My Heart Is Yours

Craig’s pov

“Craigafer!” the voice of a familiar little girl’s reached my ears as I finished paying for my order from Starbucks. The woman handed me my change before I turned around as a black-haired little girl tackled my legs into a hug. I grinned down at her as she looked up at me with bright blue-green eyes. The same eyes that belonged to my best friend, a certain Maxwell Green.

“Hey, Lils!” I replied, grinning as she detached herself from me and I bet to hug her. Looking over her shoulder, I saw Wendy standing rather awkwardly a few feet away. I smiled at her before I pulled away from her daughter to stand.

“Hey, Wendy!” Bryan and I said simultaneously. The guitarist was standing rather awkwardly beside me, looking unsure of what he should do ro say at this point.

“Hey guys,” she replied sheepishly. I turned my attention back on her and saw that she was giving us a small smile. I grinned back at her, ignoring the little girl tugging at the hem of my shirt in favor of trying to get her mother to give me one of her genuine smiles. They didn’t happen as often as I would have liked, as far as I knew.

“Hi Bryan!” Lily said below me. The guitarist smiled as he crouched to hug her.

“Hey, Lily. God, you’ve gotten so big!” he said and she nodded proudly. It was true, though. She had grown a lot since either Bryan or I saw her last. Especially Bryan. It was just over a year for him and a few months for me. See, Leila and Lily being good friends sort of helped with my getting to see both her and Wednesday more.

The last time that I had seen them had been on the fourth of July when Leila, Gab, and I all came down for some Floridian barbeque. It was late September, now, so that meant that it had really only been a couple of months since our last encounter.

As for Bryan, he only really got to spend time with Wendy when we were touring. And our last US tour had been last year after I joined up with the band to replace Ronnie. And that had been the first time in five years that he’d really seen her. It was a sweet reunion…

Honestly, I couldn’t believe all the shit that Ronnie had put the rest of the guys through, though. I can’t tell you how glad I am that Max no longer has Ronnie in his life…

“Sir, your order is ready,” the nagging voice of the woman working behind the counter stopped my thoughts and kept me from hearing the conversation going on between my friends.

“Thanks,” I told her with a small smile as I took my latte and muffin from her.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m so manly, right? Well shut up. That shit is good.

I turned back around to find that everyone had ditched me and there were now a couple of prissy teenaged girls in their place. I blinked, side-stepping out of their way before looking around for my friends. They were sitting around a table, Bryan and Wendy in conversation while Lily bounced on her mother’s lap.

Sighing, I rolled my eyes over how they ditched me without telling me anything. Ass holes. I walked over to that table, sitting down in one of the empty chairs. “You guys are such jerks. Thanks for telling me you were ditching me,” I said with sarcasm, frowning and mocking hurt. Lily stopped with her self-entertainment to look over at me with a worried expression before looking up at Wendy, who was smirking.

“Mama, why is Craig angry? You said he wouldn’t be angry,” the poor thing asked. Wendy smiled down at said daughter of hers.

“He’s not angry, sweetie. Craig’s just joking, it’s alright,” she informed her before turning her gaze back on me. “And it’s not our fault that those girls got in line and we got tired of waiting for your slow butt.”

“Yeah, well… You’re all still jerks. Except Lily, ‘cause she’s awesome.” The little girl threw a very large grin my way before pulling away from Wendy’s grasp and bouncing over to me. Her grin reminded me very much of Max. I wondered what he and Robert were doing right now… I also wondered what he would say if he knew where we were and who we were with. He’d probably die or kill us. Or both. But I’d gotten away plenty times with seeing Wendy and Lily and not telling anyone else about it. Other than Gab and Bryan, of course.

However, if Max knew that, then he’d probably kill me.

But if he found out that she was dating Alex? He’d probably have a heart attack and die. Mostly because he’s still so incredibly in love with Wendy. I still can’t believe that she’s in a relationship with someone else, though…

“So what have you been up to, Bryan? I hardly get to talk to you anymore…” Wendy asked, once again pulling my attention away from my thoughts. Not exactly a bad thing, considering the fact that I should probably be paying more attention to my friends instead of thinking about my best friend. But whatever.

“Nothing, really. Working on a new album and touring, mostly. We don‘t really do anything special…”

“Oh, that’s cool. Got a girl yet?” There was a playful smile on Wednesday’s lips at that question. Lily had climbed into my lap at this point and I had rested my chin on the top of her head. The little girl was moving her head back and forth beneath my chin to look at who was talking. I smirked as I realized that my chin being on her head was causing her long hair to get all fucked up and stick out in weird ways. I smiled as I pulled away. Bryan looked over after denying having a girlfriend and smirked as he saw Lily’s hair.

“Craig! You messed up my hair, you meanie!” Lily whined, turning and frowning at me as she reached her little hands up to push down the parts that were sticking up. Oh yeah. She was definitely Max’s child. There was absolutely no denying it.

“Craig, fix her hair, will you? I have to get something to eat, I’m starving. Lily, sweetie, do you want anything?” The little girl shook her head again as her mother spoke, standing and moving away from the table to get in line at the counter.

I went work sorting through the little girl’s hair to make it lay smooth. When it was done, she grinned at me.

“Hey Lily, you’re in school now, yeah?” Bryan asked, smiling over at us. She grinned proudly and nodded. Oh that’s right, she was five and a half now, so that meant that she could be enrolled into school. Awesome.

“What grade are you in, Lils?” I asked, moving my head around her so that I could see her face lit up with joy. I knew how important it was for a little kid to say that they were now going to school and everything like that. Leila was the same way when she started going to school last year. And holy shit, I thought that Gab would never stop crying…

“Kindergaren,” she said with a bright smile. God, little kids were so effing cute… Wednesday came back to our table with a muffin of her own, a steaming cup of something, and a chocolate chip cookie. The cookie she handed to her daughter, who took it with a grin before starting to eat it.

“That’s so cool, Lily! Congratulations!” Bryan told her, grinning and giving her a thumbs up.

From there, we fell into a comfortable flow of conversation with not much ebb. With Lily being a little social butterfly, there really couldn’t be much of a lull in the conversation because she had so much to tell us. Most little kids were like that, I’d noticed. It was cute.

About a half hour later, we got a call from Robert telling us to get our asses back to the bus and the venue for sound check. Damnit. I didn’t really want to leave Wendy or Lily…

“Hey, Wendy? You should come to our show tonight,” I suggested. I soon regretted doing so, however, when her eyes went glossy and her smile turned quickly into a frown.

“Craig, why would you suggest something like that?” she hissed, leaning towards me to try and keep her daughter out of conversation.

“Because, Wendy. He’s not on drugs anymore, trust me on that one. And he needs to see you, he’s been getting so smashed lately that he -” Oh shit. Probably shouldn’t have said that. She sighed and hung her head, causing her hair to fall into her face. I thought I saw a few tears escaping her eyes before she did that, though…

“Mama? What’s wrong?” Lily asked, coming over to stare at her mother with worried eyes. I sighed, feeling regret wash over me as Bryan glared quietly at me.

“Nothing, sweetie. Everything’s fine,” she said, sneaking a hand up to wipe at her cheeks before lifting her head and smiling at her daughter. I’ll admit, she was good at faking it… “How long are you in town?” she asked, turning her attention to me and hardening her voice some.

“Tonight and tomorrow,” Bryan piped in, nodding and drawing her glare away from me.

She nodded quietly before turning her gaze back to her daughter. Her face softened and she smiled at Lily, who looked something between confused and worried. “Sweetie, go throw our trash away, okay? Craig and Bryan have to get going and so do we,” she told her before watching her daughter run off with Wendy’s empty cup and a few balled up napkins. She then stood and looked down at us. “If you can get him sober, then bring him over tomorrow. Alex will be gone all day and he at least deserves to know about his daughter…”

“Wendy, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“He’ll be able to handle it fine, Craig. I know him.”

“But will you be able to handle it?”

With that, she just sighed and turned on her heel, walking away from us to her daughter before they both waved goodbye and left the café. I was going to take that as a no…

“You just had to mention him, didn’t you Craig? You dumb ass…” Bryan scolded as he, too, stood and went to toss shit in the trash. I sighed and followed suit, stuffing my hands in my pockets once we were outside.