Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
“ See me, hear me.
Never leave me.
Want to stick us in a maze
and pretend I don’t know the way.
Get lost in you. ”
Draven crumpled up the paper and threw it to his bedroom floor again. He just couldn’t stop thinking up lyrics, even if they were dumb and amateur and nothing his bandmates would use in a song.
Thankfully, his phone rang, distracting him from his pity party.
“Drave!” His twenty-year-old sister’s voice pierced through the phone. “I got in! I got into the cellist summer program.”
Draven’s two thoughts of “ I’m so proud of her ” and “ Shit, that’s going to be expensive ” bashed through his brain.
“You should have seen Margo’s face,” Summer squealed with excitement. “She hates me so much right now.”
Amusement tickled the edges of his lips. “Don’t act too smug around your understudy, Summer.”
His younger sister snorted. “It’s called being second chair to my first chair. Not ‘understudy.’ And geez, Drave, she’s not gonna to break my fingers in a dark alley or something. You watch too many soap operas with Mimi.”
Draven rolled his eyes but grinned. His grandmother, Mimi, had gotten him hooked on soap operas as a kid. When he visited her in the nursing home, they watched episodes nonstop.
Damn , that reminded him: I need to make sure Mimi’s care is all paid up for the year before I go on tour in a few months .
It also sounded like Summer’s new cellist program would have a hefty price tag. Draven made a lot of money and saved a lot by living in a two-bedroom one-bath apartment with a roommate. But, he had also bought his parents a mansion, paid for Mimi’s swanky nursing home, and footed the bill for his two younger siblings’ college degrees.
Maybe money-savvy Thea could give him some financial advice.
Money was…tight. And he definitely could not ask Thea to chip in more for rent.
He sighed. His manager had tried for ages to talk him into doing an underwear modeling shoot. Maybe it was time to swallow his pride and distaste for being nothing but a sex symbol and accept that big paycheck.
Everybody sells a partial nude to pay for his grandmother’s care and his siblings’ college at some point, right?
“Hello?” Summer asked. “Are you listening to me, Draven? Scream with excitement, dammit,” his wild little sister ordered.
Draven goofily shrieked, “ Oh my Godddd .”
The sound of his sister’s laugh warmly wrapped around him. She asked, “Will we see you for Thanksgiving?”
Draven scoffed. “Of course, why ask me that?”
“Because we know you’re busy getting ready for your next world tour. I mean, the packing alone would take me months.”
“ Months to pack?” he echoed.
“A day to pack for each day of the trip. Isn’t that how math works?” Summer cackled at her own joke.
He loved his little sister. With scientists as parents, Summer was the one who, while growing up, shared Draven’s love for music and eccentrics. His grandmother, Mimi, was the same.
Summer and Draven had an almost ten-year age gap; he would never forget the loneliness before she was born. Geo, his nineteen-year-old brother— because I guess Mom and Dad were handsy that year after Summer was born —was also dear to him, even though Geo followed the medical school track instead of music.
“Hey, could I visit you in a few days?” she asked. “I need a place to crash on Wednesday, near L.A.”
“Sure, I just, uh, I have a roommate again, so you can sleep in my room. I’ll take the couch for the night.”
“Bro, be honest, that roommate could move out by next Wednesday.” She snickered to herself. “When have you kept someone there longer than three weeks?”
“I don’t think she’ll be moving out; she doesn’t care about my midnight drumming.”
“What? Is she deaf?” Summer joked.
“Yes,” Draven replied.
Summer paused. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry, that was insensitive. How do you guys talk, then? Are you learning sign language?”
“I’ve watched a few videos. It’s intimidating to try it. Like speaking French for the first time in front of a native, you know?”
“Draven Maxwell, the famous drummer of Medusa’s Tears , is intimidated by his new female roommate?” Summer performed an exaggerated gasp. “I must meet her and proclaim my love.”
“She’s straight, Summer.”
“Eh.” Summer’s shrug was audible through the phone. “Some women don’t realize they are gay until they figure out that only another woman knows exactly how to touch another woman.”
“Stop implying you could seduce my roommate, Summer.”
“Sorry, sorry.” She whisper-shouted, “ But I could, though! ”
Draven chuckled, but a vexing thought drifted through his mind. “ You’ll have to get in line .”
* * *
Thea aimlessly floundered around the living room, waiting for her group of friends to arrive. They all wanted to see Thea’s new digs and confirm she was doing okay after her breakup with Alec. She had, of course, not invited the girl in her friend group who had slept with Alec.
Draven strode from his bedroom and walked to the kitchen as Thea rearranged the couch pillows for the fourth time. He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and turned to face her.
She nervously lifted her hand in a wave to him. A wave ? Stop making it so obvious that you’re lusting after him! Why didn’t she just flash him her underwear while she was at it?
Draven nodded in greeting at her, smiling in that seductive, sinful way that made her insides turn to goo.
He is a player. You were just cheated on. Be smart, Thea .
He wrote on a Post-it note and handed it to her. “ You okay? ”
Why did he have to act like he cared? It was so confusing. Thea nodded and flashed him a quirky thumbs-up. She motioned to his shirt and gave him a double thumbs-up. Her meaning was clear: Nice job not being shirtless for when my friends come over .
Amused, he rolled his gleaming light green eyes with a smile. Wasn’t he still mad at her for the milk? He seemed to realize it at the same moment because he frowned and shifted his weight between his feet.
Draven opened his mouth to say something but looked over at the door. Could he hear someone outside? Thea glanced at her phone and saw two of her friends messaged, “ Here! ”
Before she could stop him, Draven walked to open the door. She sprinted after him and bit her lip when her friends saw the drummer letting them inside the apartment.
Elisa and Fifi gaped at him, elbowing each other, as they entered.
Thea blushed at their obvious gawking. Real-life men did not look like Draven. It took getting used to. What was she thinking? She was far from used to it.
Thea moved forward to sign to her friends but paused when Draven moved. Draven swung his arm outward and back to his torso, flattened a hand to his chest, and then moved the hand from the side of his chin to his ear.
Thea’s heart stopped.
Draven had just signed, “ Welcome to my home .” It was a bit shaky but clear. “ Let me know if you need anything ,” he added.
Her friends frantically started signing to him. Elise signed something along the lines of: “ I need a piece of you, please and thank you .”
Thea stared at Draven. He had learned sign language to interact with her friends? To welcome them and offer his help with anything? A thick, dry swallow fought its way down her throat. This man was a player? Had she been…wrong?
Once Elise and Fifi quickly signed to him, he lost most of his confidence. His front teeth sank into his bottom lip. They noticed his discomfort, paused, and watched him.
He jerkily put a hand on his chest again, then held one hand out flat, palm facing the ceiling. He used his other hand to make a pinching motion over his palm and moved those fingers to his head.
He signed, “ I learn .” But the women knew what he meant. He was learning sign language.
Thea was fairly certain her heart had just fallen out of her chest and tumbled its way to his feet.