Page 38 of Before Now

“As you wish.” I glance up when Colton comes up the bus’s stairs and then return to Heath. “I’ll send what we have from this week after I review it. Good luck finishing your shrine. Maybe try adding a pickleball racket.”

He huffs and taps away on his screen. “Fuck off. I’m making Xander put this shit together.”

Oh, my roommate will love that. Xander video-chatted me the other day, facedown on our couch and begging for a reason as to why he agreed to be Heath’s assistant while I’m gone. I rattled off a short list of the director’s credits before he started fake sobbing. Crib duty might end in actual tears.

“Right.” Heath drops his phone and sits forward, reaching toward the camera. “Don’t fuck this up, Sinner.”

The video blacks as he shuts his laptop, and then the call disconnects.

I smile and close my own computer. Even without Foster’s—Adams’s—interviews, a loose shape’s forming for the documentary. I’ve rewritten and rearranged my original notecards a couple times, but more than a few feel solid. The key elements I’ll fight for until the end. Those reveal more truth about Of Men and Wolves than any requests from Mac Records to further commercialize Adams North.

Black fabric rustles behind me when Colton comes through again. Tugging out my earbuds, I drag my feet closer before he lands on them. He has on his usual fit, except the tee has rips and holes. They show peeks of tan abs and a nipple piercing.

“Bear attack?” I ask, and he grins.

“I did not buy enough fake blood to pull that off.” When I shrug at him, not understanding, he rolls his eyes. “Goddamn, you need to quit working. It’s Halloween?”

“Halloween,” I repeat.

As if summoned by saying the word twice, Felix bounds onto the bus decked out with leather chaps, a vest without a shirt underneath, a red bandana covering his face, and a cowboy hat. He points directly at me. “It’s motherfucking Halloween, Cam Girl.”

With a whoop, he gallops through, swinging an imaginary lasso and slapping his own ass. So he must be the horse too. A nice setup to ask someone to ride him, I’m sure.

The farther into the tour we go, the more antsy Dev and Felix become—especially Felix. He’s become a bull in a chute the past week, ready to tear the place apart to get out. Even now, the chaotic energy pulses from him. These two days off might save us all.

Felix halts his horse beside me with a pull on the reins and tips his hat. “Howdy, partner. I dare reckon you’ll need a mighty fine pair of chaps to boot scoot with us all on the Halloweeniest of all Halloweens this side the Mississippi.”

I open my mouth to respond, but, “I have no words.” My voice breaks at the end in a laugh.

Felix nods toward Colton. “I sounded just like you, right?”

Colton kicks him in the thigh. “I borderline hate you.”

The drummer winks at him. “Love you too, sexy.” He crashes on the other couch and yanks the bandana down so it hangs around his neck. “Seriously, though. We’re going out tonight, and costumes are required with faces covered. For obvious reasons.”

“For you three assholes,” Colton says. “I’m adding guy-liner and enough blood to pass as a vampire. Remi, you can…” He considers me for a second and waves me off. “Throw on a skirt and be a yearbook photographer or some shit.”

“Schoolgirl.” Felix nods. “Very approved.”

I wrinkle my nose at the costume suggestion. The idea intrigues me, though. “I don’t know. Where are you going exactly?”

Colton smirks like I agreed already, but it’s Felix who says, “I grew up in a college town not far from here. One of the frats goes all out.”

“You’re letting them go to a house party?” I ask Colton, shock not at all hidden.

The security guard shrugs and nods toward Felix. “Have you seen this dude lately? Between him and Dev, it’s more dangerous tonotlet them loose. I’ll be with them, and Anton and Henry are dressing as mimes.”

Ideas already swirl for POVs and an overhead shot. The schedule might not allow for any other chances to show the band out in the wild, so to speak. At least not until the break in Texas. It’s not guaranteed all three of them will spend those two weeks together. Dev’s mentioned more than once he plans to visit his grandmother, and I imagine they’ll want to write.

“I’m bringing my camera.”

Colton chuckles. “Sure, lioness. Bring your work along, but you’re required to chill and keep me company.”

“And take shots,” Felix adds. “You and me are taking shots, Cam Girl.” He glances out the window to the parking lot. “Rest of the party’s here.”

Figuring he’s talking about Dev and Foster, I ask, “What are they going as?”

Before either answer, Dev climbs the stairs. He’s wearing a black onesie—barely zipped because, of course, we need the obliques on display—with chicken feet. Then he flips up the hood to show me the red spiked ridge down the center.

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