Scars Of The Soul

by J J Cobban

  I felt my own eyes fill as Drake cleared his throat and shrugged, suddenly looking awkward and uncertain. Drake looked down to where his hands rested. I could feel him putting his walls back up. He’d opened up and bared his soul to me and now he was shutting me out again. I moved my hands around his neck until I cupped his face.

  “Hey.” I whispered, tilting his head until he looked up at me.

  “What you’ve done is incredibly brave. You lived through child abuse and now you’re sharing your story. You’re letting kids in situations similar to yours know that they can speak out. You’ve turned your pain into something greater and that’s incredible.” I pressed my forehead to his and smiled “I didn’t think you could surprise me anymore than you already have, Drake Jackson.”

  Drake remained silent as we sat there in companionable silence.

  “I need to text my father and let him know and you,” I pressed my lips to his temple “have a quiet bachelor night to get ready for.”

  Drake’s lips twitched as he run his calloused hands up my arms.

  “Seth is desperate to hit the clubs so I’m not sure how quiet it’s going to be.” I rolled my eyes at that. It seemed that Seth was the male equivalent of Kasia.

  “Yeah, Kasia has been trying to change Jo’s mind but I think Jo is set in her plans.” I chuckled. It was true. Poor Kasia was gasping for a night on the town but after the last fiasco Jo seemed reluctant to hit the clubs. I was fine with a night in. I very rarely went clubbing or heavily drank. I was more likely to hit the gym on a Saturday night before settling down in front of the TV to catch up on the shows I’d missed while working. It may have seemed sad to some people, but it was my ideal down time. Some people liked clubs, I liked binge watching TV shows. To each to their own.

  As I climbed from Drake’s lap there was a knock at the door. I rolled my eyes, already knowing who was there.

  “Would it kill him to mind his own business?” I grumbled, moving towards the door to peer through the peephole. I felt my lips twitch when I saw a pair of baby blue eyes twinkling with mischief. Seth was grinning from ear to ear as he shuffled from one foot to another. I sighed as I moved away from the door to grab a pair of sweats. Seth was starting to fill in the role of annoying brother. I may have behaved like Seth’s very presence annoyed me but it was quite the opposite. Seth brought a kind of relaxed aura to any room he walked in to and I loved that about him. Saying that, he was also like an excited puppy that had to occasionally be taken down a notch. I opened the door and gestured him in.

  “Can’t stay, Boss,” Seth strutted into the room, winking as he went “Just need to get the big guy so we can get our drink on.”

  Drake rolled his eyes as he got to his feet.

  “You couldn’t have phoned?” I crossed my arms, narrowing my eyes.

  “If I phoned you could ignore me, so here I am,” Seth’s grin tripled in size “The Tanner boys have made it to town so I might get my night out yet! We need to get back before Nico does though, surprise him and shit.”

  “Tanner boys?” I quizzed looking between Seth and Drake.

  “Nico’s brothers.” Seth explained “Joe, Leo, Max and Alex. They’ve flown in from Texas to join the carnage.”

  I knew a bit about all of the band member’s families but keeping all of the details straight in my head got a little confusing at times. After hearing the brothers names, I began to recall Nico’s family details. A father, four brothers and one niece. From what I could recall the brothers were all reasonably tame.

  “I’m sure you’ll all have a great time.” I grinned “Just try and avoid any brawling? With strangers or each other. Oh, and no getting wild! I do not need you idiots remaking The Hangover by losing Nico.”

  Seth’s grin seemed to turn from mischievous to downright wicked as he held a hand over his heart.

  “Excuse you,” Seth began “I’ll have you know we’ve only ever lost one man on a night out and it only took us two and half hours to find Asher.”

  I narrowed my eyes once again, trying to figure out if he was bullshitting me or not. I felt my heart jump when I realised there was a good chance that he was, in fact, telling me the truth.

  “Alright, get out before I decide to ground you all,” I waved my hand towards the door.

  “Kicking me out already?” Drake grinned, dropping a kiss to my head as he moved towards the door.

  “I wish I could feel sad but I have a funny feeling I’ll see you later,” I smirked “Try and behave?”

  Drake opened his mouth to speak but was promptly cut off.

  “Say nothing unless you have a lawyer present.” Seth feigned a scowl in my direction before pushing Drake towards the door “Women are fickle creatures, especially ones in power.”

  “Really, Davenport?” I chuckled as I followed them to the door.

  “Of course, for example, you’re madly in love with me but instead chose to bed down with this big motherfucker. See what I mean? Fickle.” Seth shrugged as he crossed over the threshold. A week ago I would have thrown something heavy at him and told him to shut his mouth. Now his remarks were as expected as the snow on a winter’s day. I moved to the door as Seth continued to shove Drake down the hall. I poked my head out into the hallway to see Drake smiling at me over his shoulder before twisting to grab Seth in a headlock. I laughed as I closed the door.

  I took a moment to absorb the glowing feeling rolling around my body. Drake had effectively shut down whoever had been talking shit about him to the tabloids. The unknown source had been using Drake’s need for privacy against him and now that had been taken from them. Drake had spoken out about his rough upbringing and how he dealt with it. He had taken away their only fuel. I hadn’t been lying when I’d said how proud of him I was. It took incredibly strength to admit to anyone that somebody had hurt you in the past. More so when people looked to you to be a pillar of strength. Drake admitting that he had been weak and vulnerable at one point humanised him to the public. It reminded them that he wasn’t just some celebrity he was first and foremost a man.

  I was still smiling as I reached to pick up my phone. I scrolled through the names until I found who I was looking for. I hit call on her name and fell back onto the bed, ready for the whirlwind of complaints I was bound to get.

  “This is the head bitch’s phone, she is unable to come to the phone, would you like me to take a message for her majesty?” I frowned and looked at the screen of my phone, checking I had dialled the correct number.

  “Jez is this you?”

  “Oh, Scout, hey!” Jez laughed “Yeah this is me. Kasia is busy complaining about the lack of excitement on tonight’s agenda. I’m telling you, I’m glad I offered to babysit Koda tonight because Kas is relentless.”

  Jez was still laughing when a serious of shuffling and muffled curses interrupted her as Kasia presumably took her phone back forcefully.

  “Tell me you’re on your way up here to stop this madness.” Kasia whined “I’ve never heard of a night in for a bachelorette party.”

  I smiled as I shook my head and covered my eyes with my arm.

  “I just need to get dressed and I’ll be up. I presume you’re all in Jo’s room?”

  “Fine. Hurry up then, she’ll be back any second now.” I rolled to my feet as Kasia hung up the phone. She was certainly a difficult person to please. I was still smiling as I pulled clothes from my case.

  I spent a couple of minutes looking through my various outfits before deciding that a nice shirt and some skinny jeans would suffice for a girls’ night in. I hadn’t really packed for a night out so most of my dresses were only suited for day time wear anyway. As I moved around the room applying a little bit of make-up and fluffing my hair I couldn’t stop smiling. I shook my head as I realised I was that girl. The one who got as giggly as a teenager whenever the guy she liked so much as popped up in her mind. I tried to make myself forget him for a little while, but it was no use. He was firmly imbedded in my head. Briefly I wondered h
ow my father would view mine and Drake’s relationship. He had always made it quite clear that my life was my own and unless he had any startling concerns he wouldn’t interfere. In saying that though, I’d never dated a guy from one of the bands he managed.

  “Shit!” I suddenly shot towards my phone, opening my text conversation with my father. I needed to tell him about the interview today before the tabloids released it. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the magazine aired the story at midnight.

  I wrote out the text, double checking the details. It would have probably been quicker to phone him but my father liked to have information written down so he had a hard copy to refer to, much like myself. We’d worked out a long time ago it was easier to text and email each other so that the message or email could just be printed off rather than calling each other. I would call him when I got home later to ensure he had understood everything I’d sent him.

  I was heading out of the door when my phone chimed. I opened the text to see a message from my father with the small thumbs up emoji. He must have been busy with paperwork if that was all I was getting. I sent a ‘x’ back and then slipped my phone into my back pocket as I left my hotel room.

  The closer I got to Jo’s door the more excited I got. It had been so long since I’d had any form of girl’s night. The thought of lazing around with women I was gradually becoming closer and closer to was a lot less daunting than I would have originally thought. Maybe it was the stress of the past couple days or maybe I was just changing slightly as a person. It was hard to say what had changed exactly but I found myself hoping for more nights like this.

  Although I should have expected that a quiet night in with this group of people wouldn’t stop at a couple of drinks in the hotel before bed. I just didn’t expect how off script the night was going to go.

  Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ Ｆｉｆｔｅｅｎ

  Ｓｃｏｕｔ

  “This is really it?” Kasia curled her lip at the brightly decorated room. The distain was clear in her voice as she took in the balloons and banners that littered the room. Lacey, Rissa and I had nearly broken out into a sweat trying to get every surface of the room covered in some form of decoration. There were white and blue patterned table clothes on any flat surface we could find, there were bottles of champagne and other liquor scattered around along with a variety of Jo’s favourite junk food. We had the helium filled balloons placed classily around the room. Rissa had been anal about that. Apparently too many balloons thrown around anywhere screamed ‘children’s birthday’ while too few made it feel like a funeral. Needless to say, Lacey and I had left Rissa to deal with the balloons. I looked around the room again, failing to see what had turned Kasia’s nose.

  She ran a hand through her thick, black hair and blew out a long, loud breath.

  “What?” Rissa scowled with her hands on her hips “What’s wrong?”

  Kasia raised her brow before giving us all a disappointed and judgemental stare.

  “What’s wrong? Seriously? Every-fucking-thing,” she shook her head “you bitches had one job.”

  “Do you know how long we took to do this?” Lacey gaped.

  “Don’t embarrass yourselves by telling me.” Kasia shook her head again “This cannot be what Jo asked for. No fucking way.”

  I opened my mouth to put forward my opinion but promptly closed it when the penthouse door opened. Jo burst into the room killing the conversations instantly. Her blue-grey eyes flickered to each of us quickly before she took in the room. Her hand reached up and covered her mouth as her eyes widened. Jo walked into the room slowly, letting the door close behind her. With her hand against her mouth and her eyes like saucers it was hard to tell where her head was at. When she finally finished taking the room in, her gaze focused back on us.

  “It’s amazing,” She breathed “how in the hell did you manage this without me finding out?”

  Lacey, Rissa and I let out a collective breath while Kasia’s jaw dropped.

  “Okay, I’m not trying to be a bitch, honestly, but what the fuck?” she looked at all of us like we had three heads “This is Jo’s Bachelorette party. Her last stand as a free woman before she ties herself to the caveman down the hall. She should be getting shitfaced drunk and dancing on tables! Not having a quiet night!”

  Yeah, she had me there. I didn’t picture Jo as a quiet night in kind of girl but figured there was some method in the madness.

  “Shame on you, Maid of Honor.” Kasia narrowed her eyes playfully at Rissa. Rissa shot her the finger before smiling at Jo.

  “Guys,” Jo smirked “this is what I asked for. Nico and I talked and we’re just having nights in. Neither of us like the idea of hitting the town for strippers and trouble. We’ve had enough trouble in the past. We just want a nice night with our family.”

  “Aw, you calling us family, Jojo?” Lacey winked at her.

  “Yeah, yeah, that’s sweet and shit but can we address the lack of trouble on tonight’s agenda?” Kasia moved closer to Jo, placing a hand on Jo’s shoulders “Are you seriously telling me that the men are all staying in tonight? Like, all of them have agreed that they should stay in and just…talk?”

  Uncertainty crossed Jo’s features as she glanced over Kasia’s shoulders at us.

  “I’m not swaying the vote here, I just feel bad sitting on information. Nico’s brothers have flown in to surprise him,” I shrugged “Seth was certain he could talk Nico into a night out.”

  I didn’t want to fess up to what I already knew about the boys’ night, but I felt weirdly guilty by not saying anything. It wasn’t like Seth had said not to tell Jo about Nico’s brothers’ showing up anyway. I pressed my lips together tightly as I tried to convince myself that I’d simply been sharing harmless information with my friends rather than throwing fuel on Kasia’s argument.

  “I’m just thinking, babe, what if we spend the night in and the men talk your fiancé into a night on the town? How pissed would you be?” Kasia dropped her hands from Jo’s shoulders and shrugged as Jo’s eyes darkened slightly.

  “There isn’t a force on earth that would stop me from kicking the shit out of all of them.” Jo agreed. Kasia rubbed her hands together evilly.

  “We need to find out what the men are doing,” She stated, “we need to interrogate their weak link.”

  “On it.” Lacey grinned as she pulled her phone out, hitting dial on a name we all knew would break under our scrutiny.

  “Hey,” Lacey’s voice was sweet and unassuming as our victim answered her call “yeah, we need some muscle up in Jo’s room to help with something. There’s a bottle of vodka in it for the helpers.”

  I frowned as she hung up the phone. Helpers? We needed one ‘helper’ not half the band! Within a minute there was a loud rap at the door. My head snapped towards where Jo was opening the door. I moved back to lean against the cloth coloured kitchen worktop. I was about to witness something that was sure to teach me a thing or two.

  A laugh escaped me as Seth walked into the room with a smug look on his face.

  Alone.

  “Well this isn’t suspicious.” He glanced around the room, smirk slipping slightly. Seth smiled down at Jo in brotherly affection as he rolled up the sleeves of his dark blue button-down shirt. My eyes narrowed suspiciously. He was a tad over dressed for a boy’s night in.

  “Something oversized bothering you lovely ladies?” he asked with a charming grin once he was finished rolling his sleeves up to his elbows.

  “Yeah, Kasia’s ego,” Lacey replied without hesitation.

  Kasia’s head snapped towards where Lacey stood grinning.

  “But you can move that after you get rid of Lacey’s daddy issues.” Kasia threw back with an easy smile and a wicked glint in her eye.

  My jaw dropped at the barb at the same time as Jo and Lacey gasped. I didn’t know much about Lacey but I had heard enough to know that she was on rocky terms with her family. Kasia covered her mouth with her hand while the other hand cupped the botto
m of her throat. Her expression said she was as shocked at her words as we were.

  “I am so sorry.” Kasia half laughed “That was too far. Sometimes my inner bitch likes to rear her head.”

  “Christ, Kas,” Lacey snorted “Does your inner bitch also eat the souls of small children?”

  Kasia shrugged, the tension in the air disappearing like smoke in the wind.

  “My brother would tell you she does but what the hell does he know?” Kasia turned back to Seth.

  “Speaking about my darling big brother, what’s he up to?” Seth looked confused at Kasia’s random question before glancing to Lacey and nodding his head in understanding. I fought a smile as Seth automatically assumed we were asking on behalf of Lacey. “He’s not planning on looking for a piece of ass tonight, right?”

  Lacey groaned and let her head fall back on a groan.

  “I can’t make any promises,” Seth hedged, crossing his arms “once we hit the town it’s hard to keep track of where everyone is.”

  Hit the town? Holy shit, Kasia was a genius! Seth had just given us exactly what we wanted. The men were hitting the town.

  “Quit teasing Lacey, Kas, we all know that Drake and Jace will be with him,” I chimed in, thinking of a great way to twist more information from the unsuspecting rocker. “You know the guys love to cock block Asher.”

  “Sorry to burst your bubble, boss lady, but your man and Jace are on groom duty. They need to make sure that the scary asshole behaves himself,” Seth grinned “and once we hit Rays who knows what the fuck will happen.”

  “Rays?” Rissa echoed, “As in the strip club?”

  Seth’s smiled dropped in horror as he realised what he’d said. His wild eyes flashed to Jo, waiting for her eruption.

  Hell, we were all waiting for her to explode.

  “Seriously?” Jo laughed “Do none of you think I can keep my cool? If the boys want to hit the town they can. I’ve got my girls, liquor and food. I’m set.”

  I felt my own eyes narrow as Rissa physically took a step back, like she didn’t recognise her cousin. Jo gave another giggle before shoving Seth gently.