Mia’s mouth pulled at one side and her eyes narrowed when something played across Tamar’s red lips. A silent conversation transpired between the two of them that clearly had everything to do with me.
Awesome.
“Are you hungry?” Mia finally asked, shifting that gaze to me. There went my blood, traveling south, and not to my growling stomach.
“Starved.”
She offered the smallest smile and an even smaller nod.
I thought maybe a truce.
A free pass.
She was going to let me off on the bullshit I’d pulled last night.
“We should eat, then. If we don’t, Ash will never let us hear the end of it.”
“Damn right, I won’t,” he hollered from across the deck.
At her side, I made a plate, fighting the rumble of something deep in my bones. I shoved it down.
I could do this.
I could stay here without fucking it all up.
Ruining it all.
I sat down beside her at the larger table, pretending like I didn’t notice it was a circle of couples.
The love-fucked.
I took a hard glance at Mia. Tucking the feeling away. Wanting a piece of this for me.
Reminding myself again why that would forever be an impossibility.FifteenLeifTwenty-One Years OldStrobe lights flashed in blinding rays of white light as I railed on the drums. Sweat flung from my drenched body. Soul crashing with the violent, raging rhythm.
The crowd surged and thrashed and toiled at the foot of the stage. Wild. Untamed. Minds absent, swept away in the reckless energy as they throbbed in the pit.
I fed off of it. Sucked it down. Muscles in my arms screaming with exertion as I pounded through the song.
The rest of the band came unhinged on the stage. Guitar and bass deafening. Milo screamed his aggression into the mic as his entire body slammed with the beat.
And for a few minutes, every single person in that club was free.
I tossed my sticks into the crowd. All the people standing at the foot of the stage were gasping for their breaths, as soaked as me, all the chaos they’d been holding onto released into the songs that we had played. I strode off the stage and went right for the room in the back.
Couches were set up all around. Lights cut low. Music blared from the speakers.
I accepted the bottle Miles offered as I walked in.
I plopped onto a couch. Did two fat lines that were already cut on the table, and I didn’t complain at all when a girl I’d hooked up with last week got onto her knees and went to work on my fly.
Lyrik West and his crew rolled in.
I gestured to the table.
My offering.
As long as they had the dough, all were welcome to play with me.
The band was nothing but an easy cover.
Music might have been the one piece that I still possessed of my soul, but it was Keeton who owned me.
Lyrik cocked me a smirk as he took a seat and gave himself over to the oblivion.
I guessed it was the least I could do.* * *Leif, Twenty-Three Years OldThe front door of the auto-shop swished open, sending a slice of late afternoon light streaking into the reception area. Heaving out a sigh, I sat forward on the stool where I sat behind the counter, trying not to be annoyed as I tossed my phone to the grungy surface.
But this bullshit was stupid.
Sitting up here like I was some kind of mechanic’s apprentice or some shit.
I had barely glanced up at the figure that slipped inside before my throat was going thick with a tingly awareness. My head snapped up to find this girl who was all kinds of wary standing just inside.
Wearing the shortest shorts and a long tee that almost covered them, her blonde hair swept up in a messy knot on top of her head. Flipflops on her feet.
There was an oil streak on her gorgeous face.
An innocent face.
Shy and sweet. Cheeks full, almost as full as her pink lips.
Her green eyes were big and round as she took in the surroundings. “I . . . um . . . are you open?” she asked, her nerves skating through the air.
“Yeah.”
She gestured out the door. “I got a flat. I tried to change it myself, but . . .” she trailed off, those eyes watching me as I pushed to standing.
My heart rate sped.
Sped with something brand new.
“You need my help?” I grunted out.
She smiled. “Yeah, I do.”* * *We banged into my apartment. Door crashing on the wall as I went back for her. Diving in for a kiss that I didn’t ever want to end. My arms curled around her tiny body. Lifting her from her feet. Spinning her and spinning her as we kissed and touched and clawed to get closer to the other.
Frantic.
Like if we lost this moment, we were going to lose everything.