Page 20 of sWitch

ONLINE NOW

I beat the crash symbol.

ONLINE NOW

My foot bounced against the bass drum.

ONLINE NOW

Sweat poured down my chest, soaking through my black sports bra and beading over my six pack abs.

Was Faunaonline nowas I beat the snare to a pulp?

The tom drum was old and dotted in grey from my sticks. Standing, I fiddled with the tom tom, making sure the kit was tight.

My band stood wide eyed and gawking as they caught my gaze.

“What?” I snapped.

A crowd of thirteen year olds cheered, hooting and hollering over their red-40 infused birthday cake beneath the neon lights of the dingy mall arcade.

Rollo put a hand on my shoulder. “We are, in fact, standing on a crime scene—for you have murdered the beat, my friend.”

Joss raised an eyebrow, plucking at a chord on her guitar. “Murdered our set too. Don’t tell me you’re coming down with ignored drummer syndrome. That seems too cliché for you, Remy.”

I ran a hand through my wet hair and looked to Len, who only shrugged in quietwhat the fuck, dude?

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “A lot on my mind.”

Rollo inched closer and batted long, blue mascara-clad eyelashes. “A lot of something pink and cat-eared on your mind?” My jaw ticked, and I glanced at Len and Joss, who were in the middle of some curious kids, showing them their instruments. His mouth quirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret, you naughty, naughty individual.”

“Fuck, Rollo, I can’t get her out of my head.”

“You’ve never been obsessed with a girl like this before.”

“How did you know?” I tucked my drumsticks in the back of my baggy jeans. “Is it that obvious?”

Rollo let out a long laugh. “Oh, it’s fucking plastered across your face. I clocked it the moment I saw you two canoodling in the grass at the game the other week.”

“You saw that? Goddammit.”

Rollo shrugged. “Sebastian wanted to catch the game, and it looks like I caught you. Don’t you have a girlfriend? Wait, wait—and this is yourbrother’sgirlfriend.” He let out another animated laugh. “You’re fucked.”

“We weren’tcanoodling.”

“There was much canoodling.”

I opened my mouth to argue when a flash of fuchsia grabbed my heart and pulled it from my chest into the crowd of pimple-patched tweens. This was not an overly axe body sprayed middle schooler playing a loud game of pac man. This was— It was?—

“Hi.” She bounced over like an anime bunny from a cartoon I shouldn’t be attracted to but was. “You, um…really played the hell out of the drums tonight.”

Rollo pasted on the biggest, whitest smile as I fumbled over myself like an idiot. “I’m Rollo, and you are a dew drop in a field of wildflowers personified, aren’t you?”

Fauna giggled and did a cute as fuck curtsey in her dress that made her look like a tulip fairy princess. Her cat-ear headphones pulsed between blue and pink. “I’m Fauna. It’s nice to meet you. That has to be the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.”

Rollo elbowed me. “Remy drummed their voice away— handed it straight over to the mediocre rock band gods.”

Fauna’s cute little dimpled smile pulled me from my stupor. “Not true—Iamthe god of mediocre rock bands and mall rat pizza.”

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