The music didn’t distract me much. The two doors and an entire floor separating us were enough to muffle most of the noise, but I started to hum along to the melody I’d picked up after their tenth run-through.
Okay, maybe it was a little distracting.
A few hours later, my chapter on clotting cascade factors was glowing in neon-orange highlighter, and the melody beneath me changed.
Liam’s unmistakable voice cut through the house like a razor as he belted the words,“I’m hollow again.”
Each syllable altered my breathing in short little gasps of air. It had been a long time since I’d heard him sing live, and, my God, he did not sound like the eighteen-year-old I remembered. His singing was steady yet rough. Emotional and chaotic but secure in every key he sang in.
His heavy notes rang through the house again as he sang,“Feeling emptier than I’ve ever been.”
It wasn’t one of their songs I knew, but something about it sounded familiar.Was it a cover? An old song they were bringing back?
“This could be the end—”
I shook my head. It wastoofamiliar.
“This pain is making me break; it’s making me bend.”
My heart dropped into my stomach as my eyes shot to the box Nina had kicked under my bed. The box was haphazardly peeking out from the edge of my comforter. Lunging at the open cardboard flaps, I frantically checked to see if all of my dad’s journals were there.
You’d think if you were going to go through someone’s things, you’d at least be sneaky about it and put things back where you’d found them. Instead, they were unorganized and out of the order I’d had them in.
Irritation pricked at my skin like tiny needles setting me on fire. I flung my comforter left and right, searching for Liam’s jacket, but it was gone, as I’d expected.
“Please send me a glass or send me a friend,”Liam sang, solidifying my theory that the familiar words weren’t coincidental.
Everything went red.
Flying out of my room, I ripped the basement door open and charged down the stairs, my entire body fueled like a raging flame, following the ignition to its source.
Sitting behind a giant panel of knobs and tiny levers in their makeshift studio, Nikko and Lexie bobbed their heads to the music Liam was singing along to. All three of them had headphones on, so they didn’t hear my fast approach.
“I’m hollow tonight, tomorrow, again and again.”The emotion in Liam’s last words made my hair stand on end.
I was practically running at him, and then my pace slowed for a second, keeping me from plowing him over when I finally reached him.
His eyes opened the moment my hands collided with his bare chest. “Shit! You scared the hell out of me.”
My eyes narrowed into daggers. His muscles were firm under my fists. “You selfish, odious bastard!”
“Whoa.” Liam frowned, letting his headphones fall around his neck.
“What the fuck is going on?” Nikko asked, pausing the instrumentals.
I pounded on his chest again. “I can’t fucking believe you!”
“You watch your language, young lady,” Liam scolded, finding my outburst entertaining but curious.
I wasn’t sure why. He should know damn well why I was upset.
My jaw worked at the sight of amusement spreading across his lips. “Do you have zero respect for anyone but yourself?”
“Aye. We got work to do here. Do you mind saving whatever this is for later, Avery?”
Nikko’s words didn’t exist to me.
“This is the thanks I get for letting you sleep in my bed?”
