A Week Later

Jimmy observed their studio landscape for a bit while sitting at his huge triple bass customized drumkit. Jess’ friends were looking thrilled to be there at their surprise party, just like Emily was that day she first stepped inside it. They were all clingy and chatty around Matt, Zack, Jess, Johnny and his very pregnant wife Lacey. They were also drooling over the fact that Matt was holding an acoustic guitar and was about to play something for them anytime by now. If Val was there to witness her fiancée sitting so close in between Jess’ friends, she would be cutting his balls, Jimmy thought. He had to smile she just wasn’t.

His eyes moved around the giant isolated room and found Brian, deeply involved with his guitar and the new automatically tuner he had arranged recently. He seemed amused with the new technology. Maybe now he didn’t need Emily anymore as his tech?

Well, thinking about Emily… Jimmy’s eager eyes had to find her somewhere in that room, all hopeless and wearing those sad features she had for days now. And there she was, her body lying on the couch, isolated from the rest of everybody, just watching their fun and loud laughter from afar with her head being held by her arm. There was something about her sadness and depression Jimmy felt incredibly attracted to, she looked even prettier to him now – just another feeling from his twisted brain. Although he knew how terrible she must be feeling watching them setting their instruments to get ready to rehearse cause she wished she could be doing that right with her band instead, he couldn’t help being attracted to her. He couldn’t help being in love.

With that thought, he rose from his drum seat and walked towards Emily. He knew she wasn’t in the mood for anything and had repelled everyone from talking to her since they got there but he had to try at least.

Jimmy didn’t say a word. Just stretched his arms down at her, trying to make her hold his hands to get up. She tried to smile without moving her crossed arms in front of her chest.

“Playing hard to get?” Jimmy asked teasingly. She didn’t laugh though. “Okay then!” he set his hands softly on her arms before slowly uncross them to reach for her hands. Emily didn’t hesitate, she just let herself being dragged by whenever Jimmy wanted to take her.

He pulled her back to his drumkit and sat there, looking at her charmingly. That sight just reminded Emily how the blue glare of his eyes could easily make her forget how to breathe. She even forgot about her problems, in fact.

“Just…don’t stand too far! Come here.” he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer in between his legs for a kind kiss. She finally gave out the grin he wanted from her after that.

It was enough consent for him to make her body lean onto his lap, which make her giggle. She let him entangle her from behind with his arms and placed her hands with his, caressing him. She felt shivers when he suddenly approached her neck and her ear with his breathing.

“I was wondering… Johnny’s kid will take too long to be old enough to teach him how to play so… you could be my first naughty student and I could be your horny teacher, what you think?” he kissed her lobe and let his nose wander around her sweet spot below her ear. She couldn’t even rationalize anymore, she just nodded with her eyes closing heavily.

He pulled his hands out from her body to reach for his sticks resting on top of the snare drum as Emily just got back from her state of relaxation, opening her eyes.

“Do you know how to hold the sticks?” Emily felt his perverted smile forming against her neck. She had to turn her head to face him now.

“You tell me…” he pecked her lips before handling her the drum sticks, one for each hand with a strong hold. He felt a twinge of pleasure hitting his lower parts instantly, having a quick recollection of her soft hands getting a hold of his dick.

“Hmm, yeah, you definitely know how.” She chuckled a bit before setting her body up and straight still on top of him. “Now that you already master the sticks, let’s go to lesson number two. Place your right foot on the bass pedal in there.” She did as he told and kicked it a few times with intensity. It blew out loud on the speakers, which made the people spread around the room look at them with startled faces.

“Oops, sorry, I didn’t know it was…” the guys smiled at them before getting back to chat. The couple could just laugh. Brian was the only one that kept watching them discreetly from the corner of his eyes.

“Okay, Emily, lesson number 32 you already nailed it. How to play death metal loud enough for 90 thousand people to listen to your bass drum kick.” She laughed even more and let her back fall against his chest again.

“So I can go out on tour with you now? Drum solo performance maybe?” Jimmy agreed with her and kissed her lips with passion.

That joy she was exhaling now was all he could take from her since the day she got kicked out of her band. Before that he could only take groggy smiles from her while they were getting high before having sex.

She was desperate to get back to stage, to where she belonged all along and from where she should’ve never got out. Jimmy felt so guilty about it, cause he allowed Brian to hire her for that stupid tech job in the first place.

Jimmy glanced at his friend still dealing with his guitar and found his eyes too quick for his liking. Brian was staring at them, Jimmy could tell. And as soon as their eyes met, he diverted.

“So… next lesson. The standard position. Your right foot goes in there, where you already nailed it, your right hand stays at the cymbal and your left hand goes down here on the snare.” Jimmy showed her all the positions but he could tell she was struggling to reach for everything.

“Wow, wait, Jimmy, look at the size of your legs compared to mine! I will fall off the seat to reach for the pedal.” He pushed the bench forward. “Better now! Hmm, lame teacher you are…” she showed her tongue and he replied sticking his to lick hers on the air. She popped her eyes at him, surprised with his acting. She should’ve been used to his craziness already…

“Okay, let’s count. 1…2…3…” he held the sticks with her hands above his and counted it on softly on her ear while beating them against each other.

Emily was smiling the whole time. His hands started to guide hers all the way through the simple snare-cymbal beat, she wasn’t even making an effort to get it right, she just loved to feel his drum beating through his own hands, not only by listening to it, but feeling the energy coming from his body. That was another way different experience for her.

When he noticed she was acting too lazy, he started to accelerate the beat, the cymbal going faster as she added the drum bass a few times, trying to alternate his simple snare beating with her foot movement. He started accelerating so much she couldn’t keep up with the bass, her thigh and shin muscles were hurting already so she just gave up the pedal, while breathing faster.

“What the hell, are you trying to kill me, Professor James?” she let go of the sticks and he kept going on that fast pace to make her fall on giggles all over again. His foot slid to the bass pedal and he started to kick the shit out of those drums with Emily still seating at his lap, enjoying her rhythm ride. Suddenly she had a question pumping inside her head: was he trying to make love to her and his drums at the same time now? She had to smile with her mental picture when he started to sweat and pant.

“Babe, you should definitely add more songs from City of Evil to your setlist for the next tour. You can deliver it so easily, believe me, I know what the crowd wants, I am one of them, remember?” Emily asked and he nodded, trying to concentrate on his fill-in. He was setting a heavy metal double-kick pedal beat when Brian approached them.

“Hey, Ems, I’m sorry to…interrupt your ‘lessons’ here but… can you come over just a bit? I need your opinion over something…” Jimmy stopped his kicking abruptly to look up at his friend with narrowed eyes.

Emily grinned at him and then asked permission at Jimmy with her eyes facing his. At his nod,
she got out from his legs and left her boyfriend alone, just wondering why Brian had the power to screw their moments together every single time. He sighed. He had enough of this.

---

“Just wait for the time when Rye will be loose enough to grab the guitar and play some of her own songs for us, you’ll see what I’m talking about…” Rye had her face blushed as the subject suddenly became her musical abilities. Jess was trying to be nice there but Rye hated playing under pressure, even more in front of her beloved icons.

Mei and Kim agreed with Jess right away.

“Ohhh, really Rye? Been hiding your game all along like this? Shame on you!” Matt gave her a slight shoulder push, handling the guitar to her. She refused at first but he wasn’t easy, he insisted and she had to hold it on her lap. What was that if not forcing?

“Come on guys, Jess is just acting like my friend here, my songs suck and you won’t ever see me playing one of those…” everybody booed her and she got even more uncomfortable.

“J showed me your songs. That one, Nameless, wow, I told her I could be your producer any time you want. I mean it, we can definitely make money with that.” Zacky stated, hugging Jess sitting on one of his legs. She answered positively with her head.

Rye couldn’t take that much compliments at once, even from Zacky. He was her less favorite member of the band for her own reasons but now he had just assured a special place on her heart, offering his house to them and being so kind to her. What’s there not to like?

“Alright, alright enough, we are embarrassing her. Maybe with a beer or two she will be finally giving in to us. I’m gonna go grab some, who else wants?” Matt stood up from the couch and received a lot of requests from all of them. Rye and Lacey were the only ones who preferred soda. “Oh, okay I was wrong, maybe with a soda or two…” he grinned at Rye and she placed her palm on her face, trying to hide her timid smile.

“Matt, wait, I’m going with you, you don’t have enough hands to bring all those cans here.” Kim got up from the couch with a restrained smile. She was more quiet than usual with them that afternoon, even though it was their goodbye party.

“Okay, let’s go then. The freezer is right across the room.” She followed Matt and helped him putting the beer cans out to grab the soda ones, at the back.

“So… I see you got your ring back…” Kim asked while he was counting the beers. In response, he faced her with a narrowed look.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have taken it off in the first place.”
Awkward silence remained between them for a few seconds.

“Matt, I’ve been wanting to…Well, before we take the plane to our homes tonight, I want to apologize to you for the way we pushed you at the interview. But…you know, it was necessary…” Kim had the sweetest tone on her voice.

“What? I had a great time with you guys last week, that was a lot of fun for me actually. Normally they ask us a lot of shit and same-old-same stuff everybody already know so, it was different. I like different.” His set of dimples shining at her just transformed that entire week in one of the best of Kim’s life. She loved his outside already but Matt was definitely beautiful inside likewise.

“I’m glad u didn’t feel offended or anything. It was an honor for us to be able to have that exclusive with you, we really appreciate that. And, well, what happened later was too, a good recollection from our vacation trip to California. We won’t forget that landscape so soon…” She grinned widely at him after biting her lower lip. She noticed he just got embarrassed with her last statement but was still smiling with a lot of beer cans on hands, looking so silly now.

“Dear lord, just…keep those thoughts away from your magazine, please, I’m begging you.” He tried to place his palms together with all the cans sliding to his arms.

“Your big secret is safe with us, Matt, don’t worry.” She winked and he rolled his eyes. “Oh and…by the way, go talk to your girl, you have to fix you relationship. Better sooner than later.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely right. I’m planning to do this later today. Thanks for the advice.”

“Oh, never mind, I just said that to show you I can be nice too. But deep inside I still hope you’ll be available again in the future and will give me a call when it happens. Will you?”

“You’re on top of my list, honey.” He winked to melt Kim’s heart just before they heard a few notes being strummed from their group across the room. “Hey, look! Rye gave in before we could get there! Let’s get back.” Kim helped him with the beers and distributed the cans to all of them, including Jimmy, Brian and Emily, who had just joined them on the circle to watch Rye’s performance.

She was finally starting her acoustic version of Dear God, which made Matt reflect about the reason she chose that sweet and country like song as her sex song. He couldn’t pinpoint it but he didn’t need anyway, she was just showing him with her lovely way of singing with her eyes closed that sex wasn’t just about lust. It was about love first.
Her angelical voice fit perfectly on that song, better than his rough tone. He was almost calling her to sing with them on the band but he was afraid he could lose his job to her.

Jimmy sat on the drums and began to follow Rye with a much slower beat this time, making her look back at him with glistening eyes, she felt flattered to be guided by Rev. Johnny embraced his wife tight against him, he wasn’t planning to leave Lacey there to join them now, he was too scared of letting her alone.

Matt grabbed another acoustic guitar and started to sing and play along with Rye, looking deep inside her eyes while singing gracefully. She took the cue and began to sing the backing vocals when needed, as if she was singing that song especially for him.
That scenario just made that day one of the best of her life. This time, it wasn’t just a dream, she couldn’t be more certain of that.

“Honey, can you feel it? Our baby is kicking!” Lacey murmured on Johnny’s ear and he quickly let his hand touch her belly to feel it. His eyes were watery while kissing her with passion.

“The baby likes our songs already!!” Johnny said it loud and everybody smiled at him, noticing what was happening. He mouthed ‘I love you’ to Lacey.

Brian finally joined them in the last verses to add some powerful triplets and harmonics to the melody. Rye almost messed up her chords when she heard Brian sitting by her side and shredding while paying attention at her lead. That was too much information to handle now. She wished that song could never get to an end, but it did. It ended as brilliant as a stage performance and everybody applauded with big smiles surrounding her. They all knew her truly and shining self now.

Jimmy went from his drums back to the couch, taking a seat in between Mei and Zack. He smiled at Mei and she felt shrudders at those deep oceans he had as eyes. She never saw a brighter blue in her whole life. They simply started to chat about their lives out of the blue.

---

“Jess’ friend is a hell of a singer, huh?” Brian stood by Emily and brought her back to where they were talking before, secluded from the others.

“Yeah, she really is. She’s just too shy to admit it.”

“So…what do you think?” Brian asked excited, still holding his Schecter.

“I love the setlist you made but… I was just talking to Jim and, well, I was hoping you could play more City Of Evil songs like, I don’t know, Blinded In Chains, Trashed and Scattered, Betrayed, maybe? That album was genius work and you can’t just let it grow old without people noticing it.”

“Hmm, yeah, you’re right but they are difficult songs to deliver live, you know that. I think that album is golden too, we worked our butts off to make it best so… We should definitely show this up to the world more often. But… we’ll need a lot of rehearsing time if we want to perform it on this tour yet, those songs are pretty hard.”

“Yeah, I know, but you can do it, I’ve seen what you can do and how Jimmy can pull off his crazy fast drumming so… Just go for it. I’m sure Matt will love the idea.” He smiled widely at her and couldn’t keep his gaze from her kind of sad features. He knew her too well now not to notice when something was wrong. He just didn’t know what was.

“Hey, something wrong? You seem kinda… off today.” He just wanted to caress her hair and hold her face really close to his but he held back his desire. He knew Jimmy was watching their every move from the couch.

“Oh, no, I’m fine Bri, thanks for asking. It’s just something stupid, I’ll tell you later.” She looked down, trying to run away from his inviting eyes.

“Okay. But I know exactly what can bring your mood back. Let’s jam a little, I miss jamming with you.” Brian said it in a fast movement of his left fingers in front of Emily’s face. She grinned.

“Yeah, maybe that’s what I need. Can you hand me your red and black?” she was practically begging with her eyes at him. He knew she loved that one especially.

“She’s all yours. But be careful, she’s a screamer.” He raised one eyebrow with a vicious look.

“So we fit right in. She could be called Emily from now on.” Emily winked seductively at Brian. He had to take a deep breath before start imagining things he shouldn’t. Hell…he had imagined dirty things with her since the day they met, nothing new there. But now it was getting more usual and intense than before. The strong feeling he had for her was turning into desperation.

“Hm, show me what you got and I’ll think about it.” Brian handed her his guitar and he could see the brightness of her brown eyes increase as she was strapping it over her shoulder.

If Jimmy wasn’t capable of making her feel better, he surely felt he was.

“Let’s go with this one…” she gave the first chords and he knew exactly what song was. And of course he would let her stick with the main solo parts as the gentleman he was. No, the truth is he could get so turned on by watching her frying her fingers on that fretboard.

Everybody downed their voices to give room to their classic rock notes exploding the amps.

Let the jam begin.

Notes

A little earlier chapter before the turmoil =p

hope u like my girls, u having fun with the band now! ;D