“If it weren’t for you,” he says, pulling back, “I would have been old and grey before I woke up and realized what I was missing. You know me better than I know myself. Cass told me everything that you and the others did for us, and I am just… I’m blown away that I managed to raise such an incredible daughter.”
“Aww, Daddy… You’re making me blush,” I say, giggling. “Gio and Ana and I just wanted you guys to be happy. I can’t believe you’re finally together!”
He sighs. “Yeah, it just feels horrible to know that I made her wait so long.”
“I think she’s capable of overcoming that, Dad,” I say, grinning. “Obviously, or she would have ditched your sorry ass a long time ago, man whore.” I give him a significant look.
“Careful,” he warns me. “Anyway, I’ll let you get some rest, but I just wanted to say ‘thanks.’”
“It was our pleasure,” I say, smiling. Dad leans forward and gives me a kiss on the forehead, and then he stands up to walk out the door.
“By the way, I know you’re having sex,” he says nonchalantly as he walks out the door, not even looking back over his shoulder.
“Wait, what?!” My stomach feels like lead all of a sudden. Dad turns around with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“You and Gio Abate, right?”
My face turns crimson. “Y-yeah, we are.” How the hell did he find out? Cass must have told him… That bitch! I can’t believe I just helped her out and now she’s screwing me over like this!
“Don’t worry, it’s okay,” he says gently, smiling. “You’re using condoms, right?”
“W-wha—Dad, why are you being so cool all of a sudden??” I stand up and cross the room to stand in front of him, perplexed by his sudden change of tune. If I even mentioned the word “sex” in KY, he would freak out and ground me for a week.
“I asked if you’re using condoms,” he repeats sternly.
“Yes, we are,” I tell him. “But why are you not punishing me?”
Dad sighs, and then he shrugs. “Mads, what you did for me today… it made me realize that I raised a good one. Cass thinks I need to lighten up on you, so you won’t be afraid to tell me things, and I wholeheartedly agree with her.” He brushes some hair out of my face tenderly. “You’re not a little girl anymore. I need to accept that. I’m not always great at doing that yet, but I’m trying.”
Wow… This woman’s transformative powers over my dad literally have no end. “If you don’t marry Cass Meriwether soon, I’m going to,” I tell him, and we grin at each other again.
Chapter 8
“Ohhh my God… I think I’m about to have an orgasm…” Dart is holding my dad’s guitar in his hands, and he’s looking at it with the same awed reverence that I felt when I first held it. “Can I play it?”
“Sure,” I say, smiling as I plug it into my amp for him. We’re down in the sunroom, which is now the permanent music room in this house, and Gio is watching us from the sofa. I adjust the amp settings, and then Dart wastes no time plunging into a flawless version of an advanced M.A.D. guitar solo. The muscles in his forearms bulge out as his fingers fly over the strings and neck. He doesn’t miss a single note, and honestly, I think he may have just played that solo better than Dad did.
When Dart is done with the solo, he grabs his head with both hands and laughs—a deep, musical sound. “I can’t handle this! It’s too epic!”
“That was awesome,” I tell him with admiration.
Gio sighs from the couch, looking at his phone. “Dammit… Steph needs me to send him something from his computer at home. I’ll be right back.” He gets up and leaves out the back door, leaving Dart and I alone. Judging from his nonchalant attitude, I’m guessing Dart makes him listen to guitar solos all the time.
“Can I hear you play something?” Dart asks, taking off the guitar and handing it to me. “I’m curious how M.A.D.’s daughter sounds on this baby.”
“Okay,” I say, and then, with a grin, I adjust the settings and start playing Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin. “You sing it.”
Dart laughs a little. “Okay.” He clears his throat, and then when his part starts, I almost stop playing in shock. I’m laughing a little, and he stops, fearing the worst. “What, is it bad?”
“No, no definitely not. Keep going.” We resume the song, and I enjoy the sound of his voice blending flawlessly with my guitar part. He sounds almost like a younger version of my dad, except his voice has more grit and gravel to it. After he sings through the first chorus, I can’t hold the question back anymore. “What have you been smoking to get gravel like that?”
Dart stops singing and laughs again. “That’s just my voice. I don’t know why it’s like that.”
“It’s incredible. Have you considered going pro?”
“That’s my goal,” he tells me. “I’m actually looking to start a band sometime soon.”
“Damn, I wish I was sticking around,” I say, and he looks utterly pleased that I would even consider such a thing. “Although, come to think of it, if Cass and Dad stay together, there ain’t no way we’re going back to Kentucky.”
“Well, hey, if you do stick around, hit me up,” he says. “You would make a phenomenal lead guitar. Can you sing backup, by any chance?”
“Hell yeah!” I say, grinning. “And I write music, too.”
“Really? Would you mind showing me something you wrote?”
“Sure,” I say, and I start playing and singing the “locked in a cage” song, which I have now finished.
When I’m done, Dart immediately falls to his knees on the floor and folds his hands to beg. “Please please please please please stick around?? Please?”
I’m dying laughing as Gio comes back inside and walks into this scene. “What’s going on?” he asks, looking confused and just a tad suspicious.
“Dart wants to start a band, and he’s begging me to be in it,” I explain, taking my guitar off and laying it to the side.
“Ah… you really should,” Gio says, smiling. “Anyway, you guys wanna go outside for a little bit?”
Both of us nod. “By the way, what’s your real name?” I ask Dart as we walk out the open door to the patio.
“Dalton,” he says. “Gio calls me Dart because of the way I run. It caught on, and now everybody calls me that. Personally, I find it kind of annoying… I think that just makes everybody do it even more, though.” We sit down at one of the tables, and Ana is swimming a little ways out from us in the pool. “It’s too bad your friend is a lesbian,” Dalton says, watching lustfully as Ana’s body twists and turns in the water.
“Sorry, she’s dating a billionaire now, so you wouldn’t stand a chance even if she was bi,” I tease him.
“Nice!” he says, sounding impressed. “With a body like that, I can’t say I’m surprised. I don’t really do relationships… Monogamy is unnatural. We were born with animal instincts, and I don’t plan on ever repressing mine.”
I laugh. “To each their own,” I say.
Dalton is still watching Ana, and he nudges Gio playfully. “Hey, do you think she’d believe I’m a massage therapist?”
Gio gives him a stern look. “Dude. No.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After he leaves later that day, I go to Facebook and search Dalton Jacobs to add him. He confirms the request about thirty minutes later, and the first thing he says is—
Dalton: Please??
Me: Lmao. Thanks for accepting :)
Dalton: The honor is mine. Still geeking out a little that I’m friends with M.A.D.’s daughter.
Me: Just Mads is fine ;)
Dalton: Right… sorry… forgot you had a name. ;)
Me: Lol. Had a great time jammin’ with you today, though.
Dalton: Likewise. You really are spectacular. I might try to kidnap you at the end of the summer if you attempt to leave, just fair warning.
Me: Please do. I don’t want to go back to KY…
It’s true. I mi
ss some things about it, but LA is already starting to feel like home, even though we’ve only been here two weeks.
Me: Btw, is it okay if I just call you Dalton?
Dalton pauses for a second.
Dalton: OMG… PLEASE DO.
Me: Haha well Dalton it is then :)
Dalton: It’s been years since someone other than family or teachers called me by my real name. It’s truly music to my ears (no pun intended).
Me: I know Gio thinks he’s the king of nicknames, but I really just don’t get that one.
Dalton: I appreciate that more than you know. Btw, thank you for calling him out on his BS. He told me you have a tendency to do that. You’re making him better already.
Me: I love how much he talks about me to you guys :)
Dalton: He really likes you, I hope you know that.
Me: I get mixed signals from him sometimes. It’s like he has two totally different sides to his personality.
I’m referring to the aloofness I’ve been experiencing over the past two days… He’s been a little moody and distant, kind of like he was when I first met him.
Dalton: Once again, you read him perfectly. He has a great side and a not-so-great side.
Me: Which one is the real one?
Dalton: I think it’s the great side. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be BFFs.
I nod IRL. That makes perfect sense.
Me: Well, I’ll take your word for that. You seem pretty trustworthy… I mean, when you’re not scheming about how to get my BFF to let you give her a massage ;)
Dalton: That was a joke lol. I would never do that to Ana. She seems like a very nice girl.
Me: She is, and I appreciate that. Btw, another random question about Gio…
Dalton: What’s that?
Me: Has he ever gone for a girl like me before?
Dalton: …very much so. But I’ll let him tell you about that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Gio, stop,” I giggle. “Stop!” We’re in his pool together the next day, by ourselves, and he’s splashing me mercilessly. I guess he woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, because the aloofness seems to be a thing of the past.
“If you stop being cute, I’ll stop splashing you,” Gio promises, grinning.
“But I can’t help that!”
“Well then, I guess you’re screwed,” he replies calmly.
Finally, I get smart, and I lunge at him and throw my arms around his neck, blocking his arms. “Ha! Can’t splash me now.” He simply moves his arms and starts splashing me from the sides. “Dammit!”
Gio laughs at me, and then he puts his arms around my waist and kisses me softly. His kisses have gotten more affectionate and less desirous lately. “You’re awesome,” he says against my lips.
“You’re amazing,” I reply.
“You’re beautiful.”
“You’re perfection.”
“I want you,” he whispers hungrily, and I feel relieved that he still has the hots for me in addition to these new romantic feelings.
“I want you, too.” We get out of the pool and dry off, and then Gio takes me inside and up to his room. This time, it only takes fifteen minutes, and Gio lets me hang out in his room afterwards while he takes a shower.
While he’s gone, I go over to the bookcase to see what kind of books he’s interested in, and I’m pleased to find a mixture of classics and fantasy books. He also has some old textbooks and educational books stored up here, which is surprising, because I didn’t think him to be the academic type. As I’m looking down the line of textbooks and getting an idea of the sorts of things I’d have to read if I attended Wilcox, I come across his yearbook from his junior year. Looking over in the direction of his bathroom, I make sure he’s not coming out yet, and I quickly take it down and start flipping through it. I’ve never seen a modern yearbook before, just my dad’s from the 80’s that are all brown (and frankly scary) on the inside. I find Gio, Dalton, and Zuri and smile at how refined they look in their uniforms.
While I’m flipping through the pages, I remember that my doppelgänger, Raven, also goes to this school. I look over at the bathroom door again, and then I turn back to the book and go through all the juniors to see if there’s someone who looks like me. Oddly enough, she’s not there. I guess she must be a different grade level. Something tells me to look back in the sophomore section, and I flip through the different classes until I finally see her. My breath catches in my throat. It’s almost like looking in the mirror.
Every single feature about us is utterly identical. She does her makeup and hair a little differently, but if I wore that uniform and walked down the halls of that school, no one would even notice a difference. My heart starts to pound, and I look down to read the name under the picture.
“Raven—”
I hear Gio start to come out of the bathroom, and I quickly put the yearbook back up on the shelf. “H-hey,” I say breathlessly as he walks out the door.
“Hey!” He gives me an odd look. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I was just… it’s nothing. I’m fine.”
“Well, alright,” he says, smiling. Clearly, he does not possess his own BS detector. “Listen, while I’m thinking about it, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Okay,” I say. Gio takes me to sit on his bed, and he holds my hand as he asks me a question.
“Madness… you know that red carpet premiere Papa has in July?”
My heart starts pounding for a different reason. “Yes?”
“Well, Papa allowed me a plus one, and I was just wondering if you would consider going with me.”
My throat completely dries up. “What?”
“I want you to be my date and walk the red carpet with me,” he repeats.
“Uh… Uh-huh.” That and a nod is all I can manage.
Gio chuckles a little at my reaction. “You okay?”
“Uh-huh,” I say, nodding and forgetting about everything but my excitement. RED CARPET RED CARPET RED CARPET…
“You’ll need a dress, but don’t worry, Stephan has you covered,” Gio goes on to say. “He’ll make you whatever kind of dress you want, and he’s not even going to charge you for it. I already talked to him about it, and he’s really excited about designing your dress. I think he even has some sketches already drawn up.”
“Oh, my God,” I gush, finally finding my words again. “A custom-made dress?? Are you serious?!”
Gio nods quickly and gives me a shy grin. “I, uh… I was hoping I could introduce my new girlfriend to the world in style.”
Girlfriend. This is too much info all at once. I start losing control of my faculties again. “G-girlfriend?”
“Yeah,” he says, searching my eyes for an answer. “I mean, I know it’s a little early, but I like you a lot, and I feel really connected to you. I don’t want anyone else. Can I call you my girlfriend?”
It’s the first time he’s ever asked me for permission to do anything. “Abate,” I say, getting a grasp on my sense of humor amidst the racing of my heart, “if you’re taking me to a red carpet premiere, you can call me whatever you want.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This is ridiculous,” Ana groans as we’re crawling around on the floor the next afternoon. We went out and got me contacts, and I dropped one of the stupid things and it vanished from sight as soon as it hit the tile in the bathroom.
“I know… I almost think I should just give up on this whole thing.” With the Johnny McIntyre show coming up, and a red carpet premiere in two and half weeks, I figured it was finally time for me to ditch the glasses, at least for certain events. However, it would seem that my eyes reject the idea of contacts so strongly that they see fit to literally expel the things from my grasp.
“No,” Ana says forcefully. “You finally saw reason, and we’re not giving up that easily.” She starts running her hand randomly over the floor, and finally, it hits something. “Ah-ha! We have cont
act.”
I laugh a little. “Good one, love.” I stand up and Ana tries to help me clean it and guide the contacts in properly. “Ugh, this feels so weird… I hate things in my eyes.”
“Beauty is pain, girlfriend,” Ana says. “I think you’re getting it, though. You’ll get used to them if you wear them continuously.” She wears contacts, too.
After I put the contacts in, I blink my eyes repeatedly and try to get used to the feeling. It’s been a while since I saw my own unobstructed face in the mirror this clearly. “Well, there goes the last bit of clothing personality I had left,” I say mournfully.
“Are you kidding?” Ana asks, chuckling a little. “Your wardrobe has way more personality than mine. You dress like a rocker even when you’re not in your band Ts. I think your style is awesome.”
“Really?” Ana nods, and I smile and side-hug her. “Thanks, girl.” I turn back to the mirror and look at myself again. She’s kind of right… I’m in a black belly top and dark jean shorts with silver chains right now, which gives me a rocker vibe without being too in-your-face about it. If I start wearing dark eye makeup with it, I could see this glasses-less thing becoming acceptable to me. I smirk at myself. You little conformist, you…
Gio knows now that he can walk into my room whenever he wants, so he appears at the bathroom door unexpectedly. “Hey, ladies! What’s going on?”
“We broke her down,” Ana says teasingly. “Madison Daley is now, officially, a contact-lens-wearer.”
“Excellent,” Gio says, grinning and approaching me with his eyes on mine. He leans down and gives me a kiss, and Ana slips by us to go out the door. “Mm… I like this outfit,” he says in a low voice, rubbing his thumbs over my abdomen.
“I thought you might,” I say, giggling. Then I pull back a little bit. “Hey, before we get into that, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“What do you know about Raven from Wilcox?” I ask.
Gio immediately groans. “Do we have to talk about her right now?”
“I saw her picture in your yearbook,” I confess, and he starts looking a little on edge.
Diary of a Rocker's Kid (D.O.R.K. Book 1) Page 11
