Elisa nodded. “Thank you.”
“No sweat. I’m happy to do it. But mostly I’m just happy.”
“I’m glad you’re happy,” she said, giggling softly.
“Yeah, well, you caught me in a good mood. You see, my girlfriend flew all the way out here not only to surprise me but also to tell me she loves me. And then she told me all about the mind-blowing sex we’re going to have as soon as we get back to my house, so I’m feeling particularly generous right now.”
“Really, that’s what happened?” Elisa questioned playfully. “I didn’t think it went exactly like that.”
“Shh, it’s my fantasy. Let me have it. Besides, once we get back to my room, I’m going to continue the fantasy and live out all the things I’ve been dreaming about doing with you this week. The list is pretty long.”
“Sounds like an amazing time, if not for one tiny problem.”
“Problem? What problem? I see no problems.”
“Your entire band is at your house,” she reminded me. “Won’t they hear us?”
“Ah, but you’ve forgotten that my room is soundproof, so no, they won’t.”
“Oh,” she said as she snuggled close to me. “That changes things.”
“Yes, it does. I’m going to have my way with you for hours on end, and then I’m going to get up and go kill Phillip – if he’s back to normal. If not, I’ll wait, but either way, he’s a dead man.
“Why?” Elisa asked, rising up to look at me in confusion.
“Because had he not pulled what he did, none of this shit would have happened. You would have been here with me this week, doing all those things I’ve been fantasizing about and being all in love with me, instead of thinking too much about things you shouldn’t be thinking about.”
“But I’m here now, and I’m completely in love with you. Doesn’t that count for something?”
I was fairly certain I’d never get tired of hearing her say that.
“Yeah, I guess it does,” I told her, “Although I really could have done without the almost break up.”
“I know, and again, I’m sorry. I promise to spend the rest of eternity making it up to you however I can.”
“Okay, I forgive you,” I said playfully.
She smiled, and then she kissed me, and I let everything else slip away. I got lost in the moment, with her, and just let things be. She was in my arms, and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
* * *
“Get ready to have your world rocked,” I teasingly murmured to Elisa as we walked up the path to my front door.
Her overnight bag was in my hand, and my arm was around her, holding her against my side as we walked in tandem. Only a few more feet, and we could close the door on the outside world and just be together. The truth was, we’d probably just crash when we got upstairs, but at least I had the satisfaction of knowing that she’d be there when I woke up.
The house was dark, so I assumed the guys were asleep. It was late. Elisa and I had spent more time under the stars than we’d planned, but one kiss had turned into more, and before we knew it, we were so wrapped up in each other that we’d just gotten lost. I’d never been so grateful for my twenty acres of privacy where no one could witness us trying to forget that we’d almost broken up – twice. Good thing I was persistent.
“Welcome home,” I whispered in her ear as I opened the front door, wanting to make sure she knew that regardless of where she officially lived, she was at home when she was with me.
I didn’t think we were anywhere close to talking about officially living together, but I knew we’d get there in time. She was the girl I wanted to be with, and I couldn’t see myself ever wanting to be with someone else. In all the years I’d known her, I had yet to find a girl who even compared.
As soon as we were through the front door, we stopped short, both of us noticing at the same time that we weren’t alone. I dropped Elisa’s bag at my feet.
“Busted,” Phillip said from where he sat on the couch, in relative darkness, pressing something to his lip.
“You’re out of bed?” I questioned.
“Not by choice, but yeah.”
“What do you mean, not by choice?”
“Cam dragged me out of bed and kicked my ass,” he said blandly. “Dillon helped.”
Holy shit. I was going to kill those guys.
“Are you okay?” I asked him as I flipped on a light and registered that his eye was swollen, and his lip was busted open. What he’d been pressing to his lip was a towel filled with ice and dotted with blood. “Jesus, man.”
Phillip shrugged. “It looks worse than it is,” he said, wincing as he shifted on the couch. “I think.”
“I wasn’t gone that long. What the hell did I miss?”
“Apparently it wasn’t what you missed. It was what we missed. When did this happen?” he asked gesturing between Elisa and me.
“Hi Phillip,” Elisa said as she slid her hand into mine.
“Hey Elisa. Welcome back,” he said casually, like it was no big deal that she was standing next to me.
“Welcome back?” I questioned.
He shrugged. “Sure. You act like this is a surprise, but you basically set your sights on her the second you saw her again, regardless of how much you denied it. We all knew you were in love with her.” He shifted his gaze to Elisa. “Sorry if he hasn’t told you yet, but I think he’s in love with you.”
Elisa leaned into me and looked up at me with a smile. “I know he is. He told me.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered in defeat, but she just grinned at me.
“Hey,” Phillip defended. “Good for you, man. I’m happy for you guys.”
“Oh yeah? I thought you weren’t talking to me?” I questioned, shifting my attention back to him. “I thought you were all depressed and pissed and shit because we dragged you up here.”
Phillip shook his head and reached out with his tongue to touch the cut on his lip. “Nah, man. I just needed a break. I fucked up. It was embarrassing as hell. I let you guys down, and I made us look like idiots in front of the whole world. It was bad. I needed time to reflect on that.”
“You needed time to reflect on that?” I asked in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Phillip said, sounding a little reluctant when he heard my tone.
“You’re damn right you fucked up,” I told him, the anger I’d suppressed because I’d been worried about his mental state bubbling to the surface. “I can’t believe you got so drunk that you couldn’t even get up on stage. Do you know how that made us look? Do you know what a field day the media’s having with this?”
“O-kay, so you’re pissed too,” he deduced. “Got it. Do you want a shot at me?”
“Kind of,” I said, the idea sounding sort of appealing.
“Then take it,” Phillip said, sweeping his arms out on either side of him. “Although it’ll hurt like a bitch, I probably deserve it.”
“Damn right you deserve it,” I growled, taking a step forward.
“Okay, I was kidding,” Phillip said quickly as he threw his hands up in surrender, shifting his gaze to Elisa. “You don’t want to kick my ass too, do you?”
She just smiled. “Now that you mention it, I kind of do.”
I watched Phillip’s face fall.
“She’s not happy with you, man,” I told him. “You ruined the week we had planned to come up here together.”
Phillip mouth twisted into a smirk at hearing that. “Oh, so that was your plan. Invite her up here and profess your love. Nice, man. Real smooth.”
I glared at Phillip as I balled my hands into fists, contemplating whether I wanted to take him up on his offer and actually punch him. Before I could react, though, Elisa held up her hand.
“Okay, I’m going to need you to stop being a dick, Phillip,” she told him. “Van has been worried about you all week. He’s your best friend, and he cares about you. Stop trying to goad him and just fucking apologize. You need a friend like him, so I�
��d suggest that you start acting like it. And yes, we’re together. It’s official. Hooray. Best news ever. We’re both really happy, so stop trying to make a mockery of something that’s important to us. It’s shitty. And while we’re on the subject, Katherine, my boss, doesn’t know, so we’re keeping things on the down low until I have a chance to talk to her. Can you keep your mouth shut, or do I need to do something to ensure it stays shut?”
I watched Phillip pressing his lips together so he didn’t laugh, which only made me want to do exactly what Elisa was threatening.
“Don’t laugh at me. I’m serious. My dad taught me at a young age how to defend myself from guys twice my size. You’d be surprised by what I could do to you.”
That got Phillip’s attention and wiped the smirk right off his face. I was staring at Elisa in awe and was, quite honestly, a little turned on. My girl was a badass, and I loved it.
“Uh,” Phillip said, seemingly at a loss for words.
“That’s what I thought,” Elisa said.
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. She was so fucking adorable, and she had Phillip speechless. It was kind of a priceless moment.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked me. “I’m serious.”
“I know you are,” I said through my laugher as I pulled her into my arms. I pressed my lips to her temple. “I fucking love you for it. Please go kick his ass. I’d pay good money to see that.”
“And I thought we were friends,” Phillip muttered, going back to his trademark sarcasm.
“Friends don’t shut friends out when they need help,” I told him.
“Fair point, although friends also don’t lie to their friends about the girl they’re in love with, and I seem to remember you doing that quite regularly for the past few months whenever I asked you about her.”
“Do you want to eat your food through at straw for the next month?” I asked him. “Keep this shit up, and I’ll hit you so hard they’ll have to wire your jaw shut.”
Phillip winced. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound fun. Besides, I would imagine it would be pretty hard to sing with your jaw wired shut, and we have a show on Saturday.”
“So, you’re not quitting the band?” I blurted out, knowing it was the question that had been burning a hole through my mind all week. I’d been afraid of the answer until now.
Phillip looked stunned that I’d said that. “Why would you ask me that?”
“You know why,” I told him.
Before he could respond to me, though, Elisa looked up at me. “Hey, so I’m going to head upstairs,” she said quietly.
“Why?”
“Because you guys need to talk.”
“You don’t have to leave,” I told her.
She pressed up on her toes and kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you in a little bit.” Then she turned to Phillip. “I’m glad you’re doing better. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I watched her pick up her bag and head up the stairs, keeping my gaze on her until she disappeared from view. Then I turned back to Phillip expectantly.
“Why would you think I was going to quit the band, Van?”
I sighed and moved into the living room to sit on the couch opposite him. “Because it doesn’t seem like you give a shit about us or what we’ve all worked so hard for. Why would you want to keep doing it?”
“Because I love it,” he said, like there was no other answer.
“Do you?”
“Yes. Dude, you guys and this band are my life. I’m not quitting, Van – not the band, not the guys, and especially not you.”
“Good,” I said, feeling like I’d let go of a giant weight.
All week I’d been bracing myself for Phillip to announce he was leaving the band, leaving me, and I’d been trying to prepare myself for the impact. Of course, I probably couldn’t have ever prepared for that reality. We weren’t a band unless the four of us were in it together.
“You really thought I was going to quit?” Phillip asked me.
“I honestly wasn’t sure where your head was at. You wouldn’t talk to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that, but I wasn’t really sure what to say. You know I’m not good at talking about my feelings and shit. I didn’t grow up like you did with parents who asked you how you were when shit hit the fan. I didn’t even know what that was like until I met you.”
“I was worried, man. Really fucking worried. You barely wanted to eat, you wouldn’t get out of bed, and you acted like I was the last person you wanted around. I didn’t know how bad things were, so I wasn’t even sure what to think. I pretty much assumed the worst.”
Phillip sighed as he shifted positions, wincing as he did.
“I’m sorry I shut you out, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. I let you down, man. I failed you. You’re the person who got me through the bad days when I first got out of rehab, when I wasn’t sure how to live my life and who I could be around. You were there. You moved in with me so I wouldn’t have to be alone. You’re the reason I didn’t start using again.”
“But you did,” I reminded him. “You were drinking. You weren’t doing drugs, but you were abusing an addictive substance. It’s kind of the same thing.”
Phillip ran a hand back through his hair. “I know. Frank said the same thing. I honestly never saw it that way. Alcohol was just a way for me to take the edge off, but I guess it’s just one more thing that’s off-limits.”
“What can I do?” I asked him.
Phillip shook his head as he shrugged. “Nothing, man. This is all on me.”
“So, what are you going to do? Are you going to go back to rehab?”
“No, but I’m going to start talking to a counselor about my issues.”
“What about meetings, like AA or NA or whatever?”
He shook his head. “Too risky. We’re trying to keep the fact that I have a problem out of the media. Katherine thinks the buzz from the Billboards will blow over. I’m twenty-three, so it’s not like I was doing something illegal. I’m also not the first celebrity to do something stupid. As long as I stay out of trouble, everything should be fine.”
“Can you stay out of trouble?” I asked, not sure if he’d tell me the truth or not.
“I hope so.”
“You hope so?”
“Look man, this shit isn’t easy. To be honest, as much as I wanted to leave rehab the first time around, I probably should go back, but I can’t.”
“Why not? If it’s what you need, you should do it.”
“Because we’re in the middle of a world tour.”
“Fuck the tour.”
“No, Van, we can’t fuck the tour. The best thing for us right now is for me to get back on stage, act like my normal self, and move on.”
“Won’t that be hard?”
“Yeah, but not much about my life has been easy. I’ll manage.”
I knew that anyone looking at Phillip’s life from the outside in would have assumed he led a charmed life. His family was loaded, he’d grown up in a huge mansion on the Intercostal Waterway in South Florida. He’d gone to private schools and had been given every material possession a guy could want. But I also knew there were several key things missing from his life, and that was what had driven him to alternative substances at a young age. I knew he battled demons I couldn’t image, and that might have been the reason I gave him a pass so many times.
I’d grown up in a middle class family, and although I’d been a child of divorce, my parents had split amicably, they always got along, and I never felt anything but love and support as a kid. Hell, I’d thrown away a scholarship to Berkley to be in an unknown boy band, and after they made sure I was happy with my decision, they’d been okay with it.
I wasn’t sure Phillip’s dad and step-mom had ever seen him perform live. I hadn’t ever met them. The one time I’d gone to his house in Ft. Lauderdale with him, they’d been in Europe, which apparently they did a lot. They couldn’t have been less interested in what he did w
ith his life. It was a pretty shitty situation if you asked me.
“What can I do?” I asked Phillip again.
“Just be there. I know you’ve got Elisa now, and that’s cool. I’m really happy for you, man, but I need you around.”
I nodded. “Done. I’ll be there whenever you need me.”
“Cool. Thanks. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to count on Cam and Dillon, so it’s nice to know I’ll have one friend.”
“They’ll be there for you,” I assured him, because I knew that regardless of how pissed off Cam and Dillon were, they’d get over it. As long as Phillip came around and didn’t slip-up again, they’d be fine.
“I hope so.”
“So, what happened? How exactly did you get down here with a busted lip and a black eye?”
Phillip smiled and then winced when it stretched his lip. “You’re forgetting my bruised ribs and rug-burned back.”
I felt my eyebrows rise. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “They busted into my room, probably as soon you left, since they kept saying you’d been a pussy about wanting to give me what I deserved, and they dragged me out of bed. Well, first Cam demanded that I get my ass up. When I refused, he punched me, and then they dragged me out of bed. They dragged me all the way downstairs, which didn’t feel great considering I was shirtless, and the carpet upstairs was bad enough, but the hardwood on the stairs and the floor down here was twice as bad.”
“Fuck, man.”
“It gets worse. They whole time they were both yelling at me, and when we got downstairs, Cam yanked me to my feet and let Dillon take a shot. He was the one who busted my lip. Then Cam punched me in the stomach a few times, and I went down. I was sort of lying there in a heap at the bottom of the stairs while they continued to yell at me. Then Cam called me a fucker and took off upstairs. Dillon disappeared for a minute, came back with a bag of ice wrapped in a towel, he dropped it on my lap and told me to get my shit together.”
“Damn, they really did kick your ass. Why didn’t you fight back?”
“Ha! That’s funny. Me, a guy who only has muscles because he wants to look good, fight back against two guys who have been training in MMA for a decade? No way.”
“Yeah, I see your point.”
Westside Series Box Set Page 69
