Reiko nodded, placing the rolled eggs on our plates before sitting across from me. “I get your concern, but maybe give the guy a chance before you jump to conclusions. Maybe he’s just as nervous as you are.”
I lifted some of the eggs to my lips and took a bite. The salty taste exploded over my tongue, and I closed my eyes. Reiko was always the better cook between the two of us. If it were left up to me, I’d probably burn everything. Maybe that was another reason to keep her around. If left to my own devices, I’d forget to eat, and when I did remember, nothing would be edible unless I was eating something not so great for me from the convenience store around the corner.
“He might be...” I said around a mouthful of food before trailing off. God, I sucked at this sometimes. Coming across as an asshole was low on my priority list, but it didn’t change the fact that I was still raw from my best friend leaving the band.
Reiko took the chopsticks from my hands and laid them on the table. She folded my hands in hers and made me look her in the eye.
“All I’m saying is, give this guy a chance before you cast judgment.”
Chapter 2
Ryosuke
The bitter beer worked its way down my throat as I swallowed another deep gulp, staring at the man across from me.
“I’m serious, Ryosuke. You can’t screw this one up. This is your last chance. Pink Cherry is very tight-knit, and it was a big deal to ask them to take you on.”
The beer bottle made a loud thud as it landed on the table, and I stared at the generic gray label of theAsahi Super Dry. It wasn’t my favorite, but when I told Toshi that he couldn’t come without bringing me something to drink, I wasn’t about to complain about whatever he brought me. The brand was popular, but I’d never cared for it. I would have been much happier had he brought me some hard liquor or something else entirely.
But that had gotten me into trouble to begin with.
Turned out that my contract had a zero-tolerance policy for illicit drug use. All it took was someone handing out a little baggyof pills at a party and Tokyo Roadtrip was no more. It didn’t matter that the guys and I had never been problematic…
Okay, so that was far from the truth. We knew how to have fun. We’d been kicked out of several hotels for destroying rooms and getting too loud. Our concerts had a habit of getting a little out of hand, but there was no way that we could control what the fans did. It wasn’t unheard of for people to thrash around and someone inevitably getting hurt. Our record was sitting at fifteen people hospitalized after one of our shows.
Maybe that wasn’t a bragging point, but we were loud. We knew how to have fun, and that’s what we’d set out to do since the beginning.
That was also the problem with being part of a band with such a terrible reputation. It hadn’t mattered that I was the only person who hadn’t touched the pills; the rest of the guys had. It was enough for the label to decide that we were too much of a liability and cut us loose.
It was what saved me. There was a reason Toshi stood in front of me, begging me to help this little band. Their music wasn’t anything like what Tokyo Roadtrip had played. While their sound was good and they could pull off some amazing riffs, it wasn’t to the same level that I was used to working with.
Then again, maybe I needed to settle for something a little less crazy.
“And they know about everything?” I asked, picking up the beer bottle again to take a long sip.
When Toshi shifted on his feet and refused to meet my eyes, it told me more than his words ever could. I wanted to throw the beer at him and curse. It wasn’t fair. These guys deserved to know what they were bringing on board. Sure, I hadn’t taken part in the pill adventure that time, but it was a part of my past. It wasn’t something I was proud of, and it was why the label had put the zero-tolerance policy clause in the contract.
I would give anything for something to take my mind off things now.
“Toshi—”
He cut me off before I could say anything.
“I know we probably should have said something, but I want you to go in with no preconceived opinions. We ran the drug tests. You were the only one who came back clean. It’s why we’re giving you this opportunity.”
My fingers sifted through my hair. It had gotten long. Really fucking long, and I could almost pull it back into a ponytail at this point. I’d never let it get to this length before, but other things had preoccupied my mind over the last few months. It sucked that I had a history. It was no one else’s fault but my own, but it didn’t change the fact that I messed things up early on.
“I’m not—I’m not going to fuck this up. I promise.”
Toshi only nodded, barely giving me a side-glance before he turned and left my place.
Once he was out the door, I tossed the bottle of beer against the wall, watching as the amber glass shattered and fell into a million tiny pieces onto the floor. Getting my anger in check was another issue. I couldn’t just go around destroying things because I didn’t like how things had gone. Yet here we were. I had broken glass all over my floor and stinky, crappy beer sliding down my wall.
I stared as the dark fluid soaked into the wallpaper before I mumbled a few expletives under my breath and got something to clean the mess. It wasn’t as if someone was around to clean up after me.
The little shards of glass stuck up from the thin slats of the tatami mats that lined my floors, and I sneered at them. It was something I hadn’t thought through. I never thought things through. It had seemed like a great idea at the time to have a traditional Japanese home, but the upkeep was more troublethan it was worth. The idea of being able to vacuum or sweep up a mess quickly seemed more and more appealing with each passing day, and every time I let my anger get the best of me.
I gathered the small trash bin from the kitchen and picked up the bigger pieces of glass, being careful not to cut myself. I still ended up with a few small splinters, and I would feel those for days as I pressed into the strings of my bass. Maybe it would be a good reminder to never do this again. Though this wasn’t the first time it had happened and probably wouldn’t be the last.
