Page 3 of Broken Chorus

“Yeah, that’s a you problem. I’m just looking for something to snack on,” Aaron remarked as his gaze landed on the Cookie Monster cookie jar.

In his head, he could hear Cookie Monster’s voice growling Cooookiiiiieeee, revving up his hopes that the container wouldcontain something besides air and crumbs.YES.His fingers closed around something smooth, which he quickly pulled out.

“Oh my god you have Thin Mints!” Aaron declared before shoving it in his mouth.

“I’d assume you did too, since Ella was the one selling them.”

“I may have grossly underestimated how many I could eat in one sitting.”

“Holy shit, how many did you eat?”

“Well. It was movie marathon day, so you know how that goes,” Aaron muttered around the cookie in his mouth, shrugging as he rummaged around in the jar for a couple more.

“Yeah, you got set up in your home theater with junk food and a stack of fat blunts and didn’t move all day unless it was to piss or puke.”

“Which only happened once. The puking that is.”

“If you’re not careful, you’re going overdose on sugar one of these days!” Kelly snapped, moving the cookie jar farther away from him.

The last thing Aaron was in the mood for was to be reminded of another vice he sucked at controlling.

“That much sugar is not good for anyone,” Kelly pointed out, arms around the jar, guarding the damn thing to keep it out of Aaron’s hands.

“I wasn’t gonna havethatmany,” Aaron grumbled before polishing off the three he held.

“You ready to play?” Kelly asked, a hopeful tone to his voice.

“Ready, no. But I’ll play if only to prove to you why none of this is going to work out the way you want it to.”

“That’s it!” Kelly yelled, shoving the cookie jar into the wall hard enough that the lid violently rattled. “Go home, Aaron. I’m not going to have you fuck this up for me.”

“I thought this was supposed to be forus”

“It was until I realized you haven’t changed at all. Why didn’t you roll with Jason and Ethan once the band split up? It would have been easier for the three of you to replace me and Hawk. As it is, I don’t know how I’m going to replace any of you.”

“I never said I wanted to be replaced.”

“You don’t have to say it. The fact that you don’t want to give the best musicians a chance to play is all I need to know.”

“You could have at least met me halfway and agreed to reopen the auditions.”

“Why, when we heard all we needed to!” Kelly snapped. “Those were your words, not mine, though I happen to agree. You’re being a dick, like, in the worst way possible. I never would have expected this from you, not in a million years. Calling Micah a cultist is bad enough, but using the word cripple…”

“Technically, I only started to say the word!”

“which was already too much. I’m just curious about one thing.”

“Shoot.”

“Which bothers you more: the handicap, or the religion?”

“You know how I feel about people preachin’ at me.”

“Yeah, and…? Micah isn’t here to preach, he’s here to play.”

Aaron snorted and shouldered past Kelly on his way to the door.

“Show me one bible thumper that can make it through a conversation without tossin’ in God, Jesus, salvation, or damnation.”

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