Ollie and Liam furrowed their brows, but then Liam slapped his forehead.“Oh, shit.It’s Em’s—”
West stood.“Just fucking book it.I’ll go where I’m needed.”He threw a dismissive hand at them and strode back to the bunks.There was a harshthudas the privacy shield was slammed shut.
“Sorry.I shouldn’t have said that,” Liam said.“I totally forgot he died today.”
“I’m so sorry, Rem,” Ollie said.
Remi shrugged and forced a smile.“It’s fine.I don’t expect you guys to know that stuff.I usually peace out and don’t want to talk about it anyway.”
“We’re your friends.We should remember that stuff,” Ollie said and gave Liam a stern raised eyebrow.
“I have Emerson’s birthday in my calendar!”Liam said.He leaned back to pull his phone out of his pocket.
“Yeah, well, Emerson’s birthday would be the same as Remi’s birthday, cause they’re fucking twins, so I should hope you remembered that, ya wanker,” Ollie said.
“Oh,” Liam said, tilting his head.“You’re right.Good point.”
Ollie rolled his eyes and sighed.
“It’s fine, really,” Remi said.“I think West is just taking it hard today since we’re on tour, and with, you know, me being a fucking idiot and what not.”He shrugged and hung his head a little.
“West was friends with Emerson?”Ollie asked.
Liam snorted as he typed on his phone.“Fuck no.They hated each other.We mostly avoided Emerson.That is when he wasn’t yelling at Remi or complaining about our music being too loud or making comments about how I was acting stupid.”
“You probably were acting stupid,” Ollie said.
Liam shrugged.“Yeah, probably.”
Remi swallowed.“It’s complicated.”
The tour bus door swung open, and Jillian marched up the stairs.“What is this?Don’t you think your publicist should be called when there’s a band meeting.And what areyoudoing here?I thought we got rid of you.”She directed the last statement toward Skye.
Skye crossed her arms and smiled.“Nope.Still here.”She turned back to the boys.“Alright.I’ll call and book Metalfest?”
They all nodded their agreement.
Jillian cringed.“Metalfest?No, that’s not—I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Well, you aren’t in the band,” Ollie said, pushing past her to wipe his hands on a paper towel.He went to the couch and pulled out the gaming controllers.
Skye emailed her contacts at Metalfest and told them they were in.“It’s done.Tilted Haze is going to Metalfest.”
“Woot woot,” Liam said.He brushed by Jillian and scooped up one of the controllers as he sat next to Ollie.
“We’ll need you to do a social media push to get our fans to show up,” Remi said to Jillian, but his eyes were on the TV as he walked to the couch.
Liam was choosing his character, so only Skye saw the annoyed face Jillian made.She opened her mouth with, no doubt, another protest, but Liam interrupted her.
“Make it something really cool!”he said.“Like make us sound hardcore.”
“Yeah,” Remi agreed.
Jillian snapped her mouth shut and sighed heavily.She glared at Skye, who just shrugged with her palms up.What can you do?
“Fine,” Jillian said.“Guess I’ll start posting.”
“Cool,” Remi said and leaned forward, grabbing the last controller off the coffee table.“You wanna play with us?”
