Page 14 of Next to Everything We Wanted

“Aw.” His cheeks flushed. He was freaking adorable whenever he looked at her. It made me daydream about meeting a pen pal in real life and falling in love.

It was way more realistic than theStarstruckthing.

Okay, maybe not so realistic, either, but at least it waspossible. Sure, Dallas and Raina didn’t have the smoothest ride, but it was theirs. Sometimes it made me want my own love story.

“Have you come up with anything else, Sienna?” Dallas asked, his dimples showing in his smile.

I nodded over to the trash. “Suit yourself.”

He cringed. “Geez, that bad?”

“Yes,” Raina said.

I shot her a glare.

“Hey, at least Hayden didn’t see it,” Dallas said with a shrug.

“Didn’t see what?” Hayden appeared in the doorway with a plate of cookies. “Sorry, I was in the bathroom.”

Dallas raised a black eyebrow. “The bathroom has cookies?”

“Well, I helped Mr. Landers finish his cookies afterward.” He looked over at Oliver, who now scrolled through his phone. “I had no idea your dad baked.”

“Those are for a business convention,” Oliver said, his golden-brown gaze meeting Hayden. “Not for you to eat.”

“Too late.” Hayden shoved a cookie in his mouth before placing his plate down on the table. “Are we ready for the meeting?”

“We’re not finished yet!” Bella cried. “We have a whole setlist!”

“I told youthreesongs,” Oliver said. “Take your concert to Dad or eat his cookies.”

“I thought they weren’t for us to eat,” Hayden said as the girls ran over to his plate. “Hey, no, those are mine!”

“Sorry, not sorry.” Mollie stuffed a cookie in her mouth before running into the laundry room with Bella, giggling as their blonde ponytails swayed.

Oliver sighed, running a hand through his own blond hair. “Just start the meeting.”

“Okay.” Hayden ate another cookie before standing in the middle of the garage, near our instruments. “So, today we’re going through some of the new songs we’ve written. ‘Disaster’ is a legend, and ‘Twin Flame’ and ‘On My Own’ are getting some love, but we need to give our new fanbase something else for when we start performing at What Do You Bean this summer. What other potential songs do we have?”

“I think we have four,” Dallas said. “Raina and I finished ours, you and I did another one together, and Caleb has two.”

“I’m working on another song with Oliver, too,” Caleb said, adjusting his glasses.

“I started working on a song,” Arielle said, tugging her necklace. “I think I need a little help with it, but I like where it’s going.”

“Perfect.” Hayden’s eyes lit up as he smiled. “Who wants to go first?”

As we reviewed the songs, my frustration grew. All my bandmates were able to put together something they liked. Why couldn’t I do the same? I listened to music all the time, collecting song lyrics in my sketchbook. It shouldn’t be so hard to write my own.

When we were done, we practiced performing “On My Own”. We sounded great, but I didn’t feel as excited as usual.

When our rehearsal was over, Raina sat next to me. “You’re not yourself today.”

“I’m not.” There wasn’t any point in denying it. Raina wasn’t the best at reading people, but it never took her long to see right through me. Arielle and our other best friend, Gracelynn Naysmith, completed our close-knit foursome, though I connected to Raina differently than I connected to them. She justgotme.

She offered a soft smile. “You want to talk about it?”

I sighed, ready to get things off my chest. “My dad and I talked about it. About my letter.”