Better Man

As Tre laid on his back in bed, he watched as Caroline sat Indian-style on the floor, hunched over as she talked on her cell phone to her sister, Giselle. From what the drummer could overhear from the conversation, the younger sister had started her fourth and final year of medical school back in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was already enjoying it. The other thing Tre was picking up from blatantly eavesdropping, was that Caroline seemed to be talking in code with Giselle, which clearly made eavesdropping hard.

"Well, I can't say, really. I spilled the coffee. First time I think I ever did that..." she was saying.

Oh, she was talking about what had happened to her at the studio two weeks earlier. Tre remembered Caroline coming home that afternoon a little flustered, telling him how she'd spilled all the coffee from Starbucks in the studio on Mike and on the floor and how stupid she'd felt. He assured her she wasn't stupid and that it was obviously just an accident, to which she said that Mike had assured her of the same thing. And after that was out of the way, Caroline dragged Tre out to the backyard and threw him in the pool, jumping in after him and...well...since they were home alone...they did a little more than swim in that pool.

"Uh...well, I kinda...well, I didn't initiate," she whispered. "Yeah...I dunno why it happened, but it did...yes...yes, it was...no, nothing else happened. God, Giselle, what do you think I am?"

Tre's ear perked. What the hell was Caroline talking about?

"Nothing happened after that, Zelle," Caroline insisted. She fell silent for a moment, clearly listening to something her sister was saying on the other end, and her face getting serious in the process. Well, from what Tre could see from where he was. "What do you mean? What did you do? Sorry. Okay. Yes, whatever you need to say, I'm listening...yes, I promise not to be judgmental..."

Caroline suddenly straightened her posture out and her face fell.

"You did what?!" she snapped a little harsher than she'd planned. "You...you slept with him? Giselle!"

"What?" Tre finally piped up. "Who'd you're sister sleep with?"

Caroline turned her head toward Tre and gave him a sour look as she stood up, placing her free hand on her hip. "You're my sister, Zelle. You're not supposed to be having one night stands with someone you barely know!" She was scowling now, and Tre was not ready to pester any further at the moment. "That's different. I've been with Tre since our first time together. Yours was like a 'Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.' Yes, it was. Have you talked with him since then? No. I didn't think so."

"Care, baby, what's up?"

She waved her hand at him, signaling she couldn't talk to him right now. "I can't believe you would do that...with Mike..."

"Whoa---wait. Giselle slept with Mike? Mike got lucky and didn't tell---sorry," he muttered a little too quickly.

Caroline felt her heart beating a little faster at the thought that her sister had slept with Mike. They'd had sex. In Estelle's bedroom, no less! It wasn't at all like her Giselle...and it was befuddling her why it felt like such a big deal.

"Oh, you don't like him that way. Well, that just makes it better, doesn't it? No. Don't hang up on me. Giselle...why would you---what? No, why would I feel that way?"

Giselle asked if she was jealous? Why in the hell would she be jealous of her sister's one night stand with Mike when she had been dating Tre, a wonderful guy, for just over eight months? Sure, she was still trying to figure out why kissing Mike had been so...nice. But that in no way made her jealous that her sister got further.

But it did kill her to admit, to herself, that there was that strange pang in her chest when Giselle dropped the bomb on her.

"I can't talk to you about this anymore, right now, Zelle," Caroline muttered, shaking her head. "I'll...I'll call you later." Without another word, she hung up her cell phone and turned to face Tre who was sitting up now with his legs dangling over the edge of his bed. "I can't believe her..."

"So, your sister slept with Mike. What's the big deal?" Tre wondered.

"What's the big deal?" she repeated. "The big deal is that...that she barely knew Mike and still she slept with him, hasn't spoken to him since she went home...and, I mean...what if she'd gotten pregnant? She has her whole future ahead of her. The last thing she needs to do is throw everything she's worked for out the window for an unplanned pregnancy!" she ranted.

"Well, it's been over a month then, right? And she's not pregnant?"

"Yes. And no."

"'Kay, well...then it's no big deal. My guess is they both wanted it at the moment, and there's nothing with casual sex every so often. God knows Mike probably needed it, and your sister, no offense, seemed a little too tightly wound, like she needed to let go. If anything, it was the best thing for the both of them. And, you know...they're both two consenting adults."

"That's not the point."

Tre frowned. "Well, then, what the fuck is the point, Caroline? Because I'm trying to figure out why this is such a big deal to you." He was starting to get a little pissed off at how she was reacting. It really wasn't that big of a deal, so why was she making it that way?

"I don't wanna talk about this anymore. It's just...too weird."

"You just don't wanna hear about your sister's sexual endeavors?"

"Something like that," Caroline muttered.

Tre sighed and reached out a hand to his girlfriend who also sighed and then looked at his extended hand. 'C'mere, babe."

Hesitating for a moment, Caroline finally walked up to him and he placed both hands on her hips, tilting his head up to her and offering her a smirk. While she looked down at him, meeting his soft gaze, she couldn't help but feel incredibly confused. Her heart felt like it was pounding like Tre did on the drums. Biting the inside of her bottom lip, she looked to the side but forced a smile.

"You okay?" Tre inquired.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little...weirded out, I guess."

Tre smirked. "Well, I guess I'd be weirded out, too, if one of my sisters slept with Mike."

That had worked. Tre had gotten a laugh out of Caroline.

"Your sisters are both married."

"Which is why I'd be weirded out. 'Cause their unavailable."

"What would you do if Mike slept with, say, Lori?" Caroline queried. "Seriously."

"Seriously? I think I'd punch him, call him a fucking bastard and then walk out."

"And if he only kissed her?"

"Kissed her how? Are we talking platonic, passionate, or...you know...not on the facial lips?"

"Sorta passionately. In a way you'd kiss a girlfriend."

"I'd probably still punch him and call him a fucking bastard," he replied. "But I probably wouldn't walk out that time. Maybe I'd help him back up. Why?"

Caroline shrugged. "No reason."

* * *

The album was finished!

There was nothing left to do now aside from the group having their photos taking for the album as well as for promotion while it was off being mastered. There were also meetings to decide how the layout and design of the album would go. Plus they had to decide which of the many songs they'd recorded over the course of nine months they wanted to keep for sure and place on the album, and which ones to get axed.

And, by the beginning of October, they had a finished product. They'd had their photo shoot, word was being spread throughout the music community about this new band and their upcoming debut album, and there was also the matter of deciding what song would be their first single.

Once they decided on the song, they were given a name of a handful of music video directors and samples of the work they'd done, along with their treatments for how they saw The Sinners' first video playing out.

But none of the directors they'd been given to choose from struck a chord with the band. If anything, they were turned off. Nothing they had to offer impressed the foursome in the least.

It wasn't until Tre made a phone call to Sam Bayer that anything began to fall into place.

The buff and blonde hardass of a director called the foursome up, and before they realized it, they were in Los Angeles, on a sound stage, on the first day of filming their very first music video for their very first single off their very first major-label album.

Standing shoulder to shoulder after being spiffed up and shit out of the hair and make-up trailer, The Sinners stared in awe at all the crew people buzzing around with cameras, power chords, lights, props and set pieces.

"This is all for us?" Caroline queried with a faint grin.

"Fucking amazing, ain't it?" Nick cooed.

Sam walked over to them, at that moment, dressed in a ratty pair of light denim jeans, a black beater and a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. He extended his hand to all of them, shaking his welcome and complimenting them on looking good.

* * *

While the day progressed in LA with a bunch of 'hurry up and wait' moments strung together, life up in NorCal was more laid back for the most part.

Mike was lounging in his backyard, poolside, glad that it was still warm enough in early October to do so. When the sliding glass door to the back patio opened, the bassist turned his head to find Tre walking out with his car keys dangling from his fingers.

"Hey," Mike acknowledged. "'Sup?"

"Nothing much," Tre replied, pulling up a seat in the lounge chair beside his friend. The drummer didn't say anything else, aside from sit hunched over, his hands folded between his knees.

Mike furrowed his brow and studied Tre's dipped face. "You okay, buddy? You look like someone pissed in your Cornflakes and then told you they ran over your dog."

"I'm fine...just a little..." Tre looked at Mike and shrugged. "Confused."

"About what?"

"Caroline."

Mike perked up, but not in an obvious way. His heart skipped a beat, out of sheer mention of her name as well as nerves...wondering if maybe Tre knew about him kissing her.

"Uh...what about Caroline?"

Tre shrugged again. "I dunno. She seems distracted lately," he began.

"Well, her and the guys have the album they've been finalizing and now they're working on the video. It's been keeping her busy."

"Not that kind of distracted," Tre clarified.

"Then what do you mean?" Mike wondered, a little wary.

"Like, I know she's working on the album and whatever, and that's fine...but when it's just us, I can see the wheels in her head spinning, and not about the album. It's like she's there with me, but always somewhere else nowadays." Tre frowned and sighed. "You were spending time with her during the end of the album's recording..."

"Uh...yeah, I---"

"...Did she say anything to you about maybe what's going on? I know she considers you a close friend. I mean, she told me so."

Mike shook his head, while he smiled on the inside at her telling Tre about thinking of him as a close friend. "No, she hasn't said anything to me. And, to be honest, I haven't seen her that much in the past month." Not since the day I kissed her at the studio, he added to himself.

"I think I may know how Sarah felt now when she left you," Tre commented then offered an apologetic look. "No offense, man. I know you loved her and that the divorce was a bit hard on you...but I couldn't understand how Sarah could've left you when she married you, knowing damn well the extent of what we do for a living. Yet, now I feel like I can relate. It's not just the time spent in the studio, it's not being gone physically. It's being gone mentally that's harder."

Mike felt bad for his friend. He knew the younger man loved Caroline and he also knew that she did love him back, yet here was Tre, thinking God knows what.

"You should talk to her about this," Mike said, not really wanting Tre to bring up his short-lived marriage that had began and ended all in a few months, a little over two years earlier.

Sarah was her name. He'd been with her five years before they had even married and really thought his second marriage would be the one to last. But, as fate would have it, it was way shorter than his first marriage to Anastacia which even gave him a daughter. Sure, he'd been working a lot in the studio, and maybe he was distracted at the time because of it all, but the vows were supposed to be 'for better or worse.' Not 'until I get tired of waiting at home after only a few months.'

Maybe he would be doomed when it came to marriage, and maybe he did wish he could have Caroline to himself, but when push came to shove, he would rather see Tre be happy. The drummer had been through two divorces as well, had two children who lived on opposite ends of the country and couldn't seem to keep a girlfriend for more than a year since divorcing Claudia.

Tre sat there with Mike for a few more minutes before he asked if Mike wanted to go get a bite to eat somewhere. Because he didn't feel like eating alone that night since Claudia had taken Frankito to Disneyland for the weekend with her boyfriend.

"Sure, buddy," Mike nodded.

With that, Mike stood up with his friend, excusing himself only to go upstairs and change. When he returned back downstairs, the two men left, while the both of them were thinking of the same thing in the backs of their minds.

Caroline.