Outraged at the stupidity of the argument, I pushed to my feet. “Ever heard of riding a bike, Jace? It’s called muscle memory. Jesus Christ, do you have to start a fight about literally everything? I was going to give you that song for this album you’re all woefully behind schedule on, but now I think, hmm, maybe… get fucked.”
His jaw dropped, but he made a quick recovery as his expression shifted into irritation. “I wouldn’t have wanted it anyway. It sucked, and I never could have made lyrics that fit with Bellerose’s aesthetic.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped back. “Do I need to remind you that I am Bellerose? Why the fuck did you feel the need to steal my damn name in the first place, Jace? You signed to Big Noise under Snake Soup.”
He scowled back at me. “I think we both know Bellerose sounds a hell of a lot sexier than Snake Soup.”
I couldn’t deny that; his original band name was one they’d come up with as twelve-year-olds. It was awful. But that didn’t mean he’d had to steal my damn name. “You did it to piss me off, and you know it. You wanted to send a giant fuck you every time you appeared on a billboard or poster or side of a fucking bus. It’s pathetic and childish and you need to stop thinking so fucking highly of yourself. You barely even crossed my mind over the years.”
With that, I stormed inside the trailer and slammed the little door before he could see the lies all over my face. How I even had the audacity to spew such rubbish was beyond me, but… fuck it. Jace’s ego needed a pin stabbed through it.
Shoving my hands into my hair, I let out a silent scream. He made me want to break something, but I wasn’t a fucking cavewoman. I could control my violent impulses a touch better than that.
I’d left the guitar outside, and my pride wouldn’t let me go back out there, so I just gave up and got ready for bed. And by that, I meant I just took off my borrowed sweatpants and crawled under the covers in my panties and flannel shirt. It wasn’t like I could brush my teeth or change into clean clothes. Maybe in the morning I’d wash some of our clothes in the river before we really started to stink .
Silence weighed down heavily as I lay there, and it wasn’t long before exhaustion set in and my lids drooped.
“Where’s Billie?” Rhett’s question woke me up from my half-asleep doze, and it took me a moment to realize he was talking to Jace outside. The trailer might as well be made of cardboard for how much sound insulation it offered.
“Inside,” Jace replied, his voice low and quiet.
There was a pause before Rhett spoke again, and I tried to convince myself not to listen. But it was hard not to, so…
“Did something happen?”
Jace grunted. That was it. Just a grunt. What was he, a pig? Use your fucking words, Adams.
Rhett sighed, sounding frustrated. “I love you, Jace; you’re my best friend and brother. But fuck me, you’re an asshole.”
“No disagreement here,” Jace muttered back. “She brings out the worst in me.”
Rhett scoffed. “Don’t blame her. You’re a man. Man up and take responsibility for your own choices.”
Oh snap. I braced, waiting with bated breath to hear Jace start a fight that I’d be forced to break up. But to my shock, he didn’t. He just grunted again.
They fell silent, and I nearly drifted back to sleep before the sound of guitar music reached my ears. It was my song, the one I’d just been making up while they were off in the woods. But I’d bet my shorts it was Rhett playing, not Jace.
“I wouldn’t,” Jace said, confirming my guess. “She said we can’t have that song for Bellerose.”
Rhett scoffed, still playing my tune on the guitar. I could so vividly picture his long fingers plucking at the strings just like he played with my body… “Why’d she say that, hmm? You must have pissed her off. Besides, I like it.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jace muttered.
“Do you remember any of the lyrics she’d already put to it?” Rhett asked, continuing to play and adding his own creative spin on my original tune. “I couldn’t hear what they were.”
Jace groaned. “No. But…”
Rhett chuckled, pausing his playing. “Oh, here we go. You’ve already written lyrics in your head, huh? Well then, spit it out. I’ll start over.” He didn’t wait for Jace to argue, just started playing again.
There was a moment’s hesitation, within which I didn’t even breathe, then Jace started singing.
“Pain written in my soul, the blade too blunt to cut you free,
Even as I crave the agony. It feeds my being. My being.
This is the end of something real, of the moment we’re desperate to save.
Desperate to save.”
Fuck. Now I was crying. Unable to face hearing anything more, I pulled the blankets up and dragged a pillow over my head. I could still hear them, but now it was muffled and incomprehensible. Thank fuck for that.
I must have fallen asleep, because I woke again to Rhett climbing in beside me, his cold hands finding my waist and pulling me into his embrace. Then the mattress dipped on the other side, and I stiffened up like a board.
“I’m not sleeping on the couch,” Jace muttered quietly. “It’s too short, and this bed is more than big enough if you’re not a bitch about it.”
“Jesus, bro, can you not?” Rhett groaned, holding me tighter like he could somehow physically fend off the insult.
I was sleepy enough not to give a fuck about petty insults, though. “Just don’t fucking touch me,” I mumbled, snuggling into Rhett’s chest. “Or I’ll kill you.”
“Likewise,” he replied, getting comfortable.
Rhett sighed, then kissed my hair. “You two are insufferable. Sweet dreams, beautiful.”
“Sweet dreams, handsome,” Jace replied, sounding smug, like he was so funny. Dick.
I was already drifting back to sleep, though, so I just intertwined my legs with Rhett’s and let myself relax. Really relax. Fuck, I had a lot to be thankful for, and his forgiveness for the fake baby ruse was high on that list.
My dreams when I fell back to sleep were fucked up to say the least, full of masked men armed with knives that turned into bananas before they stabbed me, which then resulted in me all covered in mashed banana while the masked men skipped through a field singing songs from The Sound Of Music.
It was a stressful, confusing, and ridiculous dream that then morphed into a seriously X-rated sex dream involving all three members of Bellerose… all three of them inside me at the same time... with no one in my mouth. Was that physically possible? My dream said yes, and I was pretty game to find out for myself.
I groaned as my dream shifted gears again, my imaginary partners all moving to different positions, and I reached down to stroke the hard length rubbing between my legs against my soaking panties.
“Fuck,” Jace whispered, his breath warm against the back of my neck. “Billie, we can’t—”
Then my panties were pushed aside and he was sliding into me. Only then did I fully realize I wasn’t dreaming anymore. I gasped, arching my spine to push back on him, and my lids fluttered open a millimeter. Just enough to see Rhett had gotten up already and sunlight was streaming through the half-open door of the Airstream.