DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 34: Smart Girls Make Friends

Thanks for waiting patiently.  You are rewarded with a nice long chapter. It is one of my favorites in the whole series. For the first time ever, I present to you...all the Soundcrush ladies, in honest harmony. I think they are gonna be a force to be reckoned with. 

The song: Friends, by Meghan Trainor. Seems appropriate!

Marley

It's a little weird to me that Mac and Kat are stripped to their panties and trying on earrings together in a full length mirror while their spray tans dry. Mac is scrunching her nose at a pair of giant hot pink tassels that Kat is holding up to her ears. Kat swats Mac with the tassel.

"You're not in LA anymore, bitch. You can't tell me they don't wear these in Nashville, just like Atlanta."

"Yeah, but this is potentially a video shoot, and it's not a country music video," Mac says, flapping the earrings away and inspecting her naked body critically. She turns to the side, smooshing her boob flat and examining what I imagine might be some stretch marks, though I'm not exactly straining to see them.

She sighs. "Lennon is so worth it, but I'll never be able to wear a bra top onstage again."

"Shut-up," Kat says mildly. "You look exactly the same."

"I don't," Mac says flatly. "I've lost the weight but my body will never be the same." She turns and examines the slight cellulite on her butt.

"I have cellulite too," I tell her. "And stretch marks. I guess it does suck to have to worry about video of your stage appearances, but at least you know Adam is never going to look at those slight imperfections with anything but love. He loves your body because it grew his child. What really sucks...is to hook up with somebody relatively new, and you haven't told them about your half-grown kid, and they freak out when they get up close with stretch marks and realize you are somebody's mom."

Mac blinks as she pivots—naked boobs and all—toward me. Despite the fact that Kade and I had a couple of friendly double dates with Adam and Mac, she seems very surprised to see me in her inner sanctum. I prepare myself for a frosty Arabella-type reply—what are you doing in here?—but what's really surprising to me is that Ashlynn seems to expect it, too. And she moves closer beside me, a show of solidarity.

Mac proves us both wrong as she bites her lip. "Damn. You're right. I didn't think of it like that."

I give her a sheepish shrug. "You're right about one thing, though. They are totally worth it. I wouldn't trade Darius for all the scars of having him."

Mac smiles as she moves to the bed and slides into a floral kimono she doesn't bother to tie. "Bodie can't stop talking about what a prodigy he is. He's scared shitless the kid is gonna blow up on social and you're going to have a bunch of A&R guys show up to your house, wanting to make Darius a pop star."

Now it's my turn to blink. "He...Bodie said that...really?" He hasn't said a word like that to me. Does he really think Darius is so talented that he would get industry recognition just from YouTube content?

Kat is putting on a robe. "Which is weird, because Bodie isn't scared of anything. He never worries. Lately, he keeps Facetiming Trace, and they watch videos of Darius together. Trace grins and swears. Bodie shakes his head and swears, and then they switch up the head shaking and grinning. But they keep the cussin' pretty consistent."

"Same," Mac and Ashlynn echo in unison.

Irritation pinches me. Why in the hell is Bodie sharing his worries about our son with other people?

But then I think about the rest of what Kat said. She's wrong. Bodie is scared. He's scared of Cain Priestly's ghost. He's scared of going to jail again. He's scared of Daemon and what he might do if he found out the truth. Is it really surprising he's keeping other worries from me? He thinks I've worried enough on my own, all these years, I guess.