Graffiti Casanova

The OTHER Casanova

"G'morning, Claire Bear!" Jared sang as the door to Otto's storage room squeaked shut behind me. I just shot him a nasty look and set my guitar down, heading straight to the couch to flop down. It wasn't all that early, but the time of day didn't matter. I couldn't function without my coffee.

Jared made a baffled face at Davey over my head, trying to tease me. I ignored him. He'd seen this plenty of times before. He knew the coffee drill.

"Better not torment her," Davey said; I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Fine," Jared rolled his eyes, and his voice turned posh. "Your coffee, m'lady."

A warm cup was suddenly in my hand, and I closed my eyes to breathe in the steam and out a sigh of contentment.

"I'll take that to mean thank you."

I mumbled something that vaguely resembled thank you and went back to filling my coffee-meter.

Jared snorted and shook his head, flopping down onto the couch beside me. "Rough night?"

Last night... My brain was slogging behind. Last night.

Last night I'd met Casanova.

"Uh.... Claire?"

My gaze snapped to Jared, who was looking at me like I'd grown an extra head, and I realized I'd frozen, cup halfway to my lips.

"Did something actually happen last night that we should know about?"

"What? No," I said quickly. "Uneventful, normal night."

"Same here," a suggestive voice came from the doorway, and we all turned to see Otto leaning against the doorway, grinning wickedly. Jared's attention was immediately averted, and I relaxed.

"That doesn't count as normal, Otto," said Jared.

"It does if it's normal to me." He winked.

"Dude. Just because you're Mr. Perfect freakin' Casanova doesn't mean you have to rub it in our faces," Jared complained.

I'd been zoning out, but my head whipped around to face them, eyes widening at the name. "Casanova?"

Everyone turned to me, looking at me strangely. I blinked and pressed my lips together when my mind caught up to the conversation and I realized what I'd blurted out. "Oh. You meant..."

"Yeah, not THE Casanova." Jared snorted. "Otto, the mysterious graffiti artist. He wouldn't be able to keep a secret like that to save his life."

Otto looked wounded. "I can keep a secret! I have tons of secrets."

"Prove it."

Otto lifted a brow. "But then they wouldn't be secrets."

I didn't need to look to see that Davey was still eyeing me from where he was standing behind the couch, I could feel it; but I ignored it and downed the rest of my coffee.

"We doin' this or what?" I stood and crossed the room to toss my empty cup in the bin.

"I think they were waiting on you to become a fully functional member of society again, Clairity," Otto teased. "You're welcome for the coffee, by the way." He shot me his killer smirk. 

"Alright! Good luck to you crazy kids today, let me know if you need anything." He slapped a hand against the doorframe. "Casanova out!"

I shook my head as he whisked away, but couldn't keep the corners of my lips from tugging up in amusement.

"You shouldn't encourage him, Jar. He's arrogant enough as it is," I said, popping Jared lightly on the shoulder as I passed him on the way back to my spot on the couch.

"Well, I would be too if I were him," Jared grumbled.

"You're already arrogant," I said, leaning down to slip my guitar out of its case. I lifted it and sat back against the cushions, plucking at the strings to check the tuning.

"Got your drum key today?" Jared squatted in front of his guitar case.

Davey lifted his hand, keychain dangling from his thumb. "Mmhmm."

"And Claire's had her coffee, so it sounds like everyone's set and no one has any excuses, then, yeah?"

"Okay, Dad." I still plucked lazily at my guitar, a random melody. As I waited for the guys to finish up tuning their instruments, my mind drifted back to Casanova. Ironic that I'd met him where it all began-- in front of Space Lovers. And where it was beginning again.

And ironic that I was beginning again, too. Here I was, with my old bandmates that I never thought I'd play with again. Funny how it all sort of connected.

"Hey, that's really good."

I looked up at the voice. Davey was sitting in the chair opposite me, head tilted as he listened to me messing around on my guitar.

"Play it again."

I frowned. "Not sure I can. I wasn't paying attention." I tried to remember what I'd played. G, C, D over a C minor? F, then G? I strummed awkwardly through the chords, picking the melody on top.

"No, no, it was the other way around. G, then F." Jared slung his guitar over his shoulder and sat down. He strummed a C minor, and nodded to me. I played the melody line. Then G, and I continued over his chords.

"Yeah, that was it," said Davey.

"And here I was worried we wouldn't be able to come up with anything," said Jared. "Let's roll with it."

It took us an hour and a half, but we came up with the skeleton of a pretty good song from my absent-minded strumming. Lyrics were already swimming around in my head, so I called for a break to write them down before I forgot them. The melody may have come from absent musings, but the mood had reflected what I'd been thinking about when I'd come up with it.

I knew exactly what this song would be about.

Chapter song is Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin.