Page 95 of The Music of Us
I pulled my wrist back.
I missed the heat of his hands in an instant.
“I should go check on that,” I said, motioning toward the other side of the café, where the noise had come from. I swallowed hard, still feeling his phantom touch over my pulse. “Make sure everything’s still perfect for the livestream tomorrow.”
“Oh.” Jake blinked twice, disoriented for a moment, as if he’d just woken up from a daydream and was trying to bring himself back to reality. “Right.”
Turning around, I closed my eyes and let out an exhale.
I needed to concentrate on the livestream tomorrow. I had tofocus.
But even as I walked away, Jake’s melody played in my mind, keeping in time to my heartbeat.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Be sure to tune into our livestream today to see US reunite and perform for the first time since our last tour! This livestream is to raise awareness for a purr-fect place with a great cause, click the link in our bio to learn more!
—The Usual Suspects [@OfficialUS]
It was livestream day.
Everything had come down to this. The café was abuzz with energy and anticipation—the kind that left jumbled knots in my stomach. The lighting and mic crew were setting up for the show in two hours. Amber was literally herding cats to keep them from being underfoot. Mom was in a seat behind the counter, passing out cups of coffee. After spending most of the morning fine-tuning their performance until it sounded like sheer perfection, the boys were taking a well-deserved break to...
“Actually, whatareyou doing?” I asked, eyeing the table where they’d arranged an array of cups filled with dubious-looking liquid.
“Juice or Dare,” Jake answered cryptically, bouncing a small ball in his hands.
I raised an eyebrow. “Juice or Dare?”
“It’s exactly like beer pong,” Aspen answered. “Except completely legal for us and thrice as evil.”
Phillip sighed and pulled out his phone. Aspen’s pinged.
Aspen beamed at me. “Phillip bet me five dollars I couldn’t work the wordthriceinto a normal conversation today.”
I hummed. “I’m not sure this constitutes as a normal conversation.”
“It’s what passes for normal when you’re one of us,” Leon informed me, before explaining the rules. “If your ball lands in your opponent’s cup, they have to drink what’s inside. If you miss, you have to complete a dare.”
I wrinkled my nose at the cups, trying to make out their contents. One I was pretty sure held tuna juice drained from a can in the supply cupboard, and another contained a mouthful of thick, goopy syrup.
I side-eyed the boys. “That’s disgusting.”
Jake blinked at me. “That’s the point.”
“So, isn’t Juice or Dare really just two dares?”
“Eh,schematics,” Aspen replied, before turning and giving Phillip a smug look. Phillip rolled his eyes and tapped on his phone, making Aspen’s chime again.
I took a step away from the table, hoping to avoid the splash zone. I’d worn an outfit to fit today’s special occasion—a summer dress in dark brick-rose, and woven espadrilles I’d hand-dyed the canvas and ribbon straps to match. For the first time in a while, I’d left my hair down so it fell over my shoulders.
“I doubt there’d be so many girls holding up KISSMEsigns at your concerts if they knew what you guys drank before you went onstage,” I remarked, throwing one last skeptical look at the Cups of Doom.
“Hey,” Phillip protested, “we brush our teeth before we go on!”
“Yeah,” Aspen agreed. “We’re notheathens.”
He stared at Phillip expectantly. Phillip sighed down at his phone. “I wasn’t aware you actually knew what those words meant when I made that bet with you,” he grumbled.
