Page 141 of Second Sets Omnibus

If I don’t get them away from her, then we’ll never leave. I’ll be stuck with Nigel and his fists for the rest of my life. Our dreams won’t mean anything if I’m six feet deep at the hands of my father. And I can’t let that fucking happen. This is for the best. For all of us. We’ll be happier in a few years. And I’ll be fucking free.

“I can’t believe it,” Kieran says with a stunned expression, running a hand down his face. “This is fucking unbelievable.” His face pinches when he looks up at me for confirmation, and I nod. “But fucking why? I don’t understand why she’d go back to him so easily. There’s no way, man. She wouldn’t go back to him like that. There has to be something going on that we don’t know. Maybe he’s blackmailing her,” he grunts again, pulling at his hair. “I should go with Callum. I should…” He shakes his head, pacing the small living room with a pinched face.

“Fuck,” I grunt in false anger. “How’d we let it get this fucking far? Huh? This was supposed to be simple! We weren’t supposed to actually fall for her. How could you assholes let this happen? See what she did! I’ve been telling you for weeks that River has been up to something when she lets Van come into the record store. There’s more to their relationship than she lets on,” I growl, trying to weave more lies into the equation. Truth is, I’ve been doing this for the past few days, trying to implant false information into their brains. So, when it came time for this whole thing to go off, it’d be easier to make them believe.

“This was all your fucking idea!” Kieran shouts unexpectedly, with harsh emotions warring on his face. He’s torn between not wanting to believe what I’ve laid out and firmly believing what I’ve shown him. And the latter is obviously winning when, within three steps, he’s in my face and fisting my T-shirt. Kieran teeters on the edge of being a loose cannon and is minutes away from slamming his fist into myface. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it won’t be the last. When they find out what I’ve done, they’ll kill me. “You made us… I’m going to fucking murder Van for this.”

“I didn’t make you do shit,” I grunt, pressing my nose against his. “You all fucking agreed to this plan. Remember what we did it for? We wanted her for West Records and look at what we have now.”

“But we didn’t need her,” Rad whispers, running his hand through his mullet. “We just…”

He fell in love; that’s what he did. Head over heels with his ass in the air, his heart in his hand, and blood on his sleeves. They fucking love her, and I’m…fucking destroying them. I’m dismantling their love for her brick by brick; they never saw it coming. Day by day, since we’ve separated from her, I’ve been planting things in their heads. Hint by hint, I’ve been forcing them to conclude that this is what she did to us—betrayed us in the worst possible way. And this video? This is the nail in the coffin for our relationship.

No matter how badly I want to pull back and prevent this from happening, I can’t stop myself. It’s a necessary evil in my plan for our future. One day, when this comes out, I hope they can all forgive me for what I’ve taken away from the five of us. I’ll get on my knees and fucking beg for their forgiveness. But for now, I must keep pushing through before it’s too late. We have one week to get to California for the competition, and I need their heads in the game. Not on her. Not on their hopeless love. Us—the band—Whispered Words.

“And see where it got us?” I snark, knowing the quicker we move on, the faster we can get out of here and never have to think about this godforsaken town again. Goodbye Gloria, Goodbye fucking Nigel. And Goodbye River—may your life be what you always wanted it to be.

My chest squeezes when Kieran’s expression falls, hurt lining every inch of him. “I just don’t fucking understand, man,” he growls, squeezing his eyes shut. “I need to fucking see for myself. I need to fucking talk to her and square this away. This can’t be the fucking end.” His fingers squeeze into fists, glaring at the front door.

Rad plops down onto the couch again, gripping the roots of his hair, muttering words I can’t understand. “She wouldn’t go back to Van,” he says, scrunching his crumpled face and shaking his head with disbelief. “She wanted nothing to do with him. He’s a stalker. Why the hell would she sleep with him behind our backs?” he asks, trying to rationalize the situation. “I’m with Cal. We need to talk to her and figure this out. There’s something so fishy about this. We need…”

“It’s all true,” Callum says through heavy breaths, shuffling in through the front door. Deep, soul-crushing despair paints his long expression with tears staining his reddened cheeks, and his gray eyes darken in anguish.

“What’s true?” Rad asks, lifting his head to meet Callum’s eyes.

“Van was there,” Callum mumbles through quivering lips. “He fucking kissed her. Before I left, I saw it. I…I saw it. They were there together. He brought her dinner, and then they fucking kissed. I couldn’t-couldn’t stay after he leaned in. How could she?” he gasps out, clutching his chest as mine tightens, feeling his misery from where I stand. Reaching into the depths of his pocket, he pulls out his phone, displaying one picture of Van shoving his tongue down River’s throat.

Kieran leans forward with a scowl, taking the phone from Callum’s hand. Without a word, he throws it back into Callum’s hands and storms out of the house without a glance back, going to do whatever it is he’s doing.

My dinner threatens to come up my throat and out my mouth for everyone to see. From where Callum stood, she looked so willing and compliant to Van’s advances. That’s all it takes for them to never question the accusation again. It is the nail in the coffin and all the motivation they need to pack their bags and turn their middle fingers up to the city we are leaving behind. There’s no going back now. I’ve set everything in motion to get us to the Battle of the Bands without a distraction. Without the woman who helped get us there.

So, why do I feel like the human equivalent of a pile of shit in the front yard on a rainy day? This is my shining moment. The point I’d hoped to get to when I discovered that they’d stay behind and live normal lives for her. Only it’s not.

By the time we made it to California and won, I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life, leaving her behind. A wide crevice developed behind my ribs. Nothing in this world could fill it besides her. The love I gave her, without knowing it, shattered the moment we left town, leaving my insides a mess. I prided myself on not developing feelings and keeping my distance, but I was not only a liar to my best friends, but to myself. After our departure, something fundamental changed within the guys and in me. Almost as if they developed the same black mass inside them that ate away at everything it could get its hands on. We were never the same as we were in the small town of Central City, where we became famous.

Monumentally, I fucked up the best thing in our lives with one single lie that blew everything away. That tiny white lie was only the beginning of our story. Staring at River now has more thoughts and plans formulating in the back of my mind. I epically fucked up their lives by tearing them apart in the worst way possible. Maybe now that River is in front of us, I can fix this all. Maybe, just maybe, I can weave our lives together again and confess my bloody sins.

Even if they hate me—they’ll still have her.

“You’re dismissed.A limo will pick you up at your respective homes, and they will escort you to the Band House. There we will have another meeting of expectations, rules, and another six-month contract for you to sign,” River declares, turning her back on us with her head held high.

My heart sputters, threatening to pop out of my chest. Until she slips from sight out the back door, leaving the four of us to wallow in the anger brewing like a dangerous storm around us.

“Well, this has been entertaining. Said no one ever,” Rad snarks, lazily climbing to his feet. With ease, he grabs his motorcycle helmet from below the table and cradles it under his arm. “Apparently, I have a house to pack up. See you nut jerkers later.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he stares at it as he walks out of the room without a backward glance.

Since we settled in East Point, he’s had this unaffected air about him. Almost as if River was just a blip on his radar and nothing more than some floozy, he messed around with on the Ferris wheel. Not the love of his life.

The thing about Rad is, he’s put a mask on since the moment we left Central City. And now, he never lowers it and lets us see the pain he’s hiding away from us.

The walls press around me. Over and over, I’ve lived with the damage I inflicted on four other human beings due to my selfishness. I, alone, crushed the love from Rad’s veins the moment I pointed my fingers at her with my cheating allegations. More guilt builds in my chest, crushing me where I sit rigidly in my chair, basking in the silence of the other two who stay in their seats.

“Does this not bother him?” Kieran asks with a deep scowl, watching as he disappears through the door leisurely. “We left for a fucking reason. We…” Kieran grunts, jumping to his feet and throwing the chair across the room until it bounces off the wall with a thud. We don’t even blink at his outburst. Kieran’s been nothing but fumes, waiting for the match to strike. And here it is…

“We left because she…she…fuck!” he shouts, pounding a fist into the edge of the table. Releasing a pained grunt, he stands tall, gathering his emotions. Emptiness fills his blueish eyes, and he shakes his head. “I’m out,” he says, clearing his throat and taking off out the door at a quick pace.

This is going to go swimmingly. The four of us, stuck in a house together. Throw in the girl they think cheated on them in the worst betrayal ever. What was past me thinking?

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I huff and climb to my feet. “You coming?” I ask Callum, who sits ramrod straight in his chair, most likely reliving the worst night of his life on repeat.