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Brenda pushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "Jax!"
she
screamed. "Get in here!"
"Yes, Brenda?" Jax asked, walking into the
room whistling. He carried
a rolled up newspaper under one arm and a cup of coffee
in the other. He
noticed Brenda and smiled. "Good morning beautiful."
"Good morning!" Brenda said, jumping down
from the coffee table. "I
have great news for you... It's involes me!" she said,
and kissed him
lightly on the cheek.
"I can't wait to hear it. I love hearing
about you."
Brenda jumped and clapped her hands excitedly.
"Oh, good. That's
*exactly* what I wanted you to say! I like hearing
about me too!" She ran
over to the dining table and
lifted a stack of papers off the desk. "I signed a new
artist," she said,
waving the papers in her hand. She laughed as the papers
flew out of her
hand and across the room. "Oops," she said and giggled.
Jax moved to pick up the papers as Brenda
watched with a smile.
So---what do you think?" Brenda asked excitedly.
"Who's Lucky Spencer?"
Lucky walked along the docks, trying to quell
his nervousness about
his first performance. He was going to sing "Elizabeth"
in front of an
audience for the first time that evening. He felt butterflies
in his
stomach and thought for a moment he might actually puke.
"Don't even,
Spencer," he muttered to himself.
"Talking to yourself again?" Nikolas asked,
coming up behind him.
"Better me than a Casssssadine," Lucky hissed.
"Yeah, I guess you get plenty lonely at
night too, now that Foster is
gone."
"Foster's not gone," Lucky said defensively.
"He's
just---vacationing."
"Right. Whatever. So, I hear you're going to be
singing tonight at the
Outback. Maybe I'll see you there," Nikolas said.
"Hopefully NOT," Lucky said, deliberately
turning his back on his
brother. Nikolas only shrugged and walked off. Lucky
waited until he was
gone, then ran and threw up over the edge of the dock.
He sank to his
knees, holding his stomach, and wished for the dozenth
time that he
hadn't drunk so much. Everyone knew drinking so
much, drinking at all
was bad. Seriously. Fourteen cans of Jolt?
WHAT WAS HE THINKING???
"Is everything ready?" Brenda asked a crew
member.
The man turned to her and shook her head.
"See those big black things
over there?" he asked, pointing. Brenda nodded. "Those
are called
SPEAKERS. They are used to amplify SOUND."
"Oh," Brenda said slowly. "So, are they
all ready?"
The man sighed and put an arm around her
thin shoulders. "See those
things snaking out of the speaker?"
"Snake! Where?" Brenda asked, and jumped
on the nearest chair. She
looked around the floor frantically.
"Forget it," the man said, and left her
on the chair.
"Hey!" Brenda called after him. "Aren't
you going to call the
exterminator?"
Robin walked in that moment and waved at
Brenda. "Better look out,"
Brenda warned, scanning the floor in front of Robin's
feet. "There's a
snake in here."
"I don't see any snakes," Robin said with
a slight frown.
Jason came up behind Robin and grabbed her
around the waist. "Hey," he
said, kissing her neck gently.
"Aaahh! Snake!" Brenda screamed at him.
"Finally, everybody's here," Robin said later
with a sigh.
"Yeah, too bad your partner is a PSYCHO,"
Jason said, looking over at
Brenda.
"She's not a psycho," Robin said defensively.
"Brenda only has good
intentions. She doesn't understand how much you LOVE
me."
Jason stared at his girlfriend like she
was crazy. He was beginning to
regret "choosing" her over Carly. "I was talking about
the snakes," he
said.
Robin smiled and sighed. "She just wants
me to be out of danger,
Jason. She thinks that by living with you I'm at greater
risk for getting
hurt."
"ROBIN!" Jason shouted, fighting the urge
to grab her and shake her.
He finally got her attention. "Just---forget about it,"
he said finally,
and turned to face the stage again.
"Hi everyone," Brenda said, smiling brightly
at the crowd. She tapped
the microphone, then giggled and turned it on. "Hi everyone,"
she
repeated. "Hope you all have a good time tonight. Now
I want to introduce
the newest artist on the L & B record label, singing
his best, well,
*only*, song "Elizabeth", Mr. Lucky Spencer.
The crowd cheered and waited for the boy
to come on stage, but no one
went up. "Uh--Lucky Spencer?" Brenda repeated, smiling
to hide her
embarrassment.
Lucky set down the glass of Jolt,
cursing to himself. He heard Brenda
say his name again, and ran to the door that led back
to the restaurant.
He tested his breath against his palm, smelled sour caffine,
but shrugged
and lurched forward to make grand appearance.
His hand touched the handle on the
door and then a strong hand
clasped him from behind. The man behind him covered his
mouth with one
burly hand and grinned down at him. Lucky tried to shout
against the
man's hand, then felt the cold steel of the man's knife
against his
throat.
"Good night, little song bird," the man
whispered, then he stabbed
Lucky in the stomach a few times, let him fall to the
floor and leave.
"I'll be right back," Brenda said and ran
to the door to the right of
the stage.
"What's going on?" Nikolas asked, leaning
in closer to Stefan and
Alexis.
"Maybe he got cold feet," Alexis said with
a shrug. "He was only going
to sing one song anyway."
Nikolas shook his head and leaned back again
in his chair. "Trust a
Spencer to--" A shrill scream cut off his words and everyone
looked in
shock at the door Brenda had just entered. "Uh--oh,"
he said, and leapt
to his feet.
Several others had already beaten him there.
Jax kicked the door in
and ran in the small room, Nikolas and Mac close behind
him. "Brenda!"
Jax shouted, then they saw her sprawled on the floor
beside Lucky's
body, sheer terror in her eyes.
"My purse is gone!" she screamed hysterically.