Page 29 of Omega Rock

“I will. Thank you, Mia.” And that’s it.

All there should be.Professionalism,right? But there’s room for friendship within professionalism, and I want it.

“Elias!” Noah shouts from up ahead. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

Leo and I catch up to Noah and Aiden just in time to watch a surprisingly familiar man shake Noah’s hands.

Elias Turner. IknowNoah’s friend.

“Aiden, man, it’s been a while.” Elias shakes Aiden’s hand with his massive one. Then he turns to Leo. “Oh, wow. Got a fully star-studded group here tonight. Big fan, though we’ve not met before I don’t think.”

Leo shakes his hand, too. “Thanks. Happy to be here.”

Elias then sees me past the guys and his grin grows bright and wide. He stands taller than all four of us and is built like the perfect drummer. “Well, well, well. Is that Mia Moore?”

Noah whips around in surprise. “You know each other?”

I give Elias a wave. “Not personally, but he was one of my father’s favorite students.”

Elias gives me a short side hug that makes all three of my bandmates bristle. “I tried to convince her to apply to Juilliard on her father’s insistence, but it didn’t work. Decided to just go viral online instead, huh?”

I shrug and can’t stop smiling. Even when Noah’s eyes narrow a little. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Elias tosses up his hands in self-defense. “It did, it did. Now you’re rolling with these guys?”

“I am.” I flash smiles at my bandmates. “Noah said your parties are epic. I’m excited to see what that means.”

Elias turns and gestures to the estate at large. “Drinks on the house, find a place to jam or join one already going on. Have a great time.”

“Thanks, man,” Noah says, and then Elias whisks away to talk to other people. We’re all the way into the back patio space, a drink for Noah and Aiden in their hands, before Noah turns to me. “Your father isAlex Moore?”

I smile sheepishly and run a hand through my hair. “Yeah, he is. But he retired from teaching at Juilliard a while ago.”

“Not that long ago,” Noah comments with a little bite in his tone. “Why didn’t you say anything the other day?”

The sharpness of his words makes me hesitate. “It… didn’t seem like relevant information? I mean, yeah, I guess there was a chance you would have known him from when you went to school there. But I don’t really talk to my parents all that much.” And I’d not heard anything about Noah or why he was kicked out, which I realize is what Noah might be worried about. “I don’t know what happened to you, if my father was involved with that at all.”

Noah nods silently and then fixates his gaze on a group of jazz musicians playing some really smooth slower numbers. “Right. No, I’m sorry, Mia.”

“It’s okay.” Is it? What the hell happened that had Noah kicked out from Juilliard?

Noah sips from the beer he grabbed from a tub on the way here.

Aiden cracks his. “Curious why youdidn’tgo to Juilliard though, since you had that connection?”

I shrug. “Not really a reason to go. I love music, but the hard training and expectations of that kind of school didn’t really appeal to me.”

Noah snorts. “You’re not kidding. It’s a lot.”

Aiden lifts his beer in my direction. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I think you both have too much talent for a place as strict as that. This is the best route for people like us. I’m excited for tomorrow.”

“You sure about that?” Leo asks with a chuckle. “You looked ready to punch Wes.”

Aiden makes a show of drinking for a long time from his beer. “I thought about it. We’ve been a band for less than a week, and I was and was not part of another band within that same span of time. Fuck.” He drinks again.

Noah stands and opens his arms wide. “Listen, no more of this downer talk. We’ll smash tomorrow’s gig, then we’ll get to work on original music and whatever the fuck else that wizard Wes has in store for us. But tonight, we’re just partying and playing music.”

I stand as well. Given the music-focused nature of the party, I actually feel a lot more confident being here. Not everyone’s drinking, and no one who is appears in a bad way. “Yes, let’s go.”

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