Page 57 of Secondhand Smoke
She shifted her feet and smiled at him from her spot outside the garage. “Hi.”
“Dude, we agreed on no guests during rehearsals.” Paulie groaned, then lowered his voice. “We sound like shit.”
“Dude, if we cared about people hearing us practice, my neighborhood is the last place we would do it,” Toni rebutted.
“For what it’s worth, you guys sound amazing,” Nell said.
Paulie perked up and cleared his throat. “Well, okay. Just try not to distract us.”
“Noted.” Nell smiled at him but stayed where she was outside the garage.
Barrett realized then that he’d been standing there, staring like an idiot, and her attention was back on him. He adjusted his grip on his guitar and motioned to a couple of foldable chairs set to the side for when they needed to sit down. “You can sit over there.”
Nell smiled, and Barrett wondered if this might have been a bad idea. His mind, which normally wouldn’t shut up about anything, was one hundred percent on that girl as she walked into the garage and took a seat.
Ever since he’d admitted to himself that his crush was back in full force, it was like his mind had just been waiting for him to verbally admit it before it wreaked havoc on him. That didn’t bode well on his playing.
“From the top,” he said, tearing his eyes away from her in hopes it would help. “One, two, three . . .”
21 - Nell
Barrett was acting strange.
Not just now, but at the shop earlier that day as well. He’d been fidgety, his eyes glazed at points, his lips red like he’d been nibbling on them.
She wondered if her presence made him uncomfortable.
Had she overstayed her welcome? Had she assumed more of a connection with Barrett and his friends than there was?
Was she just desperately clinging to any sense of belonging?
Sure, Barrett had technically invited her there, but she had been the one inviting herself to whatever their plans were. As friends and a band, they were tight knit for as long as she had known of them, so just popping in and claiming a spot . . . probably wasn’t as easy or as welcome as she’d thought.
She crossed her legs and sat on her hands, to keep herself from picking at the ends of her nails, while the band played.
Too good to be true. That’s how all of this was feeling to her. How easily she had connected with them, how welcoming Barrett had been, how much hope it had given her.
Too good to be true.
Their song eased into a beautiful ending riff from Barrett, and Nell couldn’t help but be mesmerized by him.
To someone who knew nothing about bands and metal, they were incredible. Their sound, their presence—Barrett especially—was bigger than this little town. No wonder it had taken them getting gigs in bigger places to be noticed.
She wished she’d been able to go. It could have been her last chance before they got tired of her and she found herself alone in her bedroom again, like she had been with the last of Barrett’s weed over the weekend.
The meeting with her family had given her whiplash, and she had used every last nugget that Barrett had given her, rolling them herself into sad, inexperienced blunts that she smoked in the middle of the night under the tree.
The rest of her day she’d spent in bed, too afraid to get on the road at all, until the drugs helped the feeling pass enough to get up and go out to find Barrett.
Now, she wondered if that would be her plan again after this.
Barrett closed out the song, and she waited for him to look at her, but he didn’t. Her confidence waned and insecurities battled, the latter gaining the upper hand.
As the song ended, Nell wondered if she should clap or if that would be too much and annoy them. So instead, she settled for a soft hum of approval—one she wasn’t sure any of them heard. Would they notice if she stood up to leave?
“Finally. I thought we’d be stuck on that song forever.” Toni crashed his drumsticks into the cymbals, and the sound echoed through the garage. “See? I told you, Duncan. You’re our lucky charm.”
Nell’s eyes widened at the sudden attention, and her tongue failed her. That lucky charm thing again. Too much pressure, and she couldn’t tell if he was just saying it to be nice or not.
