Page 54 of Omega Rock

Mia scoffs loudly and shows Aiden her phone. “It’s not just one fucking show. They think you and Leo are desperate enough to restore your careers that you’re willing to launch Exit Fate off my one single viral video.”

Her words stab into me as if she’s stabbed me herself. “What?”

She nods, her eyes wide. “Amongst other shitty takes, that’s what’s going on online right now.”

Noah drinks long from his beer. “It’s just the fucking internet, Mia. Who cares what they’re saying online?”

Mia shoots him a deathly dark glare. “It’s not justonline.” She points harshly in the direction of the stage we just retreated from with our tails between our legs. “They booed us in person, too. Or did you miss that?”

“All right,” I say before this descends further, moving to pat the air with my hand in a calming motion. But doing so sends more shooting-lava pains through my entire forearm. I swallow a hiss of agony.

Mia’s eyes soften then narrow with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But we need to stop arguing right now.”

“Do we?” Noah stands from the table we’re sharing. “We can’t operate this band by what social media says.” Mia opens her mouth to retort but Noah holds up a hand. “Wecanoperate it by what happened here today, though.”

“Only if we’re also going to work on improving,” Aiden argues. “So we were booed. Why? And what can we improve on?”

Noah all but rolls his eyes as he tosses his now empty beer can in the trash bin. “Wes put us on Knotty Tour too fast.”

Aiden raises an eyebrow. “So what do you think needs improvingspecifically?”

Noah inhales deeply. He rubs the back of his head as I cradle my hand back to my chest. Mia watches me carefully, but I try to ignore it.

“I don’t know, man,” Noah says. “I’m just tilted the show didn’t go well.”

“Not all shows do,” I say.

Aiden nods. “I think we all know that and have experienced it to some degree.”

Mia chuckles dryly. “The night before Wes called me to come meet you all, my bassist and drummer fucked up the one song they should’ve known when they agreed to play.”

I cringe. “That sucks.”

Mia nods. “Yeah, it did. And on that note, we can’t playDreaming Lateanymore, either.”

That’s enough to sit Noah back down. “What? Why?”

“Because of what I just said a few minutes ago,” Mia argues. “Enough people think we’re riding offDreaming Late. Or they think you and I are riding off Aiden and Leo’s previous fame. Either way, we need to come together. Only original music.”

“So our set-list goes down to five songs?” Noah asks. “People are going to notice we took it out. Besides, the band version ofDreaming Lateis fun to play.”

Mia smiles, but it’s small and slightly sad. “I agree, but we need to remove it. So yes, we take it down to five songs unless you all want to stay up writing something new tonight.”

“We’d not be the only band with a five-song set,” I point out. Knotty Tour stage slots are a strict thirty minutes long. Most bands only play five songs to begin with unless they’re short. “And if anyone has comments about us removingDreaming Latethey can shove it.”

Aiden sits back against the couch but he looks anything but relaxed. “We have to write on the road anyway. Wes’s agreement was one album and one tour. This is the tour, I’d wager.”

“Last I remember, that agreement didn’t come with a timeline,” Noah says. “Besides, we’re already doing more in the first month and a half than he probably expected.”

Mia nods. “Wes wouldn’t expect an album due upon end of Knotty Tour.”

Aiden’s jaw locks hard. He seems to wage some sort of inner war in his mind and then he shakes his head. “I agree, but we should try anyway.”

And this is where I have to draw the line. “We need to focus on Knotty Tour and winning audiences over, not trying to tourandwrite six more songs. That’s insane, and stressful. And on top of that being unrealistic when we should be focusing on performing on this tour, I cannot do stress.”

Aiden shoots me a withering look. “You know that’s how this life is.”

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