“Wake up, baby.”

I was already awake, curled up under the heavy embroidered blanket my grandmother had given us the Christmas before. But it was nice to close my eyes and listen to his soft voice, to let his words paint a masterpiece portrait of him in my mind.

“I need my beauty sleep,” I reminded him, trying to sound stern but not quite managing it. He doesn’t get stern me, the lucky devil.

“You’re always beautiful,” he drawled, crawling back under the blankets fully dressed.

“Awh, sweet. Hideous demonic lies, but sweet,” I smiled, trailing a perfectly manicured nail down the bridge of his nose and across his carved cheekbones. So many clichés about marble and porcelain would never do the gentle glow of his skin or his flawless features justice. Nothing I could say would ever convey how beautiful he is.

“We can’t stay in bed all day, sugar,” he said, tangling his hands in my hair. No one is allowed to touch my hair except him.

“Pfft,” I made a dismissive sound. “I’m a rebel.”

“Ok, I’ll make you a deal,” he offered. “If you get up today, Friday and Saturday, we’ll spend all day Sunday in bed. What do you say, Sonny Jackson?”

“Skylar Minardi, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

---

Waking up with Skylar Minardi is one of life’s little pleasures that I will never take for granted. To you, my lucky observers, it may seem sickly sweet but it really can be the highlight of my day.

You should all know me by now. I’m Sonny Jackson, a petit, pretty little thing with the best clothes and the coolest make up. I don’t mean to sound egotistical (yet funny how it happens) but I’m really quite attractive when I want to be. I have eyes that radiate mischief, snow white skin, jutting hips and a cute little ass.

But my most attractive feature? I’m Skylar Minardi’s boyfriend. I thought I was a knockout - and then I met Sky. We went to the same high school, I was 16 and he was 18. I was the cold hearted, bitter but worshipped Crown Princess of the Misfit kids. I would sleep around, bitch and snipe. Basically, I was the prettiest ugly person you’d ever meet.

Skylar, on the other hand, was a stunning young man with music in his blood. His father, Johnny, is an exceptionally rich and talented producer. Skylar wasn’t spoiled though - when I met him, he was working in a coffee bar.

Shortly after my first serious boyfriend dumped me, I met Skylar and joined him and his friends, Nikki, Lexie and Jilly to form an awesome band called Trainwrecks and Firewater. After I graduated, we moved to Los Angeles. A lot of horrible things happened but in the midst of all the badness, Trainwrecks And Firewater got signed to Adam Eden’s (gasp) record label and we put out our debut album.

It sold 11 million copies.

We played sold out shows around the world, we became the new faces of Fay Adam’s super popular SuckerLove Clothing line. We became the rock stars we had always dreamed of being.

And I would trade it all to spend forever in Skylar’s arms. Luckily, I didn’t have to. I got to have Skylar and my music career. It was time for the supposedly tricky second album and once again we were holed up in Adam Eden’s LA mansion, writing new songs.

I got up, stretched and jumped in for a shower, indicating that Skylar should join me. An hour and three outfits later and I finally made it downstairs to the basement studio with Skylar in tow.

Nikki (bassist), Lexie (guitarist), Jilly (drummer) and Adam (sex bomb) were all waiting in the basement. Chris, our turntable/keyboard player was out getting doughnuts. The legendary Adam Eden was once again going to produce the album. Not only was he an amazing musician and mentor, he was probably one of my closest friends and we all trusted him.

“Morning, beautiful,” Adam smiled, handing me my favourite guitar.

“How are we all today?” I asked, slipping into my guitar and musician frame of mind.

Everybody answered in the positive. I let my eyes linger on Adam - not just because he’s very nice to look at, he’d recently recovered from bulimia and I was concerned about him. Adam’s recent crisis had raised a lot of issues that I hadn’t quite put to bed.

“What have you two been getting up to and did you film it?” Jilly asked with a glint in her eye.

“Not much, and no,” I replied. “You know, there are websites where you can satisfy your twisted urges.”

“I have the urge to make music,” Lexie smiled, stroking her shiny new guitar. It was a rose pink, kind of like my shiny new lip gloss.

“Let’s do that then,” Sky grinned, tuning his guitar.

We spent hours in the basement together. Making music soothes me, especially that day when my soul was still quietly aching. Everything was so upbeat, everything was going so well.

Everything was about to fall to pieces.

---

“Sonny, phone!”

“Ooh!” I grinned, leaping from Skylar’s lap as Nikki called up the stairs of our wonderful new house. After bugging Adam for months, we finally took that sacred step and bought a house of our own five minutes’ walk from Adam’s mansion, close to the Hollywood Hills.

It was a quaint semi mansion, affordable but still rather luxurious. Skylar and I had the master bedroom, Nikki and Jilly had rooms on the first floor and Lexie occupied the basement. I felt so grown up, but living with my closest friends meant I could still be a big kid.

I danced down the stairs and picked up the phone in the living room. We had recently had the place decorated, and the living room was my favourite. It was a dramatic warm purple with wood flooring and comfy black sofas. I loved relaxing there.

“God speaking, how can I help you?” I giggled.

“Sonny sweetie?” My mom sounded very amused.

“Hey mom! What’s up?”

“I got a call from the adoption agency this morning,” she stammered and my smile faltered.

I had found out on the day of high school graduation that I was adopted - I didn’t adjust too well but with Sky’s help I eventually came to terms with it. Still, it wasn’t a matter I enjoyed discussing.

“And?”

“I think you should come home, love.”