Chapter 40
Maddy
It’s nearly showtime when the rush of adrenaline helps me feel somewhat human again.
My boots thud along the cement corridor, my walk slowed slightly by someone who's behind me, permanently attached with both hands grasped firmly on my hips. The proudly kinky rockstar who insists that what happened today, paired with what we’re doing tonight, will be the best thing that ever happened to us.
We squeeze into the overcrowded greenroom where everyone is hanging out, sans Mickie and Silas. I’m glad she allowed him back in, and they hopped on the first flight to LA together. I just can’t think about her without tears threatening to smear the makeup Kel shellacked into place.
“We’re gonna come up with an idea so good, Mick will have no choice but to come on board. She just needs a few days to cool off, Baby,” Jett had assured me, and I hope he’s right.
Everyone in here is giddy with green zombie makeup, holding up equally green Jello shots with gummy eyeballs inside them. I suddenly have one in each hand, and Britta shouts over everyone, “We all know Baby knows how to use that mouth! Let her show us how it’s done!”
I glare at her. They are not acting like this is one of the top ten biggest messes we’ve had to clean up.
Everyone just seems to think this is one big joke, and I don’t really want to argue that point.
I certainly do feel like a joke. So, I spear the tip of my tongue between the plastic cup and the Jello and swirl it all the way around before scooping from the bottom and ungracefully slurping it, eyeball and all, into my mouth.
My family cheers, and I just shake my damn head.
Might as well embrace being a freak.
I eat about five more until I’m nauseous and delirious, huddled in a big cuddle puddle with my Jett, Kel, Britta, Gage, really, Auntie, Uncle, Mum, Dad, my siblings, their significant others, and Jett’s band.
My dad has poured tiny shots of his rare as hell scotch for everyone, and we’re raising them as he proposes a toast.
“It’s been a really hard fucking day for my two youngest, and I really appreciate all of you being here for them.
The media can chastise our family as much as they want for being freaks, but that doesn’t cancel us or erase us; it only makes us stronger.
And we couldn’t be this strong if it wasn’t for all of you, and we’re so grateful for that, truly.
Oh, and especially to my hopefully future son-in-law, Kennedy, for saving the fuckin’ show tonight! Cheers.”
“Cheers!”
We tap our tiny shot glasses together, and Kel starts blowing on my eyes so the tears threatening to fall don’t.
The last person I expect to make a statement is Gage, but he looks to me and Jett like we’re role models instead of delinquents.
He holds up a bottle of his Johnny Walker Blue and splashes some in each little cup.
“Anyone else I know would’ve cried and licked their wounds and hidden themselves away for months after a leak like that, but that isn’t this fucking family.
A family I want to be a part of for a long time, if you’ll have me.
” He looks at my cousin like the sun shines out of her ass, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she announces she’ll be doing med school in LA instead of London.
“I’m in awe, I’m impressed, and we’re all really proud of you guys for going out there tonight.
Cheers to this crew, cheers to Jett and Maddy! ”
“Cheers!”
My dad wraps Gage up in a headlock. “I like this hopefully future nephew!”
Not to be outdone, Jett’s eyes light up as the door opens and an enormous black cauldron is delivered right in the middle of our family love fest. Some sort of witches’ brew bubbles as dry ice mist billows out of it, floating over our knees as we cackle like this is a potion of our own creation.
Mum helps Jett ladle the brew into skeleton hand goblets that were delivered alongside it.
He holds up his concoction, and suddenly his eyes are glistening with tears. How much more can my heart take today?
“When I was little, I would lock myself away in my room with my collection of hoarded vinyls and listen to Maxwell Morningstar albums like normal people would, I dunno, read the Bible. To get comfort, knowing there were others like me, that didn’t fit in, that didn’t have to be like everyone else to be successful. ” Oh god, now Dad’s eyes are wet.
“If only little Jett had known, someday I’d get to be a member of his family, I think it would’ve saved me so much heartache, just knowing that.
But I’m here now, and I’m so grateful for everyone in this room.
That you’re here for me, no matter how hard I fuck up.
I feel like the luckiest man on the planet with Maddy and her family by my side.
” Jett puffs out his chest, it’s bare of course, and I know something loud is coming next.
An ear-piercing, “HAPPY FUCKIN’ HALLOWEEN TO US! ”
I don’t know what was in that bubbling potion, but it has me feeling something so warm in my chest that I have to hug everyone in the room, more than once.
I don’t want the crowd to see what I’m wearing; it’ll give away our big final scene.
So, when my family makes their way to our little section, I perch on a stool in the wings, stage left, with my wig on and my mask off.
I jump a little, feeling Jett’s hot breath on my ear as he’s about to get into his big Halloween reveal. “Now that’s my dream, Baby. You sitting right there, every night. Is that selfish?”
I can’t help the smile that creeps across my lips. “Probably.”
A deep rumble, “You like it when I’m selfish with you, Baby? It makes you wet knowing I don’t want to share you with anyone? That I want you right there, just for me?”
“Maybe.” I feel the crotch of my sexy black catsuit answering for me.
“I’m so proud of you for going out there tonight.
I know it’s hard. But I’ll be there with you, all right?
You look so fit, darling. I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you up there.
” He looks me up and down like he’s checking out some hottie he hasn’t met, and it makes me snort.
“Actually, there’s one thing missing, Baby.
” He pulls one of his little notepads and a pen out of his back pocket, handing them to me. “Here, now it’s complete.”
“Is our movie inspiration about to strike me?” I ask, flipping mindlessly through the blank pages.
“Oh, I very much hope it is.” His lips snag mine, biting them apart, our tongues melting together, until my blood is bubbling like that witch’s brew earlier.
“What was…” I gasp for air. “In that caldron?”
“Got you feeling better, Baby?”
“Best I’ve felt all day, don’t know if that’s saying much, but yeah.”
“Good.” He snags one more kiss. “But I’ll never tell what’s in my secret recipe. It’s definitely not green apple schnapps!”
I laugh and let him go. I stare at the blank pages for a while, but the roar of the crowd is deafening and cannot be ignored. I close the notepad and doubt it will get used tonight.
I watch Jett like I’m seeing him for the first time, completely captivated, as he himself bubbles out of a much larger misting cauldron than the one we drank from, one that’s about twenty feet tall, as his grand entrance.
He slides down the side and lands on his feet like a black cat on life number nine.
The longer I watch him, in his leather and mesh fishnet, undulating, swirling, moving across the stage like the fog flowing from the giant pot, the more inspired I get.
I look down at the little notepad on my lap and flip it open, but I can’t help but go back to watching Jett.
I get distracted by how Kennedy is absolutely killing it on the drums with only a few hours of practice, and smile. My sister finally got something right.
Jett, while singing his hit Evermore with about as much force as a nuclear bomb, begins to stalk around the stage with his prop knife, lurking around his band.
He starts picking off his band members one by one.
First, he slashes Alex on keys, the fake blood from Kel dripping from his neck, before he pretends to collapse on the stage floor, then Dean on guitar, and Jack on bass.
Kennedy is the only one left playing as Jett creeps up from behind him and drags the prop from the hollow of his throat, all the way down his torso, fake blood exploding across his white T-shirt.
He tumbles off the drum stand to the stage floor, playing dead with the rest of the band.
The lights go out, and Kel sneaks around in the dark, transforming the band into zombies as quickly as she can.
A spotlight on Jett shows him streaking ‘his bandmates’ blood’ across his face maniacally as he lets out the most goosebump-inducing wail that has the fans screaming and my nerves singing.
He starts climbing the cauldron center stage and pretends to scoop a bucket of ‘potion’ before jumping down and running around ‘pouring’ it over each band member.
The stage effects flash and boom like thunder and lightning, while sparks erupt from the pyrotechnics stage right and left, the whole arena pulsing with wicked wonder.
His band starts to come back to life as the undead zombies walk back to their instruments, with the crowd screaming in approval.
I look down, honestly surprised to see my fingers wrapping around the pen.
The pen is on the paper and the writing utensil certainly seems possessed.
After a few minutes, I have the beginning of a concept, my eyes widening, realizing the idea came from me and might actually be usable.
What the hell did I just come up with and why do I wanna watch it immediately?