Like a Dream Come True

“Why won’t you come?” Lianna asked Madison on Saturday. They were both sorting through Lianna’s wardrobe in her bedroom, trying to decide what she should wear to the Broken Dynamite show later that evening. “You won’t be giving any sort of tacit approval; in actuality, it would probably just be fun for you and Tavian to hang out.”

“I don’t really want to go, Lee,” Madison told her friend. “Because I know that Joseph’s been trying very hard recently to change… to make up for what he did to you. And I know you’re getting closer to forgiving him, but it’s harder to forgive someone that hurt someone you love than it is someone who hurt you, you know?”

“I have no idea what you just said,” Lianna admitted with a half smile.

Shrugging, Madison grinned back herself. “Sometimes I’m not the best at explaining myself. It drives Tavian nuts,” he told Lianna. “All I’m saying is that I have reservations about Joseph, and I wouldn’t be able to hide those feelings all night. So, in order to let you make your own choices without dealing with my lingering feelings of annoyance towards him, I think it’s best if you and Tavian go alone to the show.”

“Okay,” Lianna sighed, looking back into the closet. “But thanks, Maddy. I’ve never had a friend that was so supportive and protective at the same time.”

“You know I don’t do well with the mushy stuff,” Madison pulled a slinky sleeveless black v-neck out of the closet. “Wear this with your Seven jeans; you’ll look hot. But do me a favor – wear granny panties so you have no urge to fuck him tonight.”

Laughing, Lianna nodded. “Okay, you’ve got my word.”

“Good,” Madison began walking out of the bedroom and into the living room. “Because there is nothing less attractive than a woman in underwear that comes up to her bellybutton.”

Pulling the jeans Madison had suggested off the shelf, Lianna looked at the clothes in her hands. Why was she even thinking about what she was wearing? What was going to happen tonight? In fact, what did she WANT to happen tonight? It was all too confusing to think about, so she put the clothes on the bed and followed Madison into the living room to have a beer before she started getting ready.

-----

Madison had left a little before five, meaning Lianna was left with two hours to think and rethink the night’s possibilities to herself before Tavian would be there to meet her. As much as she wanted to, she forced herself not to drink into a stupor. Instead, she stared at herself in the mirror, pulling her hair up and then letting it down about three times. The only reason she finally decided on down was because that’s how it was when Tavian knocked on her door.

“My girlfriend is very weird,” Tavian entered the apartment with a grin.

“I’m aware of that,” Lianna giggled. “Was this a blanket statement, or did you have a specific illustration you meant to bring up?”

Sitting down on the couch, Tavian looked at Lianna. “Apparently, I am supposed to ask you to lift your shirt to your bellybutton and report back to her whether or not I can see the waistband of your underwear.”

Laughing out loud, Lianna lifted the hem of her shirt. Sure enough, the edge of a pair of pink cotton underwear was visible over the top of her jeans. They weren’t up as far as Madison had probably intended, but Lianna knew it wasn’t going to be likely that she would want to show Joseph the unflattering underwear her mother had purchased for her the previous Christmas.

“I… don’t know what to say now,” Tavian told Lianna. “That was in no way hot, but somehow I still feel dirty. Why does Madison want me to tell her about your underwear?”

Sitting down beside Tavian, Lianna rested her head against the back of the couch and looked at him. “She’s making sure I don’t have the urge to sleep with Joseph tonight.”

“Still not getting the connection,” Tavian raised his eyebrows. “But I’ve learned to just let a lot of Maddy’s quirks go without thinking too hard about them.” He turned slightly in his seat to face Lianna, and suddenly gave her a sympathetic look. “So, are you ready to see Joseph?”

“No,” Lianna admitted. “But at the same time, I do want to go.”

Nodding understandingly, Tavian patted her knee. “You know, I don’t really know what to say about all this,” he told her apologetically. “I mean, you’re both my friends, and before you say you don’t want to put me in the middle, shut up.” Lianna laughed at this, as that was what she was just about to say. “Anyway, you’re both my friends, but I can see where what Joseph did to you might be unforgivable. At the same time, I also know that jackass has never had feelings for anyone like he’s had for you. It’s got to be hard.”

“It is,” Lianna said softly. “But it’s easier for me, knowing I’ve got good friends around.”

“Like who?” Tavian said jokingly, looking around as if to find someone else in the room. He was just trying to lighten the mood. “Okay, enough of me being an ass. We should get going. Are you ready to go?”

Nodding, Lianna rose. She pulled on her jacket and slipped a scarf around her neck. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be.”

-----

By the time Lianna and Tavian arrived at the club, Lianna was starting to regret her earlier decision to not get drunk. She was incredibly nervous about seeing Joseph, and could barely keep her focus. In fact, she just handed Tavian her ID at the door, and he checked them both in.

Making their way through the crowd towards the stage, Lianna felt Tavian looking at her. She didn’t say anything. She just gave him an appreciative smile and followed him to the backstage area. There was no turning back now. She was about to see Joseph.

When they entered the band’s room, Lianna looked around. She immediately spotted Joseph, and felt her breath leave her for a moment. She had forgotten how good he looked when he was dressed to perform, and tonight was no exception. A dark red sleeveless cotton shirt showed off his arms and his tone chest, and a pair of black jeans hung loosely around his hips, a black leather studded belt the only thing keeping them up. His hair was styled wildly, black and messy, and the eyeliner he wore made his eyes seem so intensely jade, the color almost appeared fake. He looked amazing.

One moment after Lianna noticed Joseph, though, she noticed the girl standing next to him. She was about Lianna’s height, with long pin straight dark hair that seemed to be tinged lilac. Her face was small, as were her features; she was unquestionably pretty. Dressed plainly in jeans and a t-shirt, it was easy to see the many tattoos she had on her arms. In fact, one arm looked like it had a beautiful, ornate, continuous tattoo from her wrist to where it disappeared under her sleeve. She looks like someone who belongs with a rock star, Lianna thought sadly as she watched the girl talk animatedly with Joseph.

Joseph must have felt Lianna watching him, because he looked up suddenly. His smile, a combination of excitement and nervousness, was enough to make Lianna’s stomach flip. She willed herself to give him a smile in return, even though a part of her wanted to turn and run out of the room.

At the same time, Lianna saw the girl next to Joseph follow his gaze, passing over Lianna without much notice and landing on Tavian. “Tavian!” the girl’s face lit up she sprinted over to him. “Joseph said you’d be here!”

“Sin, what the hell are you doing here?” Tavian pulled the girl into a hug as Lianna just watched with confusion. “When did you get back from Australia?”

“Last night, I think,” Sin pulled back and grinned widely at Tavian. “Fuck if I know for sure. I’m so screwed up with the time difference, I can barely tell you what damn day it is. So is this your girlfriend? Joseph was telling me some girl was nice enough to take pity on you, but I couldn’t believe it.”

“Funny,” Tavian smiled. “No, this is… Lianna.” There was no way for Tavian to tactfully introduce Lianna in relation to Joseph, so he didn’t even bother. “Lianna, this is Cynthia, but everyone calls her Sin – for obvious reasons. Ow! Damn, why am I always surrounded by women that hit me?”

“Because you’re always being an ass, maybe?” Sin told him. Her eyes wandered over to Lianna, and she gave her a friendly smile. “Wait… Lianna? THE Lianna – the one that Joseph’s been talking about for the last hour?”

“Thanks for not making this uncomfortable,” Joseph had just made his way over to the little group, his cheeks pink from Sin’s comment. “Hey, Tay. Thanks for coming,” he smiled at Tavian. Turning his gaze to Lianna, his expression grew nervous again. “Hi, Lianna,” he leaned forward awkwardly to hug her. “I see you’ve met Hurricane Sin.”

Rolling her eyes, Sin shook her head and grabbed Tavian’s arm. “Here, we’ll give you two some time to talk,” she started dragging Tavian behind her. “Besides I need a shot. Lianna, we’ll talk more later, okay?” With that, Tavian looked at them with a grin over his shoulder, giving Lianna a look of encouragement before leaving the room with Sin and heading towards the bar.

“Wow,” Lianna turned her attention back to Joseph. “That’s, um… quite a girl. She seems nice,” she quickly backtracked, not wanting to seem rude. In fact, Sin did seem very nice; she was just a bit wild, even in comparison to someone like Madison. “Have you known her a long time?”

“Actually, Sin was our third roommate when Tavian and I first lived together,” Joseph explained. “If you think she’s wild now, you should have seen her back then. But she got a job in Australia, doing photography, and moved about three years ago. We stay in touch when we can, though, and she just moved back to the States for good. I think she’s missed New York a lot.”

“You’re babbling,” Lianna told Joseph, giving him a small grin.

“I guess I am,” Joseph smiled wryly. “I do that when I’m nervous, don’t I?”

Nodding, Lianna tried to relax some, putting her jacket and scarf on a nearby chair. “You do,” she confirmed. “But I’m kind of glad; it lets me know that I’m not the only one anxious in this situation.”

“Hardly,” Joseph laughed dryly. “Listen, they have a dressing room that’s empty. Would you want to go there and talk?” When Lianna nodded, he gave her a grin. “Okay, let’s grab a few beers and go there. We’re not due on stage for an hour, at least. This place always starts its shows late; the first band just started a few minutes ago, even though the second band was supposed to have started by now-”

“You’re babbling again,” Lianna let out a short laugh. “Come on, grab some beer and let’s find someplace to talk and catch up.” It was strange, but Lianna suddenly felt like she had control of the situation. Joseph was so nervous, so afraid to say or do the wrong thing, that it allowed Lianna to take over. How odd, Lianna though amusedly to herself. I always thought Joseph had the upper hand in our relationship, but I guess that’s because I always gave him the upper hand.

“This is it,” Joseph led Lianna to a door down the hallway a minute later. Turning the handle, he pushed the unmarked door open. “Welcome to the glamorous backstage life of rock star dressing rooms,” he joked, motioning around the small, cramped room which had cardboard boxes in one corner, a beaten up old couch in the other, and a small sink with a mirror above it against the far wall.

“Impressive,” Lianna joked back, taking a seat on the couch and accepting the bottle of beer that Joseph offered her with a nod. “So…”

“So…” Joseph repeated as he sat down beside Lianna. They both looked at their beer bottles with great interest while they spent an uncomfortable minute in complete silence.

“Well, at least this isn’t awkward,” Lianna joked, causing Joseph to laugh.

“Oh, yeah,” Joseph smiled wryly at her. Biting his lip for a moment, he suddenly turned towards Lianna. “Well, first I want to say thanks for coming tonight, Lianna. I’ve been so excited to see you for the past few weeks; it’s all I’ve been thinking about. I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” Lianna admitted, smiling at Joseph. “And I wanted to thank you again about having your lawyer contact the newspaper and print the retraction. I’m pretty sure it did something good for my mother’s heart.”

Giving Lianna a small smile, Joseph shrugged. “Yeah, well… I blame myself for all that anyway,” he said, still staring at the beer in his hands. “After all, you were never in the papers before you met me. And the only reason why that story came out…” He paused, as if gathering courage, and looked up into Lianna’s eyes. “The only reason that story came out last week is because of what I did to destroy our relationship. Lianna, I don’t know if you will ever be able to forgive me, but I need you to know how sorry I am. And this is me, months after we broke up, not right in the middle of it. It’s been two months, and all I can think about still is you, and how I hurt you. And I’m so sorry for that.”

Swallowing hard, Lianna’s vision was growing blurry. “I believe you, Joseph,” she told him softly. “I believe you’re truly sorry. And I miss you – God, do I miss you. I just… I just don’t know. I just feel like maybe someone up there’s trying to tell us something. I mean, this relationship has been such an up-and-down ride from the start, with the press, and not being able to talk about our relationship openly, and me being afraid to be honest with you, and you not taking things that were important to me seriously… I want you in my life, Joseph, but I think the only thing we should try for right now is friendship.”

Nodding his head as she spoke, Joseph seemed to be thinking hard about what Lianna was saying to him. “Okay,” he said finally. “Everything you said was true, and if the only thing you can offer me right now is friendship, I’ll take it.”

Giving him a smile, Lianna felt a little bit better. “Good,” she told Joseph. “So what do we do now? What do we do as friends?”

“Well,” Joseph stood up and put out his hand to pull Lianna up. “I think, as friends, we should go hang out with our other friends, and drink and joke and enjoy each other’s company.”

“That sounds good,” Lianna replied as she stood. “And just so you know what’s happening ahead of time, I’m going to give you a friendly hug now.”

Joseph laughed and nodded. “Okay,” he put out his arms and felt Lianna press against him. Her arms had slid around his waist, and her head fit perfect on his shoulder. Wrapping his arms around her, Joseph pulled Lianna close to him. Everything about the embrace was so familiar for him. Her hair had the same citrus scent he had grown so accustomed to in their time together. Her body fit perfectly against his, like they were made for each other. Even her breathing, measured and slow, reminded him of sleeping beside her in bed all those nights. As he felt her releasing him, he let out a silent sigh and let go of her.

“Well, let’s go find Tavian and… Sin? Is that her name?” Lianna asked with a grin.

“Yes, her name is Sin,” Joseph smiled back, though inside he was mourning the loss of physical contact with her. “Her name, her attitude, her way of life… all Sin.”

-----

Despite her wild demeanor – or possibly due to it – Lianna had a great time hanging out with Sin during the show. She was foulmouthed and considered herself one of the boys, although Lianna did see her share a small shy smile with Zip from where they were standing side-stage during the performance. And the band was terrific, better than Lianna had remembered. Joseph kept looking over at Lianna and grinning while they performed, making her feel warm and special.

As the band left the stage after their final encore, Tavian, Lianna and Sin all joined them in the back room. “I’m just going to wash this shit off my face,” Joseph told them all, motioning towards the eyeliner that had smeared during his sweat-filled performance. “This shit stings when it gets in your eyes.”

“Which is why I refuse to wear makeup,” Sin called after Joseph.

“Okay, I’m going to get us some more beers from the other cooler,” Tavian stood up. “I can’t believe a dozen people killed that whole first cooler before the band even played!”

As Tavian left the room, Sin turned towards Lianna with a smile, but paused with a blush, looking past her. “Hey, Lianna,” she heard her name come from behind her, and turned to see Zip. “Hey, Sin. I didn’t know you were back in town.”

It took a second, but Sin seemed to recover quickly. “Well, I would have called to tell you,” she said with a smirk. “But I never no where to reach you. Like, what girl’s place are you staying at tonight?”

Raising his eyebrows, Zip was obviously amused by Sin’s challenging personality. “Oh, I’m not that bad, am I?” he teased.

“Yes, you are,” Sin said, her face still friendly, although her eyes got a little colder. Lianna was feeling suddenly uncomfortable sitting between these two, but she really had no choice. There was nowhere for her to go without asking one of them to move, and that would just be awkward. Luckily, Sin’s point got across.

“Fair enough,” Zip nodded towards Sin. “But it was good to see you. You look… really good. Lianna, it was great to see you, too.”

Watching Zip walk across the room to where a couple roadies were splitting a joint, Lianna turned questioning eyes on Sin. “I take it you two were once…?”

Pulling her eyes away from Zip, Sin looked embarrassed for a moment. “We were never really a thing,” she told Lianna, her expression returning to normal. “Zip was just a drunken mistake I made… a couple times.” She grinned at Lianna, no embarrassment showing now. “What can you do? I was a kid. It was dumb. It’s over now. But enough about me… how’d things go with you and Joseph? Did you guys talk?”

Even though Sin gave off such a tough-girl persona, Lianna found it easy to talk to her. “We did,” she nodded. “We cleared the air some. For now, we’re going to try being friends. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, to be honest, but I’m glad to know I get to have Joseph in my life. I care about him a lot.”

Looking like she was debating something with herself, Sin let out a sigh. “I don’t know how to put this so it doesn’t sound fucking lame,” she told Lianna. “He told me what he did with that bitch – who I have hated from the first day I met her three years ago, mind you. And you handled that situation way more maturely than I would have. I would have likely cut off Joseph’s dick and choked Frankie with it.”

Despite herself, Lianna had to laugh, more out of shock than anything. No wonder Tavian was able to handle himself around Madison, she thought. He used to live with Sin, and she’s ten times as crazy as Madison will ever be. Still, she was well-intentioned and cracked Lianna up. “Anyway, that wasn’t even where I meant to go with that,” Sin told Lianna. “What I wanted to say was that I’ve known Joseph a long time, and I’ve never seen him in love before, or even close to it. But he’s in it all the way with you. I just thought you might like to know what another girl who knows him thinks.”

“I appreciate that,” Lianna told Sin sincerely. “The thing is, I don’t know how to get past the Frankie thing.”

“I could kill her,” Sin said, giving Lianna a blank stare. At Lianna’s shocked expression, though, Sin started laughing. “I was kidding. God, I love people who don’t know me. They never know if I’m serious or not.”

“Neither do the people that know you,” Tavian walked up with four beers in his hands. “What were you girls talking about while I was gone? Let me guess… shopping? makeup? hairstyles?”

“Yes, because that’s the type of girl I am,” Sin rolled her eyes as she took the beer he proffered to her. “And later, I’m going to read Cozmo and find out what parts of my body I should have surgically altered to make men want me more.”

Laughing, Lianna rose from her seat. “I’m going to use the bathroom,” she told them. “I’ll be right back.”

The restrooms were at the end of the hallway, just past the dressing room where Lianna had talked to Joseph earlier. As she walked by it, she noticed that the door was ajar and she suddenly heard Joseph’s voice, his volume much louder than his normal speaking voice. She couldn’t help but pause to listen for a moment.

“Zip told you not to come here tonight, Frankie,” Joseph was yelling. At the mention of the woman’s name, Lianna froze. “I don’t want you here. You’re not welcome here.”

“I’m the manager of this band,” Lianna heard Frankie say coldly. “It’s bad enough that you will barely make eye contact with me anymore. I shouldn’t be barred from a show in the city where I live just because some girl that’s here tonight doesn’t like me. Sorry she couldn’t handle real life, Joey, but that’s not my problem.”

“Real life?” Joseph laughed, his laugh hollow and angry. “Please, Frankie. You have no idea what real life is. You live in this completely made-up life, filled with parties and money and coke-binges and random sex. That’s not real life. What Lianna and I had, that was real life. And I fucked that up. I made the biggest mistake of my life - with you, Frankie. But at least I know what I did wrong. You’re just pathetic, because you don’t even realize how you prostituted yourself.”

“Excuse me?” Frankie yelled back. “I did no such thing!”

“Yes, you did,” Joseph’s voice was getting frighteningly calm now. “You had sex with me so that, in some round about way, you could make more money. You whored yourself, Frankie. You’re no better than a hooker. But I don’t even care about you enough to continue talking about this. I have a chance to at least try to be friends with the only woman I have ever loved, and you being here isn’t an option. Leave, Frankie, before I have security remove you.”

“I don’t even know what to say to you,” Frankie spat. “This band would be nothing… YOU would be nothing if it weren’t for me.”

“Security!” Joseph called out.

“You asshole,” Frankie said to him. “Fine, I’ll leave. But this isn’t over. You can’t just call me a prostitute and expect things to be fine.”

“I don’t want things to be fine,” Joseph replied. “I want nothing more than to have you out of my life forever.”

Suddenly, the door to the dressing room swung open and Lianna found herself face to face with Frankie, who just sneered at her. “Oh, Joey,” she looked back over her shoulder. “Your so-important groupie is here. She was eavesdropping on our conversation.”

Joseph walked out of the room and looked at Lianna questioningly, although there was no anger in his eyes. It was obvious he wasn’t bothered that she’d been listening; he was more nervous about how she would react to what had been said.

Without saying a word to Frankie, Lianna barely bothered looking at the other woman. Instead, she took a step towards Joseph and looked him in the eye. “I forgive you,” she said softly.

With his eyes wide, Joseph went to say something, but his words suddenly faltered as Lianna took another step closer to him. He held his breath as he watched her reach up tentatively and place her hand on his cheek, stroking it gently with her thumb as she looked into his eyes. Her fingertips were so soft; they felt like feathers brushing against his skin. In what seemed like slow motion, Lianna closed her eyes and rose onto her toes until her lips brushed against Joseph’s softly. She pulled back a little immediately, opening her eyes and looking into his again, waiting for some sort of response.

It was at that moment that Frankie let out a disgusted sigh and stormed away, but neither Lianna nor Joseph noticed. Instead, Joseph slid one finger under Lianna’s chin, raising her face more towards him, and studied her bright blue eyes. Nervously, he leaned forward this time, tilting his head and capturing her mouth with his. He kissed her timidly at first, his lips pressing against hers as if he was still disbelieving of what was happening. As he felt Lianna’s arms wrap around his neck, though, he began to give in to the exhilaration of the moment.

Lianna felt Joseph’s hands rest chastely on her hips as he parted his lips enough to allow his hot breath to escape onto her mouth. With her heart beating fast in her chest, Lianna let the tip of her tongue trace the shape of Joseph’s full bottom lip, moistening the soft skin, tasting a mild sweetness. She became heady with the scent of the soap he had just used to wash his face, and when she finally felt his tongue meet hers, shyly massaging it, tasting her mouth, exploring the inside curve of her lip, Lianna was overwhelmed by the gentleness of his touches.

With his mind a complete blank, Joseph could only concentrate on the unbelievably welcome feeling of kissing Lianna again. As he pulled her lower lip between his teeth, reveling in the feel of the swollen flesh, tasting the faint traces of beer, his hands slid from her hips to around her waist, bringing her closer to him. Her scent overcame him as he scraped her lip lightly with his teeth and then ran his tongue over it soothingly. Although they were standing in the middle of dingy hallway with roadies and other people passing by, Joseph felt like they were the only two people on earth at the moment. He couldn’t hear the people walking by talking; he could only hear her breathing, the soft whimper that passed into his mouth from hers, and more than anything, his own pulse beating wildly.

As Joseph hesitantly began to pull away, Lianna brushed her lips against his once more before opening her eyes. She was about to say something when she felt Joseph reach for her hand. He intertwined his fingers with hers, and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. Glancing down at their clasped hands for a moment, Lianna looked up again and smiled. Returning her smile, Joseph lifter her hand and kissed her knuckles softly. “Did you mean that?” he asked, his voice soft and hopeful.

Nodding, Lianna felt her eyes filling with tears. “Yeah,” she replied softly. “But if you ever do anything like that again…”

“I’d kill myself first,” Joseph told her. “I won’t fuck this up again, Lianna. I promise. I love you too much.”

“I love you, too,” Lianna said, not caring if the tears rolled over her cheeks as Joseph pulled him to her in a hug. They stood there holding each other for several minutes, not saying anything.

“So you guys made up?” Sin’s voice suddenly came from behind them. Lianna pulled back from Joseph and turned around to see Sin and Tavian standing behind her. She smiled a little, glancing at Joseph before looking back at Sin and nodding. “Fucking awesome.”

“Madison is so going to blame me for this. She’s going to say I did the underwear check wrong or something,” Tavian said, causing Lianna to start laughing. She looked over at Joseph again, who looked completely confused, and smiled. There was a lot of work to do – for both of them to do – but she hoped they could do it. This just felt so right.

-----

THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL WHO HAVE REVIEWED SO FAR. THERE ARE STILL TWO CHAPTERS TO GO, TO ANSWER SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS (AND TO SEE IF JOSEPH AND LIANNA CAN ACTUALLY MAKE IT TOGETHER). I HOPE TO HAVE ANOTHER CHAPTER UP IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS.