Page 97 of Disharmony

“Fuck,” I whisper as my eyes flick to the video of me and the Basilisks onstage at The Smoker. “How did you find this?”

“This,” Cookie points to the climbing view count, “is going viral. Everyone wants to see what Video Girl is doing next, but this… it’s not what they expected. What the hell happened?”

“They called me onstage to sing with them,” I say. “I didn’t think…”

“It was uploaded four hours ago,” Cookie says, “If I’ve seen it, then—”

“Jacqueline has too,” I finish her sentence.

“Exactly!” Cookie declares, then her expression softens, sensing I don’t need my ass kicked anymore. “You do sound great though. I didn’t realize you could sing like that.”

“I told you that I got rejected for Camp Harmony three times before,” I say, collapsing back on the bed and staring at the cabin ceiling. Although I’ve told her a vague story, I never went into the details before. “When I applied to sing metal, they didn’t want me. After the video, I got a place and Jacqueline made me sign a contract to develop pop music as a condition of my scholarship.”

“Shit,” Cookie murmurs. Her face falls as she starts to wrap her head around the precariousness of my position. “This is bad, Ash. Real bad.”

It’s one thing breaking the rules and sneaking out of camp. It’s another breaking the rules, sneaking out of camp, and singing something she disapproves of. I blatantly disregarded camp policy and completely flouted the conditions of why I’m here.

I hit replay and watch the video again. The Basilisks sound amazing, but I look out of place at their side. How could I have felt like I belonged with them while performing when seeing it now only reminds me of how different our lives are? And how unlikely it is I’ll ever hear from them again…

I try to calm my breathing and fumble to plug my cell into charge. As soon as I do, it almost vibrates straight off my bedside table.

“Brick?” I answer straight away. “You’re not usually up now, is everything okay?”

“Put him on speaker,” Cookie urges.

“I’ve seen the video,” he says.

“Already?” I groan. “How?”

“I set up an alert with your name,” he replies. Since when is he an IT whizz? He’s worse than me with technology. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It only happened last night, Brick,” I snap. “I haven’t exactly had the time, and right now, I’m facing getting thrown out of camp.”

“You meeting them is a big deal, Ash,” he says. “How did it happen? Why were you singing with them?”

Instead of sounding pleased for me, I now detect hurt and annoyance in his voice. We used to tell each other everything. If he got pissed about me singing with the Basilisks, I don’t want to think about how he’d react if he knew I fucked them too.

“Look, I can’t talk now,” I say to him in exasperation. “I’ll call you back later, okay?”

I hang up on him and turn my cell off to avoid any more calls.

Have I made a huge mistake?

When Ripper asked me to come onto the stage, I thought all my dreams were answered. I never thought about the consequences.

My bed dips as Cookie sits next to me. “What’re you going to do?”

“What can I do?” I grimace. Hiding won’t get me anywhere. I know better than anyone how something on the internet can’t be taken back. “I have to face the fucking music.”

“But I don’t want you to get thrown out of camp.” Cookie’s bottom lip trembles. “You’re one of the best things to happen to me this summer.”

“Whether I’m at camp or not won’t affect our friendship,” I say. “You’re stuck with me now.”

She smiles, then looks down at my shirt and snickers, “Before you go anywhere, you have to change out of that.”

* * *

Everyone swivels to face me as I walk into the mess hall with my head held high. Word travels like wildfire in this place, and details of my late-night excursion have already made it around camp. As I walk through the benches, snickers follow me as clips of the video are played.

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