Transitions (A Thousand Words Book 1)

by Brooks, Tori

  That didn’t take long.

  “And you, Jess, stop banging that damn ball against the wall!” Kenny reached out and grabbed the tennis ball before Jess caught it and tossed it down the hall.

  “Hey!” Jess protested and got to his feet.

  “Dev’s web conference thing is in a few minutes and –”

  “And you spent how long fussing about lyrics you don’t even have to sing? I looked at it.”

  Kenny sighed and looked at his shoes as he ran his fingers through his hair. Yeah, can’t wait to hear this, Jess thought.

  The computer against the wall beeped and Bryan sat down and clicked the mouse. Kenny looked up and took a step toward the computer.

  “No! You do not get out of this,” Jess stepped in his path.

  “Another time, Jess,” Kenny sidestepped around him but Jess moved to block his progress again.

  “Jess and Kenny took up ballroom dance? Wow, I didn’t realize I’d miss so much fun.” Dev’s voice laughed through the speakers.

  “Not now, Dev,” Bryan warned.

  “No, now is fine.” Kenny leaned around Jess’s towering figure to try to see the last member of the band now that he’d arrived. Sort of.

  “You want to dance? Interesting request. I’m flattered, really I am, but I’m not sure you’re my type. I really dig girls with black hair and thick eyeliner. Oh, and I get off on that burgundy lipstick,” Dev baited Kenny and it grated on Jess as well.

  “No you don’t. Knock it off,” Jess snapped over his shoulder. Lindsay’s hold on the kid clearly hadn’t loosened in the past few months. He supposed he knew that, but he harbored vain hopes. There weren’t pictures of her at his trendy little townhouse in Cambridge, but then again, Dev didn’t harbor a death fetish so why would there be? And he refused to even look at the girls in his classes. That irritated Jess more than he wanted to admit. The two girls in the project group Jess crashed were pretty and interested, and smart if they were at MIT, but Dev avoided unnecessary interaction with them. He wanted to strangle the geek.

  The silence in the room hit him and Jess looked to Kenny for direction. Kenny’s hazel eyes took on a greenish hue, reminding Jess of Dev’s eyes for a moment. Dev. Shit.

  Slowly Jess turned to face the screen. He expected the kid to be frowning, but Dev was relaxed, watching. Blank. Jess hated it when he did that. It reminded him of Teri.

  “Jess, you don’t know what I like,” Dev said after a moment.

  “Clearly. Are we playing or what?”

  Dev stared at him a moment longer, then nodded and backed away from the webcam and grabbed his guitar. “Turn on the amp.”

  Kenny was slipping his guitar strap over his head across the room and Bryan already sat behind his drums, so Jess turned on the amp next to the computer that represented Dev. These web sessions were weird and awkward. The kid said they’d get used to them, but Jess had doubts. Of course the kid was weird and awkward, but it was in an endearing kind of way. Sort of. Okay, he was a pain in the ass, but Jess was fond of him anyway. Singing with a cyborg was pushing it.

  Sophie came downstairs, planted herself in the chair in front of the webcam, and waved. “Hi, Dev.”

  “Hey, Soph. How’d the math test go?”

  Sophie shrugged. “Fine I guess. I think I did okay but I’m not betting on my grade.”

  “You were pretty stressed, so ‘fine I guess’ will have to do. Congrats.”

  “Thanks. Got a joke for you!” Sophie said, wiggling excitedly in her seat. Jess wished he could just fast forward through this.

  “Okay, let’s hear it,” Dev said.

  “You know that woodchuck thing?”

  “Um . . . what?”

  “That tongue-twister about the woodchuck, Dev. She wants you to say it,” Bryan prompted him.

  “Don’t do it,” Jess argued for the cause of sanity. It was a stupid joke.

  “Whatever, Jess. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if –”

  “They’re allergic!” Sophie interrupted happily.

  Dev laughed. “Good one, Soph.”

  “Thanks. Oh, can I get another autographed picture for Margaret? It’s her birthday next week.”

  “Sure, I’ll send one.”

  “Thanks.”

  Sophie turned to leave.

  “Hey, what about us?” Jess asked. Sophie’s friends only wanted Dev’s autograph?

  Sophie turned back to them. “Oh, yeah. Gunter’s taking a nap so Dad said to keep it down.”

  Jess gaped at Sophie’s back as she retreated back upstairs.

  “Don’t go there,” Kenny warned.

  Bryan started tapping out a beat and Jess pulled himself together. He pulled the microphone off the stand and switched it on. Gunter was going to have to cope.

  On cue, Jess started singing. He walked over to Kenny’s desk in the corner of the room and opened the bottom drawer, only to find it full of Sophie’s returned schoolwork. That wasn’t there before. Where . . .? Without missing a beat, he closed the drawer and started opening each of the others in turn.

  He found his missing brush and a lipstick that for all the world looked like Lindsay’s. Annoyed, Jess was late on the chorus and flinched when Bryan threw a drumstick at him.

  The drumstick skittered across the floor and to a stop near Dev’s bedroom door and Jess stooped to pick it up. Not that it mattered, Bryan had spares. A pink sign on Jess’s old door across the hall from Dev’s, now proclaiming the room to be Sophie’s, caught his eye as he stood up. Glancing back at Kenny, Jess reached for the knob.

  “Jess!” Kenny called, but Jess wasn’t listening. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, still singing along.

  “What’s he doing?” Dev’s voice came through clear and low over the speakers. He wasn’t angry, Jess realized, his voice was just really low and soft. He remembered teasing the kid when his voice was changing, but he didn’t remember him actually growing out of that awkward phase.

  Jess shook his head, he wasn’t here to think about Dev, he was here to torment him. Now, where would she put it? He looked around Sophie’s room. It was like a pink library decorated in ballerinas and the Seattle Seahawks. Dev thought it was funny, Jess wasn’t sure what to think.

  A Nerf gun with extra darts lay neatly on her desk. He walked over to retrieve it. Sophie painted it pink! Even the darts were pink!

  Irritated, Jess grabbed the gun and ammo, spun on his heel – not bothering to sing any longer – and stalked back out. Kenny stopped playing and watched as Jess stopped in front of the computer screen and brought the Nerf gun up to shoot Dev.

  “Do it,” Dev dared him.

  Jess shot him three times, one dart fell off immediately, one bounced off, but one stuck. Bryan rewarded him with a drum fanfare.

  Dev grinned. “Is it sticking out of my forehead like a unicorn?”

  “No, your cheek actually,” Jess answered.

  “So I’m cheeky?”

  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  Dev’s grin grew as he backed up, turned around, and dropped his pants, mooning Jess. “Still cheeky, Jess!” He wiggled his butt at him.

  Jess shot him three more times, then picked up the fallen darts and reloaded.

  Dev pulled his pants back up and turned around, shaking his head at Jess sadly.

  Kenny laughing behind him annoyed Jess even more. He turned and shot all six new shots at Kenny in rapid succession.

  “Hey! I’m not part of this!”

  “Dev’s not here, you’ll do.” Jess started picking up the darts and Kenny hurried to step on two before he got to them.

  “You’re in a foul mood. What’s wrong with you?” Kenny asked.

  “Really?” Jess waved at the amp and computer that represented Dev now. “We’re spread out over the country. Our jam sessions are mediocre at best and you know it. We’re not getting work done on the new album. We have the opening slot for Rushing On this summer just so we can play the big stadiums, so we won’t ge
t anything done then either. Then Dev goes back to college again and it’ll be Christmas or next summer before we get any real time to finish the next album. You know, next summer? When we should be headlining our own tour?”

  “We’ll work it out, Jess,” Bryan said. Jess turned on him.

  “This isn’t working it out!”

  “It’s what we have for now.”

  “Not good enough, Bry.”

  “Jess, I can start setting aside more weekends,” Dev volunteered.

  “Or you could come home,” Jess countered.

  “No. College is non-negotiable. I suppose I can fly out there Friday after class and return Sunday. So far you’ve all flown out here, it’s only fair.”

  “No,” Jess said, realizing immediately this would put Dev back in Lindsay’s reach. “We’d lose half a day of practice time because of your stupid flights.”

  Dev watched him critically for a moment, and Jess mentally kicked himself. They weren’t used to him thinking.

  “Whatever. The offer stands. At least I can try to free up some more weekend time. I have a study group to work around now during the week, so maybe that’ll help reduce how much I have to work over the weekends.”

  “Yeah,” Jess said, his anger deflating. “Just let us know when you’re free and maybe try to look at the lyrics when Kenny sends them. He gets all bitchy on this end when you don’t.”

  “Deal. Don’t worry, Jess, we’ll get through it.”

  ○ ○ ○

  Dev was antsy on the flight home. The guys flew out several times over the semester, after their webcam jam sessions didn’t work out so well. Jess got so frustrated not having Dev there to pick on that he started kicking the computer and webcam. The electronics gave in after only a week of that abuse.

  Chastising Jess would have to wait until after he saw Lindsay though. The semester seemed longer than Dev could have imagined when he sat with her in his arms promising they’d figure it out. In his mind they didn’t do too badly. As far as he knew, she held up to the pressure of – her little problem. Dev didn’t like to think about it specifically. He certainly wasn’t going to ask if she had any mishaps. First, he didn’t want to insult her by asking; and second, he didn’t want to know. Dev wasn’t happy that his sixteen-year-old girlfriend had slept with an undetermined number of guys, but he accepted it. She had a problem. They were working on it. He was really looking forward to seeing her again.

  Sophie threw herself at him as soon as he stepped off the plane. By the time he finished hugging and tickling her and got himself free, a small crowd had formed around him. Flynn was already signing autographs. Following Flynn’s lead, he smiled and posed for photographs with fans and signed autographs until Gunter started fussing in Sophie’s arms. The baby’s timing was the first warm thought Dev had to spare for his little brother.

  Flynn asked how the semester went on the way home. Sophie answered as much as Dev did, quoting Dev’s multitude of emails and weekly phone calls. Overall, Dev managed to avoid real conversation with his stepfather without serious effort. He wondered if Flynn was only allowing it because he was eighteen now and technically didn’t have to come home at all.

  Cassie and Tiffany were already home and ambushed Dev as soon as he walked in the door, effectively keeping Jess and Kenny at bay. Dev was simultaneously touched and annoyed by it and wondered if Jess was going to spend the rest of his life trying to avoid Cassie. Kenny told him before to drop it, in a tone that left an implied ‘or else’ hanging with threats of violence, so Dev dropped it. Except, sooner or later, his sister was bound to notice and Kenny had no influence over her.

  It was over an hour before Dev got to slip out to the apartment over the garage and say hi to his best friends. Three water balloons hit him as soon as he walked in the door.

  “Awesome,” Dev said as he wiped water from his face and looked at his three grinning pseudo-brothers.

  “Yeah, we thought about paintballs, but you’re so fussy about your wardrobe we figured you’d go ballistic,” Jess said. He casually tossed another water balloon in the air and caught it again.

  “You’re right,” Dev said. “Now do I get one of those to even things out?”

  Jess shrugged, “Sure.” He threw the water balloon at Dev, hitting the front of his pants. Dev flinched, catching himself before he swore.

  “Sorry, tossed that a little harder than intended.”

  “No problem,” Dev nodded amiably, “it happens.” He grinned at Kenny who gave him a knowing nod. Next time they were on stage he was going to have to figure out a way to water balloon Jess. That would be a memorable prank. Maybe on a photo shoot. The thought made him think of his mom telling him of the photo shoot she met Flynn on. The memory brought up mixed emotions in Dev, missing his mom, hating Flynn for still being here, for her giving her life just to give him a son.

  Bryan threw a towel at him, hitting him in the face and breaking him from the downward spiral he’d started.

  “Have a seat,” Bryan said.

  Dev sat at the small table and Kenny didn’t waste any time launching into the tour plans. Alec, their manager, was coming in the following day, and they had to get their act together. The songs and order were set, they were opening for Rushing On, a band Dev actually didn’t listen to. He picked up their CDs months ago when the tour was arranged, but somehow never found the time to seriously listen to them. Now would be good.

  Maybe he’d take the CDs, grab Lindsay, and make a night of it. It was warm, they could sit in the park, turn up the music, and watch the sun go down. Assuming the music was conducive to that sort of thing. Not that it really mattered with Lindsay, she’d go with it.

  “Are you paying attention?” Kenny demanded, hovering over Dev’s shoulder. Dev jumped and looked back at him. Clearly he wasn’t because he didn’t have a clue what tipped Kenny off his mind had wandered.

  “Not really, no.” Dev shook his head and prepared for Kenny’s outrage. Behind him somewhere, Bryan snickered. Kenny walked around to face him and gaped, apparently at a loss as to how to respond.

  “Kenny, no offense, but I just got back,” Dev said. “I know the tour is important. I know there’s a lot of stuff we need to do, but I really just wanted to see you guys and say hi. You know, interact in person? And I want to call Lin and spend some time with her too. Maybe I’ll listen to the CDs with her tonight and multi-task. When I get home at the latest. Can business wait until tomorrow at least?”

  “You were thinking about Lindsay?” Kenny asked. Dev tried to gauge his reaction to this news and couldn’t decide how Kenny was taking it.

  “Great, that’s just great,” Jess said, standing up from where he lounged on his bed.

  “Hey, I haven’t seen her in months. She is my girlfriend, remember? I think I’m allowed to miss her a little.”

  “Yeah. Date night. Go, have fun. Or whatever you two do.” Jess grabbed his keys and wallet from his nightstand. “Don’t wait up, Kenny. I’ll be late.”

  Amazed, Dev watched as Jess left without a backward glance. He twisted in his chair to look at Bryan, sitting on Kenny’s bed at the back of the room.

  “Okay, did I miss something? It’s not a secret Lin and I are still together, right?”

  “Nope. I think Jess just wanted more guy time.” Bryan shrugged.

  “Then why are we sitting here talking about the tour? That’s work. Between work and girlfriend, right now Lin wins.” He glanced back to Kenny. “Sorry, Kenny. Jess was the one who tipped me off girls require maintenance, I’m just following his sage advice.”

  “Dev,” Bryan said with a slight chuckle, “I get it. Go make dinner plans with Lin. It’s your first night back, do something big. Bring her flowers, take her to a nice restaurant, woo her.”

  “Flowers? You really think so?” Dev asked, not sure if he really needed to go that far. He’d sent Lindsay flowers several times, but he’d only been present for the event the first time. And she kissed him, sort of. “Okay, I’ll
bring her flowers.” Pink roses again, Dev decided. He wasn’t sure why he frequently thought of the brief brush of Lindsay’s lips across his over the past few months. The more he thought about it, the more appealing the memory was. Yet seeing Lindsay’s death-mask makeup on their weekend webcam dates still completely failed to arouse any sort of desire in him at all. The dichotomy was something he discussed hesitantly with the psychologist Flynn blackmailed him into seeing. Thankfully, Dr. Braithewait didn’t push him to explore his feelings, but did encourage him to ‘become invested’ in the relationship. He didn’t have the nerve to tell her he had absolutely no idea how to do that. Maybe he’d get up the nerve to ask Lindsay to ditch the goth routine, that would probably help.

  “Have you seen Lin since I left?” he asked Bryan.

  “A couple of times right after, not lately. She hangs with Sophie and sometimes Bren goes out with them. Chick flicks and shopping. Why?”

  “Just wondering.” Dev stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket, relieved it was dry. “Well, enjoyed the water balloons, but I think I’ll call Lin and see if she’s available.”

  Kenny sighed. “Have fun.”

  “I’ll listen to those CDs, promise. We can talk about the tour tomorrow.”

  “Right. Holding you to that. Go get your fix so we can get back to work.” Kenny waved him off. Dev didn’t hesitate longer. He called Lindsay as he walked out.

  Chapter Four

  Dev double checked everything as he got out of his car. He remembered which shirt Lindsay said was her favorite and based his outfit on that tonight. Dev considered experimenting and buying Lindsay her favorite chocolate in addition to flowers, but decided it was overkill. Maybe next time.

  Pulling the flowers out of the car, Dev walked up the familiar sidewalk and rang the doorbell. Jack answered, just like he did months ago, like nothing had changed.

  “Good to see you again,” Jack said, stepping back and ushering Dev in.

  “Thanks, it’s good to be back.” Dev walked in and hesitated in the foyer looking around. Lindsay wasn’t anywhere to be found.