Page 125 of Paint Our Song

Once he’s done freshening up, Calvin’s still focused on his phone, so he doesn’t disturb him. Instead, Miles heads to his kitchen and sees if there’s anything to eat.

“Miles, there’s food on the table,” Calvin calls from the bedroom—and he’s right. There, on Miles’s dining table, are some freshly baked bagels. Calvin must have bought some from outside while he was knocked out cold. He sinks his teeth into it and actually moans from how good they are.

“Thank you, god, I love you so much,” Miles says in-between bites. Calvin joins him at the table and grabs a bagel for himself.

Not even a minute has passed, and Calvin’s phone rings again. It’s a video call from Chase, and before Calvin can decline it, Miles reaches over and presses the green button instead.

“He’s not going to stop,” Miles says when Calvin glares at him.

“Yo!” Chase shouts. His face takes up the screen, and he’s beaming so widely it must hurt his cheeks. “Finally. I thought you were dead or something.”

“Gil there?” Calvin asks.

“Nope. I can add him.”

Oh, cool. For the first time ever, they’re not together. Miles wasunder the impression they were joined by the hip.

“You don’t have to,” Calvin says, but no, it’s too late, and Gil’s face pops up on the screen.

“What’s going on?” Gil yawns.

Chase says, “Show Calvin the videos of the TikTok singers you found!”

“Already saw them,” Calvin says. “I want to go on break for a bit.”

“Yeah, sure! But we’re still a band, right, the three of us? Are we even going to keep the name Cloverlily? How’s that going to work?”

“I don’t know. I want to take a break. That includes not having to think about those things.”

“Okay, I hear you,” Chase says. “How sad, though. It’s the end of an era. Kinda wish now we didn’t get these matching tattoos.”

Shrugging, Gil says, “Why? They’re cool. And if everything goes well, we’ll get to keep the name and the matching tattoos still work.”

Startled, Miles asks, “The band has matching tattoos?”

“The lilies,” clarifies Gil.

… What?

“Cal’s is on his hip,” Chase says, snickering. “Don’t pretend you haven’t seen it.”

“The entire band has those!?” Miles blurts out, eyes wide. What the fuck? He thought it was a matching tattoo with only Theo. All this time, he thought he’d have to live with the fact that Calvin has a permanent reminder of that guy.

“Theo has it on his wrist. I have it on my ankle, see?” Chase moves the camera to show off the tattooed lily on said ankle. “Gil has it behind his ear.” Grinning, Gil pulls his hair up a bit and angles thephone to show it off to Miles.

Calvin looks at Miles, confused. “What’s with the reaction?”

“I thought—I… Never mind.”

“What?” he prods.

“Nothing.”

Chase sing-songs, “Tell uuuus.”

Flustered, Miles groans and hides behind his hands. His voice is muffled when he says, “I thought it was a couple tattoo. I had only seen yours and… yeah.”

Gil and Chase wheeze. Then they burst out laughing, Chase clasping his mouth and kicking his feet so hard he almost falls off the stool he’s sitting on.