Page 45 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)

Dallas

T he entire school week lasted a lifetime. I’d hoped Raina would soften toward me as time went on, but she wasn’t even close. Each day in Chemistry, she turned her back toward me, grunting every time I had a nanosecond of interaction with her.

When I walked into Oliver’s garage Saturday afternoon, she didn’t turn to look at me like everyone else had. She crossed her arms as they talked to me, her face hardened.

“Okay, now that everyone is here,” Hayden said, clasping his hands together, “we need to get down to business. The Battle of the Bands auditions are next Saturday, and we have nothing .”

“We have a name,” Caleb said, nodding over to me. “Like Airplanes.”

“Yeah, but we need to have more than a name.” Hayden paced around the garage.

“We’re thankfully allowed to audition with a cover, but we need to start writing original songs and pick one to perform for the actual festival.

And I don’t want to hear any what-ifs because you know we’re getting it done, whatever it takes. We can’t mess this up. ”

Oliver bit his lip ring. “Are you sure we’ll be able to pull ourselves together?—”

“I said no what-ifs!” Hayden snapped.

Oliver blinked at him. “Gosh, you don’t need to be this uptight.”

“Yeah, you’re going to stress yourself out, and then it’ll be a disaster,” Sienna said. “And I think we’ve had enough disasters.” Her eyes met Raina’s before she quickly looked away. “We’re not about to burn ourselves out here.”

“We won’t get burned out,” Hayden promised. “As long as we pace ourselves while getting stuff done, we’ll be good. We won’t screw this up.” He nodded to the set of instruments. “Let’s start with a warm-up of songs we could sing for our audition. Any ideas?”

“Want to give our pop-rock version of ‘Impossible’ another try?” Oliver asked. “I really like that one.”

Hayden beamed, already sitting at his drum set. “Sounds like a plan.”

Gosh, I’d have to sing that song with Raina? As if singing with her wouldn’t be hell on earth on its own. I resisted the urge to grunt as I got up from my beanbag and went to my microphone stand.

Raina went to the stand next to me and adjusted her microphone.

She still wasn’t looking at me, but I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked while focused.

She wore a lavender top and blue jean shorts, both hugging her curves well.

The shine in her silver earrings topped everything.

And as always, her hair flowed down to her mid-back.

Gosh, why did she have to look so hot now ? When she hated my guts?

Not that I was playing the victim.

But still . . . did I really deserve this level of torture ?

“What part are you singing?” I managed to ask her without stuttering.

Her eyes briefly met mine, just as icy and piercing as before. “I’ll sing the second part, and we can sing together on the last chorus.”

“Okay.” I gave her a forced smile.

She only shook her head before looking away again.

“Okay, I understand it’s complicated, but you two need to solve whatever is going on,” Hayden said, pointing his drumstick at us. “Bandmates have to work through their issues to perform.”

We didn’t even want to be in this band in the first place! I wanted to shout, but I bit it back. He hadn’t forced us to come here. That was our choice. And before everything went to crap, we had been enjoying ourselves.

How many mistakes had I made within three weeks?

After Arielle turned on the camera on her phone to record us, Hayden tapped his drumsticks together, and Caleb started with the instrumental before I belted the first verse.

I tried not to look at Raina, who was doing a fantastic job at pretending I wasn’t there while moving around to the music. I closed my eyes and submerged myself in the lyrics, singing from my place of heartbreak.

By the time I’d gotten to the chorus, the song flowed from my lips, though I couldn’t stop looking at Raina. Of course she still refused to look at me. I had the opposite problem.

After I finished my chorus, Raina put her hand on the microphone stand and started singing the second verse, her other hand on her chest. Her eyes drifted off into another place, shining like the moon on the night where everything had fallen apart.

Her voice picked up during the pre-chorus, and even though she still refused to look at me, I knew she was singing from the same place of hurt. The way she sang embarrassing me made me stare at my shoes, my cheeks heating.

Way too cruel.

I glanced behind me to see everyone else smiling, but Hayden looked at me and mouthed, “Very bad song choice.”

I mouthed back, “No kidding.”

Watching Raina perform the chorus, I had no idea how I’d gotten more votes than her.

She was better in every aspect. Her skin shimmered while performing while I sweated like a pig.

She sang her pain away perfectly, her voice sending me to a new high before making me crash again.

It was a level of torture I never thought I was capable of experiencing.

She performed the short bridge before we sang the last chorus together. I tried to match her level, but my voice was shaking. I said sidelines instead of skylines .

I looked back to see Hayden mouth, “What the hell?” I shrugged, heat spreading all over my body.

After messing up at least four more times, surprised Raina wasn’t glaring at me by now, the song finished with my last line. As soon as I said I did , I bolted into the laundry room, tears clouding my vision.

I sat against the laundry machine, my heart storming in my chest. I tried to cover up a sob, but once the tears started, they wouldn’t stop. Please breathe , I begged myself as my chest rose and fell, nearly slipping into hyperventilation territory.

Why had that felt like the worst four minutes of my life?

Stop overacting . I hugged my knees to my chest as my thoughts spiraled. I should’ve never joined this stupid band. I should’ve never become friends with anyone. I should’ve kept to myself like I did at home.

Everything had been so much better before.

Muffled voices from the other side of the door grew loud, but I couldn’t make out what was going on from the way my pulse rushed in my ears. A minute later, the door creaked open. I looked to see none other than Raina, her cold gaze finally trained on me.

“Go away.” I turned my back toward her. “You don’t get to see me like this.”

“Too late.” She slid down next to me.

“You don’t have to be here because Hayden forced you to,” I muttered. “You’ve made it clear that you hate my guts. Message received.”

She stayed silent for a few moments. “I don’t hate you,” she said. “I never could, even if I wanted to.”

“Don’t lie,” I said, failing to keep my voice from breaking. “You can’t even look at me.”

“You’re the only one who’s turned away right now.”

I turned toward her again to see small black tears running down her cheeks. “I don’t want to look at you.”

She sighed, wiping her smudged makeup. “Listen, I know things are complicated between us, but Hayden really cares about Battle of the Bands. We shouldn’t ruin it for everyone.”

“That’s what I was trying to do,” I snapped, hating that I was so frustrated with her when I was the one to blame. Even if we were never as close as we were before, even if she didn’t love me back, I just wanted the ice in her eyes to melt. “Because I don’t hate you.” But I wish I did .

Raina sighed again. “Let’s just try everything again once you’re .

. .” She studied my tear-stained face. While she was a pretty crier, I looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum because he didn’t get the toy he wanted.

Everything about her was freaking gorgeous, even when she was a disaster, and everything about me was .

. . just a disaster. “I can stay with you until you feel better.”

“I-I’m fine,” I said, trying not to get lost in her gaze. This was so stupid. I’d died and gone to hell for an entire week and was still stuck in my head. Why couldn’t I just get over her and make things easier for myself?

I didn’t want to be on this floor forever.

“You’re not fine,” Raina said, her voice the softest it’d been all week.

“Well,” I said, getting up from the floor. “Sometimes you have to suck it up anyway.” I moved past her, my shoulder brushing against her arm, before walking back into the garage. It was time to face the music I wished I could shut off. “Let’s do that again.”

After that treacherous practice, I decided to call Toby. He hadn’t answered my calls since our fight last Saturday, which was just another stab to my heart. How many more could it take before it bled out?

On the fourth ring, Toby’s face appeared on the screen. He was taking a walk by himself, sweat dripping down his face and gray tank top.

“Dang, have you been working out more?” I asked. “Where did those muscles come from?”

“Hello to you too,” he said, his voice breathy. “Listen, I can’t talk right now?—”

“You’ve ignored me all week.”

“We miss calls all the time.”

“But this is on purpose,” I said, not in the mood to take any excuses. “I’m sorry for everything that happened last week. You were right. The past week has been hell on earth.”

Toby wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I’m often right.”

“Still.” I sighed. “I’m sorry, and I mean it.”

Toby sat on a bench. He was at the park we’d used to take our dogs. Something tugged in my chest. “I’m sorry for how I reacted last Saturday, too. I was just . . . frustrated.”

“I understand, but I was the one who was snapping at you when you were only being honest,” I said as I lay next to Houston on my bed. “I didn’t want to hear the truth.”

“It’s fine. Friends get into disagreements.

” He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just that .

. . I really miss you, and I thought I’d be used to it by now, but I’m not.

I’ve tried to make new friends, but no one clicks with me.

I don’t want to make this about me, but I don’t think I’ve been this lonely before. ”

My chest ached. I wished I could take away the pain in his eyes. “I-I’m sorry.” I swallowed. “I didn’t know you were hurting that much.”

“I’m hurting a lot,” he said, not looking at the screen. Talking about his problems made him uncomfortable. Most of our deep conversations about his life happened during our walks.

But that was no longer an option.

“I know it’s a lot harder to be there for you now,” I told him, “but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. We’ll spend more time talking to each other when we can. Calling, texting, even sending random pictures, whatever. I just want to be there for you.”

He nodded. “I want to be there for you, too. You and your wrongness.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m right sometimes.”

He laughed. “I really miss you, Dallas. I’m glad you’re still my best friend.”

I beamed, happy there was still a way I could talk to him. “I always will be. I don’t plan on moving anywhere else.”