“Well, welcome to the band, Brandon,” Mike said.
“All right, since we’re all about confessions here, step back, fellas, ’cuz I’m about to share. First, don’t assume I’m something that I’m not. I’m the messed-up kid brother of a superstar. I haven’t proven myself. I’ve barely even scratched the surface. I picked you guys not because Mike swung his dick around in the bathroom urinals, but because we’re all the same. We’re all struggling to find our place in this business. Separately, we don’t work. But together, maybe we’ve got something. We won’t know until we try. And I’m motivated. I want out from behind my brother’s damn shadow. I’m tired of walking a step behind. With you guys by my side, I’m coming for Jake’s throne.”
I looked around the table at all the stunned faces. Okay, that was probably too much information.
“Holy shit, you self-serving asshole. I think I’m in love,” Brandon said, raising a glass. “To overthrowing the king!”
Matty added his glass to the center. “To Travelocity trolls.”
Mike added his glass. “To my big, swinging dick!”
And I was the last to clink my glass against the others. “I never said big.”
After getting the important bonding stuff out of the way, we returned to the task at hand: naming the band.
“What about something like Delirium?” Mike suggested.
“Can’t; that’s already a band.”
“Illusion?” Matty tried.
“Where’d you pick that one?” Brandon asked. “From the unicorn name generator?”
More suggestions were thrown out, but none landed on the mark. We needed something distinctive. Something that stood out and was uniquely our own. As I ran names through my head, I found myself drifting off in thoughts of Jess. She was everything I wanted the band to stand for—unexpected, cool, challenging, blazing hot.
And then it came to me. The name of the band. It was the combination of the sum of all of Jess’s parts. When I revealed the name to the guys, they mulled it over, tried it on for size, and finally unanimously voted it into circulation. And while I was genuinely relieved to have the band naming behind us, I didn’t reveal to the guys that I also had an ulterior motive for the moniker.
If this didn’t send Jess a message, I didn’t know what would.
16
Jess: Dropping Clues
“Okay, Noah, my tour passengers are coming on in a minute. What’s the rule?”
“Um… run up and down the aisle and be as loud as I can.”
Gloria, the bus driver, glanced back at him and chuckled.
“Ooh. Nooo, I’m sorry. Wrong answer but you were so very close.” I palmed his face, forcing him to pay attention. “Shall we try again? And this time remember that I’m bribing you with not one but two scoops of Baskin Robbins ice cream.”
Noah sat up straighter in his seat and, now with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on the line, there was no confusion. “Stay in my seat and no talking.”
“There you go,” I said, patting his head. “You’re so smart. Isn’t he smart, Gloria?”
“I’ve got chills.”
“Now, Noah, Gloria here has agreed to be my eyes and ears.”
“I have?”
“Yes, Gloria, you have because I’m also bribing you.”
“Keep talking.”
“I think an extra ten dollars from the tip jar should suffice.”
“All right. Yes. Listen up, boy: I’m your mom’s eyes and ears, and if you think you can fool me, you can’t. I raised five teenagers. I’m bulletproof. You hear me?”
