Seth's lips came crashing down on mine and his hands wrapped around my waist, pushing me back onto the bed. The kiss was like a wildfire being ignited on a dry field of grass and I felt my skin burn under its flames, with every touch of his roaming hands. His mouth moved to my chin, his tongue licking my bottom lip softly. He pulled me up on the bed, positioning himself over the top of me, while his tattooed fingers grazed the side of my face. His strong, slightly chapped lips ran over mine, sending further electric pulses coursing down my spine. 

"God, Talia. I don't know if I can wait four months to be yours. This is torture."

"Then don't wait." I couldn't believe the words had left my lips, but I didn't care. I loved Seth and out of everyone, I could see a future with him.

"I won't do anything that you don't want to do, you know because of the 18-pact. Are you sure?" I just nodded and his eyes lit up instantly. 

He pulled his shirt off over his head, revealing a now completely tattooed chest. After the extensive tattoo work that had been completed since my departure from him, he was now a walking display of art. I had been there when he got his complete back done with an intricate skull, but this new stuff took his tattoo game to a whole new level. I could imagine the kinds of reactions he got on stage as a result.

In my study of his art, I missed the moment where he had liberated me of my t-shirt as well. He wasn't rushing the moment, instead he just stared into my eyes for a long while, then he kissed me passionately. My hands found their way into his wavy mohawk, my fingers entangling themselves in his silky soft strands. His green eyes were locked onto mine, trapping me beneath them, like I was stuck in a concrete tomb of desire for him.

"Seth? Have you ever been in love?" I heard the words leave my lips, before my brain could will them to stop. 

No, no, no Talia. Don't do this, you don't really want to hear the answer. You don't want to hear about all the girls he's loved or even hear the revelation that maybe you aren't one of them. 

Please don't answer.

"Actually... Yes, only once." His lips left my mouth and were currently trailing soft kisses down the side of my face and onto my neck.

"Who was she, was she nice?" My brain kept trying to tell my mouth to shut the hell up. The moment I had waited for was happening with Seth and all I could manage to do was ask stupid questions, trying to rush along an inevitable heartbreak.

Seth stopped kissing my neck and looked into my eyes, "Talia... She's you." His lips came crashing down on mine, taking them into his mouth, between his teeth and hungrily biting and licking them. His hands roamed down farther, pulling at my sleeping shorts.

In true Talia fashion, I decided that in the midst of one of the most amazing moments I had ever experienced, it was time to word vomit one more time.

"Seth." I placed my fingers between our lips, forcing him to look at me once more, "Do you think you can be in love with two people at the same time?"

His face hardened slightly, "Are you in love with the two boys?" I could see the hurt in his eyes, when he asked the simple question.

"No, I'm not in love with both of them. I think I'm falling in love with Damian... and I know I'm in love with you."

Seth rose from the bed and grabbed his acoustic guitar off the floor where he had tossed it. He thrust it by the neck and in one fail swoosh, he had sent it crashing into the wall next to him, snapping it in two. He slumped down onto his bed with the broken guitar at his feet, his face in his hands. 

He was completely defeated.

"Seth, oh God, please don't be angry with me." I grabbed my shirt and covered myself with it, ashamed at who I had become. I couldn't believe that I had just hurt Seth like that. Why had I opened my big mouth and told him that I had feelings for Damian? 

I told him because Seth and I had no secrets.

"I'm not angry with you, Talia. I'm angry with myself. I shouldn't have let them force you to leave. I should have kept you home with me, I could have done more to stop it all. I promised your mom I would protect you and love you, but instead I let you go. I didn't fight for you and any guy who loves you should always fight for you. Because of not fighting for you, now I might lose you forever. I guess I'm selfish, I don't want to share your heart."

I came and knelt behind where he sat on the bad, wrapping my arm around his chest and running my other hand through his hair. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and kissed him softly. 

"All you do is fight for me. You're everything to me. You're my best friend in the entire world, you were my first kiss, and eventually you'll be my first experience." 

I came around to the front of him, sitting in his lap, my legs wrapped around his waist. I stared into his amazingly beautiful eyes, pushing the falling hair out of his face gently. "I can't do a long-distance relationship, Seth. You and I know it would never work out. But, I need you to know that no matter what happens in Meeds Hollow, I'm not staying, I never intended on staying. I need to be in London, I need to live my dreams and that will be our time, just be patient."

"Talia, you're right. You and me have London, so get whatever it is with them out of your system in the meantime, but remember that you are my future." He kissed me again, a kiss that was soft like the first time he ever touched his lips to mine, that night at my house when I was fifteen-years-old.

"Seth?"

"Yeah babe?" He gripped me tighter to his bare chest, my head resting against his shoulder.

"What should we do about this?"

"I think we should wait till February, like we agreed. Don't worry babe, I'm done leaving you behind. I'm not giving you up." He pulled my messy bun out of its band, allowing my wet hair to spill down. He ran his fingers through the wet strands. "I love you, Talia Grey, but I think you need to unwrap your legs from around me and get off my lap or I'm not going to be able to hold out till February."

I got down off him and started to put my hair back up, when he stopped me. "No. Leave it down, so when I sleep behind you, I can bury my face in it."

.........................

The next morning before heading off to the studio to meet with everyone, Seth stopped me before we exited the room. He took my hand and pulled me close. The minute my face came close to his chest, I could smell his familiar scent of oranges.

"Picks, I had something else to tell you, but I didn't think after everything that happened last night it was the right time to say anything."

I looked up at his face as he ran his thumb over my cheek, creating small circles on my skin. "I know how worried and hurt you were to leave Jax behind with Mrs. Shanahan and her family, so I went and got him a few weeks after you left."

Jax was my nine-year-old, one-eyed Boxer mix, that I was forced to leave behind. Every day I was gone I worried about how he was doing. When my mom died, he had already started to have a difficult time getting around due to his age and it hurt my heart to know that I might be stuck at the academy when it came time to make that difficult decision. I had found Jax in front of the library, in a little box when he was only about six weeks old. There had been a sign on the box that offered the puppies to anyone for free and all it took was one look into those big sweet browns and I was putty.

My mom was pretty understanding about my decision to bring a puppy home, even though she felt that owning and caring for a dog was a lot of responsibility. I had promised to do everything I needed to do to take care of him and upon proving to her that I wasn't going to stick her with the total care of a pet, she agreed that he could stay.

Over the last few years, Jax had become a permanent fixture at our band practices. Mosh had even made him a bandana with our logo on it, so he could wear it out around town. Knowing that he was safe with Seth's parents made my heart burn for Seth even more. It was the simple things that he did for me that made me love him so much. He didn't need fancy cars or a swollen bank account to prove to me that I was the most important person, he just needed his heart.

"What? Jax has been at your house this whole time? Why didn't you tell me?"

"You kind of got mad at me for being drunk when you called and then I don't know, I wanted it to be a surprise. I was really hoping I could convince you to come home for the holiday and then he'd be there waiting for you."

"Is he ok, Seth? I worry about him all the time. I wish I could have taken him."

"He's ok, Picks. A little grayer around the face and a slight limp, but I think it gives him more character. Imperfections are studly if you ask me. The limp adds a backstory to the missing eye, which I still tell people was a result of knife fighting in a back alley in Thailand when he was rebelling as a young gangster." I couldn't help but laugh, because Seth always came up with the best fake backstories for things.

"Thank you, Seth. You'll never know how much I appreciate the little stuff." I hugged him tight against me, savoring the moment. It was the little things that made me happy to call a guy like Seth Carter, not only my best friend, but a piece of my heart. 

"Someday, you'll learn that I'd do anything for-" Seth was interrupted mid-sentence when there was a barrage of knocks on the room door. 

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Come on guys! Put your pants on and let's go make some music," Mosh's gnarly voice sounded from the other side of the door. I threw the door open and Mosh's face dropped, "Ahh man! I was hoping I was interrupting something." 

Seth grabbed up his bass guitar case and slung his leather jacket over his free arm, before heading out into the hallway. Mosh took my guitar case from the room and held the door as I headed out in the same direction.

When we were out of earshot of Seth, who was waiting for the elevator, Mosh leaned in and said, "You know Picks, I might give you guys a hard time, but he's been a wreck since you left."

"What do you mean, Mosh?"

"Eh, I probably shouldn't talk out of turn, but the day you left he put his hand through the window of his van. Now he just pours his time into the music, trying not to drink his sorrows away. He really loves you, he might think we don't see it, but it's hard to ignore it. He started smiling again when we hit the outskirts of that town."

I smiled and wrapped my arm around Mosh's waist, walking in step with him to the elevator, "Thanks, Mosh. Someday some girl will really fall in love with you... Someday... Hopefully."

......................

When we stepped into the studio it was like a dream come true. There were several guys waiting in the booth area to chat with the band, go over the songs to record and answer general questions. Since the band had met some of these guys prior, I felt really out of place. I just wanted to skip all the formalities, pick up my guitar, and play.

A younger guy with glasses,  wearing a sweater and jeans, was going over formalities with Seth at a nearby table, while the other two guys who accompanied him, made basic chit chat with the band.

"Hi, you must be Talia Grey. I'm Mark Myers and I didn't have the pleasure of meeting with you when we signed the band. I have a contract that you will need to look over briefly." The guy who spoke was clad in a casual suit jacket, dark wash jeans and a white t-shirt. He had short blonde hair that swept to the side of his head and was gelled down pretty firmly. He offered his hand to me and I stood up from the black leather couch, where I was seated and shook his hand.

"Hi, yeah, this whole thing came as a surprise to me. So, should I call a lawyer and have them come look over my contract?"

"Actually, Seth had it looked over prior to today, as long as he's ok with everything it should be alright if you just go ahead and sign. It's the standard contract that each band member agreed to. The only special stipulations were in Seth's contract."

"Special stipulations?" I looked at him confused. 

What kind of special stipulations did Seth request? Was he getting greedy in his quest for fame or was he eventually looking for a solo gig away from the band?

"Actually, Mr. Carter's only two stipulations were that you appeared on tour after graduation and that he have a bonus acoustic track on the full release CD."

I looked over in Seth's direction as he came to stand beside Mark and myself. "Seth, you never do acoustic work?"

"Yeah, about that. I can't go into details, but I wrote a song and I want it included on the full album and not the initial EP." Seth took my hand in his and lightly rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, reassuring me that he knew what he was doing.

"Well, I guess I'll have to see the sheet music if we are recording it today."

"Actually, Picks, it'll be an acoustic of me singing and playing alone. It's already been talked about and I really hope you just trust me on this."

I was a tad taken aback by Seth. We didn't have secrets and a song I had no idea about and wasn't being shown, sounded like a really big secret. 

"Ok. No problem," I hesitantly said.

Mark handed me the contract to sign and a copy of the track list for the album. I glanced over it and it was all pretty standard, songs that we had been playing for a few years, mixed with a few newer ones that were written before I left.

1. Rawr In Dinosaur Means I Eat You

2. Calamity Jane 

3. Knife Fights Involving Turtles

4. Boxcar Bashfulness

5. Holy Rollers of the Midnight

6. Teddy Bears and Tight Lies

7. Northfield Anarchy

8. Riot At Dawn

9. Luxor Drive In The Moonlight

It was all pretty standard, except for Number 10 on the list. It was a song that I had never heard about or played with the band. A wave of sadness came over me at the thought of a new song being written without my input and then preformed in front of a crowd. A performance where I wasn't on the stage next to Mickey playing my heart out.

10. Jasmine And Honey

For a second, I just stared at the name of the song. Where had I heard the words jasmine and honey before? Was it something that was so important that it compelled Seth to write a song and call it that? I pointed to the track as Seth looked down and just smiled.

"Seth, I don't know this song."

"Yeah Picks, I wrote it several weeks ago."

"Ok, well either I need to see the sheet music or you guys are going to have to run through it so I can listen to the riffs."

Seth's eyes lit up and he told me to go ahead and sign my contract while the band set up in the studio. He told me the song was the pretty standard punk song with a lot of power chords. I hurried and glanced at the contract, noting that there was a touring clause that exempted me until graduation. I was pleased that Seth had been adamant when this was requested. I wasn't interested in forgoing graduating from high school to live the punk dream; an education was always top priority. It was something that I not only had to do for my mom, but more importantly for myself.

At the bottom of the track list was the secret that Seth was keeping.

Bonus Track: Simple Questions- Seth Carter Acoustic

After signing, I threw off my jacket and headed into the room where all of our instruments were set up. Seth was talking with Mark and the guy with the glasses off in the corner. Mosh was sitting at his drums, twirling his sticks, while Mickey toyed with the microphone in front of him. Sims was standing off to the side with his guitar and his foot propped up on a ledge, tuning.

"Mosh, so this song... What's it about?" I walked over to the drums and messed with his hi-hat cymbals, which were the cymbals that smashed down upon one another.

"Aye girly, no can do. You'll hear soon enough." He steadied his cymbals to stop the reverberation and winked at me. Seth headed back over while the two guys went into the sound booth. He grabbed up his bass guitar and took his position.

"Talia, just hang back and listen." Seth shot me a wink and then blew a kiss in my direction.

Yep, hang back and listen... Listen to all the secrets....

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A/N: Hey Guys!

Hope you liked the chapter. Don't forget to click the star and comment.

WHEW! Ok, well crisis adverted. The 18-pact is still in tact, even though I would have totally thrown that out of the window for Seth.

So.... Any thoughts on the secret song Jasmine and Honey? Or what the bonus track is all about? 

Is Seth hiding major secrets that could destroy Salia?

I guess we will see about the song next chapter... I know, I'm horrible ;)

<3 Love you guys!

 Amina