Be All Mine

After I had thrown up at least twice the following Sunday morning, I took a quick shower and took Mikey to his dad's for lunch. I really didn't want to have to be there after the way I'd yelled at him when he'd left the hospital, but he asked quite generously and sweetly, so I agreed. I brought a suit case for Mikey's clothes since he was out of school for the summer and I would be working one last week before my seniors graduated and the others moved up in their high school years.

“How are you?” asked Mark as I set Mikey down and put his things on the counter.

I sighed and replied, “Well, besides the vomiting, pretty good. I...Went on a date two days ago.”

Mark stared at me and smiled as he hugged Mikey, picking him up with one swift movement as well. He grinned slyly as I glared at him. “A date?” he asked. “With whom?”

I helped put together the salad as I answered, “Shut up, Mark. You know who.” He kept staring at me. “Ah! Okay, I went on a date with Matt! Get over it. “

“Hey! I didn't do nothing,” he said. “I only wanted to know with who. You're the one who freaked out and had a crazy moment.”

“Real mature, Mark,” I laughed, bringing the tray of grilled hot dogs and bowel of salad to the dining room table as my phone rang loudly. “Hello?” I struggled to say, trying to set down the tray without spilling the salad or drop the phone.

“Audrey?” cam Matt's voice.

“Hey!” I exclaimed happily. “How was your weekend with the guys?”

“Like being with five clones of your son,” he replied with a chuckle. “Went to a casino and then hit the streets.”

“How were the strip clubs?” I asked, irritated because I knew he'd gone. What guy goes to Las Vegas and doesn't hit a strip club? He said he wouldn't, but I was going to get it out of him if he did.

“They went to some,” he answered, guessing what I was getting at. “Audrey, you underestimate me, you know that?”

I sighed. “I may only have been on one date with you, Matt, but I'm still a jealous girl. I have to underestimate you in order to show I care. As odd as that seems.”

He laughed again and asked, “So what are you doing?”

“Uh...Eating lunch,” I said, afraid to say at Mark's.

“Where?” he wondered curiously.

“Mark's,” I confessed, as Mark eyed me from across the dining room. I glared back at him and walked off to the bathroom to get some privacy from him and Mikey. “Why? Where are you?”

“I'm at the studios,” he answered. “I wanted to know if miss teacher could give me a few lessons.”

“Uh...” was the only thing that escaped my lips.

“I'm asking for help with something musical,” he laughed. “God...I may be a guy, but I'm not a pig.”

“Could have fooled me,” I joked, as he chuckled. “Sure. Mikey's staying with his dad until next Sunday, so I'm alone once again. Just let me eat lunch and then I'll be over in, say, an hour?”

“Cool,” he agreed. “Can't wait. Bye.”

I hung up and went back to the table, taking a seat next to Mark as Mikey sat on the end of the table.

“So what did Mr. Sanders have to say?” questioned Mark annoyingly. “He ask you to marry him yet?”

“Yeah, and he asked for you to be the maid of honor,” I joked. “I'm going over to help with something musical, I guess. He's at the studios right now. Mark, try to be nice,” I said, giggling as he rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Mommy?”

“Yes Mikey?” I said, sipping my soda.

“Is the baby Matt's?” he asked, my cherry soda half spewing out of my nose as I choked and stared at him.

“No, Mikey, it's daddy's,” I answered. “Daddy and Mommy made the baby. Remember?”

“Oh,” he said, looking back down at his food as I eyed Mark, who also looked confused at Mikey's disappointment. “Well...Does Matt like the baby?”

I looked at Mikey quizzically. “Honey, what's with you and the baby all of a sudden?”

“Well, last Friday, I heard that mommies and daddies are supposed to be together to have babies,” he confessed. “So, I know Daddy isn't with you, and that you're just friends.”

Mark was about to say something, but I elbowed him.

“So,” Mikey continued. “I know you and Matt are good friends. I saw him kiss you on the cheek. So I thought that the baby was Matt's and mommy's.”

I gulped down my food and said, “Mikey...Yes, people should be together when they have kids, because it's not...it's not good to have a baby by themselves. But daddy and I were together when we made the baby, honey. And daddy is still the baby's daddy, too, so this is okay. Matt isn't the daddy of your little sister or brother, okay? But yes, he does like the baby, even though we haven't yet met it. Okay?”

He nodded.

Mark smiled and asked, “You know we love you, right?”

Mikey smiled and nodded excitedly as Mark continued with, “So we're always going to be there for you buddy. No matter what mess you get into. Alright?”

Mikey said yes and we finished our meal peacefully, though his concern about mommies and daddies having children together still ate at my mind. Who would tell a child something like that? Especially now and days when it's more common to have a single parent than to have both.

Even as I left and arrived at the studios, I was still puzzled by the concern in Mikey's voice when he'd asked about the baby.

“Hey...You okay?” asked Matt as I entered the lounge area and threw my purse on the sofa. “You look like you're confused.”

“It's that obvious, huh?” I asked him as he nodded. “Mikey just asked if the baby was yours, because someone at school told him that moms and dads have babies when they are together. So he assumed it was yours, and that basically it wasn't his little sister or brother anymore.”

“Wow,” Matt said. “What idiot tells a kid his age that?”

“Thank you!” I said in relief. “I thought I was the only one who thought that it was very inappropriate to tell kids that. I mean, how many parents are actually together now and days when they have kids? Like...Two!”

Matt laughed and handed me a bottle of water. “He's a smart kid,” he said. “I know he'll figure out that that isn't a good remark. He'll understand that you're the parent of him, and that you're looking out for him, not liars in sheep's wool.”

“Now it's my turn to call you mister poetic,” I joked.

He chuckled and then kissed my forehead as he said, “I can't help it. I'm a hopeless romantic. Now come on, I need your help with this vocal track. It's acting weird.”

I followed Matt into the recording booth where they laid down the vocal tracks, and he had me sit behind the mixing table as he entered the actual booth. I crossed my legs and sat straight as he made a remark on my good posture, and he just laughed to himself.

“So what's wrong with it, exactly?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It just doesn't sound right at all. I figured you of all people should be able to hear why it sounds so...Odd.”

“I'll give it a shot,” I said, pressing the record button as I sat and listened carefully to Matt's song and then waited. The song was gorgeous in all ways that an Avenged Sevenfold should be, but he was right, the vocals were too odd. The song was very much metal, but the way he was singing was overdoing that hard thrash to it.

“Lighten up, Matt,” I said into the microphone that spoke directly into his headphones. “You're coming off angry, and the song isn't that hard. You need to relax and think open chords. Think...Think regretful. That's what I feel in the song and hear. Just think that and let it come to you. You'll get it.”

He nodded and I restarted the whole thing. At first I could hear the way he adjusted to the new type of feeling in the song, and I told him to not anticipate it, but grasp it; make it his. Matt took a breath and then gave the song exactly what I'd asked. He made it come alive with feeling that I think he didn't even realize he'd had.

I mixed on the table and then let it fade out as the song came to a close. Matt came out of the booth and gave me a bear hug that I struggled to breathe.

“You're amazing!” he said, excitement in his voice as he picked me up and spun me.

“Ah! Okay! Alright, just put...me...Down! Matt!” I shrieked, as he put me back onto my feet and kissed my lips. “I didn't think it mattered that much.”

“We've been trying to deal with that song since last week, and now we don't need to worry about it. How did you know what that song was feeling, anyhow?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I don't know,” I mumbled. “I just knew. I can usually tell what the artist is going for when I hear the song itself, and not the words. My dad taught me that back in college, but he was still shocked too by my ability to understand the works.”

Matt grinned at me and gave me a suspicious look as I glared back at him.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied. “I was just trying to figure out why you're so amazing. I shouldn't deserve you, Audrey. Now, before I clean up, can I give you something?”

“That depends.”

“On what?” he wondered.

“On how much you spent on it,” I answered. “I don't like it when people buy me things that I don't really have a way to pay them back for.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “They were free, so you don't owe me anything. Okay? Now close your eyes before I force them shut.”

I laughed at his sarcasm and put my hands over my eyes so as to make him feel more at ease. I know he would probably tickle the hell out of me if I didn't do what he'd said, so I over achieved in his demand.

“When I say open,” he started, “then I want you to open, okay?”

I nodded.

“Alright. Open.”

Matt's hand held a slender piece of rough paper and I took it from his hand as I struggled to figure out what was written on it. I looked at the back and gasped. “These are back stage passes!” I mumbled to myself, playing with the lanyard that was woven through the small hole in the laminate.

“You like?” he asked. “I have a concert in Orange County next week, and I figured you'd like to go. It's on Sunday night, but I want you and Mikey to come with me earlier. We're gonna have a little party, just us three. I figured Mikey would love to play a little bit on the drums, too.”

“He'll love it!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around Matt as I held the pass in my fist tightly. “Thank you, Matt. You're so sweet. How can I ever repay you that's free?”

He laughed and replied, “I know one way.”

I gulped, thinking he was going to say something a typical guy would ask for. My heart paused as I waited for what he was going to demand.

“Sing for us on Sunday,” he said. “I know you haven't done it in awhile, but I want you to sing on stage with me for one of my songs. I already gave the guys a heads up to be ready for you.”

“Oh...I don't know...It's been so long since I've been on stage,” I said, my voice shaky and heart racing in overdrive. “I'd be too nervous.”

Matt stepped closer to me and held my face in his hands as I closed my eyes, his lips warm against my own. My head went dizzy again, just like last time and I struggled to keep standing as my legs began to give out beneath me.

“How 'bout now?” he whispered, grinning as I struggled to catch my breath.

Eyes locked onto his, the pass still in hand, I nodded and said, “Only if you shut up and kiss me once more.”

Matt laughed and we locked lips once again, my whole body moving in circles as he picked me up and carried me out to the car.

“You deserve something special for the show,” he said, as we both sat in his car. “And I ain't telling you because you'll oppose to my offer. So sit still, 'cause M. Shadows is in charge now.”

I kissed him once more and held on to the car as he sped off into the open possibilities that were raging through my head.