Page 275 of Hot Mess
“Maybe.”
“So what is it?” I pressed. “You’ve got better options than what we’re offering? Axl Rose call you up?”
He stared at me with those unblinking eyes of his. “Tell me the truth. Am I your first choice on this?”
“Actually, yeah. We haven’t made an offer to any other drummers.”
Xander seemed to weigh that in his head. “Pepper not an option, then?”
“No, Pepper’s not an option.”
“How do I know that’s true?”
I sighed. “Look. If we’re gonna be in a band, we’ve gotta be straight with each other—”
“Okay. Straight up. You fucked me over once. Dropped me for Pepper.”
“Yeah, well, Janner and Coop made you a promise they shouldn’t have.”
“You know I was a better drummer than Pepper.”
Christ, was that all he needed to hear from me, all this time?
“Yeah,” I told him, honestly, “you were a better drummer than him back then, and you’re a better drummer than him now. But he was one of my best friends, and that was the choice that was made, back then. Nowadays, you’ve got your shit together in a way that he unfortunately doesn’t, and I can’t play with him anymore. That’s the truth. Summer and I are serious about this, and so is Matt. We’re moving forward with or without you. We’re offering you something you can have a piece of from the beginning, and we’ll all make it ours, together. Equal footing. Offer’s on the table. But this is the last time I’m making it.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll join your band.”
I blinked at him. For real?
“Ourband,” I corrected him.
“But I’m not fucking auditioning,” he said. “You hire me right here and now, or deal’s off.”
“Consider yourself hired.”
But he shook his head at me. “Equal footing, huh?”
“Huh?”
“You’re hiring me without talking to Summer and Matt? What happened to ‘we’ll all make it ours, together’?”
Nice try.
“Summer’s good with you,” I informed him. “We’ve already talked about it. Matt!” I called over to my new bassist. “Wanna hire Xander to play drums in our band?”
“Yeah, man,” Matt said, heading over.
“You’re hired,” I told Xander. When he just stood there, I shook his hand. Then I pulled him in and hugged him.
And finally, he fucking smiled.
Then Matt hugged him, and the dudes all around us started applauding.
Apparently we’d gathered a bit of an audience.
“Shit,” Zane muttered. “Hot lineup.”
“Can I join this band now?” Jesse asked, looking the three of us over.
