Page 58 of Omega Rock

“You didn’t run last night, at least.” It comes out far more dismissively than I mean it to.

Aiden chuckles dryly. “Hardly the first time we’ve all helped a drunk friend. You’ll be okay. Have breakfast, though, because we’re practicing until our set.”

Noah groans and gets up to grab his water bottle. “Going to be a long morning.”

“And this is why we won’t be drinking likethatanymore while on tour,” Aiden points out.

Leo’s gone back to flipping his phone over and over again.

“Everything okay?” I ask. Maybe it’s just some nervous habit.

Leo looks to his phone and then back to me. “Yeah, just…” He shifts a little in his seat. “Transparently, I had some nerve pain flare up yesterday. I’m okay now, though.”

“Oh, my god.” I was out there drinking until I couldn’t remember anything, and Leo was actually suffering. “Are you sure you’re okay now?”

He slowly lifts his arm. He doesn’twincein pain, but I can tell on his suddenly tight features that he was expecting to. “Yeah. I’m going to take it easy, that’s all.”

Aiden nods to him. “Drumsticks only. I know you’re good for it.”

Leo nods. And thank god, because if drumming is what really set off a nerve flare, then Leo definitely needs tonotdo that.

It’s then as I look at my pack—my band—that I realize we’re all about two steps from falling apart entirely.

Noah must realize it, too, because he gestures with a flourish. “One night won’t ruin everything we’ve been working on. We all know that. So let’s just do our best today, okay? Hangovers be damned.”

Easier said than done.His hangover must not be as astoundingly bad mine. I lift my cup of coffee in agreement. “Hangovers be damned.”

ChapterEighteen

AIDEN

It’s been justover a week since our first set last Friday and the following intervention on Mia. Hell, if we’re being honest, it was a full band-wide intervention too. Noah’s penchant for partying, Mia’s drinking, Leo’s health, and my own inferiority complex rearing its head.

Thinking of how we could have sunk it all for good in that one night after just a single show with Knotty Tour is still sometimes paralyzing. Us crashing and burning out here would be the final nail in my career coffin, probably Leo’s too, and who knew how bad that’d make it for Noah and Mia.

But it isn’t just the band at stake, but the pack, too.

It’s that guiding force that pulls us together. We smashed the Saturday and Sunday shows last weekend and all three this weekend, too. We hustle offstage from the last show to the sounds of cheers and applause that keeps us high for the rest of the night. Mia’s cheeks are flushed from the summer heat and singing. Noah finds a clean towel and wipes the sweat from his face and Leo heads for the closest bottle of cold water he can find.

“We nailed it!” Mia shouts happily with an adorable wiggle dance as we cross the ready area where another band is preparing to take the stage after us.

There is no ability within me tonotgrin when she does that adorable dance. “We did. Great job, guys!”

Noah tosses the towel over his shoulder. “Not bad for a bunch of a strangers who met a few weeks ago.”

I chuckle, about to make a comment about how Leo’s no stranger when I see him struggling to open the water bottle. “You okay?”

Leo looks up quick. “Yeah. All good.” Still he struggles with the cap.

Warning bells go off in my head. Just last weekend Leo mentioned a nerve pain flare bad enough to take meds for. He took it easy between shows and didn’t touch a drum set all week, but if he’s still in pain after all this time…

Leo must have clocked concern growing on my face because he hands me the bottle and levels me with a look. “I’m okay, okay? Just a little grip weakness post-show, I guess. I shouldn’t have drunk what I have recently, and the stress—but it’s getting better.”

I open the bottle for him but shake my head. “You need to take it easier.”

Mia circles closer as she watches this exchange. “What’s going on?”

Noah hovers close behind her.

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