Liam spat out his cereal and milk.A soggy, half-chewed chunk landed on Remi’s arm.
“Dude!”Remi flicked it off.
Liam’s words were choked out from laughing so hard.“Us living in a shithole didn’t tip her off that you were lying?”
“Hey!”West said.“That’s my grandma’s house you’re talking about.Watch your mouth.”
“Sorry, Ms.Maedina,” Liam said, talking to the ceiling.“Please don’t haunt me.I’m extremely grateful to be living here rent-free.R-I-P.”
“Speaking of, I need to pay the real estate taxes this month,” West said.“It’s…” He squinted his eyes and counted on his fingers, then said an insane number.
“That’s split four ways?”Remi asked.
West nodded.
Shit.He was going to have to take a cash advance on his credit card.“I’ll get it to you next week.”
“I don’t understand why you lied about working in tech,” Liam said.“You’re in a band.That’s like an instant panty dropper.”
Remi peeked back out the window, and sighed in relief as he watched Jennifer get into a car and disappear down the block.
He shrugged off the question.
When he told people he played in a band, they always replied with annoying questions.When are you getting a record deal?When are you going to be famous?When is your band going to have more than a thousand followers on social media?
Those questions made him sick.Made him think of how he’d already ruined Tilted Haze’s chance to make it big.Made him think of how Emerson was gone.
It was easier just to lie and say he worked in tech.
Remi hiked back up the stairs and went into the bathroom.Liam followed him, still eating his cereal.“So, guess what,” he said with his mouth full.
Remi glanced at him as he started brushing his teeth.
Liam chased the last marshmallow in his bowl with his spoon.“West’s aunt said that tonight’s going to be the night for us.”
Remi leaned over the sink and spat out toothpaste foam.“Oh yeah?Did she cast a spell?”
Liam pursed his lips and flung his spoon out to point at Remi.Milk dribbled onto the floor.“You know you shouldn’t make fun of her powers.She’ll curse us or something.”
Remi rolled his eyes.“First, she would never curse us.Aunt Joanne loves West and me too much to ever do that.And second, she isn’t a witch.It’s just a tourist gimmick.Surely, you’ve noticed there’s a witch on every street in the Quarter.”Hell, maybe there were two witches on every street in the French Quarter.New Orleans was crawling with people claiming to be magical.Remi had once gone home with a girl who honestly believed she was a vampire in a past life.
He’d woken up the next morning, taken one look at his neck in the mirror, and almost had to agree with her.
Liam just shook his head, eyes serious and stern.“You’ll see tonight.It’s all happening!”
Remi waved a dismissive hand at him and kicked him out of the bathroom so he could shower before work.Part of him hoped that Liam was right.Maybe Aunt Joanne did cast a spell for them.Maybe their luck would change.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep doing this.It’d been five years of touring in a shitty van and barely breaking even on expenses.The fantasy—that one day his music would resonate with people so much that his band could sell out stadiums—no longer fueled him.Evidence of its impossibility overshadowed his hope long ago.
Tilted Haze needed someone to give them a shot, but Remi didn’t want to tell the guys what his gut told him: They’d already had their one big break—and he’d blown it for them.They weren’t going to get another one.
It didn’t matter how talented a band was.Making it in the music industry was all about getting lucky, having a magic spark.
And ever since Emerson died, Remi was pretty sure he’d lost his.
The gig that night had gone well, but the crowd at Mike’s was always good.They were Tilted Haze’s original fans.A lot of them had been there since the early days when the band was just Remi and West and a drum machine.
After a few minutes of smiling and chatting with the regulars, Remi disentangled himself from the crowd of women that swarmed the stage and crept out the back door.
