Page 32 of From Angel to Rogue

A boy who had so many pretty girls begging for his attention.

Instead, that said boy, with a casual attitude, golden heart, and moody eyes, gave all his attention to me.

But the fear lingered deep inside me, all the what-ifs when Lan finally realized that I wasn’t as interesting as he thought I was.

In his presence, I allowed myself to truly be me even though it was hard. But on the outside, I tried my best to appear as the cool and interesting girl dating Landon Greige.

I stuck to my diet and kept running, gave up my beloved knitting, and found a middle ground in fashion by still settling for my favorite sundresses but attempted to do my hair and makeup perfectly.

But somehow, I kept thinking that it wasn’t enough. That I just had to do more, be more.

Right now, I was sitting in the two-seater at Emmie’s room/garage twiddling my thumbs while Lily sat beside me, creating the most beautiful piece of art, and the boys practiced their new number for the tenth time in a row.

Everyone had a purpose. Everyone had substantial goals. Except me.

My goals were embarrassing—Marry Lan, make babies with him and live our happily ever after in our home while I knit sweaters for everyone.

What kind of guy would find that attractive?

Guys, hell, people in general these days only found it admissible when you were strong-willed, outspoken, and brave, and I was none of that.

How long was Lan going to be okay with his girlfriend doing nothing other than just being a supportive shadow on the sidelines? And when he’s famous, and someone asks him what his girl does, what would he say? A housewife who knits?

How embarrassing would that be for him? How embarrassingwould Ibe for him?

I tried to make myself interesting by getting involved in some school activities and becoming a member of the event-organizing committee. I hated every second of it, but I was a fast learner and got the job done efficiently, so I didn’t mind it much.

“Let’s take ten,” Emmie announced, dripping with sweat while he set his beloved red guitar aside.

“Fuck, thank God,” Mikey groaned while Matty rolled his eyes at him. Lan ignored all of them and dashed to my side, pulling me into a sweaty hug.

I giggled, trying to push him away, but I loved every second of it.

He smelled like salty sweat and leather and smoky cedar of his favorite cologne. Which took me three trips to the perfume shop to pin down.

Lan placed a soft kiss on my cheek and chugged a bottle of ice-cold water that I handed to him. I scooted to the middle and he took the seat to my left.

Lily’s hand paused; her sad violet eyes darting to her best friend, who was busy pulling legs with my brother, which was weird. Because every spare minute he could get, Mikey stuck to Lily like glue. But lately, something had been going on between them.

It seemed like all the boys knew why but no one would speak a word of it. Even my Lan wouldn’t say anything, simply stopping me by saying, “It’s not my story to tell.”

I bet it had something to do with Mikey, though. He seemed different lately, more funnier, more outgoing and was hanging out more with Emmie than Lily, which itself I found weird.

“Guys, the dates are here. It’s on the seventh next month,” Emmie said, his brow furrowed in concentration as he peered at the open laptop on his desk. “There’s another gig on the twentieth and twenty-second. And I just got an email to contact the owner. Fuck, I can’t fucking keep up with this. I need someone to sort this shit out for us. I have no fucking clue how to do all this.”

Poor Emmie lost his uncle Stephen last month and was taking it hard. His uncle taught him everything about music, and he arranged all their gigs and got them the opportunities. Now that he was gone, Emmie was going ten times harder with the band and was taking it all on himself.

“I can make some calls and sort it out for us,” Lan offered skeptically, knowing what the answer would be.

Lan’s family had enough influence to get them a record deal tomorrow, but Emmie was adamant that they make it out on their own. He wanted to feel accomplished for his success rather than taking the easy way out.

“No,” Emmie mumbled, running his hand through his raven locks, the same shade as his sister.

I met my twin’s eyes and he shrugged, but his eyes narrowed, noting Lan’s arm around me.

I poked my tongue out and a small smile crept onto his lips. Matty never smiled for anyone but me, and he knew Lan made me so happy and was accepting of our relationship, but he loathed our PDA.

“Maybe we need to hire someone,” Mikey said, eyeing Emmie with his deep green eyes, which had a lock of his long blond strand falling over them. “Like a part-time manager or something. If we’re serious about this, then we need to get serious about everything. We are pretty young, and this is our passion, but at the end of the day, this is a business, and we are a brand. And we need to act like it.”

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