Page 9 of Hard Rock Temptation
“Can you tell me about the song?” the host asked. “What’s it about?”
“Well, all of my songs come from the heart.” I shifted in my seat to lean forward dramatically. “Sometimes I take phrases right out of my journal, to be honest. So a lot of the stuff I write is very personal. I don’t like to be too specific about what my songs mean. I like to leave things to the listener’s imagination.” I laughed then. “I find that the kind of theories people come up with are more interesting than reality, actually.”
“Fascinating!” the host said effusively, and even managed to not sound insincere about it. “So Zain…” he said, turning to face our lead guitarist.
I breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t asked for any more details about the song lyrics. Probably wasn’t a fan so he didn’t care.
But from the narrow-eyed stare I could see aimed at me out of the corner of my eyes, Micah certainly did.
FOUR
MICAH
I’d noticed.
Of courseI’d noticed.
What kind of musician wouldn’t recognize a change in lyrics for one of their own songs, a song that had been performed dozens and dozens of times before?
Kaylee must have asked Anya to do it. And Anya had said yes. I had no idea what the two of them were playing at. Why they had done it.
Well, I supposed I knewwhy. The real question was, what was Kaylee expecting me to do? She was practically daring me to say something about it, to protest.
I knew the song was mostly about her mom, but the whole,I’ve changed, I’ve aged,part? I knew that was one hundred percent aimed at me.
I snuck a peek at Kaylee. As if sensing I was staring at her, she shifted slightly in her seat and met my eyes with a challenge. The rich green shone as bright as any stage light. I lowered my eyes,unable to best her in a battle of wills. No one could out-stubborn Kay.
Even with the sweat of exertion on her brow and her now-frizzy hair she was gorgeous. In fact, she may have been even more attractive like this, all mussed up and disheveled. It made me think about what she might look like after?—
“So Zain,” the host asked, turning to our lead guitarist. “You’re one of the main composers ofUntil We Break, correct?”
“I compose a lot of the songs but I wouldn’t say I’m the main one,” Zain said confidently. “We all contribute.”
“And you write many of the lyrics, right?” the host turned to Anya. “I’ve heard people refer to you as a true poet. Would you call yourself that?”
Anya’s brown eyes went wide at being addressed.
“I do write poetry,” she said quietly, struggling to keep from ducking her head down and hiding behind her long black hair.
“I’m clearly the main songwriter,” Finn jumped in. “A lot of our number one hits came from the brilliant mind of Matthew Finnley.”
“Brilliant mind, huh?” Zain said, sticking his elbow into Finn’s ribs. “Gotta love this one’s modesty.”
“It’s not bragging if it’s true,” Finn said with a grin. “Maybe you can be the brilliant mind on our next album.”
“Speaking of the next album, Micah, when can we expect it to drop?” The host turned directly to me as he asked.
A heavy lump formed in my gut.
“I don’t think our label would like it if I told and ruined all their careful PR plans,” I said. It wasn’t really a lie.
When was our next album dropping, he wanted to know. That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? And by million, I literally meant million. The label was sitting on a huge wad of cash to promote our next album and they had been clamoring about it for what seemed like a year now. Our contract with the label was tight. Even though we’d been young when we’d signed it, my mom and dad had seen to that. But I still worried. If we didn’t release our sophomore album fast enough, would the label put us on the back burner and shift their focus to their other artists? Would they wash their hands of us altogether, sick of waiting for us and ready to move on to the next big thing?
But we weren’t close to being ready to record yet. We weren’t even close to finalizing all the songs yet. Anya was still tweaking lyrics. Finn was still fiddling with bass lines. Zain was still working on his, quote, ‘killer solos’. And here were Chris and Kaylee, working on brand new material, too.
We should have started recording six months ago. We should have been done the album by now.
But we just weren’t ready.
