Page 48 of Not the Punk

Pierce snorted. “Or you are. But we don’t play blues, Joe.”

“Don’t you know anything about music history? All rock has its roots in blues.” Kay defended me quickly, and he wasn’t wrong, but it also wasn’t what I was going for exactly.

“That’s not the point. It’s a hard rock and blues fusion type thing.”

“Why don’t you play it and show us?” Matty asked.

“Great idea. Because I still need help on the secondary riff. That’s your part, Kay. It’ll be harder, like serious metal.”

Kay ran in the house and returned with two guitars. He handed me one, and I started playing. The opening riff was coming along and didn’t need much changing, except to add Kay’s part.

Dark of the sun change to the moon

dragon scales shield me from doom

Hearts on fire

Burn the liar

Witches and stakes

My heart breaks

“Okay, okay.” Pierce stood up. “I have to admit that’s pretty cool. Why the hell didn’t we record that?”

Kay laughed. “We’ll get it down first when we go back into the studio.”

“I have it written down, but…” I tapped my temple. “Got it.”

Pierce flipped me off, but that was normal. The bird was more of a universal sign for whatever you wanted it to be rather than a fuck off with us. But with Pierce, it was probably that too.

“Fuck. You better. That was killer.” Finn, the lead guitarist from Soul Shred, held up his beer as if toasting me.

“Thanks. But what do you think, Kay? For your part, um, something like this…” I played the riff I thought he could add, dropping down to what I considered a killer metal D chord.

“Oh. Got it.” Kay jumped in. He was a genius on the guitar, able to play almost anything after hearing it once and then he never forgot a damn note afterward. I was good, but he was next level, and he ripped, killing what I’d put down and making it better.

When he finished, the Soul Shred guys cheered, and Finn’s mouth hung open.

Matty snorted. “That’s why we kick ass.”

“Hey. Let’s eat,” Saxon called from the grill, triggering the mass rush to get food, music and trash talk forgotten.

Chapter twenty-four

Colten Called Out

Their bassist, Dave, kept bitching about how the hell he was going to come up with a bass line for the song they were working on, but it felt like he was missing how cool the song was.

Joe made some bass noises as an example. “You can nail something like that, dude. You’re the fucking best bassist—”

“Oh, now you notice?”

“I always notice.”

Pierce added, “No, you don’t. You notice when you need him. Otherwise, your nose is up Kay’s ass so hard—”

I’d had enough of that and stood, stepping between them. “Hey. I know this is your band and your shit to work out, but maybe you can chill out and enjoy the party, and deal with this shit when you get to the studio.”