Haunted (27 page)

I could only giggle and that was enough of an admission for her.

“You DID! You go girl! Was it great? Is he a good kisser? Oh, is he good with his hands.”

Now she knew I wasn’t going to give her details, but I knew she couldn’t help herself.

“It was wonderful, Kenzie, and frighteningly enough, I seem to have fallen for him. Like completely, crashed and burned with no hope of recovery.”

She was quiet for a minute. “He better be good to you, that’s all I have to say. That and it’s about time. I’m so happy for you.”

I thanked her, feeling better that I could admit it to my BFF. She said she had to finish up at the shop and that she’d be over around 8:30.

I went back downstairs and looked over at the pictures the guys had put up. They’d written a little story to go with each one.

Star chose the picture of him with Maggie for the dance. Underneath he wrote,
“Thanks for the date, Maggie, and the lessons on being a good man.”

Wow, ok. I wondered just what happened with those two.

Mage chose a picture of Maggie and him holding up a human skull between them. They were looking at each other with intense facial expressions, like two boxers getting ready to face off. Mage had a wand with feathers and chicken bones and beads hanging off it in his other hand. Maggie was wearing a sparkly, low cut robe with glittery makeup on. Under the picture Mage wrote,

“
The best All Hallows’ Eve ever. Maggie came with me to a gathering at the Lafayette #1 and we got to see some of the masters at work. Thank you Maggie for always listening to my crazy talk.”

So Maggie had a wild side. It seemed like there was nothing she wouldn’t do for them, or with them for that matter. I was glad someone had listened to Mage’s talk and taken him seriously.

Jade’s picture was of him and Marcus looking pretty roughed up, sitting on a couch with ice packs on their heads. They were pissed. His note said,

“Maggie always covered for us, no matter what stupid shit Marcus got us into. In this case, we beat the crap out of each other after Marcus asked out my best girl, effectively stealing her from me. When mom found us all bloody and scraped up, she told her we'd fought off some guys that were giving her a bad time. She bought it and left us alone.”

Why did that story not surprise me? But man, they looked awful! They must have really beaten each other up. I couldn’t imagine brothers doing that much damage to each other.

Marcus posted a picture of he and the band with Maggie holding up their gold record shaking hands with some executives from the label I assumed. The guys were all decked out in what were probably the clothes they would perform in. Marcus was even wearing eyeliner, which made him look more dramatic for sure. Devon had on his shades and was wearing a simple tight black t-shirt, black jeans and a belt with a huge skull buckle. Great look for him.

Marcus wrote,

“Maggie was our biggest supporter. Without her we would still be a bunch of fuck-ups from Houma. God bless her and keep her safe.”

Devon still hadn’t posted one. In all fairness, he hadn’t had much time to peruse the pictures, and he had written his song.

More pieces of the Maggie puzzle: a sister who was the glue that held them all together, a devoted cousin who ran interference and brought out the artists in them, a trusted friend who would go to the ends of the earth for you, and a woman who taught a boy to become a man. Now, how to bring this all together in one drawing?

I stood there looking at the pictures for a long time. She was very beautiful, in all of the pictures she was gorgeous, no matter what look she was sporting at that time. She had a blinding smile that changed her whole face. I could see so clearly why they were lost without her. They needed to learn from each other how to make things work. They had to depend on each other and learn to trust people like Sherry, who had their best interests at heart even if they weren’t family.

I found a chair and sat with my sketchbook doodling for a while, losing track of time. Eventually I became aware that the others were gathered around me looking at the pictures on the wall.

Mage pointed at the one of the brothers bloody. “I remember that! Man, you guys beat the shit out of each other that day! What was that girl’s name anyway?”  

“Janice,” they replied in unison. Jade gave Marcus a dirty look and Marcus just smiled innocently.

“What? You should be glad I took her off your hands! She was a terrible kisser! No doubt any other activity with her would have been lacking.”

“Fuck you, Marcus, that wasn’t the point! You broke the code and ruined my plans for the summer.”

Marcus looked a tad bit guilty. “Sorry, Jade. If I had known how much you liked the girl I would have left her alone. But if she was so quick to run off with me, she would have hurt you anyway. Either way it sucks, but at least I ruined things before she had a chance to break your heart.”

Jade just shook his head and bit on a fingernail. It must have been rough to be Marcus’ brother. Jade clearly loved and respected him, but struggled with those feelings.

Sherry looked at Marcus with disdain and said, “I hope he kicked your ass, Marcus. You deserved it for being a dick to him and to that little girl.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and then acceptance was clear in his expression. “He gave me this scar on my cheek and broke my nose so yeah, I guess he won.”

She nodded, an eyebrow raised at him. “Good.”

He looked really uncomfortable. I liked the effect Sherry was having on him. If he had any desire to continue this whatever it was they were having then he better learn to have a different attitude.

Sherry looked up at the board and frowned. “How come you haven’t put up a picture, Devon?”  

I looked around and found him standing behind me to the left. He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know if I can pick just one. If I did, it would probably be one of us as kids. That was when I knew she was fearless and would always take care of things.” He was quiet for a moment, still looking at the pictures.

“There was this one morning when we were home alone together. I think I was around 7, so she would have been 11. Mama was at the restaurant and Daddy was out on the boat. Anyway, I tried to cook breakfast for her because she had been sick and was still in bed. I was trying to fry bacon in the skillet and it started popping all over and burning. I started screaming and crying because I couldn’t get close enough to turn it off. I just wanted it to be perfect for her and it was ruined. The smoke detector went off and she came running out to the kitchen. She was so brave! She grabbed the lid to the skillet and covered it, burning her hand in the process. She didn’t yell, she just hugged me and held me until I stopped crying. When the smoking stopped and she could lift up the lid, the bacon was burnt to a crisp. She picked up a piece, nibbled it, and said, ‘Mmm, thank you Devon! Thank you for cooking me breakfast. Now go on and get washed up and get your clothes on and we’ll go to the restaurant for some hot chocolate.’  I smiled at her, feeling so proud of myself, and I took off for my room. She cleaned up the mess and probably chucked the bacon in the trash. But she handled it. She handled all of the messes in our life with style.”

I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him. His eyes looked sad, but he smiled back at me. He was really doing great with all of this. I wanted to tell him how proud I was of him.

“Would you guys mind if I chose a picture?”  Sherry was asking them all but looking at Devon. He stared blankly at her, seeming a little out of it.

“Of course," I said. “Take a look.”

She started to flip through the albums and found the one after she left for L.A.

“I met Maggie at a work function. We were both interning at the label and I really admired her because she just seemed so competent. I’d heard how all the execs loved her. I went up to her and asked her, ‘Hey, Meg? What’s your secret? You have them all eating out of your hand around here.’ She just rolled her eyes and waved me in for a secret. ‘I’ll tell you, but it ain’t pretty.’ I was so surprised, I leaned in closer and she said with a totally straight face, ‘Blow jobs. Just blow as many of them as you can and they’ll let you get away with murder.’ I remember my heart dropped into my stomach because I thought, oh Lord! My mama warned me about this and how am I going to tell her? But then I looked back at Meg and she was just laughing her ass off. ‘Got you!’ she said. I was so embarrassed! She apologized and said, ‘Honestly, I just tell ‘em like it is and for some reason they listen. I don’t know I just hope I get a job here because otherwise I’m going to have to go home to Louisiana with my tail between my legs.’”

The guys were listening intently and I noticed Devon had come closer to me. His hand was dangling close to me so I took it. He looked down at me and squeezed it. He still had that sorrow in his eyes, but he seemed to be laughing at what Sherry said.

“She told me that, too, when she’d call home. I threatened her I was going to tell Mama that’s what she was doing and she threatened me back with even more severe blackmail. That was her way. She’d have my back no matter what but if I tried to cross her, she’d point out all the good dirt she had. You could never win with her.”

They all laughed at that. I noticed Marcus looking at us holding hands and then looking at Devon and I’ll be damned if he didn’t look a little envious. Good. Maybe he’d keep his mouth shut and I wouldn’t have to smack him.

“Here’s one,” Sherry pulled out a photo and made sure to mark the spot. It was a picture of Maggie in LA with some of her friends at a bar wearing a very slinky party dresses. They had on Happy New Year’s tiaras and had glasses of champagne in their hands. And in the middle of them all stood none other than the Working Class Dog himself.

“Oh my goodness, is that who I think it is?”  I walked over to her to look at the picture up close. “Holy shit, that’s Rick Springfield! Did she know him?”  

Sherry laughed. “Honey, Meg got to know everyone she could. I remember her telling me about that night. She said she’d had a huge crush on him as a girl and had too much to drink that night, which resulted in her spilling her guts to him and almost puking on his shoes. She classified that as a major no no, and after that, I made sure to not drink at functions where I knew I might meet an idol. It came in handy when I met Tony Bennett!”  

We all laughed.

“She had posters of that guy all over her room! We used to tease her all the time.” Devon was even laughing about it.

Sherry taped the picture up on the wall with the others.

I figured this was a good time to show them the drawings and her tattoo. “Guys, can you give me a minute? I want to show you what I found last night.” I jogged up the stairs real quick and brought down my book. I came back down and motioned for them to join me around the table. I made sure Devon was closest to me so he could see it first. I flipped to the correct page and laid it out.

“I wanted to show you the drawing I did for her and the picture of her finished tattoo. It looks pretty raw. I hate to say it, but she didn’t sit very well for it. Her skin was pretty sensitive so I don’t have a good picture.”

They all crowded around looking at it, murmuring their appreciation for the design and wincing from the redness of her skin in the picture.

Devon found my hand and squeezed it. “She never did handle pain very well. She always said she’d never get a tattoo, was too chicken.”

He pulled me back from the table a little and into his chest for a hug. His breath tickled my neck as he whispered, “I’m glad you were the one who tattooed her, Jaylene. Thank you for showing us.” He was trembling a little.

I whispered back, “I’m just glad I had the chance to meet her.”

He pulled back and looked into my eyes for a moment before he kissed me sweetly on the lips. Now I was trembling and had completely forgotten about the others, who were now openly staring.

Mage broke the silence. “It’s about fucking time, man. Good for you.”

Devon looked over at Mage who slapped him on the back. Devon blushed and shook his hand. I bit my lip to stifle a nervous laugh. Devon was still holding me to him.

“Thank you, I think. It is time.” He turned back to me with that devastating smile.

“As long as you don’t start writing sappy love songs, it’s cool with me.” Marcus walked over and pulled him into a hug.

Devon looked surprised and hugged him back. “I might do that, asshole, just for you. How could I not want to write sappy love songs? She’s pretty amazing.”

I was thoroughly red and completely mortified. “Ok, enough gooey stuff. He’s still yours, guys.”

They all laughed and hugged both of us. I didn’t understand what all of this meant, but I gathered it was about acceptance, relief that they were finally talking about Maggie without fighting, and letting each other know they still loved each other.

Star gave me an extra-long hug. “Glad you got out of your head, chère.”

I smiled brightly at him, feeling the tears well up in my eyes. This felt way too good to be true. I was still waiting for the bottom to drop, but right now, in this room, I just wanted to hold on to those good feelings as long as I could.

“Hey, am I late for the love-in?”  

Mackenzie came strolling in from the back and came towards us. “You guys really should lock that gate back there. Anyone could just come in.”

I ran to her and hugged her hard then stepped back, confused.

She actually looked kinda earthy and almost normal! The pink hair was gone. Her natural black was back and flowing around her shoulders. She was wearing a pale pink gauzy sundress with wedge sandals on. Her makeup still looked flawlessly applied, but was more subtle than usual. She smiled brightly at me and I almost teared up again at the sight of her. “You look stunning, Kenz.”

She winked at me and batted my hands away. “Just got bored, that’s all.”

Her gaze shifted to someone behind me. I turned to see Star looking as though he was about to faint.

“Star? You ok buddy?”  

He slowly moved toward her. Mackenzie’s blue eyes grew wide and she bit down on her glossed lips. Star stopped in front of her and bent down to kiss her hand. I’d never seen Mackenzie blush before. It was very becoming on her.