Page 51 of Wylder & the Rising Rockstar
“Even if I—we didn’t want to be seen.”
“I’ve witnessed your stage fright. I know how terrifying it is for you, but I didn’t see any of those issues when you were on stage with Wylder. Not then and not on the L.A. Daily Show. Do you know what I would give to have you on stage with me like that?”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to be on stage.” Logan crossed his arms in front of him, like he was trying to protect himself.
“I know, and I respect your wishes, Logan, I always have.” Luke hung his head. “I’m sorry I released the video without asking you. Honestly, I just needed … something to change. I don’t want this anymore.”
Wylder nodded. She got it. It was a cry for help. She just wasn’t sure Logan really understood that yet.
“You think you can walk away from it all, just like that?” Logan shook his head.
“If it means I get my brothers back, then nothing else matters.”
“What about the music?” Logan asked.
“Music will always be there. I don’t have to be famous to have music in my life. Trust me, fame isn’t everything.”
Wylder tiptoed around the brothers, shooing the mob of students away from Logan and Luke. “Come on, give them some privacy.” She drove the girls back into their rooms, forcing some doors closed and handing out threats if she saw any of them again tonight.
“Who else wants a piece of me?” Wylder turned around to find herself alone in the hallway. The boys must have escaped the crowd when she wasn’t looking. Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, she headed back to her room and found them arguing in her common room.
“No, way.” Logan shook his head. “The hook is perfect the way it is. It’s the chorus that needs work.”
“It’s a great song. Maybe your best yet, but if you change the pace of the hook, it amps up the whole song, and the chorus will practically write itself.”
“Wearen’t writing this song, Luke.” Logan pointed to himself and his twin.
“It’s not a bad suggestion.” Wylder stood at the kitchen counter, hesitant to say anything more. She still didn’t know where she stood with Logan. “A faster tempo might be just what we need to finish this for the Winter Review.”
Logan hung his head, refusing to look at her. “We aren’t writing this song either. No one is.” He grabbed Wylder’s notebook off the counter and left them.
Wylder watched him go, taking a huge chunk of her with him. “Well, that sucks.” She turned toward her kitchen cabinets.
“Give him some time.” Luke sighed, pulling himself onto the barstool in front of the counter. “My brother is the poster child for tortured artists. He’ll come around. And we’ll probably get a new song out of it for our trouble.” He picked at the corner of a boring bran cereal box Devyn had left on the counter. “Not that we’ll have anyone to listen to it.”
“We need snacks.” Wylder started pulling everything from her side of the cabinet. Cookies, chips, and chocolates. “I think we have pizza and nacho makings too.” She turned to the fridge and retrieved half a pepperoni pizza, nacho cheese, sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.
“What’s happening right now?” Luke’s voice took on a bewildered tone. “Are you cleaning?”
Wylder stuck her arm deep into the bottom cabinet for her emergency snacks and popped up from her crouch. “It’s called snacking. I don’t really clean.” She ripped open a box of Pop-Tarts. The brown sugar kind.
“You can’t be serious.” Luke snatched the box from her before she could get her hands on her favorite snack.
“I don’t joke about food.” She snatched them back. “Help yourself.” She nudged a pack of mint cookies toward him. They weren’t her favorite.
“This isn’t food, Wylder.”
“It’s snackies.” She blinked at him in confusion, not sure how this was so difficult.
“No, we’re not eating this … insanity of bad health.”
“Oh, no.” Wylder backed away from the counter, clutching her Pop-Tarts. “You’re one ofthose.”
“If you mean healthy, then yes, I’m one of those.” He picked up the jar of nacho cheese, reading the label.
“Put it down,” Wylder demanded.
“You know there’s nothing in this that’s actual cheese, right?”
