Jace took the remote from her and scrolled through the songs on the screen until he found one he liked. Really liked. It would be odd for him to not like this song.
"Nine In the Afternoon," he said, clicking on the song and handing her remote back to her. "Gimme a bit of nostalgia from my emo days. Pretty. Odd. was a good album," he sighed wistfully. As they played, Jace couldn't help himself from singing along to his own voice.
"Back to the street where we began, feeling as good as you know you can..."
Embry danced beside Jace, but her eyes wandered from the screen to him every once and a while. It was hard not look at him when he was practically performing Nine in the Afternoon. She'd be lying if she said she played this song often considering she only really played Just Dance with the guys and it was obvious that they didn't play this one.
Once the song was over, she snorted seeing how she lost by one, or maybe two stars, but still."God damn it." She huffed, feigning frustration. In actuality, it was all very fun."You won this time."
"Ha!" said Jace triumphantly, jumping into the air with joy. "Fuck yeah I won. I'm fucking amazing. You're alright, too, I guess."
Jace took off his sweater, leaving him in a baggy tank-top that showed off the elaborate tattoo sleeves on both of his arms. He shoved his hair out of his face, as it had kept him from achieving a higher score last round. "Let's go, motherfucker, I wanna kick your ass again. We should go on Dancing with the Stars."
"Oh, you're on, asshole!" Embry scoffed, pushed him to the side and picked up the controller."I'm going to demolish you with this next song. You'll be weeping when I wipe the floor with you."
She scrolled through the long list of songs and selected A-punk by Vampire weekend. Embry smirked and tossed the controller onto the sofa seat."This is where you meet your end, Jace Lesecki of Beautiful Pain." She said just before the song began.
Seven games of Just Dance later and the two singers had completely tied. Jace collapsed on the couch and pulled Embry down beside him, panting heavily. "Fuck, this is a lot more difficult than just stripteasing on stage," he mused, before wiping his sweaty face with his tank top, revealing his tattooed chest for a moment.
"I need a moment to recover," he told Embry, looking up at her with piercing blue eyes. "Well, actually, I might need, like, ten years to fully recover. I may have fractured by stamina permanently. This is why I just make music videos where I turn into Satan and recruit the Stranger Things kids to be a part of my Los Angeles-worshipping cult."
"Yes, obviously you need to stick to that. This is too much for you to handle." Embry snickered, pushing back damp strands of her pale blond hair from her face. "You're panting harder than me, and I'm the one with asthma." She laughed a little harder.
She pulled her legs up onto the couch, tucking them at her side and made a pouty face."I still haven't seen that video yet. I mean I saw a thumbnail of it when I was on youtube." She was sure it must have been good. It would be a fact that she would love it, it may have been strange like his other music videos, but this was a woman who loved Johnny Depp and Tim burton movies. So, it would only be natural for her to enjoy them.
"Seriously, though, you sing, write songs, play piano, dance, striptease, direct your own music videos and on top of that you're handsome." She sighed dreamily and ever so dramatically as she brushed back some of his hair with a hand.."Tell me what do you lack? What can't you do?"
"Hm." Jace frowned, pursing his lips as he considered her question. He also put his feet up on the couch, laying his calves over her lap. "I'm really bad at math. Like, exceptionally, depressingly, ridiculously bad at math. And physics. And chemistry. Basically everything that involves formulas. I did really bad in high school."
He sighed through his nose and crossed his arms over his chest. This topic got him quite worked up when he got into it. Jace had really hated high school.
"I don't see the point of doing someone else's bullshit formula that is never going to count for anything in the real world. I don't understand why we're being forced to learn shit like that. I'd probably be decent at it if I understood its purpose. I also hate how artistic, musical people are judged because they're not good at science. Oh, also, I can't ice skate."
"Ugh, I know exactly what you mean." For she too was terrible with math and science, at least any science that wasn't biology. Her parents made her study hard, even paid for a tutor. So, even now she knew the formulas and steps, yet, ironically enough, she rarely had to use them. "I feel like a wasted so much time in my life learning that stuff. And - wait, you can't ice skate?"
"I love ice-skating, it's so much fun. That was one of the main things I did for fun as a kid." While his origin place, his childhood, resided in Las Vegas, her's was in the north, born and portland, but raised in New York. "If you trust me, I'll teach you. I swear it will be fun. I'll even make you a sweater to keep warm."
Glad that the topic of conversation had strayed away from mathematics and science, Jace grinned. "I'd like to learn sometime," he mused. "I mean, I can rollerblade and skateboard, just not ice skate. Maybe its the slipperiness of the rink or something? I don't know. I don't even think there is a rink in Vegas."
He adjusted slightly, still resting his legs on her thighs but he now had his hands behind his head as he looked up at Embry with a smirk. "It's hard to striptease in a sweater, but I'll manage," he mused. "But, remember, we have those darling children tomorrow."
"Oh, you're right. I'll have to go with a scarf or gloves instead. But, I don't think you should be stripping in ice skating rink, you'll catch a cold." Embry warned him, smiling all the while.
"Oh, I won't. After all, I'm the one who's actually scheduled to go. You're just tagging along because I like you somewhat." She mocked and looked down him with her eyes slightly narrowed."So, don't even think about stealing any of my thunder while you're there.Otherwise, you're going home. But you should be there around one o'clock."
Jace laughed. "Well, unfortunately for you, little kids seemed to be fascinated by two things. One, freakishly tall people. Two, tattoos. I happen to check both of those boxes, so you might as well not even come."
He stood up, with a grin on his face. "I'm kidding." He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll come around here to pick up at twelve thirty," he offered.
"Twelve thirty works just fine, yes, I'd like that," Embry said after a moment of thought."I'll probably be getting some other things done and prepared before then."
She stood up from her seat on the couch, planning on walking him out."It'll be so great." She grinned just thinking about it. There was no way she'd say that she was really good with children nor did she liked hospitals. But, she loved maing people happy and helping in any way she could.
"Agreed." Jace loved kids. He wanted kids of his own, like, yesterday, but it wasn't the right time for that yet. He needed a woman, for starters, and he was still trying to progress his career. It just wasn't time.
He stepped out of her apartment and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek again. "I'll see you tomorrow, Embry. Thanks for today."
"Anytime." Embry responded with a wave of her hand and pleasantly accepted his kiss to the cheek."Have a safe trip home."
At the moment she felt full with energy. It was sure to pass quickly as soon as he would leave. She bit the corner of her bottom lip and sighed, feeling that tiredness start to creep in. "And good evening."
Dressing in a kid-safe manner was hard for Jace. After going through literally every single garment in his house, Jace finally settled on black skinny jeans, a loose white button-up shirt and Converse shoes. He rolled his sleeves up to the elbows, revealing his elaborate tattoos, and truly tried his best to do his hair neatly. He also skipped on his usual eyeliner, which made his normally violently blue eyes appear to be a soft pastel.
"This'll do," he sighed. He picked up his keys, shoved his wallet and phone into his pockets and left the house. He decided to drive himself today, opting for the glossy black convertible and making his way to Embry's apartment building.
He texted her to let her know he was here and settled in his seat to wait.
Embry walked out of the front door about five minutes after receiving his text. She heaved up her guitar case and walked over to the convertible figuring it had to be him since how it was the only car in front of her building and still running.
After setting,or more like tossing, her guitar into the back seat, she made it to her place in the front. "I'm sorry sir, am in the wrong car?" She asked once facing Jace. She could tell he put some true effort into his appearance today.
She had simply put on light make-up, brushed her, threw on a black and ted plaid dress with stockings and and blazer, hopped into her doc martens and walked out the door, guitar in hand."Oh it is you. If it weren't for your tattoos." She smiled and buckled in.
Jace rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm shocked, too," he said sarcastically. Once she was safely seated beside him, he started to drive in the direction of the hospital.
"I figured this is a special occasion, so I should try and look presentable," he told her with a casual shrug, as though there wasn't much to the situation besides that. "You look lovely."
"Thank you." Embry reached up, pushing her seatbelt away just a little, so it would not restrict her, and pecked him on the cheek."I know I teased you but you still look great."
"Even your car looks cool." She commented, brushing her fingers against the leather seat she sat in. And she meant, though she was not a woman who cared for automobiles much, she did have taste when it came to them. "I had a convertible too. But I don't drive well at all, so I gave it to Isaac."
"Why thank you. I try to surround myself with objects that reflect my personality," Jace joked. He just liked nice things. He smoothly steered the vehicle through the disgusting Los Angeles traffic. It was good that they had left so early; the would definitely be at least twenty minutes late at this rate if they had have left any later.
"I don't really drive much, either," Jace agreed. They were stuck at a light, so he took the opportunity to change the radio station. A Beautiful Pain song was playing -- Miss Jackson, to be precise -- so he left it on, because he was vain.
"I usually get driven everywhere, but I figure it's good to have a car just in case."
"Yes. Yes, it is." When there were places she wanted to personally or just for herself to go she had to ask for a ride. Or in most cases, catch a cab. And no, she did not use any apps like Lift. "It's good to have for emergencies amongst other things. No doubt you made the right move. "
She couldn't help but make a sound, somewhere in between a snort and snicker. What great a great coincidence that his song happened to be playing now. She wasn't really surprised that he left it on. "Do you always listen to your songs when they're playing? I'm just curious." Embry could not say she did the same, but on occasion she would, just for carpool fun with others.
