Page 161 of Silver Sweet

I just need this band to be successful.

Presale numbers “aren’t fantastic” was the news Jeremy delivered to us last week. It’s going to be an uphill battle to gain marketing support from Riot, but I’ve been trying to assuage Tom’s panic by reminding him that the album still has a placeholder cover. It could pick up steam once the artwork goes live or maybe better yet, once we have reviews.

Once people have listened to it.

Yeah…I feel like I’m assuaging myownpanic.

I thread my fingers through my hair, pulling irritably at the strands. And I’m never going to hear the end of this job opening. Maybe my mom got bad intel. Maybe Stewieisn’tretiring.

Maybe I can convince him playing timpani is his life’s purpose.

Fuck.I hate this.

I rub at my jaw and check the time on my phone.

It’s been twenty minutes since Tom fell asleep, and he hasn’t moved a muscle. I am so jealous of his heavy, peaceful slumber, and I don’t want to move him and disrupt it.

I let him sleep a couple more hours while I watch the TV showStation Elevenmuted with subtitles on my phone. Halfway through the second episode, a door creaks from one of the two halls. Footsteps pad across the floor.

I mentally file who I’d like to see in order from I-can-deal-with-it to please-fuck-no: Ben, Eliot, Charlie, and then Beckett.

Glancing behind the couch, I see none of the four options.

A short blonde with bedhead hair shuffles into the kitchen. She wears an oversized burgundy MVU Hockey tee that stops below her knees. I watch her fill a glass of water from the fruit-infused jug the Cobalts keep in their fridge.

Ben’s girlfriend.Harriet.

She’s young, nineteen, and has the meanest scowl I’ve ever seen. Literally thought she knew some deep dark secret of mine and hated me for it. Turns out, it’s just her face.

Tom vilifies her at each chance he gets. And yet, I see that he relaxes every time she’s here. When she’s around Ben. Otherwise, he worries about his brother to the point of stress.

I’m not sure why.

Something must have happened—but I still can’t figure out what.

Harriet returns the jug to the fridge, and when she spins around, she catches me staring. I’m on the receiving end of a serious death glare.

Unfortunately, I’m hardwired to glare back.

Her lips downturn, and instead of returning to Ben and Tom’s bedroom, she comes over. She must be investigating since she can’t see Tom over the back of the couch.

When she rounds the corner and has eyes on the sleeping singer on my lap, her brows hike in surprise. She looks from me (shirtless, by the way), to Tom, and back to me (still very shirtless).

My brows spring in reply likeyeah and?

She chews on her lower lip in thought, her bangs frizzing around her forehead, before giving me a strong nod and shuffling off toward the bedroom.

I know Tom asked her to be his drummer last year. Apparently, she’s pretty good behind a kit.

She turned him down.

I liked her instantly after I knew that.

Ten minutes later, I’m able to shimmy Tom off my lap without stirring him. I take out a Sharpie from my backpack before I leave, and I scrawl on the top of his fist. A little skull with the title of our album underneath. Our creation we’re about to birth together.

Silver Sweet.

38