pick out the guitarist?"

  "Legit."

  Cage talks into his Bluetooth headset and tells Marta to cancel the other drummer he had scheduled for this afternoon.

  Jesse walks up and slings his arm around my shoulders.

  "How are you doing, Cupcake?"

  "Pretty damn good. As Sera would say, Trace fucking Styx. Unbelievable."

  Jesse grins. "As I keep telling you, you guys are going to kick serious ass."

  I slip my hand into the back pocket of Jesse's jeans. I really, really like his ass. "It doesn't seem real."

  Sera shakes her head. "It doesn't. Joey's going to go all girlie when he finds out Trace is joining us."

  "Oh my God, I never thought about that. Trace, my little brother is your biggest fan. He's going to go crazy over this."

  Trace grins. "It's cool. I'm a fan of his too."

  Sera groans. "Don't tell him that. His head is big enough as it is."

  "True that," I say.

  "I'll be honest," Trace says. "When Cage and Xander came to me and told me about your band needing a drummer then telling me who you were, I was skeptical."

  I shrug. "I would be too. An actress, model, and accountant starting up a band? Yeah, there'll be plenty more jumping on that bandwagon and even more who will hate us out of sheer principle."

  "Fuck 'em," Jace says.

  "That should be our motto," Sera says.

  "We'll work that into the logo."

  I hear footsteps coming down the hallway and when I turn I want to fangirl all over the place. Sera actually does let out a fangirl squeal and the guys all laugh as Cage greets one of the best guitarists ever.

  "Oh my God." I shake my head and rest my forehead against Jesse's shoulder.

  "What's wrong, Luce?"

  "This can't be real," I whisper. "It feels like the last week has been a dream and I've still not woken up."

  Kennedy steps up and pinches my ass.

  "Hey!" God damn! My ass is so freaking sore.

  He shrugs. "Just letting you know you're not dreaming."

  "Did you have to pinch my ass?" I say rubbing the same damn cheek.

  "Yeah, I did. Everyone else is spanking it. I felt the need to touch it."

  I laugh. "Perv."

  "You have no idea," Kennedy wiggles his eyebrows showing us he does have a playful side. I think maybe he's finally comfortable enough to let loose?

  Cage steps up. "Alright. Layla Harper, meet Blush." He introduces us individually and for a minute I wonder if Sera's going to hump Layla.

  "You hooked up with them already, Styx?" Layla asks Trace.

  He nods. She looks at us, probably checking us out and assessing us in her own way.

  "Let's jam," Trace says.

  We head into the sound room and everyone takes their spot.

  "Same song?" I ask.

  Same band, different song. He names the song and Layla raises her brows. Trace laughs.

  Same as before, Trace counts us off and by the time we're done with the song Layla has a grin so big I think her cheeks must hurt.

  "That was kick ass," she says.

  Trace nods, "Fucking killer."

  She doesn't look at me, Sera, or Jace--only Trace. I'm not sure what I think of Layla. She seems kinda bitchy and judgmental. I'm not as excited about her as I was about Trace, especially when she notices Jesse and they share a kiss on the lips and a hug. They're very familiar with one another and it's no surprise. They toured together years ago when Layla was with Kickz.

  Jace isn't as excited about Layla either. Sera's come out of her fangirl trance and doesn't seem all that thrilled. Cage notes our demeanor and nods.

  "I'll give you a call and let you know, Layla."

  She nods. "Sounds good. Nice meeting you all. Give me a call, Jesse," she all but purrs.

  Yeah, I'm not her biggest fan and it's not just because she's hitting on Jesse.

  When she's left the building, Ben asks, "Not going with her?"

  I shrug. "I just didn't feel it. Her behavior tells me she's going to treat me, Sera, and Jace as less-than-equal and that doesn't work for me."

  Sera nods. "Sadly, me either. She didn't feel like she fit in or that she even wanted to. She only gave a shit what Trace thought. There goes the fangirl feeling after seeing the attitude."

  Trace is leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. "Layla's not really a team player."

  "Yeah," Sera sneers. "I suppose unless you're famous and have a cock, she's not really into being your pal."

  "Noticed that, did you?" Ben laughs.

  I nod. "I don't want to have to deal with that shit."

  Jace agrees so that's a unanimous "no".

  Cage looks at Ben. "I told you."

  Ben shrugs. "I didn't think so either, but you never know."

  "You knew it wouldn't be a good fit?" Jace asks.

  Cage nods. "Her personality is completely different than yours."

  "Well, who's next?" I ask.

  "That'd be me, bitches."

  "Are you shitting me!?" I squeal. I turn around to see the tall, model-beautiful Megan Melody with her multi-colored rocker hair..

  "Meggie!" Sera squeals and squeezes her in a hug. Jace and I join in.

  "Huh," Kennedy says. "I guess they know each other."

  "Oh my fucking God," Meggie says. "Get the fuck out of here with these bitches and then Falling Down. I'm going to need a dry pair of panties. For real."

  I laugh. "We know Megan from high school."

  "No shit?" Jesse asks.

  "For real," Jace says. "She was in a rival band two towns over. We fought for gigs."

  "How come you're not still with Taunt?" I ask.

  "Ugh. Nothing but a bunch of coke heads and manwhores. With me being the only female, it was just too much for me to have to listen to them fucking their sluts while I was trying to sleep."

  "Gross," Sera says with a shudder.

  "Huh," I say looking over my shoulder at Jesse and the guys. "That
'd be kinda like having to live on the Falling Down bus."

  Jesse lets out a laugh and shakes his head. "Tsk, tsk, Lucy. Always so judgmental."

  "It's not judgmental if it's fact."

  "Valid," Megan says.

  "Holy shit, do you read Jay McLean?" Sera asks.

  "Yes! Logan fucking Matthews, bitches."

  I let out a laugh. Logan fucking Matthews.

  "Let's jam, bitches," Meggie says with a bounce in her step.

  "Yeah, fuckers, let's go," Jace says with a grin and fist bumps Megan.

  As we head into the sound booth I hear Cage mutter, "We've got bitches and fuckers. This is going to be one hell of a ride."

  We don't stop after one song. We go into two and three and then four. I notice Cage on his Bluetooth, likely cancelling the rest of the interviews which is perfect.

  With Trace and Megan, Blush is perfect.

  We walk back out to where everyone's standing and I hug Cage. "I'm so excited, you just don't know!"

  He chuckles. "I can guess from the smile on your face and that weird happy dance you and Sera are doing right now."

  "Don't knock the dance," Sera says grinning.

  "Alright, business before we head to lunch. You all share the same agent, so this will be easy as far as contracts go. I'm sure Irene's going to want to talk to you all about a group contract with her. Right now you've only got individual and for different purposes. She'll have to modify Trace and Megan's and write one up for Jace." Sera and I nod.

  "That's pretty freaking handy."

  "Irene is a goddess," Trace says.

  "That she is."

  "I want you all back here in two weeks to start recording," Cage tells us.

  Meggie bounces on her toes.

  "We've got a shit ton of songs to choose from between all of us," Jace states. "We can pick the ones we want and modify them to fit our style."

  "Wicked cool," Trace says.

  "You can use my private studio to practice and there's office space if you want or need room to work through the song choices."

  Meggie whispers loudly, "Just how well do you know Cage?" and I smirk.

  "Not as well as Sera."

  Everyone snickers and Cage winks.

  "All right. If you need me, you know how to get a hold of me. I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of you."

  I look around for Damian and he's nowhere to be found. He must have taken off when we were jamming with Meggie. Bummer. I would have liked for him to come to lunch with us.

  "Let's go get some food," Ethan says. Everyone murmurs their agreement and as we're walking out of the building, I shake my head again. I just can't believe this is happening and it's happening so fast.

  Jesse puts his arm around my shoulders again. I'm sure it'll hit me later, when I come down from my rocktastic high, how touchy-feely Jesse is with me, but right now I'm just floating on cloud nine.

  "It really does feel like a dream, Jesse."

  He presses a kiss to my forehead. "It's your dream coming true, Luce. Enjoy every fucking second of it."

  "I intend to."

  Ethan reaches out and pinches my ass. "You're not dreaming."

  I squeal and give Ethan a look. He laughs and tries to hide behind Jesse. I chase him down the hall.

  "You can run, but you can't hide, Ethan!" I yell.

  He stops, turns and looks right at me. "I don't want to run from you, Lucy. You can pinch or smack my ass anytime you want." He wiggles his eyebrows.

  Jesse frowns. "No pilfering, Ethan."

  "Pilfering. Did you get a word-of-the-day app on your phone?" Ethan chuckles.

  "Shut the fuck up."

  As they continue their banter, I take a deep breath, rubbing my ass. This is it. This is real. This is our dream, my dream. I can't wait to get started.

  We are Blush and we are ready to go.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lucy

  "Jesse?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Why do you keep touching me?"

  He shrugs. "Because I can."

  I blow out a breath.

  "I never gave you permission to touch me."

  He shrugs. "You gave it to me the first time you screamed my name."

  Jesus. He's been touching me all day. How can I get over the man when he keeps touching me? How can I get past the weekend of fucktastic sex when he follows me home? Yep, seriously. He followed me home. We all went to lunch and afterward, he invited himself over. His reasoning is to help pick out songs but we're not even doing that today. We're going house hunting, or we were. I'm not sure how that's going to happen unless Jesse's bored enough to tag along.

  "You remember I told you Sera and I are going house hunting, right?"

  "I do. Ben and I know of a few properties that are available for a decent price."

  "It doesn't have to be anything as extravagant as Casa Falling Down. I doubt I'm going to have the entire band living with me."

  Jesse chuckles. "Sure you will. You, Sera, and Jace already live together. You're good friends with Megan so she'll for sure move in and Trace being Trace will move in because he's going to want to be with his band mates."

  "I don't know. I'm sure Trace is going to want privacy when he brings home his girlie friends."

  "He'll likely keep a fuck-pad for that."

  "Well, hell," Sera says.

  "Oh boy. Okay, so we'll need at least five bedrooms, plus two just in case mom and dad and Joey stay, plus two for whoever's on duty. Okay, yeah. And I want to put in a studio. Half Casa Falling Down size it is."

  Ben snickers.

  "Max will drive us. Some of the paparazzi followed us here," Frank tells us.

  "Followed us all the way out to Santa Monica? Are you kidding me?"

  "Afraid not."

  "Well that sucks great big hairy donkey balls."

  "That it does," Frank says with a smirk.

  "Donkey balls?" Ben asks.

  "Don't ask," Max tells him.

  "You're better off not knowing."

  "You're probably right."

  "Okay then, let's go house hunting."

  ***~~~***

  "Well that sucked," Sera says.

  "True story," Jace replies.

  I just sigh. Ben's on the phone with their realtor but I'm just not in the mood for any more house hunting crap.

  "Looks like I'll be renting out a floor in the hotel again."

  "Meh," is Sera's response.

  "Max? Can we stop at the house?"

  "Can do, Luce."

  "I need to pick up some more clothes and shoes."

  "Me too," Sera replies.

  Ben hangs up the phone. "She said she's got a couple that fit what you're looking for, gated community and all that. She's going to look around for more and get back to me in a couple days."

  "Oh, thank God. I didn't want to go anymore today."

  "Fuck no."

  "Frank, any press hanging out at the house?"

  "There were only one or two yesterday but I didn't see any at all today."

  "Well, we're about to find out," Sera says as we turn the corner.

  Jace whistles. "Nice digs, Luce."

  I shrug. "Thanks. Too bad we can't stay."

  "There's no one here."

  "Right now. But the minute they find out I'm here, they'll show up. It's how they roll."

  "And to think, you and Jesse hadn't even fucked yet."

  "I know, right? Kind of a shitty deal there. Alright, let's go in so I can get my stuffs."

  "Stuffs?" Jesse asks.

  Sera pats him on the arm. "When it comes to clothes and shoes, Lucy goes into her 'stuffs' zone."

  Jesse just raises a brow.

  "If you want the ten cent tour, I'll be happy to show you around," Frank says.

  "Perfect. Thanks so much, Frank."

  "You got it, Luce."

  "I'm going to go up and pack."

  I head up the white carpeted stairs and hold on to the black wrought iron railing--the
one thing Jesse's mansion and my home have in common.

  I grab a suitcase out of my closet and put it on the bed.

  "Need help?" Jesse asks from the doorway.

  "Hmm, maybe."

  He hands me a diet soda. "Figured you'd be thirsty."

  "Figured that out, did ya."

  "Mhmm. You were singing and it's hot and dry out today. Plus you were singing under your breath all day. Makes for a dry throat."

  "Seriously dry. I just always sing. I never notice I'm doing it." I take a long drink of the soda and recap the bottle, setting it on my dressing table.

  I walk into the closet and grab a bunch of tops and some jeans and Capri pants.

  I lay them on the bed and start folding them and packing them into the suitcase as Jesse takes a seat on the bed, his elbows resting on his knees.

  "What's going on, Jesse?"

  He takes a long drink of his soda then toys with the label.

  "I was thinking…"

  "Oh, don't do that, Jesse. That'll be painful," Sera says with a laugh as she walks in my room and flops on my bed.

  Jace and Ben follow, but stand near the door with their beers.

  "Need help?" Sera asks.

  "Shoes."

  "On it."

  "What were you thinking, Jesse?" I ask as I follow Sera into the closet to get more tops and some dresses. He's about to speak when my phone rings.

  "What's up, Max?"

  "There's press all over the fuckin' place, Luce. We better get a move on."

  I blow out a long breath. "Okay. We'll hurry."

  "Press?" Sera asks.

  "Yeah. Lots from what Max said."

  Jesse nods from where he's leaning against the wall, arms crossed. I signal to him to hold his arms out and lay my clothes across them.

  "For just a second."

  "No problem."

  I grab a few more tops and we all head into the bedroom where Jace and Ben are talking with Frank.

  "Fuck, Frank."

  "Yeah."

  "Okay, what were we talking about? Oh, Jesse. What were you thinking about?"

  He places my clothes on the bed and I start folding them. Jesse runs a hand across his two-day beard and it makes me want to bite him--strange urge.

  "You know if you stay at the hotel, they're going to find you eventually. The staff doesn't get paid enough to keep those kinds of secrets and they all know that the paps pay well."

  "They kept it quiet so far."

  "Something's going on for them to pop up out of the blue," Sera tells me. "You can't expect them to stay quiet if it's more than just a you-and-Jesse thing."