Page 1 of Melody

CHAPTER 1

June

Jesus. His throat was dry. Like Sahara Desert dry. Even though his eyes were still closed and he wanted to go back to sleep, the way his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth wouldn’t let him.

Pulling his tongue down, he tried swallowing in an unconscious effort to stimulate his salivary glands—but it was no use.

At least he could move his arms again…but they’d been heavy, so heavy when he’d finally fallen asleep in that euphoric haze.

It was always harder to remember in the morning.

Forcing his eyes open, he tried to focus on something,anythingin the darkened room when a feeling of disorientation gripped him. He was definitely in a bed but nothisbed. It was a double bed, but there was only one pillow—and, as he propped himself up on his elbows, he saw Liam’s vape on the end table.

And then it came to him—the party last night. It had started out with the whole band and fans at The Apothecary with a lot of alcohol. When they’d come back to their apartment, the amount of people had slowly dwindled. Hayley had gone to bed first, saying something about working in the morning, and Adrian and Pedro had left sometime in the early morning.

By the time he and Liam had retreated to the bedroom, there had been one girl left. She’d said it had been ages since she’d chased the dragon and, after she and Liam had had a long, drawn-out conversation about the virtues of injecting as opposed to snorting, she’d admitted to never trying it using a needle…so, of course, they’d had to demonstrate.

Kyle finally sat up, his legs draping over the side of the bed. As usual, Liam’s room was dark, thanks to the blackout curtains he’d purchased months earlier. But the sunlight couldn’t be completely held at bay, peeking out from behind those curtains on the window that faced east, which was part of why Kyle could see anything at all.

There on the floor lay Liam, but there was no sign of the girl. Kyle wanted to go to the bathroom, not just to piss but to splash water on his face and rehydrate his body.

So. Fucking. Thirsty.

Before he placed his feet on the floor, he gently tapped with his toes to make sure he wouldn’t be stepping on a body part—because just because he didn’tseethe girl didn’t mean she wasn’t there. Her first time injecting might mean she needed to sleep longer.

But, as Kyle made his way toward the door, he remembered something. It was something the girl had said. Actually, multiple things. He’d had the idea the girl was completely full of bullshit—but she’d been crushing on Liam, wanting to spend time with him. No…that wasn’t it. She’d wanted to get high for free. Remembering the first time he’d personally injected it, he’d beena little anxious about the needle, about heating the spoon, all that shit—but that girl, though. She’d knownexactlywhat to expect.

Despite what she’d said, last night wasn’t her first time. No way.

When Kyle opened the door, he was assaulted by sunlight. It was way too fucking bright out here. He pulled the door closed behind him without latching it and made his way across the living room, through the kitchen, and into the bathroom. As he took a piss, he reasoned that Hayley was definitely at work. She always left at the ass crack of dawn, so she’d probably been gone for hours.

But he had no idea what time it actually was.

After flushing the toilet, he washed his hands and then scrubbed his face with water. Although it didn’t completely make that groggy feeling go away, it helped him feel a little more human. Then he cupped his hands to fill them with the liquid flowing from the tap and sipped it.

Best water he’d ever tasted.

His stomach clenched then, eager for more, but he wasn’t ready to eat. Walking back into the kitchen, he paused at the fridge to grab a Coke and then headed back to Liam’s room. Hayley had a no-smoking policy for their apartment, but Liam smoked in his room sometimes and she never said a word about it. Kyle wasn’t ready to go outside to smoke but Liam’s room was fair game.

And he was pretty sure he’d left his own vape pen in there as well.

When he headed back in the room, he tried looking around, but it was too damn dark. He didn’t want to turn on the overhead light and risk disturbing Liam’s sleep, though, because his genius brother needed rest.

Lots of it.

It wasn’t just because his older brother was brilliant. Something Liam never fucking talked about was everything that haunted him, everything that brought him immense pain. The only reason why Kyle knew it hurt Liam so much was because of all the lyrics his brother had written that he’d never shared with anyone else. It wasn’t until the first time Kyle tried H with his brother that he’d seen the journals on the bottom shelf of the nightstand and had taken them out.

Liam had a different dad—and he’d never met the man. Well, their mother had told them he’d been there for his birth, but his disappearance had always haunted Liam—and he’d vowed, once the band was rich and famous, to use his money to track the man down. One thing was for certain—his father didn’t hang out on social media.

That wasn’t all of it, though. There was that bike accident, back when Liam was ten. Even to this day, Liam said his back hurt because of it, but he always said he was grateful that his arms and wrists had healed well enough to play the guitar. Although he hadn’t discovered his love of rock music until he was twelve, it wasn’t long after that he’d wanted to learn how to play.

And it had become an outlet, a voice for him—and so many of his melodies were haunting, echoing the pain of the human spirit…and, until, he no longer heard those qualities in his brother’s music, Kyle would know he wasn’t fully healed.

Lately, though…something had changed. Sitting back on the bed, Kyle knew both he and his brother had acquired a serious problem…but it wasn’t something he was ready to fully acknowledge yet. That dragon the girl had mentioned last night—oh, Kyle had fucking found it, and it was swallowing him whole.

But he couldn’t think about that right now. For the moment, a more urgent craving was demanding his attention. He just hadto find his fucking vape pen. For a moment, he considered using Liam’s, but his brother sometimes picked funky flavors.

Glancing around the shadowy room, he couldn’t see shit. Finally, he leaned over and pulled back the curtain a little to let the natural light shine in—and, if it woke his brother up, he’d accept the consequences. He knew he’d understand.

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