Page 85 of Pretty Black

“I think we should upload the song,” Cas whispered.

“We only have two fully recorded with the new guitar.” I’d written a dozen over the last six months, taking words from all my school notebooks. Years of material distilled down to twelve songs, and I couldn’t wait to hear them come to life. “The guys are coming over tomorrow to do more. Don’t you think we should wait?”

Cas lifted his shoulders. “It’s so good. I want to see what other people think.”

“No one is even going to find it. We need to play shows and get our name out there.”

“I know, but it still feels like we should.” He wore this silly little smile on his lips.

The way he looked at me was like magic; I loved how happy the music made him.

“What do you think the guys will say?” I didn’t want to piss River off by doing it before they were ready.

“Why are we telling them?” he asked.

I smacked him. “We are a band. What if they aren’t ready?”

“Who’s ever ready to release art?” he replied after thinking it over. “I don’t think River or Alister will care. Lowe might.”

“Yeah, Lowe is a little hotheaded. He likes control.” Caspian laughed. “But he can’t stay mad at me.”

“He can stay mad at me.” I always got the feeling Lowe didn’t like me. Maybe he didn’t like how close Caspian and I had gotten over the last nine months.

“But it’s not his music.” Caspian dragged his teeth over his lip.

I had to laugh.“I thought you were the diplomatic one.”

“I am, and I think it will be better to ask for forgiveness than permission. I’m not sure we are ever going to be ready to pull the bandaid off. So I want to do it, and I want to keep doing it. We write good music. Someone is going to see it eventually, and I don’t want to wait anymore.”

“You’ve never been good at waiting.” And we couldn’t ever get this moment back.

“It’s one song.”

It was hard to argue with him. We’d been working on this stuff for eight months. “Okay.”

He sat straight up and grabbed his laptop. He was moving files with the profile he’d already set up for our band, Foregone Conclusions, on the streaming service.

I sat in shock.

I wasn’t sure this was a good idea…

But would it ever feel like a good idea?

Probably not.

I didn’t really expect this to work.

So what did it matter?

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I guess.” I didn’t look at him, picking at my shirt instead.

He reached over and grabbed my hand. “Iris.”

“Yes?”

“Look at me.”

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