Page 13 of Dirty Like Seth
Better thangood.
Dylan still had his jaw on the floor, so I gave him a jab. “Pick it up, baby, you’re drawingflies.”
“Say something!” Zane produced a drumstick out of nowhere and threw it athim.
Dylan caught the drumstick without even looking. He shut his mouth, slowly. Then he said, “Think I’m having a ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’moment.”
Zane whooped with laughter,elated.
“You have any questions for our mystery guitarist?” Liv prompted us. She was holding a mic of her own. She hadn’t appeared on-camera, but she spoke to us sometimes, prompting our conversations. “You know he can hear you rightnow.”
“Yeah,” Zane growled into his mic, addressing the guitarist. “Dylan wants to know if you sold your soul to the devil, orwhat?”
“Not that I recall,” a male voicesaid.
And we all wentstill.
Because we all knew thatvoice.
I knew, when I looked around at my band, that we all recognized it. We all heardhim.
Liv gave the cue for the screen to move, and as it slid aside, we all saw him,too.
SethBrothers.
My heart skipped abeat.
Chapter Four
Elle
Seth stoodonstage with a white Gibson Les Paul slung over his shoulders, one hand resting on the guitar neck, the other one twiddling with hispick.
He looked…different.
He had a short beard, but I’d seen him with a beard earlier this year. It was his hair; it took me a moment to realize it. His trademark wavy, sun-bleached brown hair had been chopped off, and what was left behind was darker. I’d never seen Seth with short hair. It made his handsome features more prominent, especially his cheekbones and full lips. He was wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses, and I could not read the expression on his face, but his shoulders looked loose; you couldn’t play guitar like that if you were a ball ofnerves.
I watched as he took off his sunglasses and slipped them onto the neckline of his T-shirt. Then he looked out at us,waiting.
And it struck me when I saw the look in his eyes: he stillwantedus.
And I could not get over the shock ofit.
He still wanted to play with us. He still wanted to be in theband.
He’d just come to audition for us, and for some reason, someone had let him in andlethimaudition.
And all I could think as I stared at him was:Why?
But even through the shock of it, I felt…relieved?
Confused,yes.
Andangry.
I felt a whole torrent of unpleasant emotions broiling to thesurface.
I looked around at the guys; Brody and Jesse weredefinitelyangry.
