Page 70 of Even Beneath the Stars

"Cam's putting together a new band," I explain. "I told him Xavier has an awesome voice and is a boss on guitar, and Cam wants him to jam for a couple hours with him, Liam, and Tyler."

"Seriously?" Seb sits up straighter, looking at Xavier. "You sing?"

Xavier shrugs, his focus still on his phone. "Not really."

"You do." The words slip out before I can stop them. "And you're really good."

"You heard two minutes of one song."

"Dude." Seb swings his legs down. "How did I not know this? We've been friends since kindergarten."

"Because it's not a thing." Xavier's jaw tightens. "I mess around. That's it."

"He writes his own stuff," I counter, earning a sharp look from Xavier.

"That's sick." Seb grins. "You should totally go jam with those guys. I heard Cam and Liam are cool." Then he adds, "This Tyler guy must be too, if he's hanging with them."

"Christ, would you guys give it a rest?" Xavier pushes up from the couch, his movements stiff. "I've got shit to do, okay? I'm not going."

"What shit?" Seb challenges, eyebrows raised. "You've been scrolling cat videos for the past half hour."

"Cat videos?" I am stunned. "Seriously?"

"I was watching King Stingray in concert at Hindley Street Music Hall, asshole."

Seb shrugs. "Potay-to. Potah-to." Then he adds. "Still means you have time to go jam for a couple hours."

"You realize you don't know everything about my life, right?" Xavier's voice takes on that dangerous edge I recognize from our earlier conflicts. "Just trust me that I have stuff to do."

"Do it after," Seb persists. "I've heard you play guitar and you're good, man. So, if Maggs says you've got a killer singing voice too, then you've got a killer singing voice. And you're being an idiot to pass up the chance to play with some seriously talented guys."

Xavier shakes his head and stalks over to the fridge. He jerks it open and pulls out a carton of milk, then cereal and a bowl from the cupboards, as Seb and I watch in silence. He prepares his cereal, then digs in. "Can you just lay off? I'm not going," he says before taking a large bite.

"Why are you being like this?" Seb's eyes bounce from Xavier to me then back to Xavier. "I don't get it… Is there something I'm missing here?"

Yeah, there is.

Xave's about to snap.

And I get it—he already feels exposed knowing I've heard him sing, and now Seb's been brought into it, and the questioning and pushing is just making Xave more defensive. And pissed that he's being backed into a corner—because there's no way he's going to come outright and say he's bailing because he's scared out of his mind.

I stand up. "Okay, we should back off." My gaze shifts to Xavier. "I'm sorry—we're totally crowding you and guilt-tripping you about this jam session when it's none of our business if you go or not."

Xavier's shoulders relax slightly as he takes another bite of cereal.

"All I'll say is if you're not going because you think you suck—which would be ridiculous by the way—then please don't make your decision based just on that." I fidget with the corner of one of Finn's library books. "Maybe just… think about what advice you'd give Finn in a few years if he was in this exact situation. Whatever you'd tell him—maybe consider taking that same advice yourself before making the call."

Xavier's spoon pauses halfway to his mouth, his expression shifting.

"But we'll drop it now," I add quickly. "No more pushing or bringing it up again. I know I'd be super annoyed if you guys were tag-teaming me about something the way Seb and I just did to you."

Xavier mutters something I can't make out, but there's less edge to his voice now.

As I turn to head upstairs to check on Finn, I catch Seb mouthing to his best friend, "You. Should. Go."

Through a mouthful of cereal, Xave tells him, "You should fuck off."

Chapter Twenty-Eight

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