Shatter

“Brother?”

“Guilty by association.” Demetri waved me off. “So, your plan?”

Jaymeson cleared his throat and thrust his hand into the air, asking for complete silence. “Action.”

I waited, thinking surely he was going to say more than that. But he nodded his head and took another sip of soda as if he’d just cured world hunger.

“Huh?” Demetri and I said in unison.

“Action,” Jaymseon said it slower this time.

“Dude, my hearing’s fine.” I scowled. “And I can spell so you don’t have to go into that much detail. I’m just trying to figure out what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Big gestures.” Jaymeson threw his hands up in the air. “Big gestures and actions, but little gestures too. You can’t tell her the words because you’ve been lying. When a liar uses words to convince someone to believe them it’s like trying to swim with weight wrapped around your legs. It won’t work. Eventually you’ll tire out and sink.”

“I hate that you just made sense right now,” I said.

Demetri sat there slack-jawed. I nudged him out of his stunned state.

“Told you.” Jaymeson snorted. “Brilliant.”

“Fine, Mr. Brilliant. How do I show her? I can’t buy her things, because then it seems like I’m buying her stuff to get back on her good side, and I sure as hell don’t want to stalk her.”

“Good call.” Demetri laughed. “I stalked a girl once. Didn’t end well.”

I groaned into my hands. “What do I do!”

“Silence, grasshopper.” Jaymeson patted my hand. “I have a plan.”

“Jaymeson and plan in the same sentence make me nervous.” Demetri shrugged “But…” He looked at me. “It’s worth a shot.”

I sighed. “Fine. I just… I guess I just don’t want to mess up what precious time we have.”

“Oh, you won’t. Not if you stick with me, kid.”

“Why do I get the feeling he is just quoting movies?” I asked Demetri.

Jaymeson shrugged and held out his hand. “You in or not?”

“I’m in.” I slapped my hand over his.

“Me too.” Demetri followed.

Jaymeson smirked. “Trust.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

Demetri

“This is love. Pure love. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Dear God, what have I done to deserve this?” I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants and put my guitar over my head.

“It will be fine.” Alec slapped my back. “It has to be fine.”

“Either she’s going to hate it or love it,” I said. “Alyssa said Nat’s going to cry happy tears. I, however, may need therapy after this concert is through.”

“You and me both,” Alec grumbled. “Now, remember we’re transitioning into the other song as soon as the bridge ends on the first one.”

“I think I’ve done this before.” I glared.

Alec cursed. “Sorry. I’m just so damn nervous.”

“You’re nervous?” I yelled. “This shit is going to be on Youtube! Do you even realize what this could do to our hard-earned rock star persona?”

“To be fair, we’ve been in the news for the past week straight because of all the drama that hit the Internet with April and then with David going to the press.”

“True,” I grumbled. “I’d rather be on the news for murder.”

Alec grinned and slapped me on the back. “Well, you better catch the fever fast, because we’ve got some screaming girls to please.”

“I’m so damn worried about how this is going to go that I can’t even give you a snappy sexual retort to girls screaming right now.”

Jaymeson ran around the corner. “You guys ready?”

“Let me at him!” I lunged for Jaymeson. Laughing, he backed up with his hands in the air. “Alright, I’ll go tell them you’re ready to go on stage.”

“Damn you, Justin Bieber,” I mumbled just as I turned the corner and ran up onto the small stage Jaymeson had set up on the main Seaside boardwalk. I heard Alec’s laugh behind me.

“Ladies and gentleman!” Jaymeson laughed into the microphone. “Allow me to present, AD2.”

“Well, here goes nothing.” I started the song and closed my eyes. Seriously, we were going to get death threats for doing this cover.

“If I was your boyfriend, I’d never let you go. I can take you places you ain’t never been before.” Kill me now, kill me now.

Alec joined in with his guitar and then the drummer went crazy and Alec continued the song. Much to the screams of adoring fans. Sweat pooled in my hands. I looked to Alyssa who was in the front with a smiling Nat. I shook my head and I could have sworn she just winked at me and mouthed, “I have the fever.”

Alec’s voice sounded identical to the Biebs. I had to give him credit. “So give me a chance cause you’re all I need girl. Spend a week with your boy I’ll be calling you my girlfriend. If I was your man, I’d never leave, girl. I promise to never leave you girl.” I hoped to God that Justin Bieber fans wouldn’t set fire to our beach house for changing the bridge.

Alec stopped singing and motioned for me to go into the next song. One down two more to go. I played the upbeat temp and started to get a feel for the crowd as they jumped up and down to the music.