I swiped the red across my lips. I looked into the mirror and made a kissy face. The red looked trashy on me, hilariously clashing with the green eyeshadow and bright pink blush that was carelessly drawn onto my face. Standing in the make-up aisle at Local Grown I played with the colors, planning to walk around town and do my daily business while pretending nothing was wrong. My brothers were probably wondering where I was now. Serves them right. When they stuck me in a room sitting around and doing nothing, they should have known I'd get bored, and they know what I do when I get bored by now, if they have a problem, then that's their problem.
"Danielle, there you are, we were looking all over town for you. What did you do to your face?" I jumped at my brother's voice behind me.
"Nothing, what did you do to yours? OH! What now?" He frowned at me, giving a disapproving look.
"You got a mustache, you dumb stack a rocks; you have a shoot in two hours, do you want to be the mustached woman covergirling her way around the studio?" My brother, Donnie, used his hands to highlight his point, waving them animatedly in the air.
"Jesus, calm your tits, and let's go then." I walked out of the store with him following behind me.
"Great, let's get home so you can wash your face and you can get your shit together. They'll do your makeup there and give you what they want you to wear. It's not anything hard, just a magazine spread for the fall fashions for GAP." Donnie looked down, texting something.
"GAP? I hate GAP, you hate GAP, why am I doing this?" Donnie clicked the unlock button on his car remote and I climbed into the passengers side door.
"Because they're giving us a lot of money and free clothes whenever we go in, no questions asked." He pulled out of the parking lot.
"Why would they ask questions?"
"Incase you wanted to buy shit for your friends."
"Oh. Sweet. I guess I can suffer through this for the greater good." I let out a long sigh and dramatically placed my hand on my forehead. "Still, GAP is too expensive for its' own good, how do they stay in business?"
"Rich, upper class, white women."
"Sounds about right." I watched the scenery from our home town, Clementine Bay, go by. The town buried in the hills with the ocean, large and beautiful on the other side. The sea was raging, the sky was dark with heavy gray clouds, casting everything in a beautiful light with the sun filtering through the clouds. The weather was weird here, it could be cloudy and cold in the middle of summer and warm everywhere else. Lucky us. Despite the town being named after one of the saddest nursery rhymes ever, there was no place that was more beautiful on the days it was warm. Everything stayed green for the most part, there was hardly any dead grass and, even when the trees were bare, I know there were no trees more beautiful than the ones I had grown up with. We went up the long driveway to our house and parked the car next to my other brother, Mike's, 1999 range rover. I pulled myself out of the car by the hand hold and walked inside. The day was still pretty warm so the door was open. Mike was in the kitchen with his laptop on the counter. He turned away from the screen when I walked in.
"The hell happened to your face? Lose a fight with Him?" I rolled my eyes at the PowerPuff Girls reference and dumped my bag on the counter next to him and went over to the sink to wash off my face.
"I'm sorry, did I just fall into 1999? Or are you the one that's stuck there?" I rubbed the hand soap against my face and stuck my hands under the faucet, bringing water to my face before the soap could get in my eyes.
"Oh, you're so funny. With your jokes and shit. Really." Mike deadpanned back at me. He was good at sounding like a know it all jackass. I wiped my eyes on a dish towel and made a face at him that he didn't see as he had turned back to his work.
"What are you working on now?" I went into the fridge and pulled out a pudding cup.
"New book, it's about a doctor in World War II who storms the beaches of Normandy and ends up saving a platoon of German soldiers who end up helping them liberate Le Havre." Mike wrote books in his spare time, usually historical fictions. He was pretty good, it raked in a lot of money, kept us afloat while he was in med school and Donnie was shadowing at hospitals; though to keep out of the limelight, he went by the name, John Harrison. That was fun after the new Star Trek movie.
"Keep at it. Donnie can take me to the shoot," I said. Mike closed his laptop and drank the rest of whatever it was in the cup next to him. My bet was cold coffee, if the look on his face told me anything.
"Nah, I'll go too, your fans my try to mob you again." I rolled my eyes.
"That happened all of once after a show, it doesn't happen all the time and you know it. I bet you just want to meet girls." I winked at him. He rolled his eyes to the sky before looking back at me.
"No." With that he walked away. Something changed in him when our mother died, he had always been close to both of them, both mom and dad, he was always their little baby while Donnie and me had always been more independent. He became so quiet and withdrawn, he stopped talking to his friends and isolated himself from everyone besides us. Mike threw himself into books, trying to know everything about anything, he has been going to see a therapist for the last fourteen years. After a while, he opened up again, but he never became my happy-go-lucky brother again. Still, while I was in the hospital as a child he made sure to visit me every day after school and tell me stories about little animals and people with their roles reversed, I told him he could turn them into childrens' books and he did. He became a published author at the age of fourteen. Even though people liked him and he'd had no shortage of girls asking him out he never brought home a girl who was anything more than a friend.
"Come on, children, let's go!" Why the fuck was Donnie still at home anyway? He was like, thirty four, and he still didn't have a steady girlfriend. It was my fault. If they didn't have to take care of me they could go out and get lives. I had to stop thinking like that. I lightly slapped my face and went out to the car. I wonder how Erik is? It only seemed like a little bit later that we were pulling into the parking lot outside a big studio building. I unhooked my seat belt and opened the door. It looked like this was going to be a long - and annoying - day.
"Wait for us. Jesus, you say you don't want to do it and now you're practically running to the building." Donnie joked at he and Mike got out of the car. I made a face at them.
"I just want it to be over sooner rather than later, now let's not be late." Ten minutes later we were swept into wardrobe and Donnie was chatting up some wardrobe designer and Mike was inspecting the lights and cameras. 'You never know when one might be faulty and fall on you.' Yeah, totally, like I wouldn't be able to take care of that. "There now, don't you look beautiful?" I focused on myself in the mirror. I can say that I did look like someone actually put time into my makeup rather than doing it in ten minutes in the morning pretty half assed.
"Yes, thank you for taking the time to do it so well." Only about an hour on hair and makeup, but who was counting? She looked at me strangely.
"Of course, it's my job, why wouldn't I do my best?"
"Eh, some people get tired and some just plain stop caring so they do a half assed job." I got out of the chair and stripped out of my regular clothes and pulled on the shirt and pants I was going to have to wear for the shoot. Wow, these jeans fit me really well. Too bad all their jeans are sixty nine dollars, not including tax. Hey, I'm cheap and I hate paying for things I can get for twenty bucks somewhere else. GAP knows how to make you pay for quality.
"Well, thank you for appreciating my work," the nameless makeup artist said.
"No problem." I heard the photographer call my name. I had met her when I came in, I'm pretty sure her name was Mary Dickon. She didn't seem like one of those crazy photographers that like to put their models in crazy death trap things. "I'm coming!" I hustled over to the shooting area.
"Great, you're here just in time! I want you to meet your co worker, Bram Donnelly, Bram, this is Danielle." A (very, very) handsome man came from the other direction, tugging on the cuff of his sleeve, letting the long brown lion's mane of hair fall over his shoulders. Wow, he's tear-your-clothes-off beautiful. I bet he's an asshole. A beautiful asshole. He looked up at me with rich brown eyes, he must be some form or Spanish, and fave me a wide, white smile that had me digging my nails into my hands so as not to look away.
"Hello Danielle, I've heard so much about you. I'm quite a big fan." He extended his hand to me and I reached to shake it. Wow, bad handshake, it felt like shaking a glove full of pudding. He let out a laugh. "Oh my, your hand is so small, if I held it to hard I bet I would bruise it!" What the fuck? "Maybe you've heard of me, I'm a recurring character on Resurrection." Oh God, he's one of those.
"Hey, hey, hey, hands off my sister pal, unless you want a black eye!" Donnie pushed his way in front of me, using all six feet of him to be intimidating. "We didn't agree to this, you said a shoot with Dani, you never mentioned this second party!" Donnie was giving Mary the evil eye. Bram shoved Donnie in the chest, pushing him back. I stepped out of the way so they could have their little dog fight, once you set Donnie off he would mess you up, he's never lost a fight in his life. Bram curled his lip up and looked at Donnie up and down before giving a smug smile.
"Sorry, but I don't fight with pregnant women." I let my mouth fall open. He called my brother fat. My captain-of-the-football-team-in-sophomore-year brother fat. Ohh, he's gonna get kiiilled. Looks like Der Tod is going to be landing any moment.
"What did you call me?" Donnie's eyes went black. Any time now.
"Pregnant. Oh, I'd watch it if I were you, anger's bad for the baby, might induce labor." Mike had come to stand by our side, running his fingers through his shaggy brown hair, he'd always been a calm person, compared to me and Donnie, I could tell he was getting ready to drag Donnie away by his ear. Donnie, on the other hand, was getting into his football player mode, hunching his shoulders forward and lifting his arms, getting ready to tackle Bram to the ground, and as much as I wanted to see that, I knew it shouldn't happen.
"I can't work with him!" Every set of eyes turned to me. "This ass just called my brother fat, the brother that paid for my food, clothing, and hospital bills since I was four years old. All while going to college on a football scholarship. No one disrespects my family. Let's go." Reluctantly, Donnie shifted out of danger mode and turned to leave. Bram looked in shock.
"You're going to leave the shoot? It was your brother that started this all." He looked like a petulant child.
"Yeah. You had the choice to defend your space to him, but instead you insulted him. He doesn't trust you, why should he? He's never met you. He's trying to protect me because he cares about me, what's your excuse?" He stood there speechless. Mary was beside herself.
"Oh, please don't go, we have a deadline! If we don't have a least a dozen pictures for the magazine by the end of the day I'll be in so much trouble! Is there anything I can do to make you stay?"
"You can make Bram here apologize to my brother." Mary turned to Bram and gave him a look. Bram ground his teeth together.
"I apologize for my actions." He ground out. Donnie looked too smug for his own good.
"No problem, Tiny." Oh God, can't he just let shit go? I rolled my eyes, praying he wouldn't take the bait.
"Tiny? I'm an inch shorter than you at most!" Donnie grinned wide. I looked at Mike Praying that he would get Donnie away.
"Yeah, but I'm twice as big as you, I could use you as a toothpick." Donnie flexed his muscles in his typical 'Charles Atlas' pose. I saw the ropes of muscle in Bram's arm tense, looks like he was going to take his chances and hit Donnie. Mike chose that time to grab Donnie by the ear before he could cause much more trouble.
"Let's go brother dearest, Dani bailed you out already don't make her look any worse than you already have." Mike tugged Donnie away by his ear, Donnie complaining loudly the entire time. I had to keep myself from rubbing my eyes.
"Idiot. Complete, utter idiot." I crossed my arms against my chest. Everyone was still looking to where Mike was marching with Donnie in tow. "Let's get this finished before my brothers decide to come back and tag team the entire crew. Shall we?" I walked over to where the cameras were pointing. "How do you want me?" Mary looked from me to the door where my brothers had exited.
"Do they… do they do that often?"
"Yeah, they're both like big gorillas when it comes to protecting me against men, that's why they were so mad at you for not mentioning Bram." I ran my hand through my hair and looked through the gap my arm and shoulder made, directly into a camera. Whoever manned it snapped the photo.
"Why?" Was all Mary could manage.
"The last man I was close to tried to rip my organs out through the man made incision in my stomach," I lifted my shirt for a moment before pulling it down again, "what would you do if your own father did that to your baby sister? Would you trust strangers?" Everyone shuffled awkwardly. "Come on, I thought these pictures had to be taken by the end of today?" Bram walked over to my side and I looked at Mary expectantly.
"Uh, okay. Okay, you two are a couple in your home and you are just about to go off to work and you trying to savor the last few moments of time you have before Bram has to go." Bram looked over to me and wagged his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.
"Okay." Bram put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head, I smiled up at him, like he was being goofy. The next one Bram pulled me up so I had my legs around his waist and we looked into each others' eyes. Next, I pinched his cheeks and made a kissy face at him. We moved sets into a kitchen make up. I handed him a cup of fake coffee, we pretended to be in love and the final photos were taken of me kissing him on the cheek as he went off to work.
"That was great! Wonderful job, everybody!" I clapped my hands together and stretched them above my head. Great, time to go see what the two lumps were doing for the entire time I was working. I bet they were sitting in the car the entire time. Mike was reprimanding Donnie and Donnie got bored of listening to him so he started playing a game on his phone while Mike gave up and went back to typing. Yup, my family.
"Well, I'm going home to take a nap, later. Send my check in the mail." I began stripping off the button up shirt and jacket they had given me for the shoot and went into the room where I had gotten dressed. I pulled on my own clothes and went for the door.
"Hey." I turned to see Bram coming towards me in the most sinful, ass hugging jeans I had ever seen. God, even off the floor he looks like a model.
"Sup?" I looked up at him, what a beautiful man. But I already have someone better waiting for me.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot, how about I take you out for dinner?" Oh. Lucky me.
"Sorry, I'm not interested." I smiled at him apologetically. His eyes went tight. He smiled wider.
"You don't think there was a spark between us when we were having those photos taken?" My eyebrows pushed together. How conceited was he?
"Uh… no. Look, I'm spoken for. It was nice meeting you." I turned and walked away as fast as I could. I got to where the car was parked and, lo and behold, I was right. Donnie was hunched over his game and Mike was reclining and typing something of his ipad. I climbed in the back. "Hey, let's go, I wanna be home now."
"Fine, fine." Donnie scored a few more points at some stupid game before shutting it off and putting the key in the ignition. Mike pulled his back rest up and turned his pad off. Soon we were on the road again.
"How was the shoot?" Mike kept his eyes on the road. He gets car sick easily.
"Pretty good, but that Bram was a creep. He came up to me after the shoot and asked me to dinner, said 'didn't you feel a spark' uhh, no, bitch, I didn't." I mimicked Bram's voice horribly. Donnie growled in the front seat.
"I knew I should've decked him when I did, what a creep on legs." I kicked the back of his seat.
"No, you just wanted to get a rise out of him and then he called you pregnant and hurt your baby feelings, so you through a hissy fit." Mike snorted, trying to hide a laugh.
"Whatever." Donnie let it drop, we were back in Clementine and we were climbing the stairs to our house.
"I'm going to take a nap, call me for dinner." Donnie grunted in agreement and Mike went into his office. I shucked off my clothes and crawled into bed. The sun was setting now and the room was almost dark. I closed my eyes and let my mind drift to Erik.
Everything was dark and dead. The ground was black, like there had been a fire only moments before, but the dirt was hard packed, no ash rose from it. A haunting melody filled the air and, like a puppet on strings, I began to dance. I dipped and jumped lifelessly to the hopeless tune, my body, contorting in on itself, spinning on my toes before something touched my shoulder and I fell, like my strings were cut, into a mass on the ground. My eyes flew open and I shot up in bed. My room was completely dark and the clock read seven thirty. Donnie should be calling us for dinner in a minute. My mind replayed that dream and that dark melody haunted me through dinner.
Well there you have it. I'm so sorry it took six months, but I needed time away from writing. As soon as I realized it had been so long I kicked my butt into gear and wrote this in two days. The sequel to Melody of the Past. I hope you still care about these characters. I hope you liked this chapter and there will be more to come! MC