Page 141 of For Wrath and Redemption
We’re going to be okay.
37
CLAIRE
“This place is nice.”
“Right.” I smirk at her as I kick off my shoes. “I’m sure my postage stamp of an apartment really measures up to a world-famous rock star.”
Mabel sits on my couch and grins up at me. “I wasn’t always a world-famous rock star. I used to be just another unwanted foster kid runaway who disappeared into the system, never to be seen or heard from again.”
I raise my eyebrows in surprise, then take the seat next to her. I rest my head on the back cushion and close my eyes. I’m always so tired these days.
“When I was hired to do Jonah’s PR, I tried to do as much research on you guys as I could.” I raise a hand to stifle a yawn. “I found very little about you.”
“One of the few good things the label’s done for us.”
“What do you mean?”
“They scrubbed us from the internet.”
“Really? Why?”
“Less mess, I suppose. Less chance anyone from our pasts would come knocking. We were young and aside from Jonah, we didn’t have stable upbringings. Sav was a runaway. I was a runaway. Torren should have just run away. The label didn’t want any surprises, so a cursory internet search won’t tell you much of anything before we became TheHometown Heartless.” She laughs. “Well, except Sav and Torren, now. They’ve blown their own shit wide open.”
I laugh with her. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
“Everything in my past is a lot more boring than theirs, honestly. I doubt anyone would care even if they did find it.”
I turn my head so I can look at her. Her pink-highlighted hair is perfectly styled. Her winged eyeliner is sharp and precise. Her pink lips are curled into a subtle perma-smile as she thumbs through a design magazine I had sitting on the coffee table.
Mabel’s been nothing but kind to me from the beginning. Always happy. Always smiling. Always quick to toss out a snarky-yet-good-humored joke. I realize now that the bubbly exterior could very well be a survival tactic. A protective armor of some sort.
No one ever looks too long at the happy ones. It’s the broody, angry, mysterious ones that tend to draw attention.
Mabel is the only bandmember who doesn’t have a permanent residence in the media. I run through my memories and can’t recall a single headline about her. How much of that is intentional?
“Whatisin your past, Mabel?”
“Just another sad orphan backstory to tug on the heartstrings, Claire.” Her lips turn up in a grin, and she arches a brow. “Think it’s enough to make a main character?”
“Probably.”
“God, I hope not.” She laughs and rolls her eyes, then pulls her phone out of her pocket. Whatever she reads has the smile wiped from her face. She turns to face me. “Let me preface this by saying I’m sorry.”
I sit up straight. “What?”
“Sav and Callie are coming over.”
“What? Why? I thought Sav was in North Carolina, and Callie was in LA?”
“They were, but Caveat had some studio time in the city, so Sav came with. Sorry. I told them I was meeting up with you, but I didn’t think she’d just swing by.” Mabel winces. “In hindsight, I probably should have seen it as a possibility.”
“How does she even know where I live?”
“She’s Sav. She knows everything.”
A knock rings through my apartment, and I sigh, pushing myself from the couch.
