Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 073

Not With Me Around

"Envy, I love you dearly, you know that, but if you continue to hum and sing that one song, I think I might shove a drum stick into your eye."

I instantly stopped humming and looked up from my kneeling position to meet Lisa's heated glare. She was behind the counter, doing nothing productive really, while I was filling the front of the counter with candy.

"I'm sorry, but I have to practice, my teacher told me to," I said in my defense, giving her a slight pout.

"Aw, don't be so mean to little Envy!" Scott whined, pulling me up and hugging me close to his body, "you're just jealous that she can sing better than you!"

Lisa snorted and gave the man a look while I laughed. I loved these people, they really were entertaining. I looked up at Scott, noticing the black roots mixing in with the older pink, and how his eyes sparkled with laughter. It made me really happy to see.

"Hey, hands off my girl!" Jeremy's familiar voice interrupted, pulling me towards him and away from his band mate, wrapping an arm over my shoulder.

"You're no fun," he sighed before walking away.

"I love how no one here really works," the teen boy sighed while I glared at him and pushed him away.

"I work very hard, thank you very much!" I huffed, "unlike some of these lazy asses."

"Liar!" Romeo said from the back room.

I giggled and smiled wide and got back to putting the rest of the candy away while Jeremy talked to Scott and Adam, who had come in with my friend. Everything was soon done, the alluring candy perfectly aligned, and I stood up proudly. At least someone got things done.

"V," Adam said, catching my attention, "are you coming with us to our practice?" He smiled at me, and I did the same, but gave him a sympathetic look.

"Sorry Adam, I promised Ray that he could kidnap me today and take me to his practice. He said that a good groupie needs to come to more than just one," I said with a laugh, "next time?"

"You bet!" Scott exclaimed, "we'll see you next Sunday then."

The two men started for the door, leaving the shop while I waved them goodbye, and Jeremy came up to me.

"My mom told me to invite you to dinner or something silly like that. I don't know why though," he teased while I pouted.

"It's because she loves me more than she loves you. I'm the daughter she always wanted."
Jeremy gave me a shocked face before turning it into a playfully sad one. “You’re so mean.”

I shrugged my shoulders and gave him a teasing smirk while poking his chest.

“I know.”

He laughed at my simple statement then pulled me towards him. He gently kissed me and gave me a hug.

“I’ll see you at dinner Envy. By everyone!”

A chorus of byes followed after him as he left, and I chuckled when I heard the few customers join in with the other employees.

“Okay, lover girl, keep up with your work so that we can leave as soon as we can,” Ray said, yelling from the back, his head peeking through the door frame.

“Oh, please, Bob and I are the only ones that really work around here!” I huffed, going to help the customer that just walked through the door.

“Quit telling lies, damn it!”

~~~~~~

“Ray, do I have to go? I’m so tired!” I whined as I sat in the man’s car, my head against the cold window. Another yawn escaped my mouth from tiredness, but I didn’t bother hiding it behind my hand this time.

“Yes, you have to. You promised you would, and what kind of good groupie are you if you only go to one or two practices?”

He had a point, on both parts, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I just sighed over dramatically and pressed my forehead up against the class, closing my eyes and relaxing. Even though I had promised to come to their practice, mostly because of Ray and Mikey’s prodding, I didn’t really want to go. I was still angry at Frank—though he didn’t know what he was saying at the time—and I was going to see him whether I liked it or not. And as of right now, I really wasn’t liking it.

All too soon, we pulled up to Ray’s home, the driveway already filled with two other cars, and I climbed out along with my fro-haired friend who opened the door, which was safely unlocked, and then pushed me towards the basement.

The room was much louder than it had been last time I had come, and when I heard Roxy’s voice over everyone else’s, I couldn’t help but smile. I rushed over to the smaller girl and gave her a crushing hug.

“And I thought I was going to be the only female here.”

“Nope, you have Tamara and I to keep you company.”

I glanced over to the other side of the couch to see Tamara sitting cozily in Frank’s lap, which irked me—however it really shouldn’t anymore—but saw that they seemed to be in some kind of angry discussion.

“She looks like she’ll be fun,” I whispered, motioning over to the feuding couples. Roxy only shrugged and looked up when Ger came over.

“This is totally not going to go well,” he sighed.

“Why, what’s wrong babe?”

“As you both can see, Frankie’s having a fight with his little girl friend,” he started, his eyes flickering over to them quickly, “and that is going to affect how he plays, because he’ll think instead of playing. Then we have Matt, who came over here drunk today. So, we’re not really at our best.”

I laughed and gave him a big grin. “Don’t worry, I was here for one, I know how great you all sound.”

“And I believe what Envy is saying, so we won’t judge you too hard,” Roxy teased, making the man smile.

“Okay Ger, we’re all ready!” Ray exclaimed, catching the lead singer’s attention. He sighed again and didn’t look enthusiastic about the practice. The two of us gave him a sympathetic smile and a thumbs up.

“Look, we’ll finish this later,” I heard Frankie say, getting up and forcing Tamara to move off his lap. She didn’t look happy at all, but she didn’t say anything else as he walked away.

As I was watching this, I felt someone pressed against my side, almost pushing me on to the couch, seeing as I was on the arm. With an annoyed glance, I saw Matt standing there with a drunken smirk on his face.

“Come to watch me play some hard core drums again?” he asked, and I heard the slur heavily in his voice.

“I came to see the band play,” I replied awkwardly, trying to move away from his heavy breathing without being rude.

“Matt, let’s start!” Mikey, who I now would call my savior, shouted and caught his attention. We both turned to him and I noticed his glare at the man. Either Matt didn’t see the glare, or didn’t care, because he just shrugged his shoulders and walked over to his drum set, all the while giving me a “seductive” look. I grimaced and set my attention as the group as a whole.

“That wasn’t creepy at all,” Rox said, and I could only nod, agreeing with her. I hadn’t liked him the moment I met him, and he didn’t give a good second impression either.

The boys started out with a cover, All You Need Is Love, at my request. I tried not to look horrified as they messed it up, but Ger had been right. They needed all their band members working together to sound as good as they had the first time I had listened to them. I was honestly considering revoking my own groupie membership, but I wasn’t that mean.

Once it ended, the three of us clapped, though it wasn’t as enthusiastic as it could have been.

“That, uh, that was good guys.”

“You don’t have to lie to us,” Ray spoke up, “we know it sounded bad.”

“No, no, it was… alright.”

“Which means it sounded like shit,” Frankie growled, hitting an unpleasant note on Pansy.

“I think we should take a break,” Mikey announced, and everyone else agreed. Mikey came over and gave me a hug before leaning against the wall.

“Thanks for pulling through that. We’re really not at our best right now.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re pretty much missing two band members.”

“Does Matt come to practice drunk a lot?” Roxy asked, watching him come down the stairs again, with another beer in his hand.

“It’s happened a couple times before, but it’s not something that normally happens a lot.”

“Mikey, come over here!” Ray’s commanding voice boomed, catching the lanky boy’s attention. He gave us an apologetic smile before sprinting over. Ray, Ger, and Mikey then began talking, leaving out the two problematic band members.

“I’m gonna go upstairs and get a drink real quick, maybe just get Tamara out of here for a little bit too. Do you want me to get you anything?” Rox asked, standing up. I shook my head in a negative and fell into her seat when she left, watching as she took the other girl with her. I was then left all by myself, finding entertainment by looking at the speckles on the wall.

It was really quite boring, but it kept my attention well enough that I didn’t notice someone sit by me until they cleared their throat. I jumped slightly at that and noticed Matt, once again, right next to me.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, sweetie. Just thought you looked lonely.”

“Uh, I’m fine. Roxy will be back with Tamara and their drinks in a minute.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t keep you company for that long, right?”

He put his arm over the couch, brushing my shoulders, and I was instantly uncomfortable.

“I’m not really comfortable in this situation,” I mumbled, going to get up. He put his arm tight around me, which kept me in place against my will.

“I heard from a little birdy that you’re a single lady right now, would that be correct?”

I was not happy about his arm being around me, not to mention the fact that he was touching me at all. His breath stank of the alcohol that he had consumed, cheap beer at that, and what smelled like morning breath even though we were already far into the day.

“This is true,” I lied, because not many people knew, “but I—“

“So you want to get together then? I mean, not for forever, but just for heavy petting, you know?”

I pulled away from him as quickly as I could, though he had a tight grip on me, and gave him an appalled look.

“No, not at all! Now get off of me you creep!”

“Aw, come on sweetie, it will be fun.”

“She said get the hell off!” I heard Frankie shout before I was pulled out of Matt’s arms. I stumbled, but the smaller boy caught me. I stood up and watched as the drunken man did the same.

“What the hell? We were just having a good time Frank.”

“That’s not what it looked like form over here. I’m sick and tired of you coming to practice drunk; it ruins everything.”

The man scoffed and glared at Frank. “Like you care about it; you’re too busy shoving your tongue down your girlfriend’s throat to care about the band. I was just trying to get a quick lay man. She should be pretty easy.”

My mouth fell open in shock, and I was instantly angered. This idiotic drunk had no right calling me “easy”, or saying those things about Frank. Who the hell did he think he was?

Before I could do anything to defend myself against his accusations, Frankie was gone from behind me and in front of the taller man. Matt didn’t even have a second to look down at him before Frank punched him square in the face.

Matt, seeing as he was in no shape to be standing, fell over at the force, and once he hit the floor, I could tell he was knocked out cold. Either it didn’t take much for this guy to be knocked out, or that was a strong punch. Both seemed very true.

The three other guys rushed over, having been just watching the interaction, and went to see if Matt was alright first. Ignoring them, Frankie came over to me and looked me over.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. You did a real number on him. I guess no one talks about your girlfriend that way, huh?” I sighed, relaxing my shoulders. I was surprised when Frankie put a hand on my face and made me look into his eyes.

“No one talks to you like that Envy, not with me around.”