Page 47 of Verses

But, I supposed, that wasn’t my problem alone.

Fortunately, once we were all onstage, me still in my Early Rise t-shirt, Wolf broached the subject. “Pedro, I love that your song choices are going to stretch us.”

Ever the punster, Pedro said, “I’m sensing abutbigger than a Kardashian’s ass.”

Wolf smiled but kept talking. “No—nobuts. I just think we’re gonna have to come at this one cautiously.”

“Dude, yousaidto pick whatever songs we wanted.”

“Yeah—because we need to be personally invested. We’re just going to have to put our own spin on this.”

Kyle spoke up. “I think I get what you’re saying. Like how the hell do we do all the weird sounds at the beginning? Should we play alongwiththe song?”

“Like karaoke?” I asked. “Isn’t that like using training wheels?”

Pedro was shaking his head vehemently. “Yeah, all that shit makes the song super-fucking cool. That’s why I love Slipknot so much—but I think you guys are making this too fucking complicated. Let’s just start playing the song with the instruments we have—the stuff wecanplay. Obviously, there’s only so much we can do.”

Adrian said, “Yeah. I’ve only practiced the drums during the part where the guitars start up—not the intro.”

“That’s all good,” Wolf said, but then he looked directly at me, his jade green eyes burrowing into my soul. “What about you, Hayley? There’s not really a melody here. Do you need to warm up? And is there a limit to how many times we go through it without risking you trashing your voice?”

“I don’t know. I’ve practiced it quite a bit…and I have to say it feels kind of, um…liberating. It feels good to shout that shit out.”

I wouldn’t say out loud, though, that there was also something about Corey Taylor’s words that spoke to me—like he was screaming at his absent father, and I was able to do that too. There was so much anger in the words that singing them felt cathartic. Along with my band, I figured it would feel amazing.

I’d learned the song first by listening to it on my walk to and from work a couple of days, but I could only make out some of the words. I’d had to look them up online and, even then, acouple of them seemed to be transcribed incorrectly, an issue I’d had with some of the online lyric sites.

I suspected no one would be able to tell if I had a word or two wrong anyway.

But I wasn’t actually singing. There was only one spot near the end where it came close, but even then it was just talking instead of screaming. Because the song felt almost violent, I only practiced it in the shower when Kyle was working. Fortunately, Adrian and Pedro had also been at work, so I wouldn’t wake any of them.

The people across the hall? Well…they hadn’t said anything. Maybe that was because they were used to hearing people yelling in our apartment—although that had completely stopped once Kyle and I had called it quits.

That alone told me we’d done the right thing.

“Let’s give it a go then.”

“Hold on,” Kyle said. “I gotta change the tuning on my guitar. Didn’t you have to?”

Wolf’s smile made my stomach clench. “Yeah. That’s why I brought two guitars today—so I don’t have to switch back and forth.”

“You okay if I still do the Mick Thomson parts?”

“Yep. I’ll do the other if you feel good with that.”

That was a reminder that we couldn’t have played this song very well without two guitarists.

“Hell, yeah,” Kyle said. “Cue me up, Adrian.”

After Adrian tapped his drumsticks together and he, Kyle, and Pedro started playing the chords at the song’s beginning, Wolf soon joined in and a shiver charged down my spine.

Holy shit. These guys were good together—already. I only hoped my vocal performance wouldn’t let them down. I’d only practiced it loudly once or twice. The rest of the time, I’d spoken the words along with the music so I could memorize them.

Onstage, screaming into a mike, though…was amazing. This was a song I never would have chosen for myself—and yet it was so fun to perform.

A woman who’d been sitting in a corner booth got up and left halfway through. Was it all the F bombs or the shouting or the discordant-sounding guitars?

Probably all of the above.

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