Page 20 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

“Fuck you,” he mumbled. “Why do you look so…” He gestured up and down my body. “…not hung over…?”

I laughed, choosing not to answer, and picked up the coffee pot instead.

“Who’d you fuck last night?” he said suddenly.

I froze, waiting to see where he was going with it.

“You’ve got scratch marks on your neck,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee.

I shrugged, pouring in the milk and stirring. “Do names even matter?”

He laughed loudly and smacked his hand on my back. “Fuck no, they don’t.”

We made our way outside and sat down on the step in the sun. I hated lying to my best friend. Having secrets in our situation wasn’t good. Things like that could easily break up the band. I felt like I was in a serious no-win situation. If I told Aiden what I was doing with Mia, he’d lose his shit and the band could be on the line, but if I didn’t, I knew it would eventually eat away at me and things would turn to shit anyway.

“You still thinking about that song?”

Aiden’s voice interrupted my internal battle. Of course I hadn’t been, but it was a good excuse to distract him from delving any more into my sex life. “Yeah. Wanna hear it?”

“Fuck, yeah.”

I set down my cup and went inside to grab a guitar. When I came back out, Aiden had shuffled over, making more room for me on the step. Slowly, I ran through the chords I’d gone over at home during the week. I thought I’d perfected it pretty well over the last few days, but what I was hearing in my head now was way more intense, more intricate in a way, and I knew it had everything to do with having just been with Mia.

I knew Aiden hadn’t heard any of it yet, so I concentrated on letting him hear the basic tune I’d mapped out before trying to bring in the rest. His gaze was all concentration while I played, and I knew he was totally hearing how he’d fit in with me. When I started experimenting with the sound that was in my head, he nodded.

He listened to me go through the whole verse a few times then he started humming his part, and when I heard what he was thinking, I grinned. Matt and Dean stumbled outside bleary eyed, but grinning just the same. Matt pulled his sticks out of his back pocket – yeah, the fucker actually walked around with them in his back pocket – and tapped out a beat on the step. It was fucking perfect.

“Dean, go get your guitar. I want you in on the chorus,” I said.

He didn’t need to be asked twice. Dean loved learning new stuff. He ran off and returned in no time.

“Try it with a G and E minor then a C and A.”

He nodded and came in when we hit the chorus, and the effect was off the charts. I added a small riff in the middle and I knew we’d just created something worthwhile.

I looked up when the song ended and saw Mia sitting at the far end of the patio, watching me. There was a tiny smile on her lips and her eyes shone with excitement.

“Have you written any lyrics yet?” Matt asked.

Aiden laughed. “Yeah, they’ll be about fucking girls with no names.”

Dean grinned but looked confused. “What?”

I shook my head, wanting them to stop before Mia got upset, but Aiden just kept on going. “Jace’s got a nice set on scratches on his neck that were put there by some girl he can’t be fucked remembering her name.”

I grinned when I caught Mia’s blush. Dean laughed and Matt shrugged. “Who gives a fuck what their names are? It’s not like they give a shit about who we really are. They just want to boast to their friends that they’ve fucked a musician.”

Dean groaned. “Yeah, some of them are fucking bad. I mean that chick Lila slapped just stepped in between us and started rubbing up against me.”

“I can’t believe Lila bitch slapped so

meone. That’s some funny shit right there,” I said, laughing.

“It wasn’t so funny last night,” Lila said as she shuffled outside. “That bitch can go get her own musician. This one’s mine,” she said sitting down on Dean’s lap. Dean wrapped his arms around her and pressed his nose to her neck. “Have you been jamming?” she asked, eyeing the guitars.

“Just mucking around with Jace’s new song,” Dean said.

She nodded. “Cool. What are the lyrics about?”

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