Page 20 of One Day Like This (Excess All Areas 1)

The thought fucked with his insides. First, he’d just verbalised his worst fear, that the band was running out of time and money to become, well, anything. And second, he’d spent the morning looking at rooms at Izabel’s wedding hotel, wishing he could book something fancier than a simple twin room. And, shit, he still had to speak to Luke after rehearsal with words he hadn’t come up with yet because he’d been on the phone the whole way over.

“I’m ready,” Luke said. “I’ll deal with another six months of your Uncle Allan’s bad breath to get it done. Extra shifts, whatever we need to make this one perfect.”

“Yeah,” Ben agreed. “Same. I can pick up some overtime, do some stuff on the side. If you need some cash, Jase, short-term, I can loan you some.”

Jase shook his head. “Thanks, but I’ll manage. It was more, just ... shit, I’m fed up with being brassic, having no cash, and trying to juggle shifts and gigs and rehearsals.”

“Could you go full-time at the pub? Or perhaps find something full-time somewhere else? I bet Uncle Allan would take you on in a heartbeat,” Matt said.

“Don’t need you to figure my life out. I’m a big boy now.”

Matt lifted his hands in surrender. He should know better than to offer Jase an opinion directly. But the way he’d spoken, like he was tired down to his bones, mirrored Matt’s own feelings. He’d felt compelled to help. “Understood.”

Luke walked to his drum kit and let rip on the snare and bass, a roaring blast of energy drowning everything else out. “Should we get started then?” he yelled.

Alex grinned, his blond hair flopping over his bruised eye, as he joined in on his percussion setup. To Matt, it looked like a thousand instruments in a giant pile, but there was a strict setup Alex followed. And when they played live, he barely glanced down to see at what he was doing, just reached out his hand to smash a cymbal, hit a key, or pick up a tambourine. The house he shared with Jase was like a music shop, packed to the rafters with equipment that could change the roar of a car engine into a beautiful sound on a song.

Matt pulled out his guitar, attached his strap, and pulled it over his head. He messed with his amp until he had the setting right and strummed a chord. Loud, gravelly, just the right amount of reverb he liked.

Ben grabbed his guitar and did the same, wincing as he strummed the first few chords. For a moment, Matt was envious that Alex had a brother who would always have his back.

Matt stepped up to the microphone and looked at Jase who still looked pissed. “Are you coming?”

Jase sauntered up to the middle microphone, and as he did, his features totally changed. The sour downturned mouth loosened as Jase wiggled his jaw from left to right, before opening it wide to stretch the muscles around his mouth. Stiff, hunched up shoulders fell away from his ears. An aura of confidence replaced the uncertain gait, the loping step replaced with one of confidence and purpose.

It was as if the few square feet at the front of the stage was the only place he felt at home in his own skin. And it was the only reason Matt put up with his shit. Whatever pressure or anger or loathing Jase felt evaporated once he’d stepped up to it, and Matt would give anything to know what caused it to come back the minute he jumped back down.

Because for a brief couple of hours, depending on Jase’s mood, he’d see his brother. Would meet him there in front of their fans.

“Evening, motherfuckers, we’re the Sad Fridays.”

Only Jase would pretend there was an imaginary audience. Luke led them into their first song.

Two hours later, when every song had been played, pulled apart, and perfected, Matt changed into a clean T-shirt.

“Need a ride home, Matt?” Luke asked as he disassembled his kit.

“That’d be great, thanks.”

He gave Luke a hand getting his kit into his van and climbed aboard.

Matt waited until Luke had navigated his way out of the Northern Quarter and onto the ring road out of the city. “I need to chat with you, mate. About Iz.”

Luke glanced at him and looked back at the road. “What about her?”

“Saw her taking some shit from Harry.”

“Fucking arsehole. I should have nailed him when I had the chance. What was he saying?”

“Stuff about some wedding coming up.”

“Ah, shit. Yeah. It’s a bit of a cluster.”

Matt paused and looked out of the window. He didn’t want to give Luke the impression he was overly invested. “Yeah, Iz mentioned it was something like that. Turns out, Harry decided the right time to officially introduce Iz to Sophia—that bird he was screwing on the side—was on the tram, where he also told her he was taking Sophia to the wedding, and they were going to use the room they’d booked.”

Luke ran his hand along his jaw. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“Would have done it for you had there not been two police officers on the tram.”

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