“Hey, No.There you are!”Xander grinned as he crossed the stage to his guitar.“We were just going to call you.Thought maybe you were running late.How’ve you been?”
“Good, good.I, uh…” I turned back to Alice and realized I’d spent the past five minutes staring at her andnottalking.
And now she was gone.
“Shit.”I’d lost my chance for a private amends.
And given the way she stood at the edge of the stage with Grady at her side, that chance wasn’t coming around again anytime soon.
“Everything okay?”Xander asked with a concerned frown.His guitar was already strapped to his body.But instead of running through some chords to warm up, he was looking at me like I might whip out a needle right here on stage.
Would that suspicion ever go away?
I shook my head.“Just trying to remember where I left my sparkling personality.You haven’t seen it around, have you?”
Xander tossed me a what-the-hell look then shook his head.“I heard you took Liam out before our first show a week ago.Kinda sad I wasn’t invited actually.I thought we were the three amigos.”
I hitched a shoulder as I settled behind my kit.“We were, but since you’re not a member of Druggies Anonymous, you weren’t invited.Sorry.Maybe next time.”
“What the fuck?”Xander reared back like I’d insulted him.
“What?Oh.I didn’t mean it like that.I wanted to talk to him about sobriety shit.I’m not wishing you were an addict.Come on, Zee.I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
“I guess Alice is safe then,” he muttered under his breath.
Fuck.It was hard not to feel some type of way about his snarky comeback.I wasn’tthathard on her…was I?
“That reminds me.”Xander snapped his fingers then pointed at me.“Alice’s band has a show next week, and we’re all going to show our support.”
“She’s got a band?”I swung my head to look at her corner of the stage, but Alice was gone.
“Yeah, she didn’t tell you about it?Her, Lark, and that blonde girl from merch—what’s her name?They’ve been playing together for a while.Lark said they booked their first gig next Thursday at Maison Publique on East Charleston.”
Since we only did three shows a week, we had a lot of downtime.So it wasn’t surprising to hear that Alice had a side hustle.It was just weird I was hearing about it from Xander and apparently months later.
Or maybe it wasn’t.
Alice and I weren’t exactly tight.What’s the opposite of tight?We were loose, I guess?Fuck me.That was funny.I opened my mouth to recount it to Xander, but then he went on.
“We’re going to lowkey slip in.You know we’re not about stealing thunder.So no entourage.”
“When the fuck have you ever known me to have an entourage?”
Xander raised his palms, his bass swinging on the strap around his shoulder.“Dude, don’t shoot the messenger.It’s not like you’ve been hanging out with us lately.”
“And whose fault is that?”I tossed back without even thinking.
“What the fuck?You’re the one who pulled away.You’re the one who disappears all the fucking time.You didn’t invite us to your fucking one-year sobriety birthday.We invite you places.That’s literally what I’m doing right now.”
“You think it’s easy being around you guys?With your wives and your ability to stop drinking and avoiding drugs?I’m ashamed, okay?I don’t like the douchebag I turned into a year ago, and I’m so fucking freaked out that he’s just one joint away.”
“I knew you still had a thing for Harper.”Xander laughed softly.
I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief at his ridiculous comment.
I’d literally poured my heart out to one of my best friends, and he came back with that.Like the whole reason I’d been avoiding them was because I was still fawning over his wife.
Fuck me.
