Page 36 of Animal Beats

I suck in my breath and read Hayden’s response. About how honored I am to receive this award. Fine. The fact they selected me is humbling. Still not good enough to bring me to Philly.

I continue reading her acceptance of their “gracious offer.” Fuck. How can I get out of this?

“I didn’t realize you wouldn’t want to accept.” Hayden’s voice draws me away from my emails.

“You should’ve asked me,” I snap. “Who else did you tell?” Her index finger runs over her lip. I’ve noticed she does this when she’s thinking about an answer. “Tell me!”

“Fine. I sent out a press release to all the media contacts and posted a blog post on UC’s website.”

I slide down the wall. I’m well and truly fucked. I have no choice—the whole world knows about it.

I rake my fingers through my hair. Frankly, I’ve been dubbed the bad boy drummer. Perhaps I can skip it, and it’ll be chalked up to more bad behavior on my part.

My chin juts out. “I’m not going.”

“Río, you have to go,” Hayden admonishes. “I responded for you and the organizers were thrilled.”

“Bully for them.”

Another voice enters the fray. “You know you can’t avoid this,” Coop reasons after he slides down the wall and stretches out his legs. “People are counting on you now.”

“I don’t care.” I don’t want any hometown press. Pop need not glom onto this.

“I invited your family too.”

Hayden’s pronouncement makes me surge to my feet. “You did what?”

Her shoulders square even as she slinks back a couple of steps. Next to me, Coop gets upright. “Río, hold up. Hayden didn’t realize what she was stepping into here.” He addresses the traitor in the room. “He’s not on good terms with his family, Hayden. They’re, for lack of a better term, users. His father sucked the life out of everyone around him in order to get ahead, a teenaged Río included.”

“Oh,” she replies. “I didn’t know.”

“I’m sure Río would be thrilled to accept this award from any other location. However, Philadelphia⁠—”

“Isn’t on my radar,” I finish.

Hayden rubs her neck. “But UC played a gig there at the beginning of the US tour.”

“And we got the fuck out of town as soon as humanly possible.” I shoot Hayden another scowl. “You got me into this mess, babysitter. Get me out.” I cross my arms across my bare chest.

“I can’t think of how,” she admits. Makes two of us. “Maybe your parents won’t come?”

I snort. “Pop never misses an opportunity to get free press. This is right up his alley.”

Coop tugs on my arm. “Excuse us, Hayden.” He pushes me into a quiet corner—as quiet as it gets backstage. “Listen, this sucks. I understand.” He motions toward the rest of the band. “We all get it. But Hayden wasn’t aware, and the award group⁠—”

“The Philadelphia Drummers Society.” How many emails did I ignore from them?

“Yeah, them. They didn’t know about your family. Besides, Hayden invited your parents, not the award group. So, she can run interference between you and your father⁠—”

I glance up at my best friend. “The whole damn lot of them.”

“Well, true,” Coop admits. “How about you make Hayden deal with them while you garner some positive press for a change. Trouble seems to follow you. This award could flip the script.”

“You might be onto something. All I did was win an award. My stupid babysitter went off and invited the monsters to the ball.” A smile crosses my face. “She can keep them away from me and I rack up the accolades.” I slap him on the back. “Good plan,”

Luke walks over to us. “The jet is ready for you. Due to the time change, you might want to get moving. You are going, right?”

“Not like I have much of a choice, but Coop gave me a good idea. I’ll go to the hotel and pack up. Should be ready to leave within an hour.”