Jem…Chapter 37

Chapter 37

It’s pretty cool having the extra help with taking down the gear and I go over the tips in the tip box we’re doing pretty good. I call the girls over and the tree servers over and the barista guy. I count out the tips evenly. It’s a good haul and the barista guy looks at me.

“Wow um, thanks Jem. But why are you tipping us?”

“Because you’re all part of the whole show and the experience here and you work your asses off and it’s not fair if we just come in and get a lot of tips for the half shift we’re here.”

“Cool I mean we all can use the money.”

“Everyone can use the money.”

It’s a big chunk of our possible money basically there’s four of them and four of us so we’re cutting our tips in half. I’m cutting our tips in half…Oh…I look at the girls.

“Girls…?” I look at them.

Brooklyn smiles and gives a thumbs up. “Hey I’ve been wait-staff it’s cool by me.”

Kimmie’s scratching her back with her sticks. “It’s like only right, besides you guys are all pretty cool.”

Raven slips her arm around me. “It is only right. But we’d really appreciate word of mouth and getting us talked up with people you guys know.”

“Sure, Okay! Heck yeah, I’d love too.” Were the comments we got back from them before hugs were shared all around. We did good we made twelve bucks each. I know it’s not that much but it’s the principle of the thing right?

Then…Mr. Walker is beckoning me over. “Two different flavored nights? Tonight was nice but are you going to bust my place up tomorrow night?” He has that joking look on his face.

“I thought that we’d have a good chance to bring it two different crowds and that way bring in a more varied clientele.”

“You sound like you’re planning on the café turning more of a profit?”

“Well this sort of makes us work here in a way.”

“Alright, I’ll go with that so what are your ideas?”

I spend a few minutes with him working out seating and flow and getting a dance floor space set up so there can be dancing. I even offer for us to come in on the faster music night to help set up and move things around. Which he accepts and then we actually play around with the idea of what to serve. Bottled water of course but also espresso shooters and shooters of lemon chello what is like lemony vodka? Mudslides…we’re very girl friendly as an all girl band so it’s all kind of girly shooters and shots since he’s got a liquor license.

Food we bat back and forth and coming up with cake pops. Cake that you squeeze into balls then you dip them in chocolate on sticks. Carrot cake…red velvet…and brownie then fried churros with dipping sauce and two kinds of fresh fried bread sticks one as like garlic bread and the other with cheese.

“Angel, if you ever want to work here I’d seriously consider hiring you.”

“Uhm thanks.” I blush and smile at him. “Can I keep that offer open?”

“Definitely, and can I say something else?”

“Uhm sure?”

“You should seriously think about going to business school. You have a talent for this and you’d do really well I think.”

“Uhm okay…wow.”

I give him a hug and that sort of surprises him because he’s not that kind of guy that gets a lot of hugs being the kind of semi-stern above board businessman type. He sort of looks like he’s not sure what to do and he coughs to let me go. I smile at him and he almost blushes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night sir.”

“Uhm… (Cough) yes tomorrow night Angel.”

I head over to Raven and help get the rest of our things together. “So are we going out for pizza to celebrate?”

The girls nod and Dad suggests. “Danny’s?”

“Sure!” I like Danny’s Pizza.

The girls all look confused except for Jessie who grins. Raven leans over to me and nuzzle asks. “Danny’s?”

“It’s outside of town over in Harper Junction and it’s pretty old but really good the C.N. railway workers and their families sort of all settled in the junction and it’s the only place to eat there. It started as a take out but the pizza is really good.”

“Okay, I’m up for something new.”

Brooklyn looks a bit quiet sad-happy? “Brooke?”

“I haven’t been there since I was really little. My Grampy used to work over there in the railyards and we used to go and see him sometimes and he’d take me there.” (Sniffle.)

I look at her and then at Dad and we both nod and say. “We’re going.”

As we’re heading out I slip up to Dad. “Who’re your friends?” I see them both getting into cars talking with Mitch.

“Two friends of Mitch’s guys he knew in the forces. They live close so we had them come over to hang out.”

“Oh I though they might have been other Mounties.”

“Naw, one is a cop though over at Red Pines, Town P.D. though. We were just hanging out when I was getting ready to come here and they offered to come to. They know Jase had to take off and aren’t thrill with the whole bullshit the Marshals regularly spew out either.”

“They’re the Marshals Dad I doubt that the restrict the spread of their crap to just here. I mean if you live so much higher than the rest of us then you have to spread the bullshit evenly.”

Mike passes nodding. “Yeah because someone might climb the pile if they didn’t and slap the smug off.”

I giggle and Dad laughs and slaps him on the back.

I head to the van. Hmm, Maybe I just got a brother?

We pile into the vehicles and we head out to Harper Junction it’s not really that far about five miles outside of the town limits heading west on the county road. That’s pretty much you know just plain two lanes. Now the Junction is just this sort of suburb like place that sprung up because there were rail workers her for years as it was a junction…as in for the railway where they’d have a couple of maintenance shops, a warehouse and stuff to fix the rails or cars and those rail spots where they pull off to the sides to drop a section of cars, stuff like that.

Well they workers were single and some made good money and married Pointer girls and bought land close to work and a little pocket community started. There’s little places like this all over Canada.

Danny’s used to be just a take out and then moved into one of the old brick shops and became the best pizza place around for a long time. I’ve been here a few times. They don’t deliver so you either pick it up or you eat in.

We all truck inside and the place is old but there’s just something really soulful about the place. Red and white table cloths, the old wooded backed booths and tables that have been carved on for generations. There’s pictures on the walls and even a framed dollar bill behind the cash.

No waitress you have to belly up to the counter which is a full length diner styled counter and place your order. This place is just old, and a person could really turn their nose up at it for that but it’s not like a dive or dirty it’s old and is worn.

We order and we go heavy.

Meat lovers pizza…house sauce, Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami, red onions, red peppers, and ground beef with lots of cheese…double cooked…meaning the topping go on which they slice fresh to order each time then it goes in without the cheese, the sauce gets hot and thicker and the meat get’s crispy. The second cook is them putting the cheese on and then they deck the pizza. Some places like here use pizza pans but when you deck it you shake the mostly cooked pizza out of the pan onto the hot oven bottom and crisp the crust…at Danny’s the put garlic butter on the pan before your pizza goes in at all so when they deck it that crisp starts with a bit of fry.

Cheeseburger pizza…house sauce and lots of ground beef and onions and the best part is the bacon, they use a whole pound of bacon that they have already cooked in slices and they cut them into these four or five bits per slice each and it’s just teaming with bacon and they top it once it’s done with this Swiss cheese béchamel or that with mushrooms or this cheddar cheese sauce or gravy…or all of the above.

We get all of the above. Are you kidding of course we do.

And Dad get’s us Soda there…not pop but real soda out of the fountain where they stir the syrups into the soda water. I have a cherry cola. I share it with Raven and her eyes dance. “This is good.”

I try it. “Yeah, I forgot they had this here. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here.”

“Worth the gas.”

“It’s been about a year since Dad and I had pizza from here and I’m literally drooling right now.”

Raven’s smelling the air especially when the pizza’s get decked and there’s that whuff of butter and bread and garlic frying in the air from it. Kim’s looking at the pinball machines in the corner like she’s never seen one before. Come to think about it I can’t remember any place in town that has them anymore.

One of them is from something called Smokey and the Bandit? And another one is BTO I’ve played that and every time you rack up five thousand points fast it’ll play “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Mitch get’s her playing that one and she’s never played pinball before because she’s really bad at it. I don’t think I’d be any better really since I’m part of the playstation and x-box generation. But I really appreciate the nostalgia of it all.

Brooklyn’s arm in arm with Mike leaning on him as she’s looking over the old photographs and pointing out her Grampy with misty eyes. She (sniffles.)

“I remember coming up here when I was little to see him some weekends and him and the other guys would have a pig roast in the back yard and he’d be playing with them and jamming out on his guitar. It was what really got me into music, into guitars really.”

We hug her and at one point when we’re setting up the laptop to watch the Flash I slip over to the guy behind the counter. “Hey, could I come back sometime and borrow those pictures, my friend over there that’s her Grampy in those and I’d like to get them scanned and copied for her sometime.”

“Hey yeah sure, you might wanna check the junction hall too.”

“Junction hall?”

“Just down the street it’s like the local meeting hall and the volunteer fire department here but they got this room that’s like an archive of stuff that has gone on in the junction for like a long time and stuff.”

“Oh thanks.”

“No problem…..?”

“Oh I’m Jem…well Angel really but it’s the stage name. Like I said no problem I like helping out beautiful girls whenever I get the chance.”

He’s in his thirties or forties and he’s flirting but it’s that big nice smile flirting and not the creepy leer like this is what this guy just does with pretty girls. He’s full of it and he knows it and he’s good with it.

I lean across the counter and peck him on the cheek. “Seriously thank you she’s had a really shitty time with parts of her family and he really means a lot to her.”

He blushes big time and waves a bit from foot to foot. “Uhm…yeah it’s no problem any time…” he’s still blushing when he goes to check the pizzas.

Raven looks at me when I come back and take a sip from what’s now apparently “our” cherry cola. “What was that about?”

“I asked if we could get the pictures and scan them so Brooklyn can have her own and he told me where we might find more.”

She looks at me and stares me in the eyes and gives me a light kiss and hugs me to her really tightly. “You…dammit you really are an Angel aren’t you?”

“Maybe…” I say it playfully while biting my lower lip.

We actually neck tastefully while the pizza is getting brought over and stop and join the others in eating while Mike puts up the videos on the laptop.

*** “Hey how are you all tonight!?, I’m Summer, and we’re Starlight Butterfly! I’m glad you’re all having a good time tonight but we got a treat with a few of our own tunes! Yeah! Some really good shit written by my baby Raven over there playing bass! Alright! Let’s rock it out girls!”

It was one of the three videos and it had her saying that as they played out three of the songs that Raven had written for the band. They played all three of the songs “Sandcastles, Brace for Impact and Fidelity.”

In the other videos there were other tunes played but in all three of the videos Molly had made those three songs were in the play list.

The first song is this slow almost Dido like melody and as much as I hate to admit it summer can sing. She’s beautiful and she has talent but after what she’s done and how she’s acted I think that’s about all she’s got going for her.

*Sandcastles.*

“I got my life kicked over…”
“Too many times.”
“I got my faith knocked over…”
“Too many times.”

“They made me promises…promises…”
“And said I’d be okay.”
“But when I came out…told the truth…”
“Their love was all built on sand, all full of lies…”

“And it was all washed away…”

(Chorus) “But we have a future…”
“And we will be together, we will have fun…
“Summer, Oh there is love in the sun.”
“There’s nothing that’s broken that can’t be undone.”
“And if you have dreams, I will make the happen…
“With my own hands…with all my love…”
“Because even a sandcastle can be home…”

“They said that you weren’t worth it.”
“They said that I was blind…”
“They wanted me to be normal…”
“Then you showed me I was fine.”

(Chorus)

“I got my life kicked over…”
“Then you helped pick me up.”
“I got my faith knocked over…”
“Then you showed me my heart.”

(Chorus)

“And we’re still together…”
“No storm can tear us apart…”
“You are my shelter…”
“You are my castle…”

(Chorus.)

Wow…I like the song, I do it’s wistful and hopeful and Rayne had obviously wrote it for Summer and I slip my hands over hers as she’s holding me and a feel this little emotional tremor go through her.

I’m pretty pissed off. And it’s not that Summer stole the song but what she did to Rayne…I mean there’s stuff about how she came out…about her family in this and she put her heart out there and she just…god what a bitch! How can you stomp on someone’s heart like that?

I lean into her pushing against Rayne and lean backwards and kiss her jaw lightly. “Hold me a bit tighter?” she looks at me and I look into her eyes and there’s a thank you there and we kiss but she squeezes me harder using me as her thing to hold onto. I lean into it more and even slide my hands back letting her take my weight and slip my arms back and slip my fingers into her front pockets as much as I can.

The next song get’s starting after a few covers and this one’s faster more of a hard girl rocker kind of feel and sound with a feel/flavor to it like one of Hearts tunes. Okay it’s really not them copying anyone but the feel is of that kind of music. It’s kind of the whole musical influence thing.

*Brace for Impact.*

“Never saw you coming…”
“Never thought it’s happen.”
“Never love, never love…!”
“Never You…”

“I was living in denial.”
“Used to spend my days just cryin…”
“And spent my nights, those lonely. lonely nights!”
“Trying to party…the pain away.”

(Chorus) “Then I met you!”
“I met you………..”
“You found me!”
“You found me…………..”
“And there was no, no, no way that I….”
“Was braced….for your Impact!”

“We went out…”
“We broke up…”
“And after you I thought I’d never love again.”
“When I was down…I was cutting babe…”
“Just doing everything I could do to stop the pain…..pain…”
“Then you came back…Came back to me…”
“Picked me up off my knees…oh my knees…!”
“And you took that razor from my hands and said not again.”
“ Oh……..never again….”
“Let’s start again.”

(Chorus)

(Chorus)

“Now you’re back…oh you’re back!”
“And we’re here again…”
“You take my breath away form me…you far too good!”
“You’re like a dream…”
“My shooting star….”
“My fantasy…coming down from heaven sent just for me!”

(Chorus)

Honestly I’m likely more upset about this then the girls are right now. These are painful memories but old wounds too. Me?

I write songs; I know feelings and what’s true when you put personal stuff into something that you make to get things out. All I’m seeing in Rayne and Summer and Summer having pulled this before…Rayne cutting because she was hurting so bad and the Summer just waltzed back in? And she took her back?

She had a second chance with Rayne?

And this is what she did with it…

Just…just…

Bitch!

I’m almost at that whole getting angry peak and the Rayne sort of diffuses me. She just reaches and gets our cherry cola and has a sip and she holds the cup to me so I can have some too. “Thank you.” I say to her.

I look her in the eyes again and she’s got this smile that hurts…that happy now shine there but her eyes have that shiny look of pain and tears there.

Have you ever seen that before…I mean I’ve heard and read stuff, books, stories, TV but this is different. This is looking into the eyes of this girl and you see it…It’s like she got tore up so bad inside that you can’t help but see the pain in her heart and while you are making things better…you want to make the pain really go away…that seeing her hurting hurts you too.

“No Angel, thank you…” It’s quiet and vulnerable and scared and I tighten my hands in her pockets making us closer and she gives me that smile again and leans down to kiss me.

Oh…

Oh…This wasn’t just a kiss, or even a passionate kiss this was one of those shy but sweet building in passion and building in that aching desperate needing me…please, please, please kisses.

I arch my back as she slows and kiss her back…trying to just open up that place where all my family stuff, my good memories, my hopeful songs come from and kiss her yes, yes, yes.

You know those times where just one little thing happens…that isn’t a little thing…that changes you forever even if just a little…this was one of those times.

It was a seven minute kiss by the time that Mike coughed. “Hey, we should watch this they’re going to be closing soon.”

“’Kay.” I’m wiping Rayne’s tears off my face with a close to it myself sniffle.

I snuggle closer to her as the next one starts playing and I feel her tense and another shiver.

This one is soft and slow done on the acoustic as it’s main with a little backing bass and a soft drum.

*Fidelity.*

“I sit here smoking and close my eyes.”
“And dream and dream and dream…”
“About how I love you, about how I love you…”
“And can I tell you….?”

“I’ve loved you so, so long but I’ve been just your friend.”
“And I hate, hate, hate…when you’re in pain.”
“I knew that they’d do that, that they’d break your heart…”
“Something so beautiful, something so magical…”

“I want to hold you…”
“I want to kiss you…”
“I want to tell you…”

(Chorus) “I will be your Fidelity…..”
“I will guard your heart.”
“I will be your Fidelity…”
“I’ve loved you from the start.”
“Come to my arms.”
“Come to my heart.”
“I’ll keep you safe.”
“Oh……………….I’ll make it…better….”
“I will be your Fidelity…..”

“You see tragic visions through your teardrops.”
“Shakey breathing…they broke your heart…”
“And you wake up crying all alone….”
“Come to me….”
“Oh come to me….”

(Chorus)

“I know that little child inside your head…”
“Afraid to smile, laugh….so full of dread.”
“I will be there…”
“I will be there…”

(Chorus)

“Let me pick you up I will be strong…”
“I’ll kiss it better while you’re in my arms.”
“Let me be that candle lit in the dark..”
“Let me be your fire...let me warm your heart.”

(Chorus)

(Chorus)

My breath is caught in my throat with the last one. It’s not that Summer’s singing the hell out of it but the words. I feel Rayne shaking and this was likely the most personal one for her just because of that reaction.

We start to get ready to go as the place was getting cleaned up and cleared up around us and I get up and turn myself around and slip my fingers into hers and back pedal pulling us outside to the van.

“So…what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, I mean I thought it wouldn’t feel like this but it still hurts.”

“Of course it still hurts, she broke her promises, she hurt you and she broke your heart. You don’t just get over a broken heart.”

“I know but I thought I was getting better…god I want to have this over with and get to actually move on with my life and not have what she done such a fucking part of it.”

I step up and I kiss her.

“You are…a broken heart is a broken heart babe…you don’t just recover from a heart attack and you just don’t get over a broken heart…you need to let it heal, you need to go through emotional physio.”

“But that’s not fair to you…”

I reach out and wrap my arms around her neck then pull her into a long sweet kiss again and then put my forehead to hers. “The way that I love you has Nothing to do with the way that you are hurting from and mourning for Summer. I don’t need reasons or conditions Rayne I just love you.”

It’s that need, need, need and the yes, yes, yes kissing again only it’s both of us crying now as we do and we break when we start hearing clapping and engines turning over. We blush but we don’t break us holding each other.

Jessie passes us smiling with her girl and shaking her head saying something about never having a hope in hell? Dad smiles and is leaving with the guys saying. “That’s my girl.”

Mike and Brooklyn are hugging each other in that one armed glued side by side way and smiling at us and Kimmie pulls the four of us all into a great big hug.

“C’mon guys let’s go home and we can talk about what we’re gonna do.”

We all get in our vehicles and we head out almost in our own little convoy friends and family watch over each other and loving one and other.

Yeah… (Happy-Sniffle.)…Yeah.

*** Authors Comment.***

So? Keep the songs or some of the songs, should they try to block K&T from using them? Ideas? I’m not just talking what they should or could do legally but emotionally too.

Comments please? I’m kind of taking votes.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.