Chapter 1
ONE
“And baby, you, you are the reason I live!” The last line of the chorus rings out, echoing through the stadium as every single voice here screams it back at me.
I pull my neon purple mask off, throwing it to the side where a tech catches it and the crowd goes wild.
The drums crash right then, and the three of us onstage start jumping in time with the beat. Kai, our bassist, takes a moment to pull off his neon orange mask, tossing it to the side and I watch as he smirks at the crowd. The moment his face is bared to the crowd, the wails increase.
And what does that fucker do?
Blows a kiss to the ladies who flash us their tits from the front row.
It’s nothing new, but damn , what a life we live. I tip my chin up at them, smirking before shaking my finger in a tsk-tsk-tsk manner and walking off. Kai makes a show of looking until he turns and they scream his name.
I run to the side to grab a quick drink before my next part, just in time for the guitar solo. Markus is killing it tonight; as soon as he’s ready for the first one, he whips his mask to the side. His is green and I have no clue how it doesn’t get caught in his long curly hair.
With his solos, I can fade back for a moment and take a much needed breath. The darkness is broken up by the heat from the spotlights nearly blinding us all. But it does ensure that the first few rows of people are easily seen from the stage.
Even through the darkness, we know without a doubt there are tens of thousands of people here, watching us, singing along with the music that we wrote. The spotlight can be lonely, but it’s moments like this that make it worth it. At least for a little while.
I’m sweating; four songs live… It’s a lot. This is why I train the way I do. So that when I’m singing, I don’t disappoint the paying customers… or die.
Markus steps into the limelight, fingers flying over the chords as he plays.
His long dark hair is hanging freely over his shoulders, a few pieces falling to either side of his face and the rest sticking to his neck.
I can see the beads of sweat that fall into his eye as he nods at me to take back over in the spotlight.
Running on stage, I join him at my mic stand and we both turn into the microphone, facing the audience.
The energy they’re bringing tonight is just fucking amazing.
Right as the crowd’s cheering dies down, I know that’s when Adam, our drummer, will throw his mask off.
Three… Two… One… The crowd roars again, and I know that his neon red mask came off, showing our tattooed, blonde drummer boy.
We–okay, I–truly didn’t expect this kind of reaction when we announced we’d be adding this stop to the tour. We added Tulsa because it was the closest major city to our hometown.
When we heard the show was sold out, and our manager said there was a significant portion of ticket sales purchased from our hometown area, I was worried.
I didn’t know if anyone would actually show, seeing how they all felt about our ‘Satan music’.
Rock and roll with a little bit of grunge and electronics.
A crazy kind of mixture–just the way we like it.
I didn’t let the guys know my worries, but let’s just say I’m very pleasantly surprised.
“When I feel you there// I wonder how you ever really cared,” I sing my heart out, pouring my soul into my voice. Throwing my hand out to the crowd, I watch as many rows of people jump along with us.
All except one.
A woman holds onto the bars of the gates right in front of me, with her waist-length dark hair covering her face as her head falls forward.
Fuck. Singing the next line on autopilot, I watch her slump over the gate, passed out, while the surrounding people push her into the metal repeatedly as they try to get closer to the stage.
Fuck.
“I want to know// does he see you how I do?// does he see beneath the surface?” I sing and walk over to Kai, pointing to the girl.
His eyes widen and I watch as he races back toward the wing of the stage and alert security.
I turn my attention back to the girl. There’s no fucking way she’s going to make it. She has seconds left before she falls and is trampled.
“Fuck, stop it! Stop!” I yell into the mic, running to the front of the stage and jumping down.
My knees fucking kill from the impact, but that’s late-twenties-rocker-standard for you.
I sprint to the girl and hold her up, but that has the opposite effect.
Because of my presence, all the fans start screaming and pushing harder to try and get to me.
I hear the guys screaming at me and Kai barking into the microphone to give me some space. The venue’s security rushes over and starts ripping the fingers that are grabbing every piece of me, but I can’t care. Not right now.
I feel like I’ve been shot.
It’s her.
Melody Sullivan.
The object of my—honestly, our— insane and intense high school crush. Our best friend. The girl we left behind. The girl we all loved. The girl who all our songs are written about.
Written for, if I’m honest.
“Fuck, back up! What the fuck is wrong with you all?! Give her some air!” I plead, trying to keep her from falling more.
The metal digs into the hot skin under my arms, and Melody is dead weight as I hold her up through the bars, the only thing keeping her from sliding down and disappearing underfoot.
“Help! One of you, help me!” I yell over the crowd, trying to get someone to help me lift her. A big, muscled fucker the size of the Hulk comes over and lifts her into his arms like she’s a duffel bag.
The crowd roars louder and the hands on me start to fucking hurt.
Nails dig into my bare arms, drawing blood as fingers pull at my hair.
People grab the collar of my black tee and pull–choking me out–as if they’re trying to rip my clothes from my body.
Screams in my ears threaten to deafen me as they scream their love for me.
Grips on my arms as they try to pull me into the crowd, pull me closer to them like I’m not really a person, but an object.
This is why I don’t crowd surf. Two other security guys push the crowd back enough that I can yank myself free enough to check on her.
It’s loud as hell still, so I yell over to the guy holding Melody to take her to the dressing room, keep a guard on the door, and if he kept her in there until I got back there would be a hefty tip in it for him.
The big burly security guard lumbers off with the bane of my existence in his arms, and I have to keep myself from letting too much of Reis Mathers show. Right now I’m Reis, the badass lead singer of On The Edge and I have a show to put on.
Climbing back onto the stage, I refit my in-ear monitor so I can hear the music play. All the guys are looking at me like I’ve fucking lost it; I just know our manager, Louis, is seething off to the side. Markus walks up to me, still strumming and pulls out one of his earpieces, so I do the same.
“Everything okay?” he yells.
“It was Melody,” I shout back, turning my head to avoid any lip readers.
“No fucking shit! Is she okay?” Markus goes from lightly worried to ready to storm off the stage to get to her.
“She’s out, but I had a security guard take her to the dressing room!”
“Yeah, yeah! Come on, let’s finish this and then go have a little reunion.
Maybe we can get some answers. I know I’ve been dreaming of this for a while.
Like someone else I know.” He smirks like a fucking asshole as he walks back towards his spot, and I shake my head.
He’s made sure to keep the same riff for the song I interrupted and all the guys followed him.
I know that by the next chorus, Markus will make sure Adam and Kai know who is backstage waiting for us.
“So sorry about interrupting the song! That was shitty of me!” I yell into the microphone, “But seriously, fools, if you see someone around you go down, don’t be an asshole. We help each other out, don’t we?”
The audience roars again and I take the hem of my shirt, flip it up and wipe my face. The moment I do, I realize I’ve flashed them all a shot of my six-pack.
“You’re welcome!” I shrug, catching Kai rolling his eyes dramatically. “Let’s get back to it!”