Page 44 of I Would Die for You

“Well, life is not always easy with Michael. He has to be carefully managed and everyone walks on eggshells around him, not wantingto upset him. So, when he says he’s not happy with something, people tend to listen.”

“And he doesn’t like that song?” she asks, unable to understand how anyone can fail to recognize its potential.

“Oh, helovesthe song! He just doesn’t like the fact that I wrote it.”

“So, he’d rather the band lose out on a great song than see you get the credit for it?”

“That’s about the sum of it,” says Ben.

“How has it come to this? I’d assumed you were all as thick as thieves.”

“We used to be, when we first formed the band,” he says sadly. “Micky and I were best friends from school, but in the past year he’s changed into someone I don’t know.”

“Is he not happy in the band?”

Ben shrugs his shoulders. “He’s not happy withanything,and he’s making bad decisions about the things he does and the people he mixes with. But I won’t have him throw away everything we’ve worked for.”

“What will you do?”

“Anything I have to, because the way he’s headed, he’s going to destroy us.”

Nicole shakes her head knowingly. “I think your place in the public’s affections is pretty well cemented.”

“Until they find out what’sreallybeen going on behind the scenes,” says Ben scathingly. “Then we’re finished.”

“You make it sound like you’ve done something illegal,” says Nicole, half-jokingly.

Ben takes a deep breath. “We’re terrifyingly close,” he says, looking at her, as if questioning whether he can trust her or not. “A month or so ago, we had an after-party and it got raided by the police.”

Nicole’s brow furrows. She already doesn’t like where this is going.

“The place was littered with drugs, and I was dragged down to the station and cautioned.”

“How has that not made the news?” Nicole asks incredulously.

“Because we paid a lot of people to keep it off the books.”

Nicole’s eyebrows shoot up, her expression a mixture of surprise and disappointment. “Well, it sounds like you and Michael are as bad as each other.”

He shakes his head. “But that’s just it. I’ve been known to pop a pill every once in a while, but Michael likes itall, and lines it up as if it’s candy in a sweet shop.He’sthe one who brings it in andhe’sthe one who gives it out.”

“So, did he get a slap on the wrist as well?”

Ben laughs acerbically. “If he’d been caught, he most likely would have been hung, drawn, and quartered.”

“But…” prompts Nicole, feeling like there’s one coming.

“But while the rest of us were being arrested, he somehow managed to jump out the window and do a runner down the fire escape.”

“Oi, oi, what’s going on ’ere then?”

They both jump at the sound of the gravelly voice, and Ben drops his headphones as if they’re on fire. Nicole surreptitiously removes hers, too, not needing to ask who it is.

“So, this is where you’ve been hiding?” says Michael from behind a cloud of smoke. The intoxicating blend of marijuana furls its way up Nicole’s nose, the heat burning the tiny hairs in her nostrils.

“What areyoudoing here?” says Ben.

“What’s the problem, bro?” says Michael, the words at odds with his condescending tone. “You sound like I’ve caught you doing something you shouldn’t.”

---