Chapter Twenty-Five
The news of Remi’s arrest had already made it online by the time Skye and Remi walked out of the back bedroom. There were about a dozen missed calls from Roger on her phone. Ollie, Liam, and West weren’t on the bus. The band’s “publicist” was nowhere to be found either.
Despite the disaster swirling around her, Skye couldn’t stop smiling. This was what she was best at. This was what made her come alive. She instructed Remi to find his bandmates while she endured Roger’s phone call. It was mostly him blustering and reaming her out, but it didn’t faze her.
After hanging up with Roger, she turned to Remi to give him the latest update. “Moms Against Drugs got our next six tour dates canceled.”
“Don’t the venues still have to pay us if they initiated the cancelations?” Remi asked.
“Technically, that’s what the contract says,” Skye said, typing on her laptop, already researching her next moves. “But the venues are threatening Roger with lawsuits. They’re claiming the cancelations are due to the band’s immoral performance.”
“Fuck,” Remi said. “So what do we do?”
“I’m working on some alternatives. Did you find—” But before the question was out of her mouth, the tour bus door opened.
Liam and Ollie bounded up the stairs, hoisting fast-food bags in the air like they were spoils of war.
“Oh my god,” Remi said. “What do I have to do to get you to share some of that? I’m fucking starving.”
Liam’s smile was huge. He tossed a bag to Remi. “Nothing cause we ordered for you.”
“Actually, since you’re asking, mate, you could like not get thrown in jail again, ya know what I mean?” Ollie said.
“Or, for fuck’s sake, at least call us when you do so we don’t have to read about it on social media,” Liam said.
“Deal.” Remi sat down at the table, moving out of the way from where he’d been blocking Skye.
Liam’s eyes lit up. “Skye! We missed your fine ass!” He grabbed her with both arms, picking her up and spinning her around.
After he set her back down, Skye had to hold his shoulders so she didn’t topple over as she laughed at his enthusiasm.
Liam furrowed his brow in concern. “We didn’t know you were here, so we didn’t order you food, but you can share mine. ”
Skye patted his arm. “So generous. Thank you.”
Liam tossed her a burger from his bag and then sat next to Remi to chow down.
Ollie set his food on the table and opened an arm to Skye. She hugged him. “We all missed you, love.” He pulled back to meet her gaze, and his eyes darted over to Remi and back to her. “All of us.”
“Thanks,” Skye said, ducking her chin as a weird warmth spread through her.
“Dude, what the hell happened to your face?” Liam asked. “Did Skye do that?” He grinned and gave her a thumbs up.
“I wouldn’t damage my goods that way,” Skye said, sitting next to Ollie and unwrapping her burger. “His pretty face needs to sell records.”
Liam wagged his pointer finger and nodded. “Good point.”
“And why would she bother with physical assault when her emotional manipulations have been so effective?” West said, low enough that only Skye heard. He strode in and didn’t glance at any of them.
“We got you food, man,” Liam said and held up a bag, but West ignored him and slumped down on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. Liam shrugged off his behavior, but Skye furrowed her brows. West was still angry with her. She met Remi’s gaze, and he just shook his head once.
“Skye and I are good now,” Remi said. “Everything that happened before is water under the bridge.”
“About damn time,” Ollie muttered.
“The band comes first for both of us,” Skye added.
“Great,” West said, less than enthusiastically.
“I think it’s great,” Liam said. He grabbed Remi’s shoulder and shook him. Remi winced. “Ugh, no shaking me. I’m fragile.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “We already knew that, mate.”
Remi stuck his tongue out.
Ollie kicked his shin, and Remi looked about ready to lunge over the table to tackle him when Skye cleared her throat again.
“While it’s nice to see you boys acting like children again, we need to discuss your canceled shows.”
Liam groaned.
“Sorry, guys,” Remi said. “Seriously. I really am sorry for making shit harder on everyone.”
“It’s alright. We’re just glad you aren’t moping around anymore,” Ollie said.
“I was not moping.”
“Sure,” Liam said.
“I wasn’t!”
“Boys!” Skye said, clapping her hands. “Can we get back on topic?”
“Sorry, Mum,” Ollie said.
Liam snickered.
Skye rolled her eyes but smiled. She enjoyed this. Enjoyed being the captain steering the rock star ship with these goofy and impossible shipmates.
Her smile died a little as she glanced at West. He hadn’t said anything or even moved from his position on the couch.
Remi was eyeing him, but he didn’t say anything, so she followed his lead and proceeded with her discussion, laying out their options.
She could try to get them booked at smaller venues in the same cities they were scheduled to play in, but on short notice, it was likely going to be impossible to squeeze them in.
Or they could take the next week and a half off, and Skye could work on getting some tour dates added to the end of the schedule.
“Aren’t we supposed to go to the studio a few weeks after the tour?” Liam asked. “We’ll have to push it back if we add to the end.”
“Yeah,” Remi said.
“Plus, we’ll have to add more tour dates than were canceled to make up for lost time,” Skye said. “Given we still have to pay everyone, even if you guys aren’t performing. It’ll be tough to make it work financially.”
“But we have to at least try, don’t we?” Ollie asked. “I don’t want to end our first tour in the hole.”
“There’s one more option I haven’t told you about yet,” she said.
“Shocker,” West mumbled.
Remi pressed his lips together but didn’t say anything. He just gave a nod to Skye to keep going.
“Metalfest is being held in Daytona Beach,” Skye said and scrolled on her laptop, bringing up the email from a promoter she’d received the day before. “They had a last-minute dropout, so there is a stage open for us in three days.”
“Who dropped out?” Ollie asked.
“Crushing Skulls,” Skye said.
They all winced.
“They want us to replace Crushing Skulls? They’ve heard our music, right?” Liam asked.
“I know it’s not an ideal audience,” she said.
“But Metalfest needs to have all of their stages full. They’re willing to pay a guarantee that will make up what we’ll lose from the canceled shows.
It’s perfectly timed that we can get there a day or so early, do the show, and get back to Austin for the next gig.
Since it’s a festival, the stage setup between acts is minimal.
We can bring our drum kit and some of our equipment, but we don’t need the full show.
They handle lights, sound, everything. We’ll bring a skeleton crew, of course, but I really think this is the best option for us. ”
“Us?” West said. “Who is us?”
Skye swallowed and turned around in the booth to West. “Uh, yeah, us as in the band’s best option. I’m going to manage you guys again if that wasn’t clear.”
West snorted. “Great.”
“I’m sorry,” Skye said. She didn’t bother to disguise her annoyance. “Do you have a problem?”
West just sucked on his teeth and shook his head.
“I say we do it,” Ollie said.
“Me too,” Liam agreed. “I’ve always wanted to go to Metalfest.”
Remi chewed his lip. “What do you think, West?” His voice was soft. “We can sleep on it if you want. Or you can say no. No one will blame you.”
West said nothing.
“I was sort of leaning toward time off,” Remi continued. “Given I just got the shit beat out of me and, you know, the day it is.”
Ollie and Liam furrowed their brows, but then Liam slapped his forehead. “Oh, shit. It’s Em’s—”
West stood. “Just fucking book it. I’ll go where I’m needed.” He threw a dismissive hand at them and strode back to the bunks. There was a harsh thud as the privacy shield was slammed shut.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” Liam said. “I totally forgot he died today.”
“I’m so sorry, Rem,” Ollie said.
Remi shrugged and forced a smile. “It’s fine. I don’t expect you guys to know that stuff. I usually peace out and don’t want to talk about it anyway.”
“We’re your friends. We should remember that stuff,” Ollie said and gave Liam a stern raised eyebrow.
“I have Emerson’s birthday in my calendar!” Liam said. He leaned back to pull his phone out of his pocket.
“Yeah, well, Emerson’s birthday would be the same as Remi’s birthday, cause they’re fucking twins, so I should hope you remembered that, ya wanker,” Ollie said.
“Oh,” Liam said, tilting his head. “You’re right. Good point.”
Ollie rolled his eyes and sighed.
“It’s fine, really,” Remi said. “I think West is just taking it hard today since we’re on tour, and with, you know, me being a fucking idiot and what not.” He shrugged and hung his head a little.
“West was friends with Emerson?” Ollie asked.
Liam snorted as he typed on his phone. “Fuck no. They hated each other. We mostly avoided Emerson. That is when he wasn’t yelling at Remi or complaining about our music being too loud or making comments about how I was acting stupid.”
“You probably were acting stupid,” Ollie said.
Liam shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”
Remi swallowed. “It’s complicated.”
The tour bus door swung open, and Jillian marched up the stairs. “What is this? Don’t you think your publicist should be called when there’s a band meeting. And what are you doing here? I thought we got rid of you.” She directed the last statement toward Skye.
Skye crossed her arms and smiled. “Nope. Still here.” She turned back to the boys. “Alright. I’ll call and book Metalfest?”
They all nodded their agreement.
Jillian cringed. “Metalfest? No, that’s not—I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Well, you aren’t in the band,” Ollie said, pushing past her to wipe his hands on a paper towel. He went to the couch and pulled out the gaming controllers.
Skye emailed her contacts at Metalfest and told them they were in. “It’s done. Tilted Haze is going to Metalfest.”