West’s lips parted.He blinked repeatedly.“Oh, Remi—”
“It’s not what you think,” Remi said.“It’s not—I can’t—I don’t want to talk about the specifics.Our band got what we deserved.We deserve this tour and our record deal.Our music deserves recognition.”
“I know that,” West said.“But you made it seem like Densen just called you out of the blue.There’s obviously more to it—”
“He did!”Remi ran a hand through his hair.“Fuck, Skye just—she just facilitated it, okay?Densen probably doesn’t even know her name.”
“And you hate her for it?”West asked.“Why?”
Remi pursed his lips.
West leaned against the kitchen counter.“I want to understand, Remi.You have to know that I’m always on your side, but right now, from where I’m standing, Skye helped facilitate our record deal, and she’s running our tour, while you’re trying to fuck with her every step of the way.None of that makes any goddamn sense.”
“She’s sabotaging me, West.Us.She’s sabotaging us.”
“No.”West crossed his arms over his chest.“I thinkyouare sabotaging us, Rem.I thinkyoudon’t think we deserve this tour and record deal.I thinkyoudon’t believe we earned this, and subconsciously you’re trying to fuck it up.”
Remi’s mouth opened and closed.He shook his head.“I—I’m not—”
“And worse than that, you’re lying to us about how you know her and how we got the deal.I hear you that she was shady to you in the beginning, but you’re being shady too, Remi.”
“West—”
He shrugged.“I get that you’re embarrassed to talk about it with knucklehead one and two, but you could have come to me instead of walking around with this chip on your shoulder.I want to believe you, Remi, but how can I do that when you’re lying to me?”
“Oh, because you’ve always been so truthful with me?”Remi snapped.
West pressed his lips into a thin line.“You know all of my secrets that are mine to tell.”
Remi rolled his eyes and brushed past him to walk off the bus.He couldn’t stand to feel his disapproving, hypocritical gaze one second longer.
There was a weird tension on the bus that afternoon when they finally left.Remi knew he was the cause of it.Liam and Ollie had set up shop on the couch, playing video games, while West had tucked himself into one of the bunks.The tour bus was warmer than usual.They were driving through the desert, and the air conditioning was barely keeping up.
Remi sat across from Skye at the kitchen table, eating a sandwich.She’d been working on her laptop all day.He’d been scrolling through the band’s social media, liking and responding to comments until they started to fuck with his head.
You suck.
This band is so fucking cringe.
Bunch of homos.
Who’d these guys suck off to get famous?
Remi put the phone down on the table, looking for a distraction.
Skye was chewing on her bottom lip, focusing on her computer in front of him.
“What are you doing?”Remi asked casually.
It’d probably be too much to ask that she’d say “Plotting your band’s downfall.Would you like a sneak peek?”but he was curious.
Her eyes darted to him, narrowing.She didn’t say anything for a beat, as if she was waiting for some scathing remark, but when he supplied none, she just turned her laptop around and showed him a spreadsheet.
“Looking at our budget,” she said.“We haven’t replaced the broken lights yet, and I’m debating whether we should buy them ourselves or go through the label.The label could put in a bulk purchase order that would be cheaper, but I have to fill out forms, and it’ll take forever.”
She clicked around and pulled up a website.“If we bought these ourselves, we could get them shipped to the next venue.Then we could submit the expense to the label, but they’ll only reimburse us whatever they would have paid, so do we pay extra to get them faster?Or do we just keep doing what we’ve been doing.Steve—Steve is our light guy—”
“I know who Steve is,” Remi said.
