He frowned again and glanced at Jermaine. He was the quietest out of all of them, so he could understand the mysterious part. But putting the “bad boy” label on him didn’t sit right, especially after the way they'd changed his hair. Trevor wanted to question it, call it out for the bullshit it was.
A quick glance at the other guys' faces seemed to confirm they were thinking the same things, maybe looking for someone to speak up. But Jermaine's face remained impassive, giving Trevor the impression that he didn't want to make a big deal out of this. And even though he'd already made one snide comment, Trevor was admittedly a little intimidated, sitting here in a room with the people who'd offered him a music career and could likely take it away if they wanted. So he kept his mouth shut, feeling powerless.
Ignoring the tension in the room, Adrien went on. “Skyler is, of course, the heartthrob.”
“Of course,” Oliver mocked, leaning all the way over Trevor to ruffle Skyler’s hair. Trevor had to fight the urge to slap his arm away.
When Oliver sat back in his seat, Trevor caught Skyler blushing, and asked him with his eyes if he was okay with this. Skyler shrugged.
“And Trevor will be the soulful one.”
The soulful one? What the fuck was that? It sounded like they didn’t see anything interesting in his personality, so they picked a random word to tack onto him.
Adrien went on to explain how the next few months would work as they recorded their album and then started doing promotion for it. They already knew the five of them would be put up in a house together so they could bond as a group, and to make it easier as far as getting all of them to where they needed to be each day. Trevor would have preferred to stay at home with his mom, but Skyler wanted him to live in the shared house, so he hadn’t bothered asking if him staying in Culver City was an option.
He'd only known the guy a couple weeks, but he was already realizing he’d do pretty much anything Skyler wanted him to.
SKYLER
This was it. Skyler’sstuff had been shipped and delivered to the house he was sharing with the rest of the band, and his mom had flown back home. He hadn’t even graduated high school yet (he’d finish online), but he was suddenly on his own.
Well. Not entirely on his own. He had Trevor. And the rest of the guys, of course. Hopefully the five of them could grow into a family.
He finished getting his room set up and then wandered downstairs to see what the other guys were up to. After everyone had finished with their own rooms, they all wound up crowded into the kitchen, staring at each other like,Okay, what do we do now?
Then Noah opened the fridge, ducked his head in, and started passing out cans to each of them. “Well, cheers, guys,” he said, holding up his can.
Of Sprite.
It wasn’t alcohol. It wasn’t even caffeinated.
Skyler burst out laughing. For some reason, he found this the funniest thing that had happened since they’d become a band.
The other guys shot him concerned looks, but Trevor smirked like he could read his mind, then gamely held up his Sprite to tap it against Noah’s. “Cheers.”
Skyler, Oliver, and Jermaine followed suit. After they’d all popped the tops of their cans and taken sips, Skyler was still laughing to himself.
Boys will be boys.
This whole being in a band thing was going to bewild.
They decided to play a game on the Xbox Jermaine had brought, and Skyler happily ended up squished between Trevor and Oliver on the couch. When it was his turn to play, he quickly realized he sucked at it. But he was rewarded for his ineptitude by Trevor wrapping his arms around him and pressing his own fingers over Skyler’s on the controller. They were awkward and fumbling trying to hit the buttons together, but it didn’t matter because it resulted in both of them giggling like crazy and Skyler not losing to Noah nearly as badly as he would have on his own.
Skyler was starting to imagine he was really going to like it here, and he didn’t think about home the whole evening.
Until everyone dispersed and went to bed. Now he tossed and turned, trying to fall asleep.
This was his dream. He’d made it. So why was he lying here wishing for nothing more than to be back in Ohio?
He was pathetic.
He only lasted an hour alone in his new bedroom before he got out of bed, tiptoed out of the room, and knocked as quietly as he could on the door across the hall.
A soft, “Yeah?” came from the other side.
“Hey, it’s me,” he stage whispered, not wanting to wake the rest of the guys. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, come on.”
