Hearts In Rhythm Read online

  Samuel was allowed to come to school with her and stayed in a daycare within the same building provided for girls in just her situation. She walked across the graduation stage in May, but while all the classmates went to the after graduation party, Allie was home burping Samuel and rocking him to sleep.

  She knew other girls whose parents kept their babies for them so they could have fun with their friends, but not Gail. Instead, she was the “you made your bed, now you can lay in it” type of mom who wasn’t going to let Allie off the hook. She let her know on more than one occasion that she needed to fully understand her responsibility.

  Brandon handing her a plastic cup of something red to drink jarred Allie away from her memory.

  “Thought you might be thirsty,” he said.

  Allie took the drink and gulped it down.

  “Wow. You were thirsty.”

  “Yes, I guess I was,” she laughed.

  “Here,” Brandon said reaching for her glass. “I’ll get you some more.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  They made their way through the tight crowd of teenagers and toward the refreshment table. Allie picked up two cups that were sitting in front of the punch bowl and handed one to Brandon.

  “I think we’re sounding really good tonight,” Allie said.

  “What?” Brandon said pointing to his ear. “It’s so loud,” he yelled. He motioned her to follow him. He pushed through a double set of metal doors. The mid-December air was a welcome relief from the hot and heavy feel of the auditorium.

  “Wow. It was so loud in there. I needed some air.” Brandon said. “You know, you’re really doing a good job. I have to admit I was skeptical at first. I wasn’t sure you had it in you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. It’s no big deal to get you some punch.”

  Allie laughed at Brandon’s misunderstanding.

  “No. I mean, really, thanks for giving me this chance. It means a lot. You have no idea.”

  “I have the feeling it was as much for me as it was for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Brandon shook his head as if he’d already said too much.

  Allie looked into her cup before getting another drink and surprised herself with her empty cup. “My gosh, I must be thirsty.”

  Warmth flooded her body from the inside out. Since it was December, she knew it wasn’t the weather to blame. Although they’d become friends, she felt the spark of passion ignite once more.

  Brandon looked up at the sky and pointed.

  “Look! A falling star. Make a wish.”

  Allie shut her eyes. She knew what her wish would be. It was always the same.

  Suddenly she felt warm lips pressing against hers. Before she could understand what was happening, Brandon had embraced her and pulled her close to him. Her mind and body clashed. Her thoughts spoke only of resistance, but her body weakened, giving way to the desire. She kissed him back, allowing herself once more to lose herself to another time and another place, to become a girl that she used to be or the woman she has yet to become. Her heart raced. The warmth spread reminding her of a feeling she had allowed to grow stagnant and she longed for more.

  There was nothing said between them afterwards. He looked at her and no words were needed. The auditorium door opened and the music to the Chicken Dance wafted out. Brandon took her by the hand. A grin spread across his face.

  “Let’s dance!” he said as he pulled her back into the building.

  * * * *

  Allie couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this way. She and Brandon climbed back on the stage to continue playing.

  Both Cody and Matt gave them suspicious looks, or was she just imagining that? Already it seemed her conscience was ruining her fun time. But what did she have to feel guilty about?

  She sat down at her drum set and picked up her sticks. Matt walked over to Brandon and was talking in his ear. Allie felt her neck get hot. The music was still playing on the iPod and Allie wished someone would turn it down so she could hear what Brandon was now saying back in Matt’s ear. The conversation was getting heated she could tell. Finally Brandon motioned Matt away and turned his back.

  The iPod was turned off and Cody played the beginning notes of the next song. It was a slow one. The one Brandon had played for her at his place the night Simone walked in.

  It was a while before Allie was to come in with her drums in this song. The lights throughout the auditorium dimmed. People were coupling up for a slow dance, wrapping their arms around each other. Brandon’s voice began to echo throughout the auditorium and Allie began to gently tap the symbols adding a nice percussion to the song.

  She played along, listening to the words from Brandon’s cover song, the one he played for her on that cold night when she sat on his sofa wrapped in a blanket. The night he toasted their relationship. The night Simone flipped her lid. She felt something brush against her leg. It was so subtle she almost missed it. The second time, she was certain she had felt something. There was a tightening feeling around her right leg, which she was using for the bass kick drum.

  She glanced down and saw Bell the python wrapped around her ankle. She screamed. Cymbals crashed as she brought both drumsticks down with a vengeance. She frantically stood knocking over her stool. There was a screech of the guitars, and a squeal from the microphone as Matt, Cody, and Brandon stopped and turned to observe what was happening. The rule, “the show must go on” just couldn’t at this point.

  The pressure around her ankle was increasing as Bell wrapped herself even more tightly.

  “Help!” Allie screamed. “Somebody help me! Get this snake off of me.”

  The crowd stopped and stared in stunned silence as Cody raced over and began unwinding Bell starting at her tail while Matt assisted pulling Bell from Allie’s leg. When the crowd saw the eight-foot long Albino python being lugged across the stage, screams from the girls and even some of the guys filled the room. It was mass hysteria at that point, as if someone had yelled ‘Fire!’ People were running, trying to get out of the door, while others were enthralled and were flooding the stage trying to get a closer look.

  Cody placed Bell across his shoulders. The crowd and the noise were too much for her however. Her head was up in a defensive way and she was swaying back and forth, her forked tongue flicking rapidly.

  Chaos had taken over the room. Allie stepped away from the band toward the back of the stage removing herself as much as possible from the agitated snake and the throngs of people. She searched the crowd looking for Brandon but didn’t see him until he appeared right before her. A look unlike anything she had ever seen crossed his face. His eyes burned with rage. He knocked over the drum stands holding the cymbals on his way to her. A crash of symbols filled their space. For the first time, she was fearful of him.

  “Look at what you’ve done!” he yelled in her face. She took a step back from him, taken aback by his abrasiveness. No matter what she felt for him, she would not allow herself to be trampled. She had been that girl before, but not again.

  “Look what I’ve done? Look what I’ve done? How can you blame this on me?” she yelled back at him. “If you should blame anyone, it should be them!” she said pointing toward the chaos with Matt and Cody.

  She turned and jumped off the side of the stage, weaving her way through all the people, the cords from the amplifiers, and the large speakers standing like statues. She felt someone tug her arm. She turned around to face Brandon. She tried to resist as he pulled her to a side door and out into the dark night where the noise from the inside was drowned out. He held tightly to her. When she pulled away, his grip only tightened.

  “Listen to me! Stop squirming and listen to me.”

  Allie stilled herself under Brandon’s stern command. Her heart pounded and her mind raced.

  His expression softened and his voice was the old Brandon’s when he spoke, “When I said ‘look at what you’ve done’, I meant it excited
ly. Look at this! People are going to be talking about us now. It’s going to be all over town. Yeah, sure, maybe not about our music, but at least our name’s going to get out there. This small catastrophe is going to get us some exposure! Maybe it’ll even make the paper!”

  Allie started as he began jumping up and down before her. The noise from the auditorium was muffled, finally starting to quiet down as hysteria waned. She stood there watching his excitement, hearing his cheers. She grabbed him by the forearms and began jumping in sync with him, sharing in the excitement. He reached for her and they locked arms and bounced together.

  Panting and breathless they stopped. She looked into his face, his wavy hair framing his face. He bent his head and kissed her tenderly again.

  “I thought you were mad at me,” she said when they had broken away from one another.

  “I could never be mad at you, but I bet Matt and Cody could sure use our help right now.”

  He held the door open for her and followed her back to the stage to remedy the chaos Bell had caused.

  * * * *

  The next morning, Brandon dragged himself out of bed. The knocking was incessant. He glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and wondered who could be pounding on his door at 6:40 in the morning. He pulled on the pair of jeans that lay crumpled on the floor from the night before. He grabbed a T-shirt and shrugged it over his head and shoulders on his way to the door.

  His head was hurting and it took him a minute to remember that the band had gone out to celebrate after cleaning up last night.

  The show hadn’t ended after the python had crashed the party. When he and Allie returned to the auditorium, Cody was wearing Bell around his shoulders while he played a solo on the guitar. The crowd was surrounding the stage, pumping their fists in the air, and banging their heads. A mosh pit had started and two girls were being passed around the crowd while Matt and Cody played music they normally didn’t rehearse. Someone from the crowd was standing at the microphone yelling into it indecipherable words that only he could understand.

  Brandon and Allie stood there amazed at what had begun. They ended up playing well into the early morning hours as teenagers continued coming in. He learned later that word spread quickly with the use of technology and even youth from surrounding towns showed up to witness the snake on stage.

  The knocking was louder and faster.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he called through the living room as he made his way to the door.

  He unlatched the dead bolt and the lock on the doorknob and opened the door. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, it was hard to see, but there standing on the porch, looking amazing was Simone. Her long red hair tumbled around her shoulders and onto a tight, low cut blouse. A gold chain hung around her neck and the pendant on the end was lost in her cleavage. Brandon blinked a couple of times, to determine if what he was seeing was a vision. In each of her hands she held a coffee. She presented one to him.

  “I brought your favorite. Hazelnut latte with whipped cream.”

  “You always remember.”

  Brandon took the coffee and took a sip burning his tongue. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to invite her in or let her say what she needed to say standing on the porch. His manners got the best of him and he opened the door wide.

  “So, you can come in if you like.”

  She accepted his offer and he watched her step inside rather than parade herself like she would have in the past. He gathered she was remorseful or was bringing bad news.

  “I’ve made a mistake, Brandon,” she began. “The past couple of weeks have been the absolute worse for me. I’ve cried myself to sleep every night, on the nights that I do sleep. I came to apologize, to tell you how sorry I am.” She took a drink and tossed her hair. “Even though I still don’t think I overreacted.” She still had that hint of pride.

  Brandon wasn’t sure what to do. Here was Simone, attempting an apology but unable to put away her haughtiness to do so. And then, there was Allie.

  She continued, “Anyway, I thought we could just forget the whole mess, you know, like it never happened.” She flicked her arm through the air as if she were shooing a fly.

  “We can go back to the way things were. I talked to the caterer and he said he could do the beef tenderloin and the sea bass. I was wondering if we should do a chicken dish as well. I haven’t told many people the engagement if off, have you? What do you think about the chicken dish Brandon? Brandon?”

  He didn’t know what to say to Simone. He needed time to think. His mind was confused as it was, without the fact that it wasn’t even seven in the morning and he’d had one sip of burning hot coffee.

  “Why aren’t you saying anything? Oh my gosh! You’re not alone are you? Is she here? You’ve actually brought her home with you?”

  Simone stomped towards the bedroom. Brandon plopped down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. Simone came around the corner from the bedroom walking much slower than when she left.

  “You’re wrong. Again.”

  She shrugged her left shoulder and sat down beside him. She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through.

  “There’s something I want to show you,” she said.

  She handed Brandon her phone. He pushed play on the YouTube video she had pulled up, and watched last night’s fiasco unfold before his eyes.

  “You made YouTube.”

  There had already been 2,467 views in just a matter of hours.

  Brandon couldn’t help but smile. He secretly hoped the video would go viral. He almost didn’t care if it was bad press, he figured exposure was exposure, regardless of the nature of it. At least their name would get out there and maybe other people who loved a riot would book them for their event. They could make Bell an honorary member of the band. He began to wonder if snakes could be trained to play the maracas or something.

  He sat staring at Simone’s phone, watching the entire scene unravel from the night before. He thought the music really sounded great up until the drums went awry and confusion hit the stage. Seeing Allie on the camera brought him back from his fantasy of seeing his picture on the cover of Rolling Stone and into his living room where Simone sat beside him.

  He shook the cobwebs out of his head and realized what had just transpired. She was here telling him she wanted to get back together. She was replanning the wedding. She had already rebooked the caterer.

  He handed the phone back to her. He walked to the door and held it open for her.

  “Thanks for the coffee, Simone. And thanks for everything else, you know, the memories, the experiences, the love I thought we had. But we’re done. These past couple of weeks has given me a lot of time to thing. My eyes have been opened.”

  She stood slowly and picked up her coffee. She just stood for a moment staring. Brandon began to worry if she was going to leave without a scene, but then she walked towards the door and stopped before him. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

  “Good-bye, Brandon. I will always love you.”

  Then she was gone.

  * * * *

  Two days later, when Brandon received the call from the entertainment executive who had heard their music, he was thrilled. Father Millennium had plans to meet with a record label and work out a deal. His dreams for making it to the top were almost in reach. And he couldn’t have done it without Allie. And Bell of course.

  The snow fell heavy and wet on Christmas morning blanketing the yard and weighing down the tree branches. Allie leaned against the pillar on her front porch with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in her hands. She wore a long terry cloth robe over her flannel pajamas. She’d been awake for a while, rising early to put the turkey in the oven. Mr. & Mrs. Givens had given each of their employees a turkey for free as part of their Christmas bonus. She usually declined it, never turning in her voucher, but this year she decided to surprise her mom and cook the meal. She’d had her nose in Julia Child’s cookbook for a few days now, but was convinced s
he would give it her best shot. She’d invited Brandon. He’d gladly accepted the invitation and said he’d bring dessert.

  He had been over last night and they had played Santa Claus together after Samuel was good and asleep. Brandon had gone all out for him, just as if he was his own. Presents wrapped in kiddie Christmas paper lined the tree and stuck out into the small living room. Brandon had helped her put together all the toys that required assembly or batteries.

  She stood a moment longer watching her breath make clouds in the air, and then went in to get ready for the day. She dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and pulled her hair into a ponytail. On her way to the kitchen, she quietly opened Samuel’s door. He looked like a little angel lying on his bed, so peaceful. She smiled thinking about the awe and excitement on his face at the sight of the presents and then all the snow.

  She pulled the door to, and headed toward the kitchen. She put on a pot of coffee for her mom and heard a slight rap at the front door. She opened it to find Brandon standing there. Snowflakes covered his black stocking cap and coat. He wore a wide smile.

  He bent his head in the door and gave Allie a kiss.

  “Merry Christmas! Is Samuel up?”

  “Merry Christmas to you too, and no, not yet.”

  He stepped in the door carrying a pie in each hand. They were covered with tin foil.

  “Good. I thought I’d be too late. You know how kids wake so early on Christmas morning.”

  “I’m surprised you’re here. I didn’t expect you until lunchtime.”

  “I had to come, I couldn’t miss seeing his face.”

  They walked in the kitchen and Brandon set the pies down on the counter.

  “What can I help you do?” he said looking around.

  “Nothing, yet. Want some coffee?”

  She poured him a cup and they set at the kitchen table watching the snowfall as the shadows of the night disappeared and were replaced with the brightness of the white.