Michelle fanned herself as the heat rose from the smallness of the dark amphitheater. It was shadowy, stuffy and there was virtually no cool air. She glanced to her left, seeing the twins excitedly chatting among themselves. They were different from her; while she was into oldies and classical music, organized, worked hard, dressed laid-back, no piercing or dye jobs, they were into rock and roll, punk, procrastinators, lazy, piercing and dye jobs and dressed in 'gothic,' as Ethan would say. She chuckled at how complete opposites they were and had nothing in common, but she still got along with them.

"Thanks for taking us, it means a lot." Emily thanked. "Do you have to make up your shift later?"

Michelle brushed her hair away from her face. Her job? What job? After she called, she was informed that she would not be needed anymore. So basically, she was fired, but the twins didn't need to know that. They already had enough troubles. "Yeah, later." She lied, giving a half-hearted smile.

Ethan nodded and played with his lip ring. Their mother would have had a heart attack, if she saw how the twins looked now. It had been 5 years since their mother had passed away from breast cancer. She had it for 7 years before she finally gave up. She was a strong woman and never gave up anything without a fight, but for this, she decided to fight it for a while and then it became too much for her that she lost. All the treatments, surgeries, pain and suffering, it wasn't needed.

She remembered she was 18 and the twins were 11 when their mother passed away. It was cold rainy Wednesday and her mother was lying in her bed with her family around her when she took her last breath. Something that was burned into her brain forever. Her father died the year after in his sleep from hardened arteries, so the doctors said, but she knew it was from being heartbroken. He couldn't go on, now that the love of his life was gone.

At 19, she was left to take care of her brother and sister. Going to college, taking care of your family, having multiple jobs to keep ends meet was difficult. It made her tough-skinned and grow up way faster than her friends, who were at frat parties, while she was working at the local bakery, so that she could pay for that month's rent and her tuition. Thankfully, her parent's family was there to help whenever they could. It made life a little easier, but she still had to slave through.

Now being 23 wasn't getting any easier. The older you get, the more responsibility lies on your shoulders.

"Look, there they are!" Emily tugged her arm as she pointed out a group of guys walking in. Michelle looked at each of the guy's face and smiled to herself. No wonder why Emily liked them, they were pretty cute. But she didn't dare to say that out loud because then she would never hear the end of it from the twins. "Let's go meet them!" she dragged Michelle towards the band. Michelle looked over her shoulder to Ethan, who shook his head in embarrassment and walked behind the two females.

She chuckled as Emily enthusiastically introduced herself and Ethan played it cool. "And this is my sister, Michelle." She automatically shook each of their hands and learned their names. Nick, Jeremiah, Tony and Matt. "Cousins." Emily pointed out.

The blue-eyed man smiled and nodded. "Cousins." He repeated, nudging the taller man to his right side.

Yea, they were pretty cute.

------

Tony tapped his older cousin on the shoulder. Matt spun around to face the bleached blond man. "Yes, Tony, how can I help you?"

"Do you remember our bet, oh, dear cousin of mine?" Tony innocently reminded.

Matt smirked. "Yea, found a chick?"

Tony nodded. Yes, he did. "Her." He jerked his chin towards the group of figures.

Matt rolled his eyes. "That is really specific."

"That girl by Nick."

Matt looked at the two females, who both were by Nick, talking. "Which one, idiot? In case, you haven't notice, there are two girls by Nick."

"Obliviously the older chick, unless you wanna fuck a 16 year old and get thrown into jail, which isn't a bad idea." Tony snorted, talking a sip from his beer.

His brown eyes scanned over the female. She looked almost uncomfortable; out of place. She was probably the only 'normal' looking female in the whole club. Her brunette hair was thrown into a messy ponytail; there was no sign of any coloring or piercing. She was wearing a plain red muscle tank with a pair of low-rise jeans that hugged her body perfectly. A soft warm glow radiated from her. She looked glorious.

"I would have given you the 16 year old, but she looked too easy."

Michelle felt a tingle on the back of her neck. Someone was watching her. She searched her surrounding and it landed on the sitting figure.

Matt.

Her eyes locked with his. She felt the small hairs on her arm electrify as he smiled and she slowly smiled back. He had been caught. He let his eyes linger into hers for a while before turning away and faced his cousin. "You got yourself a deal." He shook Tony's hand.

It was going to be easy.

Tony grinned as he released Matt's hand and patted him on the back.

He had no idea what he had gotten himself into.

------

Michelle threw her head back and laughed as Jeremiah demonstrated his Cadillac dance.

"So, what do you think? Not bad?" Jeremiah asked as he sat down next to her on the couch.

"It's very unique." She tried to find the words.

"Unique." Jeremiah repeated and nodded his head. "Unique."

Michelle and Jeremiah talked among themselves. He was happy they were at home and occasionally playing a few gigs here and there. That life on the road was hard, especially living with three other men, who acted like babies. They were great, but sometimes he just needed a break from them; seeing them 24/7 was enough to make anyone end up in a mental hospital.

Michelle smiled. She told Jeremiah that she sort of understood. Always having to watch out for them, it could make you sick. She explained that it was only her and the twins. Taking care of them was a job, a handful.

"What about your parents?" Jeremiah asked, pushing his shaggy hair from his eyes.

"They're gone." She simply stated.

Jeremiah was confused. Gone? To where? Then it hit him. They weregone. "Sorry." He mumbled, looking away.

She shrugged. Things happened for a reason, there was no use fighting it. As harsh as it was, it was the truth and the truth was always harsh. She could never come to grip to what happened to her parents; there was never any closure, no warning. Sometimes she regretted never telling her parents how much they meant to her and she always felt guilty.

Jeremiah gazed at a spot on the wall. The atmosphere was suddenly unexplainable. A chill ran down his body as the silence lingered. He glance at Michelle; a distant look in her brown eyes. He looked closer and he could see the stress and worry lines on her flawless face. She wore no makeup maybe lip balm, but that was it. Her skin had a healthy tan, but gave off a cool aura. She seemed reachable, but you couldn't reach her. Her face gave off no emotion, but her eyes a distant, a hint of sadness showed. He was curious why she looked so sad and complicated.

The door banged open, revealing Tony and Ethan. "Look, Michelle, I got a new piercing." Ethan pointed to his left eyebrow.

Michelle's eyes widened and she jumped off the couch, running towards her brother. Her eyes scanned at the freshly pierced skin. "What? Did you just get it now?"

"Yep, Tony's friend did it." Ethan jerked his head to Tony.

Michelle looked at Tony, who was innocently smiling and furrowed her eyebrows together. "You didn't get my permission."

"I know, but isn't cool?"

She gently touched the top of the piercing. "Why? You had such nice eyebrows."

"You said that about my lip too." Ethan grinned.

"He said that you would be cool about it." Tony said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't want to piss her off.

Ethan nodded. "Don't worry about, dude. She didn't say anything when I got my other piercings." That included his ears, nose and lip.

Jeremiah walked over to the group and examined the younger boy's piercing. "That's pretty cool."

Michelle glared at the males. She bit her lower lip and rubbed her forehead. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She wasn't mad, just disappointed that he kept going behind her back to do what he wanted. But Ethan knew his sister and if he had asked if he could have gotten any piercings, she would say no, probably because that's what their mother would have said.

"Elle, is it okay?" Ethan asked unsurely, using her nickname. If anything her opinion mattered the most and he didn't want make her anymore disenchanted then she already was.

Tony and Jeremiah looked at Michelle, who just smiled. What could she do? Demand him to take out all his piercings in front of his favorite band. No, she couldn't. "It's nice."

Ethan grinned. Knowing that she was going to let it slide...for now.

------

Matt stuffed his hands inside his pockets and sat in the chair that across from Michelle. "So, your brother got a new piercing, huh?"

Michelle shifted her eyes to the man. "Yeah, eyebrow." She heavily sighed as Matt arched his eyebrow that was pierced. She quickly backtracked. "I didn't mean anything by that."

He grinned, waving his hand in the air, dismissing the issue. "Ethan and Emily are your siblings?"

"Yeah, my only brother and sister."

"Who's older?" Matt asked with interest.

"Emily, by 3 minutes or so, but Ethan acts older." Michelle smiled. She loved to tell people about her brother and sister. They were the apples of her eye or something like that. Emily is supposed to be older, but Ethan decided to take on that role instead. Deciding that there should be a man in the house and he was the only man.

"You must really love them." Matt watched as Michelle's eyes twinkled.

"They're all I have." She said, lowering her eyes to the ground. Suddenly the dirty floor was more interesting then Matt's intensive stare.

"Yo, turd, sound check." Nick yelled across the room.

Matt laughed and shook his head. "I'll be back."

Michelle looked up and nodded, watching him jog to the stage and strapped on his bass, plucking a few strings. The band tried to talk over each other's voices, the pounding of the drums and the guitars. She softly chuckled at their antics. She looked over to where Matt was standing. She watched his shake his head and look up, connecting their eyes. She froze when a smile grew on his exquisite lips and winked at her. She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and her heart pounding hard against her chest that she thought it would pop out.

She quickly looked away and frowned. She wasn't going too and she couldn't. He was just a playboy, not a long-term guy.

Right?

------

Matt smiled to himself as he watched Michelle quickly look away from him, once she was caught staring at him. He silently cheered, seeing how flustered she was.

This was going to be easy. In less than a week, he was going to have all the glory and pride, plus a hundred extra dollars.

He could almost taste victory.