Friday, December 31, 2010

Epilogue


ONE YEAR LATER

Jordan was pacing.  She was beyond nervous.  This was their first award show and they were already nominated for Best New Rock Band.  She could feel her stomach turning.

Brie and David sensed their daughter’s nervousness.  “Let me talk to her”, David said when he saw the silent pleading of his wife.  He stood, looking like a million bucks and still like he was a rock star.  He placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder.  “Jordan, you’re making your mother nervous.  What’s wrong?”

“What if we don’t win, Dad?”

“Then you don’t win, baby, and you keep trying.”

“How did you guys go ten plus years and not win anything?”

“The Academy just didn’t see that we’d busted our assed to earn it.  They finally got the message, eventually.  Now, your limo is waiting downstairs.  Your brother and the rest of your band is waiting for you.  Get your sixteen, damn near seventeen year old ass down there and get out of my sight until I see you at the ceremony.”

She smiled.  “Thanks, Dad.”  She hugged him and kissed his cheek.  She crossed quickly to her mother and did the same.

“Good luck, baby”, Brie whispered to her daughter.

“Thanks, Mom.”  And she carefully ran from the room.

--------------

After fielding the reporters and handling them like a pro, Jordan was finally seated with her band in the Staples’ Center.  When the ceremony started, she looked over her shoulder to see her parents and uncles sitting behind her.  She could finally relax.

As the ceremony progressed, Jordan’s nerves picked up again.  Then, the award for their category was announced.  David was one of the presenters.  As the nominees were announced, Jordan grabbed her brother’s hand and squeezed.  “And the award for Best New Rock Band goes to…”, he said as he opened the envelope, and smiled, “Reckless Disregard!”  Jordan’s heart leapt.  She stood and hugged her brother, adopted brother, and cousin, then turned to hug her mother.  

 “Congrats, baby”, Brie whispered. 

Jordan just smiled and led her band up to that stage.  She took the statue from her father and gave him a huge hug.  She could see the look of pride on his face.

“WOW!”, Jordan said into the microphone.  “This is a little unexpected, but welcome.  We’d like to thank God, of course, because without him, we wouldn’t be here.  We’d also like to thank our families for their undying support; our label, Intoxication Records for believing in us; our manager Lauren Cook for doing the same; and last but not least, our fans for their undying loyalty and devotion.  We’d also like to dedicate this win to the memory of someone very special to all four of us, the late Master Gunnery Sergeant Matt Cartwright.  If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had the inspiration for half of the material.  Thank you!”  She looked at her band mates.  None of them had anything to say.  They just walked off the stage.

Once off stage, Jordan threw her arms around her father’s neck one more time.  David pulled Malachai into the hug.  “Way to go, you two.  You deserve it.  All you had to do was believe in yourselves.  I always did.”


THE END!

Chapter 89


Jordan watched the other band play and totally kick ass.  She could see why they were headlining the tour.  They were fantastic.

David and Brie came into the back stage area with Jacob.  “Jord, you kicked ASS on that stage, sister!” Jake shouted as he ran to her.

“Thanks, bro!” she laughed.  “But, I wasn’t alone up there.”

“Yeah, jack ass, it was a group effort”, Malachai told his brother.

“You guys were all good tonight”, David said.  “Congratulations on your first professional show.”

“Thanks, Dad”, Malachai and Jordan said in unison.

“Thanks, Uncle David”, Logan said with them.

“Thanks, Mr. D”, Caleb joined in.

Jordan looked at her mother.  “What did you think of the show, Mom?”  Brie just put her devil horns in the air and smiled.

“Did you guys want to celebrate?”

“Actually, Dad”, Malachai said, “I’m going to take my wife back to my hotel room and fuck her unconscious.”

“Sounds like a plan”, Logan said.  “Dani’s gonna meet me at the hotel.”

“Same with Heather”, Caleb added.

“Jordan?” David asked.

“I’m going to get a little bit of sweet, sweet, revenge on the stupid cunt that trampled on my heart.”

“Are you telling me that Sasha actually had the nerve to show up here tonight?” Brie asked.

“She sure did, and I gave her a back stage pass.  I’m going to get even.”  The look in Jordan’s eyes was one of cold satisfaction.

David had seen that look before on his wife’s face.  He knew that his daughter meant what she’d said and that there was NOTHING he or his wife could say to convince her otherwise.  He looked at Brie.  “Well, baby, looks like we’re not needed here.  Wanna take Jake and head home?”

Brie smiled.  “Let’s go.  I can think of someone I would like to fuck ME stupid.”

“Who?” he said.

Jordan, Malachai and Jacob all shouted.  “AH, MOM!”

Brie looked at her children.  “What?”

--------------

Jordan took Sasha back to her hotel room after the show was over.  “Wow, Jordan, I can’t believe you’ve made it to the big leagues”, she said with a smile.

Jordan knew the sincerity was a total farce, but played along.  “Yeah, it’s pretty weird.”

“You know, I’m really sorry about what I said to you, and I want to make up for it.”

“Oh?”  Jordan quirked a brow.  “How did you want to do that?”

“Let me love you.”

“You mean you want sex or that you want a relationship?”

“Relationship, of course.”

“Sorry, gorgeous, but not in the market for a steady wifey right now.  A steady woman in my life would kinda cramp my style.”

“Then let me love you for just the night.”

“No strings attached?”

“None.  But I would like to get you breakfast in the morning.”

Jordan smiled.  Her plan was coming together.  “Ok.  Sex and breakfast.  Sounds good.”

“Not sex, Jordan.  Let me make love to you.”

As soon as the door on her hotel room clicked closed, Jordan laid a gentle hand against Sasha’s cheek and with a gentle press of her lips, stripped Sasha of more than just her clothes.

--------------

When Sasha awoke the next morning, Jordan was in the shower.  She heard laughing and the soft sound of moaning coming from the bathroom.  She decided to investigate.  She thought that the night she’d spent with Jordan meant that her apology had been accepted and that Jordan would take her back.   She slowly opened the door.  Jordy wouldn’t do that to me, she thought.  She loves me.  I could tell from the way she touched me last night.  There were two figures moving in the shower.  “Damn girl!  Gonna make a bitch squirt all over the place”, Jordan’s voice moaned.  Her breathing quickened and her cries grew louder.  “Oh, fuck, Ginger!” she cried out.  “God yes!  You’re fucking amazing!”  A hand ran down a short length of the stall door.  “Oh, GOD, baby!  I’m gonna cum!” Jordan screamed and Sasha’s heart sank.  That two timing, evil bitch! Sasha thought.  I thought she loved me.  But, she was only using me.  I can’t believe I fell for it.  Tears stung at the back of her eyes as Jordan screamed her release out into the steamy room.  And, with that, Sasha’s heart was broken.  She walked out of the room and grabbed her clothes as Jordan said breathlessly, “Now, beautiful, let ME return the favor.”

Chapter 88


The band that Reckless Disregard was to tour with, a group the called themselves Crosshairs, decided that the tour would start off in the Mile High City; Denver, CO.  “It will give your families the opportunity to see in live before you visit every other city in the country”, said Timothy, the band’s bassist.

“That will be cool.  Dad will get to watch us with a big set up and all that”, Malachai said to Jordan.

“Yeah, I can just see Uncle David sitting in a sky box to watch us”, Logan said.

“Hold on”, said Sammy, Crosshairs’ guitarist.  “Did you just say Uncle David, Logan?”

“Yes.”

“As in David Draiman?

“Yeah.”

“He’s your Uncle?”

“Godfather.”

“He’s my father”, Jordan said.

Kelsi, the other band’s drummer, looked at Jordan like she’d sprouted a second head.  “You’re kidding right?”

“No.”  She pulled a picture book from her purse.  She flipped it open and showed them all pictures.  There were pictures of little Jordan at five years old sitting on Daddy’s knee, of her whole family when she was nine after Marc and Jessi were born, pictures of her and her twin brother when they were infants.

Royce, the vocalist for Crosshairs, laughed.  “Is that cute little curly headed girl YOU, Jordan?”  The picture he was looking at was one of Malachai, Jacob, and herself helping their father with the quads as Maddie watched.

“Which one?” she asked.  She knew the picture well.

“The one with her back to the camera.”

“No, that’s my little sister Madison.  I’m the one holding the baby.”

“Who’s the little boy with the curly brown hair?” Kelsi asked.

“My twin”, Jordan asked.

The girl’s eyes almost popped out of her head.  “You have a TWIN?”

“Why is that so hard for people to believe?  Yes, I have a twin brother.  I am one half of a set of fraternal twins.”

“We have eight other siblings, you know”, Malachai chimed in.

We?” Sammy asked.

“My last name is Draiman too.”

“But you look nothing like Jordan.”

“My Dad adopted me when I was five.  We all share a mother.  David Draiman is the only father I know.”

“Have you ever met your birth father?” Timothy asked.

“Yeah, he’s a dick.  Called my mother a whore and it was all my Dad or I could do not to whip that bastard’s ass.”

“I didn’t know your sperm donor called Mom a whore”, Jordan said.

“Yeah, he said he was a whore when he met her and he was sure she’s a whore now.”

“And you and Dad didn’t knock that son of a bitch into oblivion?”

“Nope.  Believe me, Jord, I wanted to, but the fucker wasn’t worth it.  He’s a miserable ass.”

Kelsi couldn’t help but laugh.  “That all sounds really familiar.  My father said the same thing about my mother.”

Malachai laughed himself.  “Are you sure we’re not related?”

“Is your father’s last name Coolidge?”

“Nope.”

“Then, yeah, I’m sure.”

--------------

The night of their first show as a professional act, Jordan was sick to her stomach.  She hadn’t been able to hold anything down all day; the nerves were that bad.  She placed a call to her father.  When he answered the phone, he sounded like he’d been sleeping.  “Yes, Jordan?” he asked.

“Dad, I have a question for you and I want you to be completely honest with me, please.”

“You got it.  What’s up, baby?”

“ You know that tonight’s the first show of the tour, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is it normal for me to be so nervous that I’m puking?”

David couldn’t help but chuckle.  “Oh, baby girl, you have NO IDEA!”

“What do you mean?”

“I was once in your shoes.  I can’t say that I was throwing up, but I was so nervous I couldn’t eat.  And we were on tour with our idol.  We were on OZZ FEST.”

“You mean the festival that was founded by the late, great Ozzy Osbourne?”

“One in the same.  Our second year on Ozz Fest, we were going to headline the second stage but we’d developed such a following that THAT wasn’t happening.  The first show overflowed the area we were allotted for the second stage so we were bumped up the opening the main stage.  Imagine your father’s nerves as he’s singing and the man himself is standing just off stage rocking out along with the music.”

“You had to be scared shitless.”

“Oh, I was.”

“But, you impressed him.”

“Sure did.”

“What do you suggest I do, Dad?  I’m scared out of my mind.”

“I understand, Jordan.  So, here’s what I suggest you do.  Eat something really light so that you have something on your stomach before the show, drink some of that tea your Mom gave you to warm up your throat and, for the love of GOD child, RELAX!  You’re going to be phenomenal!  Just breathe, baby.”

She smiled.  “Thanks, Daddy.  I needed that reassurance.  Oh, are you and Mom going to be at the show tonight?”

“We’ve got a babysitter for the younger kids.  Mandy’s got a babysitter for the twins.  Your Mom, Mandy, Jake, and I will all be there.  And we’re going to have a great view.”

“Let me guess, the sky box.”

“Yep.”

“I’m so going to throw that in Logan’s face.”

“What?”

“Logan sarcastically said that you guys would get a sky box, meaning that you guys wouldn’t even show.  I’m going to fuck his world ALL up.”

“Picking on Logan might make you feel better too.”

She laughed.  “Thanks again, Daddy, for the advice.”

“Not a problem, sweetheart.  Always glad to share my experience.  I’ll see you tonight.” And he hung up.

--------------

As she prepared for the show, warming up her voice with Malachai, Logan came running into backstage from watching the crowd file in.  “Jordan, guess who’s here!”

“Other than my parents and sister in law?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Bigfoot!”

“No, smart ass.  Think smaller and female.”

“Mrs. Santa Clause!”

Logan laughed.  “You’re being stupid, Jordan.”

“I know because I’m not even sure I want to know.  Just tell me though.”

“Sasha.”

That was all that Logan had to say.  Jordan knew that she could get her revenge on that cocky little bitch after the show was over.  “Have security tell her I want to see her after the show and give her a pass.”  There was an evil little look in her eyes.

“What are you thinking little cousin?”

“Oh, Sasha has something coming from me, that’s for sure.”  And for Jordan to say that, there had to be something bad going through her mind.  Logan just wanted to know what that something bad was.

--------------

The show started and Reckless Disregard showed that they were going to be a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.  Malachai, Caleb, and Logan were on their A games.  Jordan showed the world that she was just as dynamic on stage as her father was.  She didn’t just work the stage, she owned it.  She glanced up a few times toward the sky box to see her father standing at the window with is arms crossed over his chest, nodding and singing along.  There were a few times when the music stopped and Jordan interacted with the crowd.  She got them involved in the show.  She was an animal on that stage.

At the end of the night, she looked out over the crowd and smiled wickedly.  “Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you enjoyed the show.  If not, oh fucking well!  We’re going to get the hell off the stage now and let the next act on.  Let me hear you ONE… MORE… TIME!  WHO ARE WE?”

The crowd roared back at her, “RECKLESS DISREGARD!!!”

“That’s right, mother fuckers!  We are Reckless Disregard!  GOOD NIGHT!!!”  The boys joined her at the front of the stage and they took their bow, then left the stage.