Destiny Rules: The Sequel

Chapter 4

"Alright Stevie!!!!" Christine cheered as she walked into the living room to find Stevie playing around with a bong she'd brought for the day.

Stevie grinned up at her, "I'm nice, I'll share."

Christine quickly buzzed over to sit beside her on the couch, nestling up in excitement just like they used to do all those years ago. Lindsey watched on in amusement, he was treating himself to his own joint today. While they'd all notably slowed down on their vices this time around, given the fact that they were older and mostly had kids and families at home, they did allow themselves a little weed for creative purposes sometimes. Today had been unofficially declared one of those special days.

"What's going on in here, eh?" John laughed walking in, "Enticing us with the good stuff for our late nighter? I like it."

"Come here, Johnny boy," Christine called, patting the sofa next to her and holding Stevie's bong out to her ex husband.

They'd very quickly fallen into a groove, and so far, unlike albums of the past, things were starting off fairly smoothly. There had been a few arguments about songs and sounds, but each time they managed to get through it fairly quickly based on their old standards. For the most part, Stevie wondered if they were all just appeasing each other to avoid a blowup between her and Lindsey. Regardless, she wasn't going to question it. Instead, she was gladly embracing the smooth sailing of the moment as they all fell back in love with the recording process.

The late afternoon turned into the early evening and they all found themselves deep in the throes of a song they'd all been struggling to get just right—Thrown Down. They'd spent several hours going back and forth on how they wanted it to sound, each of them suggesting a different tempo and progression.

"I don't know, I agree with Stevie actually," Lindsey muttered, interrupting Mick and Stevie's bickering.

Her eyes met his with a smile, "See?" She smirked back at Mick.

"Oh that's not fair, you two are going to start teaming up against me now, aren't you?" Mick whined.

"That's what you get," Stevie stuck out her tongue, causing Lindsey to laugh.

"Stevie, can you just lay down the last verse one more time?" Lindsey asked.

She looked up at him with a grin and a nod, making her way back to the chair where her mic was set up. Their eyes bounced off each other as they sat across from one another once again. She wasn't sure if it was the pot or the fact that he sided with her, but she was feeling much lighter in the moment. They had a long night ahead of them - all of them agreeing to stay late tonight so they could take tomorrow off.

Just as she was about to start singing, a knock at the front door came. Curiously, Mick jumped up to go answer it - his eyes widening at who stood on the other side. He may not have been fully caught up on the details of Lindsey and Stevie's drama, but he knew enough to know that Kristen showing up right now was not going to go over well.

"Surprise!" She announced as she walked through the door with tupperware containers in hand.

"Hey...Kristen's here," Mick announced awkwardly as he followed Lindsey's wife into the living room.

Stevie tried to conceal her shocked look as Kristen Buckingham waltzed into the room, a huge shit-eating grin on her face while she carried some tin-foiled wrap plate and plastic food containers in her arms. Lindsey, it seemed, was just as surprised as she was—his coloring gone noticeably pale as he watched his wife make an unnecessarily grand entrance.

"Kit...I...what are you doing here?" He stuttered as he stood up.

"Hi honey," she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck and placing a kiss on his lips, "Hey everyone," she turned around, meeting eyes with Stevie again for the first time in over a year.