Over the next couple of days, Johnny and I were inseperable. He had even taken me out for a picnic at Central Park.
The guys would be at the studio early in the morning and usually Val and I would bring them something to eat.
Today, Val had left me with them at the studio because she had some errands to run. Jimmy was sitting beside me with his arm over my shoulder and we were all listening to Matt record in the booth. I smiled, closed my eyes, and listened to his voice. Matt's voice was what brought me to listen to them in the first place back with their album "Waking The Fallen". Eternal Rest was the first song I had learned how to play the drums on and it was a hard one, but I mastered it.
Johnny was sitting on my other side and I opened my eyes when he nudged me. I looked over at him and he was smiling. "You sure are listening to Matt pretty close," he said.
I nodded. "His voice is amazing. It's unique and rough. It's what lead me to this band in the first place. I had 'Waking The Fallen' but Liam decided to play frisbee with it."
I felt Jimmy tense up. "Douche," he said.
I agreed with him and I heard Matt finish what he had been singing. "What'd you guys think?" he asked.
Brian started telling him what he should do again and what was good. Matt nodded to everything he said, then he turned to where I was sitting. "What did you think, Eliza?"
I looked up with wide eyes. Matt was asking ME what I thought about a new song? I looked around at the other guys who were all smiling at me. "I thought it was great," I said and Matt nodded.
They all went through recording the rest of the day and finally it was time we went home. It felt so amazing to call this town home. And it felt even better to call these guys my family.
Everybody agreed that we were all going to hang out at Matt's for a few hours.
I was just about to leave with Matt when Johnny put a hand on my arm. "Hold on, guys."
Everyone turned to look at him, but he was smiling at me as he addressed them. "I want to see Eliza play. I keep hearing her talk about how she can play and we've seen her beat Jimmy at twizzler drumming, but I want to see her on real drums."
I looked at him with my mouth wide open.
Zacky clapped once. "That sounds great," he said. "But Jimmy won't even let us touch his drumset. How is Eliza going to play?"
Jimmy wrapped an arm around my shoulder, which he did a lot lately, and looked down at me. "I'll let Ly-ly play. Just this once though. And only because I love her."
I smiled at him. That was the first time Jimmy had said he loved me. Before it was that he cared. I know it was a brotherly love, but if you had been brought up with my family, you'd get excited too.
I nodded at Johnny. "Sure. I'll play. But I choose the song and the rest of you have to play too."
They all agreed and we walked back into the studio towards Jimmy's drumset. We all got ready to play and Jimmy adjusted everything around me and handed me a pair of drum sticks.
Brian turned to me. "Ok, little miss drummer. What're we playing today?"
"Eternal Rest," I said with confidence and they all looked at me in surprise.
"That's a tough one," Jimmy said.
"What song of yours isn't?" I said shrugging. "Its the one I know the best."
They agreed and we started to play. Once I started playing, I got lost in the music. I mouthed along to some of the lyrics but almost absentmindedly. I was completely engrossed in the song and it ended way too quickly.
After the song had finished, they all turned to look at me with wide eyes and Matt clapped. "My God, Eliza. That was amazing. It was like Jimmy was back there."
I shook my head. "I'm nowhere near that good. But that was so much fun."
Jimmy pulled me into a hug. "My mini-me is even more spectacular than I thought!"
I laughed. I didn't think I could get any happier. I was away from my old, terrible life and surrounded by a group of guys who I had loved for so long. I had just played a song with them, which others had done onstage, but how many could say that they had played on Jimmy's set in their studio?
Johnny began to hand his bass over to me. "Ok. Now it's time to show your skills on this," he said.
Matt shook his head. "Not today, Johnny. Maybe next time she can, but right now we have got to go. Val's cooking dinner and you know how she gets if we're late."
At that, we all started to hurry to the cars. I hadn't been here very long, but long enough that I knew if Val expected you to be there at a certain time, it was wise to be there on time.
We all walked into the house at the same time and heard Val in the kitchen. Matt and I walked in there with her and she smiled at us.
"Hi, you two," she said as she moved to kiss Matt. "How was the session today?"
"Great," Matt said. "Eliza played a song for us on the drums and she did amazing, Val. You should have heard her."
Val looked at me. "Jimmy let you on his drumset?"
I nodded. "Yeah I was surprised too."
"He really does love you then," she said laughing as she moved to pull something out of the oven.
I turned around and went into the living room with the other four guys. They were getting onto Johnny about his height and I stood next to him, giving them all a fake glare.
"Leave him alone. Want to make fun of somebody short?" I gestured to myself and said, "Well here I am."
The three guys looked at each other and shook their heads. "That's what I thought," I said and they all laughed.
After dinner, we were all sitting in the living room watching movies. Matt and Val were curled up on the couch, while Zack and Brian sat with their girlfriends. Since Leana still refused to be anywhere I was, I was sitting on the floor in between Jimmy and Johnny, drinking chocolate milk.
I had always loved chocolate milk, but Jimmy had pointed out that it solved all problems so we both drank our fair share of it together. I was leaning up against Johnny's side and he had his arm around me.
The movie was almost over when we heard somebody knock on the door. Matt stood, paused the movie, and went to open the door. When he came back into the room, he looked a little pale and we soon saw why.
Following him into the room was a smug looking Leana who had a yellow envelope in her hand. Jimmy sat up straight when he saw her.
"Leana?" he asked. "But you said you weren't coming over tonight if Ly-ly was here."
Leana rolled her eyes as she leaned over to give him a quick kiss. "I wish you'd stop calling her that," she said and she stood up straight.
"What are you doing here, Leana?" Val asked. None of them had forgiven her for speaking so harshly to me. I didn't care anymore.
Leana looked down at me and gave me an evil smile as she held up what was in her hand. "I've been doing some digging on our dear little Eliza here." She said my name like I was a bug that needed to be crushed.
Johnny stood. "Why are you in her business, Leana?"
Leana glared at him. "Because she doesn't belong here. And now I have fixed all that."
I stood as well. "What did you do?" I asked. I had been shy and let her walk over me last time. I refused to do that again.
She looked slightly taken aback by me standing up for myself, but she got over it quickly. "It seems like your dear mommy and daddy in Ireland weren't very honest with you."
"What are you talking about? They adopted me fifteen years ago," I said, confused. What had she found?
Leana laughed once. "Adopted? Bullshit. They stole you from an unexpecting couple in a place called Decatur, Texas."
I looked at her, shocked. Stolen? That couldn't be right. Ma and Da hadn't been great parents but they weren't child thieves.
"I see I've struck you all silent," she said, smiling cruelly. "Yes, they stole you from Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. And they want their dear little Eliza back."

Notes

Oh shit! I love drama so much! It's what I'm really good at xD
Comments and cookies, my loves <3