Blame It On The Love

Seventeen

After waking we ate more pancakes and I made sure Grace had taken her pills. Before Richie and I had made it to the kitchen, I pulled him aside, telling him to be nice to Grace, he just nodded and walked off. He did do as I said and I could tell Grace thought he was being a bit off, but she didn't question it and was automatically nice back. During breakfast Grace's family came down, one by one, helped themselves to a quick breakfast, then announced their departure and left.

Grace was desperate to see the horses so we all agreed to help her again and wheeled her down to the stables in a wheelbarrow, which wasn't as difficult as it may sound due to the mud being frozen. The boys helped out, Tico and David in particular took a liking to the animals. On the way back we agreed to spend the day at mine, mainly rehearsing but Grace was adamant to join us claiming she would be bored otherwise.

We greeted my mother explaining what happened last night, which she was fine with, and the boys proceeded down to the basement. Grace and I took a little trip up to my bedroom. Grace sat on my bed and looked around my room, which was considerably smaller than hers, then looked back at me with a smirk as I was now shirtless.

"Why don't you come over here and join me?" Her smirk now turned into a grin.

I walked over and gently grabbed her head, with my hand along her jawline, making her look up at me.

"Darlin' you know I would.." I purposely ran my eyes down her body, I noticed she bit her lip "but you're injured. I'm not going to be responsible for making your situation worse, you're pretty beaten."

She pouted and so I kissed her before walking off to continue changing. Then we went down two floors to see the boys.

"Where did you two go to?" Alec wiggled his eyebrows at us, Grace laughed.

"I had to change." I shrugged.

"Sex?" Richie bluntly asked. Tico threw a drumstick which hit him directly in the back of the head. "What the fuck man?"

"No, I just didn't want to leave her with you guys, you'd torment the shit out of her."

"You guys, c'mon, I wanna hear your music!" Grace said from the couch, a bright smile that showed off her teeth was painted across her face as her eyes glimmered in the bright light.

"Yeah guys, let's give the little lady what she wants." Alec pouted, making Grace roll her eyes, although now they both had a smile.

We ran through the material that currently existed. There were 3 named songs called Runaway, Breakout and She Don't Know me, then another two songs which we played, yet to be named. Grace cheered loudly for each one, boosting everyone's confidence.

After playing we all sat on the couches, Richie and Alec keeping their instruments in hand because we were now writing more new material. Grace announced that she needed a drink and Tico decided to help her with the stairs and showing her where everything was. Once they had both left the room, Richie decided to forget what we were supposed to be doing and start asking questions about our relationship, the first one being whether I had bedded her yet. A few more came my way, then Alec joined in. David thankfully came to my rescue by telling them to focus on what we're doing otherwise it'll never be done.

Grace and Tico returned, each holding a couple cans of coke a cola that had been chilling in the fridge.

"Thought you might need it." She said as she plonked down next to me and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

We continued writing for about half an hour with Grace observing, keeping quiet. I did discreetly stop a few times and made sure she was ok. At the moment we were stuck on the next lyric of a song that had just come to light. The line before was 'play the numbers one by one' and Richie and I were almost stumped, we had a few ideas yet nothing felt like it fitted. I leant back against the couch, with my hands rubbing my face as I let out a heavy breath. Grace shuffled her head across so it was lying on my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. Richie played the two lines of guitar that we had constructed for this moment and every other I almost silently whispered the existing line. I could feel feel Grace's gaze upon my lips.

"Wait." Grace abruptly sat up a little, turning her head to look me in the eyes "what about 'fire the shot' something something something."

I sat up and leant over waiting for Richie's cue to start singing- he had decided to make up more instrumental lines.

"Play the numbers one by one, fire the shot..." I sang out, slowing down towards the end. Richie picked up where I left off.

"The damage is done, restless lovers pay the price, cheating hearts don't think twice".

"Hey yeah I like that, well done you cute ass genius." I kissed her on the forehead.

"What about the rest of the lyrics I just made up?" Rich furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah, they're good but what next?"

We continued writing. David unexpectedly came up with one he names 'Love Lies' which I put very little input into, it was mainly just him, and everyone seemed to love it judging by him singing it with the keyboards only. Mom did make an appearance to tell us she would make us dinner, which we were thankful for and in no time at all it was ready.

After dinner the boys all headed home, Grace stayed a little longer being as sweet as ever to my parents. I wanted to kiss her so badly but I wasn't going to let my parents know about us, not yet at least. Who knows about the future though .

We watched tv as a family but I had to drive Grace back and it was now gone 9 o'clock. Although Grace's house wasn't too far away, I decided I would stay the night again and I told my parents. I think they were now a little bit suspicious. I just told them Grace's family aren't around a lot at the moment and that she needs help.

We announced our arrival back at Grace's as they were eating dinner. We told them we already ate and asked if it was ok if I spent the night, the answer was yes as long as I didn't sleep in Grace's bed so we set up a mattress on the floor next to it. We changed into our pjs, Grace's being a vest and pyjama bottoms whereas mine was the real deal, and both got under our separate covers. Once we were sure that everyone had gone to bed, I slipped into Grace's bed.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, trying to avoid giggling.

"You're gonna freeze dressed like that Darlin'." My voice was duffer than usual and trying to be quiet didn't really help. I wrapped my arms around her waist and we spooned, being cautious of her arm, and pretty soon she fell asleep in my arms.