Page 2 of Hidden Truths

I lift my eyebrows in surprise. “James Wolfe?” The election hasn’t even happened yet, but my mom has recently become close with his wife. She won’t stop bragging about it.

“Of course. Who else would I be talking about?” she snaps. I just shrug her off. The maybe governor is Maverick Wolfe’s dad. He’s a year younger than us, but we all go to the same college, and he’s become close friends with Ezra. So we’ve become friends by default. He’s a cool guy, but his dad is kind of a dick.

“Where is Dad?” I ask, looking around for him.

“I’m here!” My dad yells, rushing into the living room from the kitchen as he straightens his tie. My dad is warm in all the ways my mom is cold. As I was growing up, their differences always confused me. Even now, I still can’t see how they fit together. “Good luck with your gig tonight, Cal,” he says, smiling at me and patting my shoulder.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Keep an eye on your sister. We can’t have her doing anything embarrassing,” my mother orders before leaving the house. I roll my eyes. Belle would break out in hives if she ever broke a rule. Mom should be more concerned about me, but that’s never the case. Probably because I’m a guy, as fucked up as that is.

My dad sighs and shakes his head before looking at me. “Keep an eye on Belle to make sure no one tries to take advantage of her. Not because she could ever do anything to embarrass us.”

I nod, and my dad squeezes my shoulder before following my mom out of the house. He’s always trying to re-word the cruelty that spills from his wife’s mouth, like he thinks we believe she doesn’t mean it the way it sounds. Too bad she means every word.

I check my watch and see it’s getting close to the time we need to leave. I already saw Ezra and Kai leave their house. That was almost twenty minutes ago.

“You’re going to be late to your own graduation party!” I yell toward the stairs.

Belle and Willa make their way down the stairs in what looks like matching black dresses, while Belle argues with my statement. I just walk out to my truck, knowing they’ll follow me.

Belle is nervous the entire drive. She’s lucky it was only about five minutes, or I would have left her on the side of the road. Or at least threatened it. As much as my mom telling me to babysit my eighteen-year-old sister annoys me, I wouldn’t actually leave her anywhere alone.

I hop out of the truck the moment I put it in park, needing to get away from all the nervous energy.

“Hey Cal,” some leggy brunette greets me, batting her eyelashes. “Can’t wait to hear you sing tonight.”

“Thanks, babe.” I can’t remember her name, so I go with a generic pet name just to be safe. She lets out a high-pitched giggle that has my balls shriveling. She tries to grab my arm, but I slip out of her reach. “I have to go get set up and do some sound check stuff. You know, band things.”

She giggles again in a way she must think is cute, but I have to fight the cringe. “Find me after,” she says in a flirty tone. I nod and quickly walk away.

“Took you long enough,” Kai mutters. He and Ezra have all the instruments set up and are currently plugging in amps, lighting, and anything else that requires power. We’re using portable batteries that Willa’s dad has from their camping days.

“Where are the girls?” Ezra asks, looking around me.

“I drove them here.”

“And left them in the parking lot?” Kai asks, disapproval clear on his face.

I roll my eyes. He’s always been protective of Belle, but I swear it got worse when we went away to college. “It’s a two-minute walk, and you can probably see my truck if you move a little to your left.”

I leave him to his overprotective nature and start getting my mic set up how I want it. The minute I sing a couple of practice notes, people pay attention. I can hear the quiet descending and feel the eyes on me. It’s part of why I love this. My voice makes people listen.

I look at my band, making sure they’re in place and ready to bring the house down. Figuratively, since we’re surrounded by trees and zero walls. Belle’s hands are shaking above her keys. Ezra is pale, but Kai and Willa are both serious-faced and ready. I lock eyes with Willa and nod. The next moment, she bangs her sticks together, and the music starts.

I open my mouth and the lyrics flow. I’m in my element like this, on the stage, lights blaring down on me, fans ensnared by my voice. It gives me a sense of power that I don’t have in other aspects of my life. They hang on to every note and octave. It’s a high that can never be matched.

“You’ve been great, Summer Bay! We are Shattered Halo!” I shout once the last note of our ten-song set fades. I’m covered in sweat, some of which has been dripping into my eyes and making them sting. But not even that discomfort can take away from the crowd that’s clapping and screaming our names right now. Bras are even flying at us. I manage to catch a nice lacy black number before stepping back and helping the twins unplug everything.

I assume we’d normally have more time to bask in our glory, but since we’re in the woods on a makeshift stage, we all agreed to get our instruments back in our locked cars as quickly as possible before celebrating with our peers. We’re halfway done before I notice Ezra isn’t with us or helping. I’m about to open my mouth and complain to Kai about it, but I quickly shut it when I remember I did nothing to help them set up.

The moment Kai hits the lock button on his key fob, making sure our instruments are safe, I’m high tailing it back to where the party is. I’m not as big of a man-whore as I make myself out to be, but I won’t say no to a congratulatory blow job.

I find a group of girls, some of which I recognize from my graduating class, and make my way to them. They’re all huddled together, probably trying to keep warm. It may be June, but it’s still cold once the sun goes down, and their dresses are barely covering anything.

“Don’t worry ladies, I’ll warm you up!” I shimmy my way in and wrap my arms around two of them. They giggle as they all get closer to me.

“You were ah-maaaa-zing,” the girl to my right, who I’ll be calling Blonde One, says.

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