“How’s that?”
I stepped slightly away because I knew he was going to find something wrong with the setup.He always did.
Noah thumped a few drums, played the opening sequence to ‘Nowhere to Hide,’ then rested his sticks on his thigh.“Nope, too high.”
I gestured for him to move again then slid in and put the snare back to where it’d been before.“How’s that?”
Noah was quieter as he picked up his sticks.He played around for a few minutes, but I didn’t budge.
“Yeah, this feels good.”
It’s still not—wait, what?I shook my head.“What did you say?”
“The setup feels good.”
“I, uh, okay.”My eyes no doubt wide with disbelief, I slowly slunk to the edge of the stage.
“Hey, Alice?”Noah called as the other guys walked across the stage and grabbed their instruments, discordant chords vibrated through the arena.
I knew it.The bastard just wanted to make me walk all the way back before he came up with another bullshit excuse.Heaving a sigh, I turned back around.“Yeah?”
Noah stared down at the drumsticks in his hands, his fingers twirled them around, threading them through again and again.He opened his mouth, hesitated, and then shook his head.“Never mind.”
Okay.That was weird.
Heaving a sigh, I shrugged then took up my regular spot next to Grady in the wings.
“What was that about?”Grady asked with his eyebrows raised.
“Just Noah being his usual dickish self.I’m used to it at this point.”
Grady frowned.“You know he’s only like that with you.”
“Oh, I’m well aware.Somedays it feels like I’m only holding onto this job with my fingertips.If it were up to Noah, I would’ve been fired after Dublin.”
“You really think this is all because of the tour last year?”
“Has to be.Before Dublin, Noah treated me like a little sister.After Dublin, I don’t think he would pause if he saw me get run over by their tour bus.Hell, he’d probably be driving the damn bus if he could.”
“Shit, that’s cold.”
“But am I wrong?”
Grady lifted a shoulder and clearly thought about it for a second then laughed.“Nah, he’d definitely be driving it.”
“Thank you.”I laughed wryly.“Nice to know I’m not going crazy.So how’s Michelle liking Vegas?”
Then the Tin Gods started rehearsal, effectively ending our conversation.
The show went flawlessly—which was concerning.This was when we were supposed to be ironing out any issues.To not have something go wrong was spooky.And left me with a creepy, crawling feeling, like an itch between my shoulder blades I couldn’t scratch.
Even Noah was actually decent to me for a change.He left the stage with the guys, giving me a nod on his way by.No snarky comments.No passive aggressive remarks about my setup.
It was all so weird and unnerving.
Grady, the bastard, had a short teardown and gave me an apologetic shrug as he left.His kid had a baseball game he was late for.
I had my own practice in a few.Would’ve been nice to just leave the drums where they were, considering Noah would be using them in less than a day, but that wasn’t the job.All equipment had to be locked up every day.No exceptions.
