Page 8 of Hard Rock Temptation
And I was told as a thirteen year old
that I had to be controlled
But I’ve changed
I’ve left this cage
Because I’ve finally aged
I asked Anya to switch one of the lines.
‘Because I’ve finally aged’ was supposed to be ‘And now I’m on the stage.’
I wondered what everyone would think of it: the audience, the guys, the rest of the world watching on their TV screens. The line change was subtle, but true fans, and our band members, would notice.
I won’t hide cause now I’ve got my pride
and I’ve opened up my eyes
Won’t change my mind, I’m taking to the sky
‘cause I know it’s finally time
So I’ve changed
I’ve left this cage
Because I’ve finally aged
I hadn’t teared up during a performance in years, yet here I was, doing exactly that.
I took a brief second to shift my eyes to Micah, to see if he had any reaction. His head was bowed over the keyboard and he played with such ferocity I had to imagine he’d realized what I’d asked Anya to do.
Soon the performance wound down. It was a short set, we only had time for three songs. You better believe we’d all almost come to blows over the set list. What family didn’t fight over things, after all? But I’d come out the victor with one of my songs being chosen to play first.
I hadn’t exactly planned on the whole ‘stick it to Micah’ thing, but I guess it turned out to a be good song choice in the end.
After the last song we left our instruments and headed over to the sofa and chairs next to the host’s desk. Micah took a seat at the back. I made sure to sit on the exact opposite side, putting me in the front.
We had a bit of an intro already planned, with Finn and Zain drawing the center of attention away from Anya, as usual, so I spent the time brainstorming explanations I could give if the host asked about the song change.
I could tell the truth, that it had been about my experiences growing up, especially with people like my mom in my life.
Or…
Maybe I could change the narrative a little? Talk about how it was based on something recent? I couldn’t help but want to see Micah squirm as I recounted a too-true-to-life story. Maybe that was mean of me. When it came to harmless pranks, Finn tended to be the one to overdo it, not me. If I essentially told on Micah and aired our dirty laundry, so to speak, without naming names, would that be going too far?
I wanted to make him squirm, yes, but I didn’t want to actually hurt him, even though he’d hurt me. I didn’t want our relationship to turn into something like that, where we each took turns emotionally wounding the other, back and forth, until our friendship was unsalvageable.
I just hoped we hadn’t reached that point already.
“So Kaylee,” the host said, turning to me.
I snapped back to attention, chiding myself. I’d let my mind wander so far that I’d almost forgotten I was on live TV. The host was an average late-middle-aged guy with a stand-up comedy background, the kind we dealt with on almost every late night show, so I had to hope he wouldn’t throw me any curveball questions.
“I’m told you wrote the first song the band played, is that right?” he asked.
“Right!” I chirped, putting on my brightest smile as I nodded, red curls bouncing down my shoulders. “We’ve all written songs, but this one was mostly mine, with some help from Micah, our keyboardist.” I turned my head around and gave him a cheery grin. I’d decided to not let on that there was anything wrong with the band. “I wrote all the lyrics and came up with the melodies. He helped with arranging.”
