“Oh yeah? How’d you get him to leave?”
I screwed my eyes shut, trying to remember. “Pretty sure I threw a gin bottle at him and called him an ugly shrew.”
Jace spluttered a laugh. “What the fuck? An ugly shrew? Where do you come up with this shit?”
I chuckled, using a liberal amount of soap in my pits and groin. “Fuck if I know. I was trashed and he came in here all nagging like an annoying, big bird… and you know he gets all butthurt when people say he’s ugly.” Because it was blatantly untrue. Gray was a great looking guy, but he was big and broad, rocking scars and long hair… He wasn’t pretty like Jace. So he was often referred to asless attractivethan the rest of Bellerose.
“I’m so confused,” Jace admitted, looking it. “How did you get toshrewfrom big bird? Wasn’t Big Bird a chicken?”
I rinsed my soap off and turned off the shower.
“Jace… brother. I love you, but fuck, you’re dumb sometimes. Big Bird was a huge-ass canary, and ashrewis, like, the lanky bird with the big beak who delivers babies.” I took the towel from his hand when he held it out to me and dried off.
Jace chuckled. “That’s astork. A shrew is like a rat. Or a mole. Or… some small rodent kinda thing with poisonous saliva. Which is actually funnier, picturing how confused Gray would have been when you said that. Anyway, yeah, he reminded me that we owe the label an album, so I started writing something that I want you to hear.”
“Oh, just like that, huh?” The bitterness in my voice cut like acid. I tied the towel around my waist and swiped a hand over my peacock-blue mohawk—not that I’d bothered to gel it in weeks, and the sides were starting to grow out in my natural shade of dirty blond.
Stalking out of the bathroom, I headed for the kitchen. I was too fucking sober for Jace’s bullshit, and my hangover waspounding. It felt like Grayson was parked up in my frontal lobe, beating the crap out of my brain matter.
Glancing around, I couldn’t spot the tequila bottle I’d been working on last night. Or was it this morning? Whatever, it was nowhere to be seen. Maybe I’d finished it and Jace cleaned it up.
Or maybe… “Where the fuck is all the booze?” I demanded, whirling around when I found the kitchen dry.
Jace folded his arms, his expression set in a stubborn look. “I threw it out. It’s time you sobered up, Rhett. You’re wallowing in self-pity like you were in love with that bitch.”
My jaw dropped to the floor. “Excuse me?”
“You fucking heard me. You were hitting it for two weeks, and you’re acting like your wife of twelve years just left. Pull yourself together, bro; we have an album to write. If your dick is lonely, there’s plenty of other sluts out there who’d crawl over broken glass to get railed by the great Rhett Silver.”
I snatched up the closest thing to me, a crystal tumbler, and hurled it at Jace in a flash of acidic rage. It smashed against the wall behind him, and the bastard barely even flinched.
“Kinda just proving my point, bro,” he muttered, giving the shattered mess a long look. Then he sighed and moved closer like he had a death wish. “Rhett… I know this whole shit with Billie has triggered you. I’m not as ignorant as you think. Butyouneed to recognize the differences here. She’s not your mom. Billie is just an opportunistic, backstabbing bitch. She didn’t love you, andyoudidn’t loveher. She’s just great pussy and nothing more, butI get it. I’ve been in your shoes. She has that way of making you feel like you were soulmates, right? Like you’ve known her in a previous life or you’re fated mates or some shit, but it’s allbullshit.”
I shook my head, shutting out my best friend’s hate-filled words. He didn’t know. He hadnoclue.
“You don’t fucking get it, Jace,” I muttered, scrubbing my hands over my face in frustration. I needed alcohol, or drugs, orsomething. I needed a break from my own mind. “It’s never enough. Never e-fucking-nough. What do I have to do, huh? What do I have to do to just make herchoose mefor once?”
As soon as those words left my lips, I paled and my stomach twisted. Fuck, he was right. I was mixing Billie’s betrayal up with my mom’s from ten years ago. Jesus Christ, I needed to get high. Maybe it was a good day for an acid trip? Nah, hallucinations sounded like a shitty idea right now.
“Just… leave me alone,” I told him with a defeated, somewhat embarrassed groan.
“Can’t do that,” he replied, shaking his head. “You’re my best friend. I can’t just watch you self-destruct while I do nothing. So, you’re gonna sober up, eat some vegetables, drink some water, then help me with these lyrics I started while you were passed out.”
He clapped me on the shoulder, the dude equivalent of a hug, and I shook him off. I wasn’t in the mood for his positivity right now; my hangover was way too rough.
“Go to hell, Jace. You can’t just fix everything in a snap because you suddenly had a moment of creativity.” I yanked open a drawer and fished out a set of car keys. My jacket was nowhere to be seen, but Jace’s was hanging by the door and that’d do.
“Rhett, where are you going?” my friend protested as I stuffed my feet into a pair of boots. “We need to—” His protest cut off at the sound of a heavy knock on our door. I scowled at Jace, but he looked just as confused. “Who the fuck is that?”
“You tell me,” I muttered, crossing over the entryway and jerking the door open. I wasn’t worried about it being a crazed fan, because they’d had to have cleared security in the foyer of our building already. “Oh seriously? What thefuck, Jace? Is this some kind of fucking intervention?”
Grayson just glared back at me, his expression pissy. Possibly he was still upset over theugly shrewthing. “Maybe, if that’s what you need. You gonna let us in?”
I curled my lip in disgust. “You? Sure.Her? Hell no. You’re not welcome here, Florence.”
“Jesus, Rhett,” Jace snapped, pushing me aside to allow Grayson inside. “You don’t have to lash out at us; we’re your family.”
I scoffed a bitter laugh, shaking my head. “Unbelievable,” I muttered. “Suit yourself, entertain the snake in our grass. I’m outta here.”
