9. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Leif
I shift the snare a little to the left because it feels off. When I sit back and look at it, it doesn’t look right, but I can’t figure out why. I could do this with my eyes closed, and now suddenly, I’m questioning myself.
It’s not because I’m distracted. Though I keep thinking about Aliko and what we did last night, that isn’t what’s got my head a mess. It’s wanting to make this more perfect for him. To show him that even though we hooked up, I can still do my job. Hell, I’ll do it better than I did before.
The last thing I want is for him to think I’m taking advantage or trying to get a leg up.
Aliko doesn’t seem like the type to think that, but you never know…
because I don’t know him all that well, and he’s still learning a lot of things.
Probably that people can be shitty. I doubt he’s had many bad experiences with people to worry about stuff like that, so I need to look out for him.
Make sure he understands that there are still good people who won’t take advantage of him just because he’s famous.
I stand up, stretching my arms up over my head, then dig into my pocket to grab a few Swedish Fish that I pop into my mouth. I’ve loved them since I was a kid. They’re a good pick me up between meals.
I look out over the stage, the other guys working diligently to get everything set up and checked. Since we’re the only show this whole weekend, not everything had to come down. But we still need to run through everything to make sure it’s working.
“You good?” Cody calls out, meeting my gaze from across the stage. I give him a thumbs up and he goes back to running wires.
I take a deep breath and look down at the drums, hoping to see what’s wrong with them.
They all feel a little off. Instead of using my eyes, I sit and grab my drumsticks to play.
That’s when I realize what the problem is.
Everything on the right is a little too close together, so I shift them all out, then play again.
“Yes,” I say to myself, getting to my feet again.
When I turn, I almost bump into someone.
“Shit, sorry,” Aliko says. “I should have stood farther away.”
I chuckle as I look up at him, taking a step back. “Hey.”
He smirks. “Sorry,” he says again.
“No need. You’re just making sure I’m doing my job,” I say politely.
The air between us gets a little thick. Aliko frowns before his gaze goes to the drum kit.
“Looks like you did,” he says.
“You want to check it? It feels off to me.”
He shrugs then goes to the kit, taking his seat. He pulls the drumsticks from the bucket on the side that holds them all. He always has a bucket full because he needs so many and goes through so many in a show. Aliko breaks them often—the crowd loves it because they get the pieces.
Aliko gets settled then does a quick beat on the drums to test them all out.
“Feels fine.”
“Are you sure? I think the tension on that second snare is a little tight.”
He hits it a few times, playing a quick beat—and snapping a drumstick. I pull one from my pocket and hand it over quickly. He takes it from my hand, our fingers brushing. I hold his gaze, but he quickly looks away and plays again.
“Nope. Feels fine.” He looks over at me, and our eyes meet again.
They’re exactly the same as when he’s in his human form, and something about the way he’s looking at me right this second reminds of how he had my dick in his mouth just a few hours ago. But it’s clear that we’re not talking about that.
“Cool.” I run my hand through my hair and look away. “So, uh… everything is good?” I ask.
“Sounds good to me. As usual.”
Okay, so we’re definitely pretending nothing happened last night. This feels fully professional, like maybe he forgot what happened.
How drunk was he last night? He couldn’t have still been drunk this morning. He remembers what we did. He has to. So then that just means he didn’t care. That it didn’t actually mean anything. Nothing more than a hookup anyway.
I can handle that. I can totally handle that. Done it before and I’ll probably do it again.
“All right, well, have a good show,” I say as I take a few backward steps, then turn and leave the stage.
I feel his gaze on me until I’m around the curtain, but I ignore it because that’s what I should do.
He’s right.
We should act like nothing happened. I said it myself this morning that I didn’t want anyone to think anything was weird between us, so why am I offended now that he’s doing the same thing?
“Fucking stupid,” I mutter to myself.
“Hey, you going to eat?”
I turn toward the voice, recognizing it immediately, and knowing he isn’t going to leave me alone. Not that it’s a problem. He’s my closest friend on the tour.
Cody hurries to catch up to me.
“I, uh…” Hadn’t thought of eating now, but sure. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Cool, me too,” he says, coming up to my side.
Cody and I got hired at the same time. He’s the guy in charge of running all the wires and making sure everything is plugged in the right way, attached to all the right things, so we don’t have fires or blow fuses.
He double checks all of our work and does a bunch of his own checks too.
Not only with the instruments and speakers, but with the screens and pyrotechnic stuff that goes off too.
“So, how’s the rock electrician doing today?” I ask as we make our way down the hallways and to the community room.
He huffs a laugh. “Never living that name down.”
“Not a chance.”
The community room smells amazing, the food spread out over two long tables buffet style. Steam rises up from the sides of the lids. One of the crew, Jackson, is filling his plate, while a couple others are sitting at tables, eating and chatting.
Cody and I grab a plate and start piling food on. We drop them at an empty table before heading over to the drink station. There are blenders to make smoothies, bottles of soda, water, electrolyte drinks, energy drinks, coffee drinks… basically everything you could think of.
I grab a water and a cotton candy flavored energy drink.
“Those things are terrible for you,” Cody says, grabbing two bottles of water.
“But they taste good,” is my argument.
He rolls his eyes as we take our seats across from each other. We make small talk as we eat. Cody goes up for more food, but I’m stuffed. If I eat any more, I’ll be sick, but I stay and chat with him, sipping on my water, as he devours his heaping pile of vegetables and chicken.
“How do you eat healthy on the road?” I ask.
His eyes widen and he points down at his plate. “Uh, they provide it.”
“Yeah, when we’re here at a show. But what about actually on the road?”
“Everywhere sells salads.”
“Rabbit food, you mean?”
Cody rolls his eyes. “Why ask if you’re going to be a dick?”
“Is salad seriously the only healthy thing you eat on the road?” I ask. “There’s no fucking way.”
“I cheat now and then. I do enjoy a greasy ass burger sometimes. But it’s not difficult to find places that make food that isn’t highly processed or full of fat and calories. You just have to look at the right places on the menu.”
“Sounds like too much work,” I mutter, bringing my bottle of water to my lips.
My skin at the back of my neck tingles, and without thinking, I glance over my shoulder.
My gaze finds Aliko’s. There’s something in his eyes that I can’t place, something slightly darker than usual. He’s standing with the rest of the guys in the band at the beginning of the line to get their food.
Lucien elbows him, then says something. Aliko blinks and looks at Lucien, nodding along to whatever he’s saying. I bring my attention back to Cody, who is looking at me confused.
“What was that about?” he asks.
“What?”
“Aliko mad at you or something?”
I shrug. “Fucking hope not. His drums were giving me a hard time earlier.”
“Were they? Because they’re not alive.”
I give him the middle finger and glance back at Aliko who is fully focused on filling up his plate with food.
“I think a few of the guys are playing poker in one of the empty dressing rooms until we do our final sound check. You in?” Cody asks.
“Yeah, sure.”
I drain the rest of my bottle, swallowing hard. I gather my stuff and toss it into the trash and recycling bin before heading toward the door with Cody.
I feel Aliko’s gaze on me all the way there.