77
“Hey Em,” I said, stepping into the garage and closing the door behind me.
“Bout time,” she grinned at me. “Come on. Let’s play.”
I crossed the carpeted garage floor to where the guitar rack was and picked out the same instrument I had used last time. I wanted to try out each of them, but I figured it would be best to ask Amanda’s permission first. They were her guitars after all.
“You know you can try any of them out,” Emily said, once I’d plugged into the amp beside her.
“This one’s fine,” I shrugged, taking my seat. “I’d prefer to ask Amanda before I start touching her stuff.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” Emily smiled. “But it’s nice of you to be so thoughtful. Craig just comes in and acts like he owns the place.”
“Comparing your brother to our sister’s boyfriend is a little strange,” I laughed.
“If you say so,” Emily said in a mocking tone.
“Be quiet and play,” I chuckled.
We spent the next couple of hours playing around with some songs we played last time, and even spent the better part of an hour piecing together some riffs into something mildly resembling a song. By the end, we had maybe two or three minutes of something that sounded quite promising and I already had lyric patterns running through my head whenever we played our original tune.
“Hey nerds.”
Both Emily and I paused mid-way through our fledgling song when the door opened, and Erica stepped in. She had changed from her incredibly skimpy bathing suit and into a pair of workout shorts and a small crop top over her sports bra. As usual, her hair was a brush stroke away from perfection, and her body exuded sexuality like no other. But Emily was equally as beautiful sitting beside me, and I had been caught up in the music. This time however, I was able to keep myself from drooling over my ample chested sibling.
Maybe Mel had been right with her theory after all. This time yesterday I would have been tenting my shorts and unable to focus on anything apart from the goddesses that surrounded me.
“That sounded really good,” Erica said, walking over to the small riser that held her throne and kit. “Mind if I join in?”
“Hell yeah!” Emily fist pumped and gave me an excited grin.
“It’ll be great to have some beats to it,” I nodded and returned Emily’s smile, and tearing my eyes away from Erica’s juicy ass.
“Try to keep up,” Erica winked at me.
To say Erica was a talented drummer was an understatement. She did the usual drummer nonsense of warming up with an obnoxiously complicated and fast series of exercises that put any drummer back home to shame. Hell… I’d seen professional live touring bands that would have had a hard time keeping up with her. I was starting to think she might just be showing off for my sake.
Once our queen on her throne was done with her warmups, we launched into a mutually agreed song. I guessed that any song Emily knew, Erica would know too. She played a little faster than we had practiced earlier, but we soon hit our groove, and everything fell into place. This particular song we’d chosen didn’t have much in the way of solos or leads-which I was thankful for-so I was able to focus on just keeping time and even went over the lyrics I could remember as we played. I had spied a few microphones stands and a decent looking PA system in the corner, but I wasn’t confident enough to start belting anything out in front of my sisters just yet.
All through high school I had idolized lead singers and vocalists for bands, always wanting to be that guy at the front that the girls threw their panties to. It was harder than I first thought, and I wasn’t that good. That was until my voice actually dropped.
I was a late bloomer. Kind of short, scrawny and covered in bad acne, and my voice was squeaky. It wasn’t until I left school to get a job and help my mother out with the bills that I hit my growth spurt and puberty kicked in. And boy was I glad it did. I started practicing my vocal skills a few years ago when my buddies and I talked about starting a band and found it marginally easier to perform. I still wasn’t amazing, but I was confident I could half-ass it well enough with a band backing me to not sound completely terrible.
I just had to work on my multi-tasking skills. Playing guitar and singing at the same time was a lot harder than it looked.
“Well… you’re not too bad,” Erica smirked at me once we’d stopped playing.
“He’s great isn’t he!” Emily exclaimed.
“Now now, sister. Let’s not give Nick a big head,” she laughed as she stood from her drum stool.
I let my eyes roam her body as she stretched her arms over her head. She had removed her crop top at some point, and I could see the beads of sweat rolling down her chest and between her ample breasts. Her skin was flushed from exertion, with a slight sheen of perspiration glistering along her tight stomach. The entire image made me think about other ways we could work up a sweat together.
And I was in boner town once more.
“I haven’t had much time to practice lately,” I shrugged, standing to return the guitar. “I’m still a little rusty.”
“Guess that means we are going to have to practice more,” Emily grinned. “Maybe we can start a band?”
“We’ve been trying to do that for years Em,” Erica sighed.
“Yeeeeaah,” Emily replied with a tilt of her head. “But now we have Nick.”
“What was the issue before?” I asked.
“Amanda,” they said in unison.
“She didn’t want to?”
“It’s not that she didn’t want to. But that she always had reason not to. The most recent reason is Craig,” Erica explained.
“Is he stopping her?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Emily said.
“Craig wants his little trophy girlfriend to show up to all his gigs and stand there looking pretty,” Erica continued. “The fact that he sucks as a musician doesn’t even register to him. It’s all about image to Craig. And that image is: guys play the music, and the girls fawn over them.”
“That’s very 1950’s of him,” I laughed.
“It’s not exactly like that,” Emily said.
“Not far from it,” Erica cut in. “Amanda would wipe the floor with his pretty face, and she knows it.”
“Wait. Didn’t you say she stopped because of your dad?” I asked Emily.
“Our dad,” she corrected. “And yes, in a way. She played a bunch before her and Craig started dating. It always reminded her of Dad. Sometimes it made her happy, sometimes it made her sad.”
“And when Craig saw how well she played, he was more than a little intimidated,” Erica laughed. “That was possibly the greatest moment of their relationship.”
“So… she doesn’t do it because Craig doesn’t like it?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“And uses Dad as an excuse,” Erica finished my sentence. “You’re catching on quick.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said with a shake of my head.
“But it’s different now,” Emily said. “I’m sure when she sees us all playing together, she’ll come back again.”
“Don’t get your hopes up Em,” Erica said. “Manda is as stubborn as our mother.”This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
The mention of their mother instantly soured the mood of the room. A mood that was already quite sour with the talk of Craig and his hang-ups. I never understood guys who felt threatened by women being in their field. I would have killed for a girlfriend back home that could play guitar. It would be something we could do together and bond over. I was feeling extremely lucky that I had a whole family now that I could play music with. It didn’t matter that they were women. If anything, it made it better. Who didn’t want this buffet of eye candy on display when playing music?
“Well I’m gonna go shower,” Erica announced. “This was fun. We should do it again soon.”
“Sounds good to me,” I nodded.
I busied myself with coiling up the lead I was using while covertly admiring Erica’s ass as it bounced away with the exaggerated sway of her hips that I’d grown to love, only to be busted by her as she looked over her shoulder and shot me wink before vanishing from sight.
“Hey! I got an idea!”
I turned to see Emily grinning at me like a fool. Her grin made my heart warm and I couldn’t help but return her smile.
“What are we doing?” I replied with every intention of fulfilling her wishes.
“Let’s go for a ride!”
“I’m in,” I nodded.
We parted ways to go change for the ride. Shorts and a t-shirt weren’t the best to go riding in. One accident and I’d be scraping parts of myself off the road with a spatula. I didn’t have any riding gear. But my jeans, boots and leather jacket would have to do.