“I just polished it up and stuck it online,” I said.
He stroked my hair. “You know you did a lot more than that. All of the programming you put into it. The drums are sweet. It sounds amazing.”
“Naomi’s live beat helped too.”
Naomi announced she needed a bathroom break and ran up the stairs.
I stretched and moved closer to Justin. “Do you work tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” He grabbed my hands and pulled me into his lap. “Did you tell her?”
I rested my head against his shoulder and told him what she said. “She won’t let me bring up anything serious. How am I supposed to tell her that I’m a liar? Or that my mom is calling her dad because I opened my stupid mouth?”
“No offense, but you’re a really bad liar. At least it wasn’t a surprise for me when you admitted you never went skydiving.”
I elbowed him.
“Be nice,” he whispered.
I looked up at him. “What should I do?”
“I can’t tell you that. You know Naomi better than I do.” He stroked my cheek.
“That doesn’t help.”
“I know—I suck. I’m sorry.”
Being so close to him relaxed me. I ran my fingers under his sleeve, trying to guess the shape of his tattoo.
Footsteps echoed from the stairs. I pulled back to see Naomi watching us. She wasn’t smiling this time. “Maybe I should leave you two alone.”
“No, we have to record ‘Dawn,’” I said.
Naomi made her way down the stairs. “I’m in the mood to celebrate those killer reviews we got.”
“How?” I asked.
“Let’s take a trip.” She moved in front of us and pulled a baggy out of her jeans. A few shriveled brown pieces of something sat inside.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“’Shrooms,” Justin muttered. “They make you hallucinate, basically.”
“Why would anyone want to do that?” I whispered.
He shrugged. “Some people think it’s fun.”
Naomi raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
“I want to work on ‘Dawn,’ like we planned,” I said.
“So, let’s eat a couple first.” She grinned. “It’ll make practice more interesting.”
“Why do we need to make it more interesting?” I asked.
She tilted her head back, rolling her eyes. “Ugh. Don’t start with the dumb questions, Drea.”
I clenched my fists. That was the second time she’d said that to me.
“It wasn’t a dumb question,” Justin said, his fingers tracing the back of my hand.
“Fine, whatever. I’ll eat them by myself.”
“Not during band practice,” he said. “We agreed, remember?”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed at him. “Oh my God—they’re just ’shrooms!”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said softly.
She shook her head and shoved the baggy back into her pocket. “No offense, Justin. But maybe they let you out of rehab too early.”
Justin’s arms tensed around me. I sucked in my breath, expecting him to yell. I sure wanted to, but no words came out of my parted lips.
“Recovery takes a long time, Naomi,” he said. “And being around people who are wasted doesn’t help.”
She looked at the ground, running her fingers through her hair again. “Maybe I should just go. I’m kind of beat anyway.”
“I wasn’t asking you to leave,” Justin said.
“Yeah, I know, but…” She shrugged.
“Stay.” My voice came out softer than I expected.
Naomi glanced up at me then. Something about the look in her eyes made my stomach hurt. “I’ll see you later.”
I watched her climb the stairs, torn between going after her and staying in Justin’s arms. One route was
