Page 179 of Movers and Shakers

“I don’t want another one of him,” I cut in. “I just want a guitarist.”

“Youneedanother Blaze Matthews. You can’t do this on your own.”

“That’s enough.” Justice stepped in front of me. “I will not tolerate you speaking down to her like that.”

“Blaze did.”

“And he better be glad I didn’t see it. Her team is onherside, so you can buzz off.”

“Oh, so youdon’tneed me?”

“Wait, we do,” I interjected. “It’s two days before the show.”

“That’s right,” Mickey said. “And I’m not doing this without some sort of romance.”

“Then you’re fired. Get out.”

Mickey shook his head, standing up straighter. “Yeah, right. You just said you needed me. I don’t have to leave.”

“Hey, buddy.” Juno’s angry voice made even my hair stand on end. “Leave or I will throw you out.”

“You can’t—‍” Mickey stopped as his eyes finally fixed on Juno and he remembered how much bigger she was than him. “Whatever. When you crash and burn, I’ll be watching.”

He strode out without another word and Juno followed to make sure he actually left.

“What was that?” I asked, panicked. “We can’t fire him.”

“He’s looking at you like a piece of meat. And treating you like one too.”

“I mean,yes,but the tour—‍”

“You’re not sacrificing yourself for this tour. We want you toenjoy it.”

I didn’t expect that answer.

“Let me talk to Malia,” Justice said. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“But we had a hard time finding Mickey. And now we have to do it again right before the tour?”

“We have other options. Don’t worry about it. Get some rest before this actually starts. Let us figure out the rest.”

“But—‍”

“Lila,” Justice said, “you’re at the top of your game and deserve to behappyonstage. I already have some ideas to discuss with Malia. We havethis. Go enjoy rest.”

I wanted to. The conversation with Mickey had exhausted me.

I nodded, pushing past the desire to fix everything for everyone or to pull an all-nighter until I solved this problem. I knew I wanted to focus on Mom being here and on Barry’s arrival. Malia and Justice had been fantastic to work with and I needed to let them handle this. “Okay, I trust you.”

And I did. But I didn’t see a way out of this. We were down a band memberagain,all because of me.

“She did the right thing,” Juno said as she walked up to me. “And don’t worry, if anyone can handle it, it’s Justice and Malia.”

“Why did he have to be weird?” I groaned.

“Some guys make it their goal to be as weird as possible. He should have taken the hint.”

“Let’s just go. The more I stay here, the more worried I get.”

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