Disasterpiece

My thumbs ran numbly over the plastic square case in my hands; the masked faces of nine people in red jumpsuits staring up at me mesmerised me. Josie had convinced me that it would be a good idea to listen to Corey’s band as a way to find out what I was going to do with my life now, where I should head, who I should hunt down; if I should even fight for my death spot. So here I was on my way to work, having stopped off at the local CD store (finding it was a test on my memory) first to buy ‘Slipknots’ CD. Go figure, the album was also called ‘Slipknot’, they have another two, but I don’t have that much extra money.

I found myself in the dank alleyway again; today the smell was slightly more putrid – the garbage man comes on Monday’s. I held my breath and jogged past the overflowing dumpsters, shoving the CD into my bag before I pulled out my keys; I quickly unlocked the door and slid into the warm staff room. I let out a deep breath and headed straight over to my locker, opening it I went to shove my bag into its depths when a tattooed arm cut across my view, grabbing one of the photos I had dropped the other day.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, turning I found Corey standing there with a wide smirk. “What are you doing here?” I asked in bewilderment, surely rock stars had better things to do than stalk their siblings – siblings that they had seen not too many hours ago.

“My mind wouldn’t let me fucking sleep last night, it still doesn’t believe that you’re here, so here I am to try to prove to it that you actually exist,” he answered with a shrug. He looked down at the photo he had pulled from my locker and smiled; tilting it in my direction I saw it was the photo of our group in high school. “I haven’t seen this photo in fucking year’s ay,” he chuckled. “Josie looks like she’s trying to strangle me.”

I took a closer look at the photo and saw Josie clinging to Corey’s back, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, a look of malicious excitement on her face. “Knowing you, you probably said some smart arse comment and that was her retaliation,” I giggled, Corey snorted and threw the photo back into my locker.

“So,” he said, rubbing his hands together as his eyes traced over the staff room. I watched him with a raised eyebrow, obviously he knew I had work right now and obviously Uncle Frank had let him back here (like he would have any other choice, Corey always got his way) – so what was he doing?

I cleared my throat and edged closer to my locker, I needed to put my bag in but I had a feeling Corey would stop me. “You know I have to work tonight right?” I told him, more than asked him. Corey’s face broke into one of his infamous cartoon-like grins; he shook his head and stepped forward, slamming my locker closed.

“You really think Frank would make you work when I’m here making you all happy, pfft get real VJ,” he laughed. I sighed and adjusted my bag on my shoulder, looks like it wasn’t coming off any time soon.

“Ok then, so what are we going to do then?” I queried, a sudden bubble of nerves began to build up in the pit of my stomach. I mean last night had just been like a family reunion, but now…were we going back to how it was before, pretend those years of no contact hadn’t existed? Would the significant changes in our lives create two totally different personalities that had no way of connecting? What if we had nothing in common anymore? What if we began to resent each other? What if…

“Well I called Paul this morning – you remember Paul right? Anyways, he got excited because…well I called him this morning and he wants to catch up,” Corey blurted out, I blinked and narrowed my eyes suspiciously. Corey shifted his gaze nervously and smiled at me.

“Why was he so excited?” I asked suspiciously. Corey coughed and shrugged innocently, turning away form me he walked over to the coffee table and began to mindlessly filter through the pile of magazines. “Corey,” I said in a long drawn out undertone. Corey cursed under his breath and turned around to face me.

“Paul thought he saw you here the other night – which obviously he did – and he messaged me yesterday morning, so I kind of was here last night looking for you,” he explained in a resented tone. I gaped momentarily, I thought meeting Corey had been some weird fate that we had no say in, but it appears that Corey had all the say he wanted.

“So have you been looking for me then?” I asked incredulously, what a dramatic movie plot that would make – Rock Star searches for long lost sister - just saying it like that gave me tingles.

“No, not for a few years now, but Paul and I sometimes talk about the old days you know,” he shrugged. I nodded; Josie and I avoided talking about our past simply because it brought up everything that had happened between then and now, predominately Mr. Squiggle. But I’m sure if the past didn’t evoke those bad memories as well, we would talk about it too. “So we should go now, I’ve already called Josie and told her to meet us at a band mates place,” Corey added.

“How’d you get her number?” I asked as we started to walk towards the bar. Corey didn’t even need to answer me, as soon as we were around the corner Uncle Frank was in my face with a loud booming laugh and slap on the back – of course he would give Corey Josie’s number.

After talking briefly with Uncle Frank and been squashed once more into his smelly shirt, Corey and I made our way outside towards his car. The inside of the car stank of smoke; I would say it smelt like the inside of a bar, except there was the missing beer factor. I snuggled into the fluffy car seat and looked around as Corey got into the drivers seat, my eyes strayed to the back of the car and landed on the back seat – covered in toys.

“Corey…did you forget to tell me something?” I asked slowly, my eyes wide with surprise. Corey looked at me, and then followed my gaze to the back seat; he laughed and turned back to the road.

“Yeah, congratulations Aunty VJ you have a nephew,” he chuckled. I gaped, me an Aunty? Corey a…

“That means you’re a Dad! Jeez, do I get to meet the little Corey; is it a boy or a girl?” I gushed. I had never really thought about children before, I guess to me I still felt young enough that even the idea of me being a Mother sounded ridiculous; I had no intention of having a relationship let alone children any time soon. But I guess Corey was older than me, and always had been slightly more mature.

“His name is Parker Griffin Taylor and he’s at his Mother’s this week, but he should be over Friday night,” Corey answered; I frowned at him.

“Oh…so you’re not married then?” I asked solemnly, I hadn’t even thought of the fact that to have a child he must have a partner; but now to find out that they weren’t together, it made me sad – Corey was the most awesome guy I had ever met, besides Uncle Frank.

“I was, but things happened and she left me,” Corey shrugged, I could hear the pain behind his voice without even looking for it. I reached out and rubbed his shoulder; he grinned weakly at me and turned the car into a long driveway that was filled with three other cars already. I let my arms drop and looked up at the house before us; it was a huge three story home with off-red coloured bricks and two large bay windows on the first level, either side of the entrance. It was pretty; I wondered which one of Corey’s masked band mates lived here, maybe Paul?

Corey opened my door for me and helped me out of the car; we walked hand-in-hand up to the porch and rang the doorbell. I felt nervous again, who was going to be on the other side of the door? Were we meeting up with just Paul, or was the whole band going to be there? Would I be intruding if it was a band get together? Should I have brought a plate of food, or at least some kind of booze?

I went to ask Corey whose house we were at at least, when the door swung open.

“Vixen you dog!” someone yelled before I was engulfed in a bone crushing hug.