Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Trey was so completely turned around by his whirlwind trip to see Dominic that he spent most of the day after in bed with his headphones on, playing some of the hardest metal he could find, hoping it would drive some of his bitterness away.
It didn’t.
Driving to the suburbs of Philadelphia, alone, on freaking interstates some of the time, had been the hardest thing Trey had done in his life.
Harder than leaving home and starting fresh.
Harder than the first time he got up onstage with Fading Daze.
But he’d done it so he could make things right with Dominic, and that had exploded in his face spectacularly.
They’d made peace. Dominic had opened a metaphorical vein and told Trey about the worst experience of his life—one that still made Trey see red if he dwelled on it for too long—and somehow Trey had taken that trust and smeared it with shit.
All he’d wanted was to find a way to help Dominic heal, and instead Trey found himself being sent away.
The drive home had nearly killed him, and not only from the car anxiety—from the very real fear that Dominic was done with him this time.
And also the bitter anger of knowing that no matter what they promised each other, Dominic didn’t want to lean on Trey.
He could talk calmly about a horrific ordeal from six years ago, but talk about the emotions he was feeling in that moment?
Nope, sorry, not happening.
And that had hurt Trey more deeply than if Dominic had knifed him in the gut. For all his talk, Dominic didn’t trust Trey to be careful with his heart when it really mattered. And maybe Trey could have thought through his Unbound suggestion a little further, but he’d said it in love.
Danielle barged into his room a little after four, dressed in her uniform and still smelling faintly of seafood and Old Bay. She climbed up the ladder and stretched out next to him. “You left your phone in the kitchen.”
The only way he understood that was because his current song was fading away. Resigned to her staying put until he talked, he tugged out the earbuds. “I know.”
“I tried calling you twice today, you jerk. I was worried when I saw you’d come back last night instead of staying over with Dom.”
Even the name made Trey’s heart flutter. “He sent me home.”
Danielle’s eyebrows shot up. “Shit, he didn’t forgive you?”
“Not exactly.” He laid it out as fairly as possible, from forgiveness to fresh anger, glossing over the details of everything that happened with Chambers.
That wasn’t his place to tell. “He told me needed space, and all I wanted to do was help him through what he was feeling. I just don’t understand. ”
“Did you ask his parents about it?”
“No, I thanked them for dinner and left.”
“What about Lincoln?”
“He’d just take Dom’s side. No.”
Danielle propped her elbow on the bed and dropped her cheek into her palm. “Did you check for texts or messages?”
“He texted last night and apologized. I have a voice mail I didn’t bother listening to.”
“Damn, you are mad.”
“Can you blame me?”
“A little yes, but I know you, Coop. You’re a stubborn pain in the ass who learned really fast to only keep close the people who made you feel good about yourself. And right now, Dom is seriously crapping out in that department. So you’re keeping your distance.”
“I guess so.”
“Then as your best friend, if taking a break from Dom is what you need, I support you.” She reached into her shorts pocket and dropped his phone in front of him. “But at least hear him out first.”
Trey grunted, then played the voice mail. Audio version of last night’s text. He thumbed open his texts, and the latest from Dom hit him with a hot flash of anger. Lincoln made Dom see Trey’s point about Unbound.
Lincoln.
Dom hadn’t listened to him, but his best friend somehow made more sense than his boyfriend. Lincoln got Dom to commit to that final “fuck you,” not Trey.
So Trey sent back the most passive-aggressive thing he could think of in that moment: Good for you. I need SPACE.
He flung his phone at the foot of the bed, then rolled onto his back. “I need to get laid.”
“You and me both.” Danielle curled up next to him, her head a welcome weight against his shoulder. “Do I want to ask?”
“No. You know what? I need to focus on Unbound right now. Maybe we’re only in the showcase, but we’re going to be seen by a shit-ton of people. We needed to be better than our best. We need to practice.”
“Bobby gets home around six. Want me to see what Andy’s up to?”
“Definitely.”
She left his room, apparently remembering to bring in his phone but not her own.
Trey stared at the ceiling, resenting the new anger and wishing he could make it go away.
But he was exhausted from fighting with Dom.
Maybe once Unbound was over, they’d be able to sit down and really talk, without the stress of a major musical competition a living thing eating away at both of them.
Maybe they could fix things.
After Unbound.
July bled into August, and Trey’s life became a whirlwind of practicing, working, and sleeping.
He kept up with the winners of the last few regional Unbound festivals.
Many of them were easy to find online and yeah, the competition would be tough.
Not for Fading Daze, necessarily, because they weren’t competing for the top prize.
Only for the attention of the music professionals in the audience.
Bobby continued to ignore him outside of necessary band communication, and Trey stopped hoping for an emotional thaw there. He also couldn’t stop entertaining thoughts of Bobby dumping his ass out of the band once Unbound was over.
Talent coordinator Emily kept in touch, finalizing details of their trip to New York City. Unbound was paying for three hotel nights for all acts, but they were responsible for getting themselves to the city. The idea of a four-hour drive made Trey want to climb out of his skin.
Knowing Dominic would be at the other end of that trip made his pulse jump every time he remembered. Dominic hadn’t reached out again after Trey’s snarky response, and that was okay. They both needed to concentrate on their music.
Even so, Trey never stopped missing him. Wondering if he was okay. Curious which song they’d chosen for his violin accompaniment. And then he’d get angry all over again and shove the thoughts aside for a while.
He flopped into bed a little after two in the morning on Tuesday, hot from the walk back from Off Beat, and too wired to sleep.
They left for New York early Friday morning.
The showcase performers played that night.
The final rounds began Saturday morning and into Sunday, with the winners announced Sunday at four o’clock.
Their contract required that they attend several hours of the competition both weekend days, but that gave Fading Daze plenty of free time to explore the city.
Trey had never been to New York, and he loved the idea of seeing Manhattan. Maybe even the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial.
His phone squeezed out the ring tone he’d assigned to Dominic, and his heart kicked. No one called at that hour unless they were drunk or had bad news. Dominic had never seemed like the type to drunk-dial someone. “Hello?”
“Hey.” The soft, fractured way Dominic said that single word sent cold terror down Trey’s spine.
“What’s going on? Are you hurt?”
“No. Linc . . . fuck.”
Oh God. “Dom, where are you?”
“Hospital.”
No, no, no. He swallowed down rising panic. “Which hospital, babe?”
“Um, the one in Lewes.”
If Trey weren’t so freaked he’d have picked on Dominic for mispronouncing the town to rhyme with “news” instead of “Lewis.” Tourists did it all the time. “Okay, so Beebe. What hap—were you guys in a car accident?”
The silence made him wonder if Dominic had nodded his answer.
“Words, babe.”
“Yes. Someone swiped us. We went off the road.”
Trey didn’t realize he was on his feet and slapping on tennis shoes until he had to figure out balancing the phone and tying laces. “Who’s we?”
“All of us. And Joshua. Had a gig in Fenwick. No money for a hotel so we were going home after.”
“Okay. Are you hurt?”
“Not really. Linc was driving. His side went into a telephone pole, Trey. Fuck.” Dominic’s voice broke completely, and Trey cursed the physical distance between them.
“I’m on my way, Dom, okay? I’ll be there in, like, forty-five minutes. Won’t be any traffic at this hour. Do you need me to stay on the phone?”
“I’m not sure—hey. Benji’s coming out.”
“Okay, good. You guys sit tight. I’m on my way.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“No need. I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
Trey paused, the words “I love you” dangling in the air. “See you soon.”
He didn’t even wake Bobby to ask. He snagged the car keys off the kitchen table and left.
Adrenaline hit him the moment he eased the car onto the road, and it stayed with him for the entire drive north.
He sped whenever he dared, leaving behind the resort area for an empty landscape of sand dunes and asphalt, until he eased back into another resort.
Everything passed in a blur, his attention laser-focused on getting to Dominic.
Nothing was more important in that moment, until he finally zipped into a parking space near the emergency room entrance.
He didn’t have to look hard to find Dominic in the mostly empty waiting room.
He had a bruise on his forehead, and he looked up with such devastation in his eyes that Trey braced for the worst kind of news.
Next to Dominic, Benji had a wide bandage on his forearm and a bunch of small cuts on his face.
Dominic stood, and Trey wrapped him up as best he could. He held tight while Dominic shook apart in his arms. His eyes sparked with tears over Dominic’s pain, and he regretted every moment they’d lost to anger these past few weeks. Unnecessary anger over petty things.
“How are the others?” Trey asked.