He sighed.“Why do I always have to be shirtless for your social media things?”
“Because it’s what the people want,” she said.
Remi reached behind his head and tugged off his shirt.Jillian inched him to the right, and then to the left, like he was a puppet.
He glanced over his shoulder at the Tilted Haze logo on the bus.The one his brother had designed before he died.
Look at me now, Em.
He didn’t even need to imagine his brother’s reply.He knew Emerson would be less than impressed by the mess Remi had gotten himself into.
“Okay,” Jillian said.“I have a few questions that your fans have sent in that you’re going to answer on the live, okay?Do you want to see them first so you can think of answers?”
“No, let’s just get this over with.”He hopped from side to side as the twitchy coke feeling possessed him.
Jillian glared at him over her phone as she started the intro to the livestream.
Remi would watch the recording later—first to check the comments to see what people were saying about him, but the second time through, he’d watch his coked-up fidgeting and give his real answers to the questions Jillian had asked.
“Remi, the first question that was submitted by your fans was…to what do you attribute the success of your band?”Jillian asked on the screen.
“The deal I made with a demon,” Remi said to his phone as his recorded-self gave some bullshit answer about hard work and luck.
“And what advice would you give to bands just starting out?”Jillian asked.
“Don’t make a deal with a demon,” he said.
The video zoomed out, taking in the full view of the tour bus, really grinding it into his face that his band had made it.They were on a sold-out stadium tour.He’d gotten everything he wanted.
He finally had to admit to himself that Skyehadn’tlied about her bargain promises.
“If you could go back and change anything, what would it be and why?”Jillian asked.
The man on the screen was smiling at some faraway point in the distance, lost in a memory of a red-eyed demoness smirking at him, remembering the last six months of misery that they had created together with a deranged fondness.
That man had answered, “I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
And standing there in front of the tour bus as the sun burned him like the hellfire he expected would be in his afterlife, his answer had been the cold hard truth, but sobered up from the blissful veneer of the coke, he knew it was a lie.
Remiwouldchange something.
If he had another soul to bargain with, he’d go back in time and do whatever he had to do to keep Skye from leaving.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Whenthefuckareyou going to grow up, Remi?”Emerson had shouted at him.“You’re a fucking disgrace.You look stupid with all that shit on your face.And everyone knows you only dress like that to get a rise out of people.We all know you’re going nowhere with your life.You have no job.No plans.When are you going to stop being such a worthless piece of shit?”
I’ll play my music.I’ll make it big.Everyone will know my band.They’ll love us.They’ll love our music.Then he’ll see.He’ll see that he was wrong.He’ll be so proud of me.I just have to keep playing.I just have to keep practicing.I just have to keep going.I just have to keep trying.I just have to—
A vein pulsed in their mother’s temple as she stormed into the garage and ripped out the cord to the amp.A screeching whine pierced everyone’s ears.“You live under my roof,” she said, pointing her finger at her chest.“You’ll do what I say, and I’m telling you to knock it off.”
Remi had rolled his eyes at her.
“You little shit,” she said.“I gave birth to you.I work all day long to buy food for you.I keep a roof over your head.I pay the electric bill so your stupid little band can plug in and suck it all up.I’m the reason there is food in the fridge.You should be grateful I let you live here at all.The least you could do is care when your mother has a headache.”
Why hadn’t I just cared about her feelings?Why was I such a shithead?Why couldn’t I have been more considerate?
Instead, he’d shrugged like the little punk he was.“I’m nineteen.I could move out.I’ll go live with West, and that way you won’t have to do all that hard work of parenting me.I’ll spare you, Mom.How’s that sound?”
