Age of Decay Vol 3 - Pink Ashes

POV: Bethan

It had been one of those mornings from hell. Nothing had gone right; from sleeping through my alarm, to realising the kindergarten my daughter goes to is shut for some holiday meaning I have to take the day off work unpaid to look after her. Adeline was coming up two-and-a-half and was a handful on a good day…today was not. Running around after her all morning while I tried to do the housework which always seemed to be piling up around me had left me feeling frazzled and flustered.

Grabbing her change bag and my phone, I bundle us both into the car and drive into town in a search for some decent coffee and maybe something to distract Addy with for an hour or so, just so I can breathe for a moment.

Smiling fondly, I push the door open to the café which I had frequented with my friends all through high school. Brewed Awakening had been the place I had first met the two guys who shaped my whole high school career. It was also the place that started their careers, too.

The grinding and gurgling of the espresso machines and the bitter smell of coffee beans washes over me, and I sigh contentedly. Addy pulls my hand, wanting to get in line and choose her sweet treat like usual. In front of us in the queue is a woman with an impressive turquoise mohawk.

“Mama…wot dat?” Embarrassingly, like she often does these days, Adeline points at her, getting a little too close and actually poking her in the back of the leg. The woman turns round with a slight smile.

“That’s a lady,” I bend down and answer her, before shooting an apologetic look at the stranger. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she smiles wider before crouching down to Addy’s level. “Hi! My name’s Scarlett. It’s nice to meet you.”

Addy looks up at me, and I give her a little smile and nod, letting her know it’s okay to say hi. “Wot co-ur dat?” she asks pointing at the woman – Scarlett’s – hair. Seeing her look of confusion at what Addy is asking, I mouth what colour is that.

A look of understanding comes over her face. “What colour is my hair? It’s turquoise.”

“Mama purple,” Addy says proudly.

“Yeah, your mom has really pretty purple hair.” The stranger gives me a friendly smile.

“Bethan?” Rayna appears from somewhere, and my blood runs cold. Shit! Are the rest of the band here too? “Bethan! Oh my god! It’s so good to see you! How have you been?”

The other woman straightens up and looks at me properly. “You’re Bethan?”

I try to plaster a friendly smile on my face, but I’m aware it probably looks more like a grimace, gripping Adeline’s hand tightly. This can’t be happening. “Hi Rayna…I’m good. Uhm…I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you around sometime.”

I think I wave, practically dragging my poor daughter out of the café, ignoring her loud protests of not getting her cakey.

I spend the rest of my day in a ball of weird emotion, trying my best to concentrate on being present for my daughter as she plays and brings me book after book to read to her, but my mind can’t help but wander back…back to when things started.

Then…

High school was brutal if you weren’t stick-thin and on the cheerleading team. Throw in being so poor that you have to make most of your own clothes, and you have a perfect victim. So, when two guys from the grade above you show you a little kindness, you tend to latch on.

Chaz Allard and Adam Palmer were full on grunge gods, everyone knew who they were, and they dominated every talent show the school ever put on. And for some reason, they decided to make me their friend.

It started when Chaz stumbled across me crying in the back of one of the music rooms they were practicing in. After listening to me whine, they’d done their best to cheer me up with their easy banter. The next morning, they’d met me outside school, then again at lunch, and so on. Soon, we were attached at the hips.

Chaz was this blond-haired, blue-eyed kid who would have broken hearts regardless of what he was into, but the ripped jeans and plaid shirts teamed with the shaggy hair and an air of lost soul around him, made him damn near irresistible to everyone. Preppy girls wanted to rescue him, alt-girls wanted to share their deepest thoughts with him. I just wanted him to see me in any way other than as a younger sister.

Adam…Adam was more intense. More focused on music, of making it as a band in some way. It was him who wrote the ad looking for a bassist and a drummer. I was there that day they waited nervously in Brewed Awakening to meet Red and Dax for the first time.

I was there the first time they all jammed. I was there when Adam finished writing his first original song. I was there…when he pulled me close and kissed me in celebration.

Now…

Lying in the dark, listening to Adeline snoring gently in the crook of my arm, I can’t help but wonder what Rayna might think, what she might say about me. Chewing my lip, I open my phone and scroll down to her number, rapidly typing out a message. I needed to know. I needed to set the record straight before rumours started flying.

She replies. One word; okay. Feeling the tension in my chest lift a tiny bit, I press a kiss to Addy’s soft hair and cuddle her tighter, finally feeling like I might be able to sleep.

The next day, I get Addy up and dressed for kindergarten with little stress, actually managing to get to the Brewed Awakening by the time I’d given Rayna. I order her favourite drink and am just sitting down when she pushes through the door. I can’t help but smile a little as I see her wearing one of Chaz’s old shirts – I know it was his, because the plaid material had ripped one day after getting caught on a fence, and I’d mended it, the jagged red thread standing out against the purple and black pattern.

She slips into the seat opposite mine, flipping her messy blonde hair out of her pretty face, her bright eyes – the same that Chaz had – narrow at me. “What the fuck is going on?”

POV: Adam

“What the fuck is going on?” I look in disbelief at Red, who just gestures more animatedly at the guy stood in front of me.

“This is Jackie! The dude…c’mon man! I’ve been talking about this shit for fucking time—” He lifts his hands letting them slap against his thighs in exasperation. “Tattoos. Matching. All of us. For Rayna’s wedding. Dude!” Red sends Dax a hopeful look, but our moody bassist just quirks an eyebrow a tiny bit. “Does nobody in this fucking band ever fucking listen to me?”

I shake my head, chuckling. “Maybe Scarlett does? Sometimes?” Red flips me off with a scowl. I step forward, offering a handshake to Red’s friend. “Hey. Adam. Nice to meet you, man.”

He grins. “I know who the fuck you are, man. I fucking love your band! Red played me and Nat some of your new shit, and it’s fucking awesome.”

“Ah, one of the benefits of being friends with a bandmember; early access.” I grin back. “Thanks. Appreciate it.”

Scarlett appears from nowhere, running and jumping into Jackie’s arms with a squeal. “Red said you weren’t coming ’til the weekend!”

“Nat sent me early. Said I was doing her head in,” he says as he hugs her back tightly. It suddenly clicks who this guy is. Red had been yakking on about his girlfriend’s friend coming to tattoo us all.

I wander back over to my guitar, picking up my pencil and going back to trying to work out the bridge on this one song. Yet another song about unrequited love that Dax would no doubt label as emo shit. I glance up as Red laughs loudly and catch Scarlett giving me a strange look. Noticing I’ve caught her, she blushes and immediately turns away. Strange.

I kind of tune back into the conversation the others are having about Scarlett’s trip back to our hometown with Rayna for her wedding dress fitting, my ears pricking up as I hear the name of the coffee shop we used to hang out in.

“Ma-an…the hours we spent in Brewed Awakening back in the day,” Red shakes his head. “Dude, I swear you and Chaz were more caffeine than blood at one point,” he chuckles pointing at me. I smile back, making a vague sound of amusement. “Yeah, you, Chaz and Bethan were in there every fucking day practically.”

Scarlett’s eyes flick over to me at the mention of Bethan’s name, and I frown. She’d never met Bethan, their times on tour never overlapped, so why was there such a look of recognition at her name. Had Bethan gone back home? I always figured she was still in LA…not that she’d answered any of my messages.

She’d been as vocal as Chaz when we were in school about wanting to leave our small hometown. Her family situation was as ropey as Red’s had been, although I think her sister still lived there.

I look up and find Scarlett still looking at me. Frowning, I sit forward, resting my forearms on my thighs. “What’s up?”

“Nothing…you just look a lot like someone I met recently. More so than I first thought.” She chews her lip. “Have you spoken to Rayna?”

“No. Why?”