"You need to come!" Taylor said, putting her hair in a pony tail, "They're a great band, my brothers the drummer"
Jay was working on a car and just sighed, "Maybe." he eyed the car he was working on inside the shop, wondering why it wasn't running and tried the engine.
"Please." she begged, leaning behind him as he stood at the hood of the car, lifting the top up, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Grumpy." she teased.
He turned, exhaling deeply as he looked around like a bit annoyed with her being at his work but surrendered, "fine." he said, and hope that'd be it.
She smiled wide, "Great, you can pick me up around 9" she teased and he snickered but nodded, holding a smirk.
Sean was coming over as she leaned up and kissed him, then left.
"Huh." was all Sean said, getting Jay's attention who narrowed his eyes and Sean went to helping him with the engine, just nodding for no reason.
"What?" taunted Jay, eyeing him closely.
Sean looked at him bluntly, "huh? oh, nothing. She's just uh.. visiting you at work now huh?" he asked.
Jay rolled his eyes, nodding and got back to work, "She just wanted to stop by." he confirmed. His shop so why not right?
"So it's serious?"
Jay looked over while twisiting a screw driver into something, "Is it ever with me?" smirked Jay, to stop.. well, other than BEFORE prison.
Sean coughed, "That reminds me.. I kinda need to bring in my car next week and fix it up .. you think you can go with Manny to pick out the suits for the wedding? Make sure they're my style and not just hers." he joked, with a smirk.
Jay frowned, "That's uh.." he looked for a word while grabbing a rag and whipping his greasy hands, "Kinda big decision, no? shouldn't you be doing that with her?"
"I'm just doing the wedding for her." joked Sean, shrugging, "Tomorrow, 12 noon."
Jay sighed, but nodded. Guess it was a good idea to get out of the shop for a day. He was non stop working.
That weekend, Emma was getting ready at Manny's house as Manny sat on her and Sean's bed, "CRAZY you're living with Craig." she said with a snicker.
Emma smiled a little and shrugged, "not really, knew him since I was in diapers." her and Manny giggled a little.
"Does he.. try anything?" Manny asked, knowing he could never take his hands off her before.
Emma cringed, "Ew, no. We're not like that.. he's like family." she shivered. That grade 7 crush was just as far as she'd ever go.
She went silent, thinking about something but decided to tell Manny.
"He's addicted to coke right now, he's been trying to stop.. it's been 3 days now and he's already breaking." Emma told him.
Manny blinked, "Wow." she admitted, "Ofcourse he'd get into that with the music buis.."
Sean entered the room as Emma sighed, nodding, "Craig is in a lot of trouble.."
"Let's not talk about exs near our wedding." joked Sean, covering Manny's ears, "Or say Craigs name" he whispered to Emma but Manny laughed, grabbing his hands and he leaned down, kissing her, til falling on the bed, "What are we talking about?"
Emma turned, make up down and grabbing her coat, "Craig doing coke."
Sean faked a gasp but rolled his eyes as Manny playfully slapped it, that wasn't very nice!
"You wanna come?" Emma asked, "His band is playing tonight at some bar.. free drinks for his connections!" she put her arms out, hoping they'd say yes.
Manny tilted her head to Sean and shrugged, "We haven't gone out in a while.." she pouted, "I don't wanna be that married boring couple.."
"we're not." Sean insisted, smirking, "We're the ENGAGED boring couple." he got slapped again and laughed, "Fine, lets go. I'd like to see Craig during a withdrawal anyways.. makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
The bar was club styled almost, for how much the lights bounced and the stage lights went crazy, and Craig's band was doing amazing. They were doing a cover by Ellie Goldburgs song Burn.
"'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Yeah we got the fire, fire, fire
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn"
Jay and Taylor stood with so many other people, and Jay saw her, between the crowd..he thought he was just seeing things but it made sense it was Craig Mannings as the singer.. so this was also Taylors brothers band. Well, Jay got fucked over.
He tried to focus on the band and the music blasting in his ear, people dancing around him and even Taylor, raising her beer up to the stage.
He could see her being one of their groupies if she wasn't so hung up on him.
Emma stood with Manny and Manny smirked to Sean, seeing him actually nodding with the music and he smirked as she playfully nudged him, letting him admit the music was actually good.
Emma smiled when Craig sang his lungs out and pointed to her happily. His fourth day, coke free, all because of her! She had helped him through it a lot.
"We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out
We can light it up, up, up
So they can't put it out, out, out"
Jay's eyes narrowed, watching Craig looking directly at Emma. His arm reached around Taylor, pulling her against him and she smirked up at him as he did down at her and she swayed in his arms as he looked back to the stage.
"Cause we got the fire, fire fire,
and we gonna let it burn."
Emma clapped a little when the song finished and turned to Manny and Sean to see what they thought to stop mid way.
Jay.
And he stood there with another girl.
Emma eyed it closer, and recognized the girl.. from the restaurant, slutty waitress.
"Em." Manny sadly said and Emma whipped around to her, embarrassed she caught her staring.
"I'm gonna go congratulate Craig." Emma said, trying to race out and pushed through the crowd rather roughly.
"come on." giggled Taylor, gripping Jay's hand and pulled him also through the crowd, "I can get us back stage!"
In the back room, Emma sat beside Craig on the couch, shaking his bands hands as they all smiled and greeted her, introducing themselves.
"Tyler." said the drummer, and also Taylors mystery brother.. you'd guess their Mothers name was Tyra or something.
"Brad." smiled the other guitarist.
Craig grinned, turning to Emma, "How'd you-" he stopped talking, noticing Brad lean by the coffee table infront of their couch while some girl groupies came in, and he set up a line.
Emma's eyes widened, looking at it and then Craig before reaching over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. When she said Craig was a family friend..it was more like family. They grew up since babies together and since her family was Alberta, she spent a lot of holidays with them and now lived with Craig.. she didn't want him to spin out of control.
Behind the groupies, Taylor led Jay in and he noticed Emma and Craig on the couch, and they were holding hands, and looking pretty serious at another.
Jay almost didn't heart Taylor say his name once more, introducing him to her brother that stood up and went over to meet him.
"Jay." he said, nodding at Tyler who nodded back and slapped his hand before pointing to the couch.
"You guys wanna come jam?" he asked.
Jay clenched his jaw, letting his eyes scan back to Emma, she was speaking lowly in Craig's ear and he just wanted to snap Craig's neck.
Jail wouldn't be so fun to go back to though..
"Sure!" Taylor had to say and Jay cursed in his head, just what he wanted to do.. hang out with wanna be pop stars and talk about blow, and use words like 'jam' or 'stoked, rightous!'
They followed him over to the coffee table, where Jay saw the lines just as expected and as he sat, he watched Craig closely..he knew Emma better to not be doing it, though thought it was stupid of her to be around.. but did her new little boy toy do it?
Cause if so.. that'd be a pretty 'unhealthy' love too.
Emma looked up to catch Jay, right there, right across from her and staring back, but not as bluntly and dear like as she was looking at him, he looked at her so darkly, it made her skin get Goosebumps and she tried to focus on Craig to just shake her head.
"You know.." she laughed a little, "I forgot I had to study for this test." she told him, lying.
Craig's shoulders fell, wishing she could stay, "Alright.."
Jay glared at the two band members who were snorting coke, and talking too loudly..no RAMBLING, as cokeheads did, and he tried to listen to Craig talk to Emma.
"I'll see you at home." he said.
Jay's eyes shot up to them .They were.. living together? He watched Emma get up and Craig follow her to the exit door. He cornered his eyes snake like, watching Emma leave in a rush and Craig closed the door behind her, and came back to sit.
"Mannings." purred a groupie, sitting on the arm of the chair he sat down on, "GREAt show." she flirted.
Craig grinned, nodding, he was quite proud, "I tried." he flirted back, grinning to her.
Jay must of been throwing daggers harder than he thought, cause even Taylor looked at him and then Craig, wondering what he had against him and even Craig looked up to catch his look.
Craig was sipping a beer and swallowed hard, putting it on the table and pointing a bit at him, "Jay Hogart?" he said, "highschool." he laughed.
Jay just clicked his tongue, annoyed, but nodded and grabbed a beer himself from the table, cracking it open.
Craig looked to where Emma left and slowly back at Jay..probably the reason she left. He didn't bring it up for another 20 minutes.
"So you two didn't work out huh?" Craig asked Jay, sitting across from him now.
Jays eyes were watching the groupie who kept sitting on Craig's lap, run to get him more beer and he set his eyes back on Mr. Rockstar.. so was he cheating on Emma?
Taylor got confused and looked at Jay, who didn't seem to mind to answer infront of her, "Do you see us holding hands or serenading songs to another?" Jay asked quite bitterly, taunting Craig and Craig knew he was mocking him.
He coughed awkwardly and assumed Jay was jealous, as he glanced at Taylor and tried to change the subject, but she beat him to it.
"Who are you talking about?" she asked, looking between them and let it stay on Jay.
Jay clenched his jaw, sipping his beer, "nothing." he said between sipping it again and stood up, "Lets go."
she happily stood up too, and nodded, wanting to go home with him and followed him out.
Craig got home around 1 and Emma sat on the couch, reading a book and smiled when he came in, "hey." she said, happy he still seemed normal.
Craig sat on the couch across from her smirking a bit, "You over Jay?" he just went right to it.
Emma's heart stopped.
She looked away from him and back to her book. When he thought she just ignored him, she muttered a small, "No." she whispered.
He leaned back, nodding, "Well.." he drifted, "That's good. Cause he didn't seem so over you either."
Emma laughed a little, that was funny, she flipped the page a she explained, "He is so over me he probably forgets my last name."
Craig leaned over, stealing a mint from Joeys bowl of candy and popped in his mouth smirking, "I think he thinks we're dating."
"Ew." Emma wrinkled her nose.
Cragi rolled his eyes smiling, "I'm not THAT bad."
"like kissing a brother. So wrong.." drifted Emma shaking her head then shook it faster, "He probably wasn't jealous, you're probably confusing his jealousy with anger.. he tends to hate when I'm around."
"If you say so." Craig shrugged.
Emma swallowed hard, glancing once more at him and wondering if he was really convinced Jay was jealous..
