Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)(81)

I laughed darkly. “Um, no.”

“We’ll all be at UT together,” Sebastian pointed out.

“Hey, I need your help tonight,” I asked him, changing the subject. “Tonight, when you’re singing, will you ask Leo to sing the new song he’s been working on?”

“You sure?” he said, raising his brows. He’d heard Leo practicing the song. We spent an entire evening talking about it.

I nodded.

Mila squeaked, “Incoming, incoming, super-slutty nurse arriving in three, two, one.”

Tiffani stopped in front of us. She gave us a huge smile. “Enjoying the party, guys?” she asked, her eyes on me.

“We were,” I said cattily. I briefly wondered if she’d ever told Leo about me. I wondered what her reaction was when she realized he already knew.

She fluttered her eyelashes at Sebastian. “So what’s Leo making us for breakfast in the morning?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “No idea. I didn’t realize you’d be around to eat with us.”

“Leo doesn’t tell you everything, silly! Maybe we’ll just sleep in and skip breakfast,” she giggled, her big chest quivering. Then she gave me a smirk and flounced off.

“Maybe she really is psychic,” I said.

Sebastian snorted. “No way.”

“She knows I love Leo.”

He elbowed me. “Dude, we all know. Just ignore her. She’s not once spent the night at the loft. Come on, let’s go get Leo. We’ve got some songs to do.”

A few minutes later, the band, plus Leo, took the stage, and I sat at a table with Mila. They opened with “Great Balls of Fire,” and Teddy attacked the piano like Elvis on crack. He was fantastic. I saw him glance up at one point, and his eyes met mine for the tiniest little second, and I knew he’d wanted me to see him. “Play it, Teddy!” I yelled out, smiling and waving at him like a rabid King fan. After that they played Warren Zeron’s “Werewolves of London,” and Mila and I ran out to dance. We twirled around, howling and singing the chorus with everyone else.

“Welcome to Club Vita’s grand opening and Halloween party!” Sebastian yelled out to the crowd after the song was over. “Now, I’d like to slow things down a bit by letting my older brother here sing a song for you.”

He looked over his shoulder at Leo’s surprised face and grinned. “Ladies, Leo has a voice like a dream. Now, he doesn’t know this, but I heard him working on this fantastic new song recently, and I think he should play it for you, don’t you? I know there’s one girl out there in particular that requested it.”

Someone yelled, “Hell, yeah, sing it, Leo!” It sounded a lot like Mila.

Sebastian chuckled. “Now, he can be a little shy sometimes, so we may have to give him some encouragement to get him to sing.” Several whistles and catcalls drifted up from the crowd.

Leo strode over to Sebastian, his face tight. I didn’t know if he was going to tell him to shut the hell up or sing. They whispered heatedly for a moment until Sebastian stepped aside to let Leo have the center mike.

“I’ll be paying you back later, bro,” he said jokingly with a smile for the crowd, but I could tell he was flustered as he straightened his guitar and searched the audience. I pushed my way to the front of the crowd until I was right in front of him.

He gazed at me and cleared his throat. “The truth is I never intended for this song to be sung in public, because I wrote it for this girl . . . and, she . . . well, she’s moved on. She was the one for me, but I screwed it up because I waited too long, and she found someone else. It hurts like hell to think about her, about never having her as mine.”

He ran a fast hand through his hair. “She makes me all crazy inside. She makes me hear songs in my head. She makes me feel like the first time I ever picked up a guitar. She makes me feel like I can have something good in my life like my parents did.”

He smiled, like he was remembering something sweet. “I don’t know the first time I fell for her. Maybe it was the time she stood on a stage a lot like this one. Maybe it was the night she held my hand and listened to me talk. Maybe it was the moment she walked toward me at the movies, in these red heels, looking like the hottest thing I’d ever seen. Maybe it was the time she told me we could be soulmates. Whenever it was, my heart is hers. Always has been. So yeah, this song is for Buttercup. It’s called ‘Fly Away.’”

His fingers strummed the notes as he sang in a low and sexy voice,

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Girl, you show up at my place uninvited,

You’re crazy good, beautiful.

Baby, I tried, but I can’t fight it.

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Girl, you got some bad secrets to keep,

You’re a chaos I want; it’s so deep.

I want to see you fly, fly, fly.

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Could you love me, love me, love me,

Do it, please, fall for me.

Baby, give me one more moment,

Just one more moment with you.

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Girl, you love words for fun,

You’re crazy good, beautiful.

Your green eyes brought out the sun.