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“Mack, do me a favour and put Jason in a cab. And call Derek, he needs to know about this. Drew, come with me.”
I didn’t give either of them a chance to argue. I pulled Drew as far away from the scene as possible.
“What are you doing?” He fixed me with a death stare. “I need to make sure he gets back to the hotel.”
“Why? Why do you need to?”
“Because if I don’t he’ll end up under a bus, Ellie!”
Instead of answering right away, I waited, watching him. My calmness set his teeth on edge, it always did. For several intense seconds, Drew’s body grew rigid, not unlike the Incredible Hulk before his clothes rip and he turns green. Finally, I continued, “Mack’s taking care of Jason. You don’t need to ruin your night because he’s pissed. He’s a grown up. He can take care of himself.”
“Look at the way he behaved tonight! What the hell is wrong with him? Can’t we have one night out without him fucking embarrassing me?”
“It’s late. You had a great gig, and he took the celebration too far. Let it go, Drew.”
I didn’t falter under his glare, and when he tried to push me away again, I held firm, my eyes focused on his.
“Dance with me,” I said.
“What? No, I-”
“Please.”
In the dark corner where we stood, away from prying eyes, I stared up at him and waited for him to calm down. Slowly, I loosened my grip on his wrist, and slipped my arms around his waist. When my hands rested on his back, his muscles relaxed beneath my fingertips and he stepped closer, pulling me into him.
Oh boy. Butterflies beat their wings inside me as his eyes softened and everything except us faded away. His hands on my back held me firmly and we began to move to our own rhythm, completely oblivious to the dance track playing around us.
I couldn’t let it mean too much. I couldn’t care that his fingers traced slow circles around the base of my spine, or that he shuffled his feet forward so he could hold me closer, tighter.
I couldn’t care because this, him needing me, was only temporary. He needed me as a friend, and I needed to remember where I fit in his life.
“Why does he always do this, Ells?”
His question caused me to lift my head to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
I knew. Jason had always been the irresponsible one. He always had to take everything one step too far. While most teens engage in a little underage drinking now and again, Jason used to sneak into the house blind drunk, leaving Drew to cover for him. Instead of smoking a cigarette, Jason smoked pot – Drew had still never forgiven him for the time he got me high when I was at university.
“He does it because that’s who he is. He enjoys taking risks, breaking the rules. When he gets an idea, he’s unstoppable.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of defending him?”
Drew’s body locked up again, and I loosened my arms a little and took a small step back. “I wasn’t defending him, Drew. But you can’t spend the rest of your life angry with him for being who he is. He’s come a long way over the last two years.”
Drew nodded slowly as my words sunk in. The distance in his eyes told me he had more to say, and after a couple of minutes’ silence, he said, “I’m sorry I brought up Jason’s cocaine addiction on TV.”
“Is that why you’ve been so quiet since then?”
“Partly. I didn’t mean to say so much, but everything came out, everything he did. I know he doesn’t care if people know, but I do.”
Because he’s still your brother, and although he pisses you off, you still want to protect him. This was the world they’d gotten into, though. Whether Drew revealed his past or not, Jason’s drug abuse would have filtered through to the public one way or another; that’s how fame works. The more famous a person gets, the more scandal people want to hear. Especially if that person is a mysterious rock band front man.
“I’m worried about you too, Ellie. You’re going to get pulled into this eventually. Especially if people find out what he did to your family.” His head lowered. “And what he did to you.”
My stomach clenched and I held Drew tighter again, just like I did the day it happened. I’d worked hard to push the incident out of my mind, and while I was certainly worried about what the fake feud would do to the boys, there was a hint of selfishness in my argument. Just because I forgave Jason didn’t mean I wanted to be reminded of all he put us through again.
“I won’t talk about it, Drew. No matter what happens. They could offer me a million pounds and my own private island with Chris Hemsworth as my personal slave, and I still wouldn’t talk about it.”
