Page 5 of Broken Chorus

“Can you get me a new guitar player and someone to front this band?” Kelly asked, his words stopping Hawk’s thumb from touching the red telephone icon to end the call.

Was the universe seriously using him for its personal chew toy right now? Groaning, Hawk barely resisted the urge to bang his head on the counter. “What happened?”

“Aaron decided shit wasn’t gonna work with Micah and Declan, and get this, he wants Kazzy to play drums.”

“Joy. So…what, exactly are you expecting me to do about it?”

“I dunno, talk to him or something.”

“Because talking really gets me anywhere with him.”

“Further than not talking to him.”

“True, but…”

“Just try, okay. Maybe he’ll give you the answers he won’t give me.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Hawk replied, the complicated relationship between him and Aaron one of many things he hadn’t had time to devote to lately, which sucked, ‘cause he really missed the bastard and needed him more than he was willing to admit at the moment. That would just open floodgates he wasn’t sure he’d be able to slam the gate on if he needed to.

“Trust me, there’s little chance of that,” Kelly remarked, sounding utterly defeated as he ended the call.

Joy.

Another thing to add to the never-ending list of shit he didn’t have time for.

He’d have asked what was next, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to tempt fatethatway.

Chapter 2

Adrift in a chlorine sea

Had he just been kicked out of the band he’d helped form?

Aaron pondered that as he stalked back to his condo, fingers occasionally brushing against the baggie in his pocket, still bulging with wonderfully pungent weed.

Well, technically that band didn’t exist anymore, so…

It still felt like being kicked out, and Aaron muttered several curses as he shoved open his door and let the cold of the place wrap around him like a silken robe.

Meh.

Kelly would cool off eventually and ask him back, he just had to wait for the stubborn bastard to realize that Aaron was right. They couldn’t just do some crazy rapid shift of direction and think they’d maintain their fans or their connections in the industry. It wouldn’t work.

Or at least, it wouldn’t work for Aaron, not when Kelly had been expecting him to sing as part of this little venture.

Their fans would think they’d lost their fuckin’ minds if their lyrics were suddenly peppered with bible verses and religious rhetoric. Not only that, but there was no way in hell Aaron would be persuaded to sing them, not with the way his grandparents had brow-beaten him with that shit from the time he’d gone to live with them to the time he’d gotten the fuck outta dodge.

They’d preached at him about the length of his hair, his grandfather’s heavy hand on his shoulder, pinning him in place as his grandmother had forcibly shaved it off. They’d burned his concert t-shirts in a bonfire, each of them a gift from one of him friends since no way in hell had he been allowed to go. They’d even dragged him before the preacher and demanded he repent for listening to devil’s music. His grandfather had wrecked his first guitar, sold his second one, and smacked his hands with a ruler until he couldn’t close his fingers around the neck of one when they’d caught him playing the third. At least Kelly had claimed it belonged to him so they hadn’t been able to take it away or wreck it.

Kelly had seen the bruises.

He’d listen to Aaron rant and cuss about all the ways he hated them and hated how they made him feel. He’d tried to help Aaron unravel the conflict he’d felt because he’d never thoughtof himself as bad, but they were constantly telling him he was, and that was just…

Devastating when it came from the people who were supposed to love him.

They’d shuttled him off to bible camp in the summer, separating him from his friends, who they’d called little heathens and done everything in their power to keep Aaron from having anything to do with. They’d scared him with all their talk about the sin of being gay and what should happen to people who werethat way, so much so that he’d never felt safe coming out to them. They’d forced him away from the first person he’d ever loved…and refused to let him mourn in peace after Shane had passed away.

They hadn’t just believed in praying the gay away, but in beating the sin out of the sinner, even if it meant damaging someone in the process. Cringing, Aaron tried not to remember their hateful words following a news report about a young man just a little older than Aaron had been at the time, and how he’d brought it on himself, and deserved what had happened to him.

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