Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

"Who the fuck was that?" Adam says into his mic.

I'm sitting in a big round booth at the Rainbow with Mike, Daisy, Dave, Austin and his two girlfriends for the evening, Jackie and Madison, watching Adam's friend Shaun and his band play. Shaun announced to the crowd that Adam was going to come out and sing a song with them, and as Adam walked out on stage, some guy in the audience started heckling him.

Shaun looks out at the people and points out the guy who is still yelling.

"What?" Adam says, taunting the guy. There's more yelling, but I cant hear what the dude is saying from this far away.

"What?" Adam says again. "You suck dick for money?"

The whole bar goes apeshit cheering, Adam and Shaun are laughing.

"Absolutly you do" Adam says, The band starts playing the opening chords of the song then stops.

"Security, will you please escort this dickhead to the door so the rest of these lovely people can enjoy some rock n' roll?" Shaun says.

We see security walk over to the guy and walk him to the door.

"This song's called Broken." Shaun says and the crowd cheers. Shaun sings the first verse by himself, Adam sings backup on the chorus.

I wanted you to know that I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
And I keep your photograph, I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

Because I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
You've gone away, you don't feel me here anymore

Adam sings the second verse by himself, I remember the day he sang to me this part.

The worst is over now and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away
There's so much left to learn and no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

Because I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
Because I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

Because I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
You've gone away, you don't feel me here anymore

Adam basically screams the last verse while Shaun sings normally, smiling at him. When the song is over they hug and Adam walks off stage over to our booth. I jump out of the booth and give him a kiss.

"You were amazing, I love that song!" I say.

"Thank You"

We sit in the booth with everyone and have a drink. I can hear my phone ringing a text messege in my purse, I grab it. It's Billie.

'What r u & Mike doing?'

'At the rainbow'

'Liv & Brayden r here'

'OK'

'U 2 should come over'

'Is Kya there?'

'Yes & Royston'

I don't reply, Daisy looks at me "Who are you talking to?" She asks.

"Billie, Live and Brayden are at the house"

"How long is Bray home for?"

"Thanksgiving I think" Billie texts again.

'R U with Adam?'

'Yes'

'The three of you should come over'

'IDK'

'Your brother & sister want to meet him'

'I'll ask him and get back with U'

I close my phone and look at Adam, who's talking to Mike about the band.

"My mom wants the three of us to come over" I say to him. Mike laughs, Adam says nothing.

"Why?" Mike asks

"Because, Liv, Ky, Bray, and Roy are over there"

"Nice, nothing like a meet and greet with the fam when you're partying" Mike says.

"If you guys want to go over there, It dosent matter to me" Adam says.

"Would you mind going? I mean, we don't have to go, I can say no."

"It dosent matter, You're going with me to my mother's country club bullshit, so why not."

"This place blows anyways" Mike says getting up out of the booth.

"So were going?" I ask.

"Yeah"

"OK, let me text Billie and let her know" I get my phone out and send Billie a text.

'We'll be there in a bit'

'OK'

The three of us walk to the door, Daisy and Dave follow us to say goodbye. Daisy wraps her arms around me.

"I love you!" She says, She pulls out of the hug and gives me a kiss on the lips, which lasts a little too long, but whatever she's drunk.

"I love you too, Daisy" Adam is staring at Dave I notice, Dave is watching Daisy and I.

"Let's get out of here" Mike says

We walk out to Mike's car and I hop in the backseat to drive to my parents house. When we arrive, Mike leads the way inside, Adam and I follow holding hands.

"Is there anything I should know about your parents?" Adam asks.

"Just don't let Joe show you his gun collection" Mike says "But, other than that you should be okay"

Adam nods silently. Mike opens the front door and we're hit by warmth and noise from inside.

"Hello" Mike yells and we walk into the living room where everyone is gathered. Kya runs to Mike and he picks her up.

"Hey gorgeous" He says to her.

"Uncle Mike, guess what?"

"What?"

"Mama says that if you say yes, I can come spend the night with you and Aunt Sophie."

"Well, you'll have to ask Aunt Sophie" He looks at me and sticks his lower lip out.

Mike cracks me up when he's in 'Uncle Mike' mode, He love's Kya soooo much. His kids are going to be so spoiled.

"Of course you can come over, Princess." I say

She claps her hands together and Mike puts her on the ground.

"Cool, now that we have that all taken care of" Liv says "Thats all she's been talking about for twenty minutes" She come's over and hugs me. "Now introduce me to your stud here"

Adam's face turns ten shades of red.

"Oh my God, Liv! That's embarassing" She laughs, Brayden stands up and walks over to us.

"Liv, Brayden, this is my friend Adam. Adam this is my half sister and brother, Liv and Brayden."

"Nice to meet you both" He says, shaking Brayden's hand.

"And these are my parents, Joe and Billie. And that is Royston, Liv's husband on the couch next to my dad" He smiles and nods at them. Billie runs over and give's Adam an awkward hug.

"Brayden is a Marine" I say "He just came home a couple month's ago, and he'll be leaving again before Christmas"

"Wow, where were you stationed?" Adam asks

"Iraq, I was in Germany for a while. But about a year ago I was sent to Iraq" Brayden answers

"How long have you been in?"

"Six years, since I was twenty one."

"That's amazing, Man"

"Yes, were all very proud of him" Bilie says.

"How about you come in here and sit down" My dad says from the couch, where Mike and Royston are playing with Kya. We all sit down, I'm still holding Adam's hand.

"Would you guys like something to drink?" Billie asks "I don't know what you like, Adam, but we have beer and water and things like that"

"Sophie, I need your help in the kitchen" Liv says getting up. I roll my eyes and follow her, I feel kind of bad leaving Adam by himself with my family.

"What do you need?" I ask her when we get to the kitchen.

"I'm impressed little sis"

"With what?"

"What do you think?" She says, walking to refrigerator grabbing a beer."So he was the guy you messed around on John with?"

"Liv, why do you have to bring that up?"

"I just wanted to know!" Big sigh

"Yes, he's the one. But I think things are like, different now. We've done alot of shit for each other lately"

"I see"

"Yeah, and if I don't get back out there, Dad will be asking him if he has an STD, or something horrible"

"Fine, go"

I grab two glasses from the cupboard, fill them with water and walk back out to the living room. I hand one of glasses to Adam and sit next to him.

"So what are talking about?" I ask.

"STD's" my father answers.

Liv and I both start choking on our drinks, everyone else is laughing thier asses off, including Adam.

"Gotcha" my dad says.

A little while later Mike, Adam, Kya and myself are now in Mike's car, driving Adam home. Kya's already sleeping in her carseat, so much for a fun sleepover. I walk Adam to his front door.

"Have fun with your neice,even though it looks like she's funned out for the night" He says to me, I laugh.

"I will, My parents love you by the way"

"I havent done the whole 'meet the parents' thing in a while, it was fun"

I tilt my head back for a kiss and he complys very nicely. Mike leans on the horn in the car, I flip him my middle finger with my lips still on Adam's. Adam starts laughing through our kiss.

"You better go" he says

"Yeah, if Kya wasnt with us I would have stayed"

"Until we meet again, I guess" He says and kisses me again. I walk back to the car.

"You are so imature" I say to Mike.
****************************************************************************************************************

The next day I'm getting ready for this dinner with Adam's parent's at the Country Club. I'm wearing a long sleeved black dress that hit's my upper thigh in length, and black thigh high leather boots. Leaving only a couple inches of my leg in-between the dress and my boots. Pretty damn hot, if I do say so myself.

I walk out to the living room, Mike took Kya to the park today and they still arent home. It's about 5:30, Adam said he would pick me up at six, so I have some time to relax hopefully. I plunk down on the couch and wait, in the meantime I hear Mike's car pull in the driveway. He and Kya walk in the door holding hands, in Mike's free hand he's holding a puppy.

"Aunt Sophie,guess what?"

"What?"

"Uncle Mike bought a puppy!"

"What?! Oh my God!" I look at Mike open mouthed, he smiles.

"A Beagle" He says

"Don't Beagle's...um howl?"

"We can train him not to."

"Oh" I hear Adam knock on the door.

"I have to go now, we'll deal with this later" I say and walk out the door to Adam's car.

"You look amazing" Adam says leaning across the car to kiss me.

"Thank you, You look pretty good yourself"

"Just so you know" He says while were driving "I plan on getting very drunk tonight"

"OK, as long as you let me drive home"

"I'll give you my keys as soon as we get there" He pauses "I havent been drunk in about six years sooooo."

"That's fine, but if you pass out in the car that's where you're staying"

He laughs "OK"

We pull in, park and walk inside holding hands. I look around the main room and spot Adam's mother with a man I assume to be his father. I point them out to Adam, he nod's and we walk over to their table.

"Adam, I didn't know you were bringing a date" his mother says, he smile's tightly.

"Mother, you've already met Sophie. Dad, this is a very good friend of mine, Sophie"

"Very nice to meet you young lady" Adam's dad says shaking my hand. Adam pulls my chair out for me to sit down. A waiter walks by holding a tray with about fifteen glasses of champagne on it, Adam snags one of the glasses and chugs the whole thing in one gulp. He set's the empty glass back on the tray and take's two more, setting one in front of me on the table. His parents stare at him slack jawed, he just smiles at them.

"So, how long have you two known each other?" his father says finally. I look at Adam and he takes another drink of champagne. I can tell I'm on my own with this one.

"Um, about seven or eight months now" I say.

"And how did you meet?" he asks, Adam takes another drink.

"Through mutual friends" Sort of a lie, but they don't know that.

"So you didnt know Adam during the most unfortunate part of his life" His mother states

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Adam spits

"There is no need for that language, Dear" He rolls his eyes and sit's back in his chair. Were all silent for a while after that.

"Can I smoke in here?" Adam ask's finally

"Yes" his father answers

Adam pulls his cigarette's out of his jacket pocket, cupping his hand around it to light it. Someone needs to smash the ice at this table, it might as well be me.

"So when is the food served?" I ask

"Anytime now" his mother says

"I'm going to the bar to get a drink, do you want anything?" Adam asks me

"I'll have a vanilla vodka on the rocks please"

He nods and walks off towards the bar.

"I bet you guys know my mother, she used to be a member here" I say

"Oh was she? What's her name?"Adam's mother says

"Emma Mcreynolds"

"Oh yes! How is she? I didn't know she had another daughter"

"She's fine, I don't think she talks about me much"

"And how's your father, Greg?"

"Oh, Greg's not my father, he's fine though"

Adam walks back to the table and sets my drink in front of me. "Thanks Love" I say, he leans down and kisses my lips softly and sits down.

"So what did you guys find to talk about?" He asks

About an hour later after we've eaten, Adam's parents have left us alone at the table so they could mingle with the rest of the stuck up's here. Adam is about a stage past tipsy, I'm still on my first drink.

"What would you rather be doing right now?" I ask him, he's silent for a minute and drinks the last of his beer, smiling to himself.

"Fucking you in a coat closet somewhere" he answers

I laugh very loudly, I can feel eyes on me but I dont really care.

"Don't suppose you know where there's one of those?" he asks

"Yeah, actually I do"

We make eye contact for a minute, he reaches over and takes my drink and swallows it. He leans over to me and whispers in my ear.

"Show me"

I stand up and take his hand, leading him to the lobby area. No one is out here, I see the closet door is wide open and inviting us inside silently. I pull him inside and lock the door.

I push him up against the wall and reach inside his jacket, putting my hands on his back. He kisses me hard and turns me around so I'm against the wall. He puts his hands up the bottom of my dress and pulls my panties down, lifting me up from under my thighs. I reach down and unzip his pants, He thrusts into m hard and I'm forced to cry out.

"Oh my God"

"Shhh" He says still thrusting. I grab the back of his shirt tight until he pulls out. He puts my legs back on the ground, I lean against the wall, breathing hard. He smiles at me and grabs my panties off the floor, sliding them up my legs and pulls my dress down over my ass. Ive almost got my shit together, I watch him zip his pants.

"Ready to get back out there?" He asks

"I think so"

We walk back out to the main room, where his parents are back sitting at teh table. Adam grabs a bottle of wine out of the ice bucket near their table, pouring some in each of their glasses.

"Thank you dear" His mother says "Where did you two run off to?"

"We went outside to get some air, we'll probably be leaving soon." Adam says

"I see"

We all sit for awhile not saying a whole lot, I'm not really sure I could say anything anyways. About a half hour later we say our goodbyes and leave. When we get out to the car, Adam hands me his keys.

"It's a good thing we fucked in there, because I am so wasted that if we tryed when we got home, I would probably pass out on top of you"

"Yeah, I have to go home and deal with this puppy situation anyways" I say

"What puppy situation?"

"Mike bought a puppy today" He nods

"You don't like dogs?"

"No, I love dogs. We just never talked about getting one and affording one, ya know?" He nods again

He reaches his hands across the car and put it between my thighs. I take a deep breath as he moves it higher, stroking me gently with his finger.

"So you're horny when you're drunk" I say

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all"

We pull in his driveway and stop. He removes his hand and kisses me.

"I love you" He says

"You're drunk"

"Yes, but I do love you"

"Tell me again in the morning if you still feel that way" He gets out and I watch him walk in the house, I back out and drive his car home.

Ive never really thought about the 'L' word, it's never come up. Even though I know that I have love for Adam, I'm not totally sure that I love his like that yet. Who knows, I have other stuff to think about right now. Like what this puppy is going to eat, and who's going to pick up his poop.
****************************************************************************************************************

The next morning I'm laying in bed, half asleep, kind of thinking about the night before when I hear a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in"

It's Mike with the puppy. He was sleeping lastnight when I got home, so we didnt get to talk about keeping the puppy.

"Morning" he says, waving the puppy's paw at me.

"What's puppy's name?"

"Charlie"

He sits down on the bed and puts the puppy down. Charlie walks over to me and I pick him up.

"Can we afford to feed him? Puppy's are expensive." I say

"We're both working right now, so I don't see why not"

"If Kya hadnt been with you yesterday, would you have bought him?"

"I don't know, does it matter? We have him now." I sigh and pet Charlie, he's so cute I'm already in love with him.

"Come on Sophie, you got to have dogs your whole life. I didnt get a dog until I moved in with Joe and Billie"

I laugh "So thats what this is about? You being deprived of a dog as a child?"

"Jackass"

"I'm insulted! I was just going to say we could keep him, but now I might change my mind"

"Whatever" He picks Charlie up and walks out of the bedroom, I throw the blankets back and follow him.

"Adam told me that he love's me lastnight" I say

He sets Charlie on the floor and pours two cups of coffee.

"Was he drunk?"

"Why would you assume that he would have to be drunk to tell me that?"

"That wasnt what I was getting at"

I'm a little pissed now. "Then what was your point?"

"Nothing, how do you feel? Do you love him?"

"I dont know, We've been like this for a little while now." We both drink some coffee.

"I'm taking Charlie to Petsmart today to get some supplies, Do you want to come?" he asks

"I think I'm going to hang out here today"

"OK, you wanna watch the kid while I get dressed?"

"Sure"

He walks off the bathroom. I pick Charlie up and haul him off to my bedroom. I get dressed in faded ripped jeans, a black cami top and my favorite gray sweatshirt, that I ripped the collar off of so that it hangs off of my shoulder. When I come out to the living room, Mike's there dressed and ready to go.

"Do you have a collar or leash for him? You have to have that stuff if you're going to take him inside Petsmart" I say

"I can carry him until I buy that shit"

"OK, but if they haul you off to mall jail, don't expect me to come bail you out"

"I can say that he's my seeing eye dog"

"You need a leash for that!"

"And sunglasses"

"And sunglasses" I pause "Wait, what?"

"Sunglasses, like Ray Charles" He starts acting like he's playing piano with his eye's shut.

"And you say I'm a jackass"

He snatches Charlie from me. "We dont need her do we brother?"

"Have fun" I say

"Bye" He says walking out the door, he peeks his head back in "Do you know that Adam's car is in the driveway?"

"Yeah, I drove it home lastnight because Adam was drunk" I slap myself as soon as I say it.

"So he was hammered?" he says with a smile

"Fuck off! go buy your pet supplies!" He laughs and slams the door shut.

"UGH!" I say out loud to myself, I hear my phone ringing in the other room. I run to answer it.

"Hello" I say a little out of breath

"Sophie?"

"Yeah"

"It's Brayden"

"Hey Bro- what's up?"

"Nothing, just got in from running and no one's home so I thought I'd give you a call"

"Gotcha, I'm just hanging out at home. Mike went to Petsmart to get pet supplies"

"Supplies for what?"

"Oh, Mike bought a puppy yesterday"

"Oh boy"

"A Beagle, named Charlie. I think it will be fun"

"Probably"

"He'll be spoiled, but how many dogs have Dad and Billie had that were spoiled and they were all good dogs"

"Good point"

There's a knock on the door, I walk with the phone in my hand to answer it. Adam is standing there.

"Hey Brayden, can I call you back later? I just got company"

"Yeah no problem, love you sis"

"Love you too" I hang up. Adam walks in the house, He's wearing jeans a zip-up hoodie and a ball cap. He kisses me.

"I still love you this morning" he says

"Adam-"

"Just hear me out" He interupts "I love you and I don't care if you cant say the words yet. I'll say them for you"

"I do love you, I just don't know if it's right yet"

"I understand" We stand there for a minute in silence

"So how are you feeling this morning? I ask

" I would have been OK, If I had stopped when you dropped me off. But Tobin and Barry had some people over and I had a couple drinks with them.... And then I passed out in the middle of everything"

"Nice"

"Yeah, apparently I said that I was going to take a leak and ten minutes later when I still wasnt back, they found me passed out, hugging the toilet"

"Nice"

"They put me sideways in the bathtub to sleep it off, and my neck hurts like a son of a bitch this morning" I laugh and hug him.

"Poor baby!" He hugs back for a minute and then his hands start to wander.

"I really like this" he says, touching the tattoo on my lower stomach.

"Well thank you, I like it too" He crouches down in front of me and touches his lips to my stomach, tracing the letter's with his tongue. I tilt my head back and moan a little.

"Mmmmm that feels too good" I say

"There's no such thing as 'too goo' " He slides his hands up my sides under my sweatshirt. Standing up, he takes it off over my head.

"I like this veiw more" He says

"I'm sure you do, I'm not wearing a bra!"

"Really?" He says with a smirk, pulling my shirt away from my chest peeking inside.

"Pervert" I say

"Yeah, but you like it"

"This is true"