The Boy Next Door

“That’s awesome,” I told Luke enthusiastically. “We’ll have to start drawing up setlists. I feel like we can’t keep playing the same thing all the time or it’s going to get old. And—”

“Whoa,” Luke said, grinning as he held up both his hands. “I’m just as excited and ready to make this work as you are. Can we just enjoy it for a little while before dealing with the logistics, though?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, sure,” I said. The truth was that I knew Mark and Carter probably weren’t in any shape to change things up. I didn’t want to think about that right now, though. I didn’t want to let that sour this for me.

What did sour my attitude, though, was when I scanned the crowd for my neighbor once more and saw that Carter had cornered her and was leaning in close. I felt a surge of jealousy go through me, and I left Luke where he was, jumping off the stage and making a beeline for the pair. My neighbor looked a little overwhelmed when Carter tried to go in for a kiss, and I hauled him away from her just in time.

I gave him a hard shove. “What the fuck are you doing?” I asked, all the pent-up frustration bursting out of me at once.

Carter looked pissed and shoved me back. “Find your own chick,” he snapped. “Or are you just here to be a cockblock again?”

I wanted to punch him, but I knew it wouldn’t be fair. It was clear that he was drunk right then, and I doubted that he even knew what he was doing. Fortunately, Luke appeared right then, pulling Carter aside and suggesting that they order some coffee for the next round. The look Carter shot me was murderous, but I doubted he would remember this by the morning.

I grabbed my neighbor’s arm and dragged her toward the exit. She giggled. “Nice to meet you too, Caveman,” she said. “My name’s Leah, what’s yours?”

“Jayson,” I bit out in a clipped tone.

For some reason, that made her giggle more. I turned toward her as we finally made it out into the night air. As I peered at her, it was obvious she was drunk. Almost as drunk as Carter was. Suddenly, all of my attraction to her evaporated. “You should go home,” I told her. “You’re going to do something that you regret.”

“How do you know what I’d regret?” Leah asked, leaning toward me, her hand resting on my chest, no doubt for balance purposes. She didn’t seem too steady on her feet.

“You’re drunk,” I told her flatly.

Leah laughed. “Isn’t that the point of coming to a bar?” she asked, stepping away from me and doing a little twirl that caused her to stumble. But she righted herself and grinned at me.

“It’s not safe,” I told her, feeling suddenly protective of her. God, I didn’t know where she had moved here from, but there was something so innocent about her. It made me even more angry about what might have happened back there. “If I hadn’t grabbed Carter off of you, he’d have his mouth glued to yours right now.”

Leah shrugged. “He’s not that bad-looking,” she said. “I could do worse.”

I growled, my jealousy flaring up again. I had planned on just sticking her in a taxi, but now I didn’t want to leave her alone. Who knew what she might do?

I pulled out my phone and ordered a ride, then texted Luke to break down the equipment without me. I felt bad since I knew it would take him a little while. It wasn’t like Carter or Mark would step in to help. But I’d get Luke back at one of the other shows.

“Get in,” I said to Leah when the car pulled up to the curb.

“What if I don’t want to?” she asked, a teasing challenge in her voice. The look I gave her shut her up, though, and she meekly got into the car. She wasn’t quiet for long, though.

“You know, I really liked the show tonight,” she said. “The music was good. You’re actually a pretty good drummer. But your lead singer talks too much for anyone to really get into it, and then there’s the set list. You come out on the highest-energy song, which is good for getting the crowd into it, and then you close on a high-energy song too. But in the middle, things just kind of slow down. It honestly gets kind of boring at points.”

I stared at her, mouth agape as she picked us apart. Normally, I would be annoyed. Even more so because I knew that everything she was saying was true. It was part of why I had been trying to get some new material into our shows, because I knew we needed another couple of really banging songs. How was I supposed to get them when Mark and Carter weren’t prepared to even play our tried-and-true older stuff?