Chapter One
Annie
“Annie and Ella, come here,” Dad calls out.
“Daaad,” I groan, already knowing what he wants—another bloody photo. I swear he should have been paparazzi.
“C’mon, just one more before you start practice,” Dad says, and Ella and I exchange a look before heading over to him and Mum.
“Okay, fine, but this is the last one. You’re killing our rock and roll vibe, Dad,” Ella grumbles, making me laugh.
“I am rock and roll, girls. Don’t forget where you learned it,” Dad replies, pulling us in front of him and Mum. He pulls out his phone and lines up the shot as we settle into place.
“Whatever, Dad, you’re so lame,” Ella mutters, flipping her blonde curls over her shoulder.
“All right, are my girls ready?” he asks.
“Yes, hurry up,” I say, flashing a peace sign and sticking out my tongue. The camera snaps, and Ella and I immediately step back.
“Just one more,” Dad says.
We both laugh. He’s obsessed with capturing every moment—something about ‘never knowing when it might be the last.’ He says it so often it’s lost all meaning.
“Oh my God,” Ella and I drone in unison, already impatient to get started.
We lean back in beside Mum and Dad, smiling this time. Just as the camera flashes, Mum leans in and kisses Dad.
Ella rolls her blue eyes, and I groan.
“Great, they’re making out again!” she whines.
Across the room, Anna and Johnny laugh. They’re my parents’ best friends and the parents of my best friend, Aston, who’s already strapping on his bass like we should have been doing five minutes ago.
“Okay, sorry, off you go,” Dad chimes in, wrapping an arm around Mum.
For all their public displays of affection, they’re perfect together. It’s hard to hate that.
We head back to our instruments, strapping on our guitars while Johnny helps Aston tune his bass. I adjust my mic and catch Dingo talking to Chad behind the kit.
“Remember to hit the crash cymbal this time,” Dingo instructs.
“Shut up, Dad, I got this,” Chad fires back.
I smirk. He’s a hothead… just like me.
“Yeah, you do,” Dingo says, clearly proud as he hands his son the sticks.
“Chad, don’t talk to your father like that. And Dingo, don’t let him,” Sia cuts in. She’s Chad’s mum and the manager of Dad’s band, 12GAUGE-Slayed, which basically makes her the boss of everyone.
“All right, you guys ready?” Caleb asks, adjusting his mic.
“Yep. What song first?” Ella asks as she sets up her music stand.
Love her, but she still needs sheet music. The rest of us feel it out or ad-lib, as they say in the industry, but she’ll get there.
“How about the new one?” Caleb says in that performance voice that always makes me want to laugh.
We all nod.
“Okay, parents, and the rest of you un-cool people, we’re Staked, and we’re about to rock your socks off. This is our new track, “Don’t Mess With The Best.” ”
Chad counts us in, and the moment I hit the first chord, everything else disappears.
We’ve been playing together for years, and it shows. The sound flows easily between us, the vibration of my guitar running straight through my body. Music does that… it pulls me under and quiets everything else.
I lean back into Aston, our usual rhythm, back to back. We always play better like this. Feeling him there, steady and solid, grounds me.
Laughter and cheers echo around us, but I barely hear it.
I pull back and catch his eye. He grins, and it hits me like it always does—bright, easy, impossible not to return.
Aston gets me.
He always has.
We’re only a few months apart in age, but it feels like we’ve grown up on the same wavelength. Ella’s a year younger, same as Chad, and Caleb—well, Caleb’s older, but he never makes it weird. He just fits.
The song builds, and I lose myself in it completely. The notes, the rhythm, the energy, it all wraps around me until nothing else exists.
Just the music.
Just us.
We finish, and I high-five Aston. That same spark snaps between our palms, quick and sharp, like always.
He smiles again.
I glance at Caleb, and he nods.
Good. Because I’m not done yet.
We launch straight into the next song. Ella leans into Caleb as he sings to her, while Aston and I fall into our usual rhythm, playing off each other like we always do.
He’s my anchor when I’m up here.
My constant.
We wrap the set, and I’m breathless, sweaty, completely wired. When I get like this, nothing else matters. The world narrows down to sound, movement, connection…
… and Aston.
Applause pulls me back, and I glance around the room.
Anna and Johnny.
Macy and Uncle Hux.
Sia and Dingo.
But two people are missing.
The two I was hoping to see most.
I scan the room, searching for Mum and Dad while everyone else is being congratulated by their parents.
Ella slips an arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay. They probably heard us from upstairs,” she says quietly.
I bite my lip, trying not to think about how much they might have missed. They knew how important this was.
“You okay, Lennox?” Aston asks, using the nickname only he gets away with.
“Mum and Dad missed it,” I say, my voice tighter than I want it to be.
“Yeah… I saw them leave just after we started,” he admits, pulling his bass off.
The words hit harder than I expect.
I pull my guitar free and place it into the stand a little too forcefully. “So they missed the whole thing?”
“Hey… I’m sorry. I know you wanted them here,” he says, stepping in and wrapping his arms around me.
He’s solid, stronger than he used to be, and it still catches me off guard sometimes. One minute, he was the kid I played with in the sandpit, and now he’s… this.
All muscles, broad shoulders, and that face!
But he’s still Aston.
Still the one who knows exactly when I’m about to lose it.
“Lennox, don’t let it get to you,” he murmurs. “You know what they’re like.”
I let out a slow breath, but it doesn’t take the edge off. “Don’t get upset?” I repeat quietly. “It was our first performance, Aston. They should’ve been here.” A tear slips free before I can stop it. He brushes it away with his thumb, the simple gesture grounding me for a second…
Until I see them.
Mum and Dad walk back in, smiling like they haven’t missed a thing.
Something inside me snaps.
“Lennox… just breathe,” Aston says, his hand settling on my shoulder.
“No.” I walk straight toward them.
“Hey, Annie, you sounded great,” Dad says, reaching out to ruffle my brown hair with purple tips.
I knock his hand away and step back. “How would you know?” I ask, my voice sharp. “You weren’t even here!”
Mum glances at Dad, her expression tightening. “Annie, honey—”
“Don’t,” I cut in. “Everyone else had their families here watching them. Supporting them. And we had no one.”
Dad exhales slowly. “We heard you. We just needed to step away for a minute. We were discussing something important.”
I let out a short, disbelieving laugh, my chest tight with frustration. “Discussing what?”
I shift my weight, folding my arms as I hold his gaze.
Ella moves to stand beside me. She doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t need to.
“Adult stuff, Annie,” Dad says.
Mum looks at me, her expression tight, at least she has the decency to look sorry.
“Well? What was so fucking important you couldn’t be here to watch your daughters play for the first time?” I ask, my voice raised but no longer out of control.
“Annie, don’t swear,” Mum says softly.
I let out a sharp breath. “You and Dad swear all the time.”
“Yes, but we’re adults,” she replies.
“So am I.”
Dad huffs a quiet laugh, like I’ve just said something ridiculous. “Sweetheart, you’re thirteen. You’ve got a long way to go before you’re an adult.”
Something inside me snaps. “Right. Of course. Because I’m just a kid, so nothing I do matters, right?”
“That’s not what I said,” Dad replies, his tone firmer now.
“Then what are you saying?” I shoot back. “Because from where I’m standing, you couldn’t even give us thirty minutes. Thirty minutes, Dad. That’s all it was.”
“Annie—”
“No, don’t,” I cut in, my voice tightening. “Everyone else stayed. Everyone else watched. But you two just… walked out. I bet my ‘real’ parents would have been proud of me, and would have wanted to watch me perform.”
“Annie!” Ella’s hand settles on my shoulder, steady, grounding.
“Lennox…” Aston warns quietly.
I shake my head, pushing past it. “I needed you here,” I say, the words slipping out before I can stop them. “Just this once.”
Dad’s expression hardens, something shifting behind his eyes.
Mum’s face is bereft. “We didn’t leave because we don’t care,” Mum says. “We had something important to deal with.”
“And it couldn’t wait?” I ask.
Dad steps closer, his presence suddenly a lot more commanding. “Enough,” he says, low and firm.
The room goes quiet.
“You’re upset, and I get that. But you don’t get to speak to us like that. Not in front of everyone.”
I swallow, my chest tight, anger and something else twisting together. “It mattered to me,” I say, quieter now, but no less sharp. “And you weren’t here.”
There’s a beat of silence.
Then Dad exhales. “We heard you. And we’re proud of you. But we’ll talk about this properly later. Not like this.”
I let out a shaky breath, shaking my head as frustration claws back in. “Yeah… sure.”
I pull away from Ella, dragging a hand through my hair.
“Annie—” Mum starts.
“Save it,” I mutter, already turning away. “This is just… unfair.”
“Life’s not always fair, Annie,” Dad calls after me.
That does it.
I wrap my arms around myself as I walk out, heat burning behind my eyes. Away from the room. Away from everyone who just watched me lose it.
My chest tightens, the weight of it all crashing in at once.
Because the worst part?
I meant what I said.
And I hate that I did.