| Ike shook his head 'no' quickly, since the grils were almost standing directly in front of them. Jamie caught the whole exchange and nodded to Isaac when he gaze came to rest on her. "Here you go, Jamie." he sai and gave her a weak smile, then turned a slightly warmer one on Jade. "Hi." he smiled sweetly down at her, wondering what it would be like to have her the way Josh was having Angel at the moment. "Ike what's wrong?" Jade asked quickly, immediately sensing that something was not right in his expression. It was almost the same sad smile he gave her as they walked from the car to Jamie's apartment, but not EXACTLY. "Nothing Jade. You look awesome." he said and she blushed, quickly looking at her feet. "Thank you, Isaac." Jade quickly gathered her wits and gave him a dimpled grin. "I don't think anyone's gonna be lookin' at ME though.." she chuckled as they watched Jamie give Zac a hard time and down another half-bottle of beer. "Not everyone gets the hots for the LEAD..." Ike grinned down at her as Taylor poked him the ribs. "Shut up dude.." Taylor admonished, knowing where he was going with this conversation. "Conceited? I wasn't talking about you, dork. There is NO lead singer in our band remember?" Ike laughed. "Just so long as YOU do." Taylor chuckled back and joined Jamie and Zac at the bar, where Zac was busy teasing Patti relentlessly. Patti was giving it right back to him though, and Taylor thought Zac was enjoying it. The bar was starting to fill up, and Jamie was getting even more restless as room to move was getting scarce. "What time is it, Jadeleigh?" she yelled in her friend's ear as the noise level steadily rose. Someone had put money in the old jukebox and people were yelling at each other to be heard over it, and Jamie could hear a few people complaining that they wished the band would get off their asses and start playing. Jade looked at her wrist, realized she wasn't wearing her watch and grabbed Ike's wrist. He looked down at her and only smiled, knowing any comment he had to make would go unheard. Jade winked at him and his heart skipped a beat. "It's almost ten.." she yelled directly in Jamie's ear. Jamie smiled brightly and nodded at Jade. "LET'S ROCK PEOPLE!!" she hollered, and the rest of the band immediately made their way to the stage. Taylor leaned against the bar, his brothers joining him, as Jamie hollered into her headset. "HEY!! How's it hanging ya'll?" she chuckled as there were a few whoops and catcalls back. "Aww yeah...okay I'm a spaz..so who else in this dump is wantin' to SHUT UP AND ROCK?!?!" she hollered again and then gave a loud fast drumroll, while the rest fo the girls grinned and hollered in encouragement, causing the rest of the crowd to whoop and turn their full attention to the band. Jamie finished with a flourish, another twirling of her drumsticks, the crashed her symbols and tossed her hair back out of her face. "WEEELLL NOW!! That's more like it dammit..LET'S ROCK!!" she yelled out and then pointed her drumstick at Tami, who mouthed the name of the song they wanted to start with, Jamie grinned and tapped out the time above her head with the drumsticks and the band started on cue. Taylor found himself drinking faster and having to adjust his stance all through the girl's first set, Jamie was already sweating and INTO the music, she and Tami taking turns singing lead. They were much better without Angel's presence, and Taylor could tell that the crowd appreciated the difference as well, most of them being avid followers of the band. He overheard a few comments from some of the people he'd recognized from the week before talking about how they'd never missed a gig since they first heard them, even going as far to go out of town to the festivals the girls had played. He took another long swallow of beer, turned to lean his hip against the bar so he could see them better, and found himself face to face with Ike's long face. "Dude.." he hollered loud enough, for his brother to hear him above the music, "are you alright? What happened?" he nodded to Ike, wanting him to tell him now, where Zac couldn't overhear and Jamie and Jade were oblivious to their conversation. Taylor couldn't help thinking that Ike looked like he'd seen a ghost all night. "I walked in on them.." Ike told him and took a long swallow of his beer. "And?" Taylor asked, not understanding. "Not a visual you want, man.." Ike said and took another pull. "Holy shit, Ike. No way." Taylor said, shocked. "It was Angel, right?" Tay asked. "Yup. She was not feeling even a little bit guilty.." Isaac told his brother. "What did they SAY?" Taylor asked suddenly curious. "Nothing, man. They didn't even know I was there..they were um...BUSY.." Ike answered, trying to shake the visual from his own mind. "Oh...well..yeah..so..you're really not gonna tell Jade? She likes YOU, man." Taylor told him. "And I already threatened to smear Josh all over the fucking driveway. What the hell is WRONG with him?" Taylor took another drink of his beer. "I dunno. Apparently he's stupid. Jade's great, but I didn't care for that Angel chick to begin with, less now since I know what she was trying to do the other night." Ike said and Taylor's jaw dropped. "WHAT?" Taylor prompted when Ike stopped. "Aw, man. She's a skank...I think she was pissed cause Josh was paying all that attention to Jade, duh, and so when I walked her to her door she was all tryin' to kiss me and stuff, but she was just tryin' to get Josh's attention." Ike took another long swallow of beer and Taylor realized that Ike was getting slowly drunk. "Zac..don't let Ike drive man.." Taylor poked Zac in the shoulder. Amazingly, Zac was showing some restraint and alternating one beer for every two Dr. Pepper's he drank. "What about YOU, stupid?" Zac grinned. "Shit. I'll be toast but Jamie can drive. She'll be awake till next Tuesday anyway." Taylor chuckled. "Kay.." Zac said and turned back to watch the band. "IKE!" Taylor hollered at his brother. "What?" Ike turned slowly away from staring at Jade to look at Taylor. "Tell her man..Josh will be gone so fast his head will spin. He deserves it." "Nah. Josh'll just make up some shithead story about how I am lying just to get to Jade.." Ike said and his heart twisted at the sound of her name on his lips. "But if Jame and I back you up.." Taylor began. "Jade already knows that Jamie doesn't like Josh much, and YOU are my BROTHER, not just a cousin.." he said and looked over his shoulder at a smiling Jade, keeping an eye on the sound and Jaime focused, bobbing her blonde curls to the music, as he took another drink of beer. "This is fucked." Ike muttered. "No shit." Taylor commented in reply. |