Toxic (Addiction #1) (2 page)

Twisted Perfection, their band of three, was well known in the small bars in Los Angeles. Their biggest crowd was a hefty number of about fifty patrons and their usual crowd was about twenty, but those twenty loyal fans listened to their unique sound of hipster melodies and alternative rock. Maisy knew they had the potential to make it big; they just needed a break…a big break.
 

“I’m so sick of paying our dues,” Willow continued to complain. “How many times am I going to have to flash the ladies before we actually get something big to happen for us?” Willow asked, while propping her boobs up with her hands.
 

Maisy rolled her eyes at her friend. Willow was the epitome of the female form. Big boobs, big ass, and small waist. She had deep blue eyes and blonde hair with hot pink streaks that framed her face. Maisy had always been jealous of Willow’s curves, but also grateful at the same time because, even though it wasn’t the proper way to do business, Willow’s boobs got them some nicer gigs.
 

Maisy, on the other hand, provided the music for the group. She had boobs, but they weren’t as easily found as Willow’s and whereas Willow had an ass that could be spotted from the moon, Maisy had a little bubble butt. She wasn’t complaining about her body; she was pleased when she looked in the mirror, but being up on stage almost every night with the rock star version of Jessica Rabbit was hard to swallow.
 

“Well I’m grateful for your boobs,” Maisy said with a smirk.
 

“We talking about boobs? My favorite topic,” Kinkaid said, as he stuffed the last of their cords in the van.
 

He was their older brother, by soul. He would do anything to keep his two girls safe and Maisy was incredibly grateful for Kinkaid because she had never had anyone ever look out for her until he came into her life. She had been abandoned all her life from when her mom died until that fateful day that Kinkaid, Willow and Maisy met at the Southside Shelter for Kids.
 

“You’re such a horn dog, Kaid,” Willow said, as she grabbed the keys from Kaid’s grasp.
 

“Oh, hell no. You’re not driving. The last time you drove, we almost ended up parked through the drive through window of Del Taco.” Kaid quickly snatched the keys from Willow before she could put their lives in danger once again with her horrible driving skills.
 

“You’re blowing that night way out of proportion. I would like to state for the record that I was just trying to get close enough to the window to show some tit and score some free grub. Sorry for trying to save us some money.”

“You know you don’t always have to whore yourself out,” Maisy said, as they all climbed into the van. “We can put Kaid out on the front lines. He has a good body.”

“Why, thank you, Maisy.”

Willow guffawed. “Please, if Kaid and I were in competition to see who could get more free things with their bodies, I bet you two anal plugs that I would win.”

Kaid shook his head. “That bet is so disturbing, I don’t even know where to begin.”
 

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Willow asked.
 

Kaid pulled out into the street. “Not in anal plugs, that’s for damn sure.”

Willow was the most adventurous out of the three of them. She had a sexual repertoire that would make any porn star blush. She was very much a sexual person and you could tell by the way she dressed, presented herself, and the hot pink tongue ring she liked to show off.
 

“So what are we going to do?” Willow asked. “We can’t keep playing in the same bars. We’re not getting anywhere. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. There aren’t even any hot guys out in the crowd to make it worth it. If I was at least getting some good cock, I would be able to deal with the shitty bars we have to play in.”

Maisy knew they were in trouble since they had no money, no propositions, and no more demo’s to hand out. They had completely expelled their resources and didn’t have any leads. She was the mastermind of the group and, at the moment, she knew she was failing. She was failing herself and failing her friends. She was turning out to be just what her drunk-ass dad always said she would…nothing.
 

“Let’s drop it for tonight,” Maisy said, not feeling like getting into the horrid details of what their next step was going to be. “Kaid, can you stop by the convenience store? We’re out of Ramen noodles.”

“Oh no, we can’t go a night without our gourmet meal,” Willow said sarcastically.
 

It was midnight, so nothing was open except the Seven-Eleven that was a couple blocks down from their apartment. There were wrought-iron bars on every window in the area and curb appeal was nowhere to be found in the neighborhood they so luckily inhabited. Instead of rose bushes and white picket fences, they lived in an area where an old, beat-up, cat-piss-stained couch in your front yard was a lawn ornament.

Maisy thought that once they got out of the shelter, things were going to be different for them but, in fact, nothing had changed except that the beatings had stopped. That changed once they all met each other because they watched each other’s backs.
 

“Grab me some jerky,” Willow said, while trying to remove a hang nail with her teeth.
 

Kaid stopped Maisy before she headed out. “Want me to go in with you? It’s kind of late.”
 

Always the concerned one, Kaid was. “No, I’m good. Want anything?”

“Get me a
Playboy
,” Kaid said with a grin.
 

“In your dreams…that would be splurging and we don’t have the money for that.”

Maisy slammed the car door shut and walked into the convenience store. The man at the register looked over the Maxim he was reading and eyed her for a second before returning to his riveting literature.
 

By now, she had been around the block a couple of times, so sleazy men who eyed her up and down barely put a blip on her radar. She was a small girl but she knew how to hold her own. She learned how to defend herself once her dad started taking advantage of her after her mom died.
 

Maisy found the Ramen and was disappointed when she saw there was only one flavor choice left…chicken. She tried not to think about what kind of unnatural products they had to throw together to turn the flavor of chicken into a fine powder to sprinkle over noodles as she started grabbing bags of the dehydrated noodles. She loaded up and headed to where the jerky was.
 

She had just turned a corner when she ran smack into a hard chest. She looked up and came face to face with Grey Cross from Shattered Souls. Her heart instantly started pounding at being so close to the bass guitarist of the incredibly popular band.
 

Shattered Souls was, by far, Maisy, Willow and Kaid’s favorite band. Twisted Perfection actually did a couple of covers of their songs, they loved them so much. Willow crushed on Grey Cross big time, even though he was the only attached band member. He had a longtime girlfriend that he talked about in almost every single interview he did. It was rather endearing. Pissed Willow off though, which Maisy didn’t understand because it wasn’t like Willow had a chance with the guy. Maisy chuckled to herself thinking about how Willow would kill herself for not coming into the store and getting her own damn jerky.
 

Willow might be head over heels infatuated with Grey, but Maisy couldn’t help herself when it came to Rook Tyler. He was the epitome of a rock star. His glorious muscles that rippled through his tight, short t-shirts, his hair that was just long enough where it could stand straight out in all different directions, but not fall over in a messy sort of way, his piercing blue eyes and the one thing that could steal Maisy’s heart…his voice.
 

She listened to him sing through her ear buds for hours, studying the passion, pain and hurt in his voice. It was deep with a little bit of a rasp. It was seductive and the sole reason why millions of women flocked to the arenas to listen to him sing. He was mesmerizing.
 

“Oh, crap. Sorry about that,” Grey said, as he bent down to pick up some of the Ramen noodles Maisy had dropped. “Looks like you’re going to have a feast.”

Maisy wanted to say something in return, but her lips weren’t moving. Her brain was sending her signals, but she was paralyzed…completely star struck.
 

“Ok then…” Grey said, while looking around.
 

“Dude, what the hell are you doing? We’re checking out…” Cruz Romero, Shattered Souls guitarist said, as he sidled up next to Grey. “Oh my, what have you found?”

“Leave her alone,” Grey said, as he placed the fallen bags of noodles in Maisy’s hands. “Sorry about that. Come on, man.”
 

They started to walk away and, at that moment, Maisy knew she was losing her chance. So instead of being a normal human and striking up a casual conversation, as they walked away she blurted out, “I’m in a band!”

A wave of heated embarrassment flushed over her as the two heartthrobs turned to look at her with amusement lining their eyes.
 

“Is that right, sweetheart?” Cruz said, as he started walking toward them. Grey stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder and muttered something under his breath that made Cruz stop in his tracks.
 

“Twisted Perfection.” She realized they had no clue what the hell she was talking about because they looked at her as if she had a nipple coming out of her forehead. So she continued, as fast as she could.
 

“That’s my band’s name, Twisted Perfection. We do covers of your songs all the time and we have a lot of our own stuff. We play in shitty bars around here. You should come watch us sometime.”

The guys looked at each other and she continued. “Not that you want to come to crappy bars where you can get beer that tastes like piss water for two bucks. But we have good songs…”

“I happen to like two buck piss water,” said a voice that was unmistakable.
 

Rook Tyler.
 

Maisy’s heart beat frantically as the dirty-blonde, blue-eyed God of her dreams walked up behind his two bandmates. He was even more gorgeous in person and taller then she expected. Not as tall as Cruz, but at least over six foot. He was wearing a pair of worn-out, tight jeans and one of his infamous tight black shirts with sleeves that barely covered his glorious biceps.
 

“What’s all the commotion over here?” Rook asked, while he looked Maisy up and down.
 

“Grey is picking up a girl.”

“Fuck off, man.” Grey said, while pushing away Cruz’s hand that was patting his face. “Don’t go saying shit like that. I don’t need little Miss I’m-In-A-Band telling everyone I tried to get her into bed with me.”

Once again, Maisy felt her face heat up with embarrassment. She clearly wasn’t good enough to be around these guys. They were incredibly good looking and they clearly didn’t want to be seen with her. It wouldn’t be the first time someone said she wasn’t good enough.
 

She excused herself from the three pairs of gorgeous eyes staring at her and walked to the register, where she grabbed some stupid beef jerky for Willow and threw some change at the cashier. The quicker she could leave, the better.
 

She had royally embarrassed herself and she didn’t need to make the situation any worse than it was. Without looking back, she grabbed her food and walked to the van.
 

She slammed the door to the passenger side and said, “Go!”
 

“Jesus. You’re acting like you robbed the damn place,” Kaid said, as he put the car in drive.
 

Maisy refused to tell them what happened because, if they knew she ran into Shattered Souls in the Seven-Eleven, Kaid would have the van turned around in no time and Willow would have her tits half way out of her shirt ready for display. Maisy didn’t want to go back because she didn’t need to subject herself to more embarrassment.
 

Kaid and Willow were discussing the complexities of what kind of meat goes into a link of beef jerky while Maisy stared out her window, watching the parade of homeless people, trash and empty beer bottles pass her by. She had her chance to make a difference for her life and her family, Kaid and Willow, but she missed out on it. She tried to convince herself that nothing would have happened even if she didn’t act like a blubbering idiot, but for some reason, she felt like she missed out on a huge opportunity and it was going to slowly eat away at her.
 

***

It had been a week and Grey still could not get the girl from the Seven-Eleven out of his head. Not because he was interested in her, no he had Quinn, the most amazing girlfriend a guy could ask for. He kept thinking about the Seven-Eleven girl because he could not believe what an ass he was to her. He was in such a bad mood that night, thanks to Rook’s inability to keep his damn dick in his pants that he took it out on the poor, innocent girl.
 

Normally, when Rook ended up taking a girl back to his room, the band didn’t think much of it, but this time, with Bridget, Rook really screwed up. Not only did Rook, once again, give the band some bad press, but the spat between the two lead singers caused Mayer’s Men to drop out of the tour, leaving Shattered Souls to have to pick up the fee for the drop out. Grey didn’t see how the record label could make them do that, since it was Mayer’s Men who dropped out, but then later on Grey found out from their band manager, Pete, that Mayer’s Men was going to go on their own tour, which led to more costs and since it all came down to Rook’s wandering dick…Shattered Souls had to pay.