Unplugged (Blue Phoenix, #3)(26)
“He’s right. Bring Jem back here. We should stay here and see what happens over the next few days and go from there,” says Dylan.
****
I kick around Dylan’s house as we wait to hear what’s happening with Jem. Tina came with a debrief; Jem’s being released but there’s still a big question mark over his head regarding his involvement. Now I’ve spoken to Tina, our PR girl, and told her everything she needs to know, I want to leave.
Me and Bryn spend a few hours on the Xbox losing ourselves in yet another fantasy world but I can’t concentrate. The beers don’t help my accuracy so I give up and wander to the kitchen for a snack.
Dylan and Sky are in the kitchen, and when I pull out a bowl of nachos and dip, I sit at the huge table and watch them. They’re cooking, a simple, everyday thing but there’s something odd in the synchronicity they have. They’re coordinated; the way they move around each other is like they share an unspoken pattern. Dylan’s hands on her waist as he moves past, Sky touches his hand as she stirs with the other. Natural and real, they don’t need to communicate to tell each other and the rest of the world how in tune they are.
The sight opens my eyes further to Honey and me. I don’t doubt she cares about me and I felt a lot for her, but what I’m looking at here is love defined. Although I’m sure things aren’t all rosy after their reconciliation and four months apart, I can’t help it; but this makes me f-ucking jealous. Dylan never wanted a girl and the love of his life lands in his lap.
I want someone to share my life with, who I can grow old with, have kids with. Something stable. I love my Blue Phoenix life, but I also have a crazy dream about going home to my wife and kids at the end of a long tour. Plenty of people have long-distance relationships; and after a few years, I can jack it all in and they can be the new centre of my world. I thought I could have this with Honey, but how can I do that with someone who so easily finds her way into the arms of another man?
I don’t hang around the kitchen long. Things are awkward with Sky after she saw me with Cerys. She’s friendly and chatty but the wariness behind her eyes is matched by mine. I’m fairly sure she hasn’t mentioned anything to Dylan because the only caginess from him is avoiding talking about Honey.
I’ll stay at Dylan’s for tonight then decide what to do tomorrow.
****
CERYS
“But where did Uncle Liam go? He said he’d take me to the park!”
I huff and put Ella’s dinner on the table. Cheese spread sandwiches, cut into triangles, crusts off. Her incessant whinging about Liam is irritating me, mostly because the same whinging is happening in my own head.
Where did he go and why didn’t he say anything? I shake my head at myself. Why would he? I don’t have much to do with him outside of the weird kisses we shared. Louise has no idea either; he left this afternoon when everyone was out. Liam didn’t leave a note.
“Okay, here’s your answer!” calls Louise from the lounge room.
Leaving Ella at the kitchen table, I go to Louise. The TV flashes pictures of Jem and Dylan, police gathered outside a hotel, and a picture of a young, blonde-haired girl. I stalk all things Blue Phoenix online so I know who this is, Jem’s latest girlfriend.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Jem’s girlfriend died.”
“Wow,” is the best I can manage. “How?”
Louise tips her head back over the sofa. “Drugs, of course.”
The Jem I knew from years ago was a mess. He was always closer to Dylan than Liam, but when I was around eleven years old Jem came over to Liam’s place more. He was skinny and nervy but always polite. I heard whispered conversations about his home life, never anything good. From what I understood, he was left alone to look after himself a lot, as his mum would go away for days at a time. Once Jem hit his mid-teens, the attitude switched to self-defence and he retreated from everyone apart from his three friends.
Sometimes when Jem was high, he’d talk to me in Liam’s kitchen as he made a snack, but the mix of my awe and discomfort around him saw me scurrying away. Jem was Louise’s crush and after years of walking around after him with puppy-dog eyes, he gave her what she wanted. This was the same night Liam kissed me, although she and Jem didn’t stop at kissing. The reality obviously blew away her rock star dreams because they haven’t spoken since that night.
“I’ll call him and see where he is. If this is true, I think he’ll be with the rest of the band somewhere,” Louise says.
CHAPTER 12
CERYS
Liam left four days ago and I’ve heard nothing. He doesn’t have my number; how would he? We lived in the same house so exchanging details wasn’t needed. I toy with asking Louise for his number but when I hear her on the phone to him and the call ends without him asking to talk to me, I realise there’s no point. What did I expect anyway? Dates? A relationship? I got to indulge my fantasy a second time; at least I stopped with a kiss again.
Ella stopped asking about him after a couple of days; she’s used to her dad making promises he doesn’t keep, so she’s filed him away in the ‘don’t expect anything’ box. She submerges herself back in the quiet of TV shows and colouring, with the occasional trip to the park when the weather allows.
After one trip to the park, cut short by a flurry of snow, we head back to the house. It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow and this year Ella is fully aware of Santa and presents, able to understand her Advent Calendar countdown. The remaining chocolates behind each day on her Calendar all disappeared around day twenty, and to my amusement Ella blamed Liam. When I refused to believe her, she then blamed Goldie.