“Mia loves to calorie count,” Ava said to the group, but her tone made me look at her in question. “It’s a good thing,” Ava added hastily. “You’re so disciplined.”
Gray was looking at me with too much interest. Jett said nothing but looked at me and then the muffin as if he were having a conversation with himself. Quinn was peeling her wrapper off, but I saw her nudge Gray with her elbow. Why were they all being weird?
Looking at Ash, I saw his eyes were dancing with amusement, but he merely popped a bit of muffin in his mouth and gave me a wink.
They were all weird.
It was official. Weirdness was afoot.
“So . . . do we go to class?” I asked as I decided to ignore their weirdness and get back to the point.
“Waiting for Onyx,” Jett told me.
“Is he coming here?”
“No, he’s in Nashville. He’s checking the fucker who messed with you girls out,” Jett explained. “He did it before, but the no-show and then today, well, we’ve made him curious.” Jett’s smile was tight, and I had a thousand questions, but somehow, I knew these guys were never going to tell me more about Onyx.
“Well, we can’t say we’re sick, we’ve all been seen here.” I took a drink of my coffee. This was my third one in quick succession. I was going to pay for this later.
Ash chuckled beside me as he polished off his muffin. “It’s not high school, Red. We won’t get detention if we don’t show. Our classes are available online.”
“Yours may be,” I told him snippily. “My music ones aren’t.”
“Serious?” he asked me in surprise. “Like none?”
“I sing,” I stressed to him. “Very hard to teach someone’s voice over a laptop.”
“So, do you just all stand about singing?” Jett asked as he slung his arm around the back of Ava’s chair.
“Yes, it’s like a mass choir every day.”
“Really?” Quinn asked.
“No!” I rolled my eyes. “It’s not a giant karaoke convention. Each person has their own assignments. We do smaller group sessions, but most of it is one-on-one teaching.”
“So, no classes?” Jett asked, and he looked genuinely interested.
“Well, we cover things like history of music and music composition and things — theycanbe online.” I shot Ash a look. “But the majority of it is practical. I do music performance. There isn’t a set course for my voice to develop further, just that it has to, and that involves practicing as much as possible.”
“You would need a good ear,” Gray mused.
“Um, yes, it’s important to hear the differences in tone, et cetera.”
“How are you on voices?” Jett asked, leaning forward eagerly.
“No,” Quinn said sharply.
“Queeny, we need a break,” Jett said quietly. “We have a resource we can use.”
Licking my lips, I looked between Jett, who was holding a staring contest with Quinn; Gray, who was looking at me like I suddenly had value; Ava, who was looking as confused as I was; and finally, to Ash, who gave me an encouraging smile.
“It’s actually a great idea,” Ash said to the table, ignoring Quinn’s glare. “And she knows her way around a computer.”
“I changed my mind,” Gray said suddenly. “I like you after all.”
Well, that was just perfect. I went from anxious to scared with just that simple declaration.
* * *
