AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was senior year of high school,” I muttered, “and he’s still a dick.”
“Regardless, she weeded through hundreds of demo tapes, pared it down to a few dozen, and then after our last Zoom meeting, got it down to the ten coming today.”
“Speaking of which,” Z said, glancing at his watch, “number one should be here any minute.”
“Let me finish a cup of coffee, will you?” I took a drink. “I need ten. They can wait ten fucking minutes.” I picked up my coffee cup and stalked out of the room.
I strode down the hall toward the studio where we would be doing the actual auditions and I felt a weird chill. It was like Carter’s ghost was standing next to me or something, because I could hear his voice in my head saying, “What the hell is wrong with you, dude? Get your head out of your ass and think about the music. The band. This isn’t about me anymore.”
“You okay?” Z had followed me, his voice quiet as he stood beside me.
“How do we replace him?” I asked quietly. “I mean, on paper and in meetings, it’s easy. Yes, let’s do it. Let’s find another bass player, go on a short tour to see how we vibe on the road, and keep making money. But in practice? The job of literally finding someone to replace our brother? How do we do that?”
“We’re not replacing him,” he said gently. “We’re just finding someone to pick up where he left off. No one will ever replace him.”
“I don’t want to let someone else have his spot,” I admitted. “He was a pain in the ass, but he was our pain in the ass. We built Onyx Knight from the ground up. He was the OG, you know? Now some dude is gonna come in here and join a band that’s on top. How is that fair to anyone?”
He shrugged. “Life isn’t fair, and the music business is the least fair of all. Someone has to play bass, and if none of the people coming today feel right, then we start over. Period. We’re not bringing anyone on board unless it’s not just a good fit, but a perfect fit.”
“That’s a tall order.” I met his gaze.
“But it’s all we got. Now your buddy Larry just arrived, so let’s at least pretend we’re giving him a chance. We don’t want to embarrass Sasha.”
I groaned. “Fuck. At least we’re getting him over with. Fucker.”
He chuckled. “Pour another cup of coffee and eat your fucking bagel.” He proffered the dish I’d left behind.
“Thanks.” I laughed and took it from him, sinking into a chair near the stage.
We’d had some basic equipment set up in case we liked anyone enough to want to jam with them, but I had no plans to do that. As far as I was concerned, there was only one person on that list I was even remotely interested in hearing play, but Devyn Cates was last, so it would be a while.
As expected, the first few guys were a complete yawn. I did my best to look interested, but it was all I could do not to pull out my phone to scroll social media. The fourth guy was talented, but his style was a little too jazzy for us. Numbers five and six were horrible—I couldn’t figure out what Sasha had been thinking—and number seven was another one who was talented but boring.
At that point, we took a break, and I headed outside to sneak a cigarette.
I knew it was bad for me.
I’d quit a couple of years ago and started again after Carter died.
It was comforting because he and I had often snuck away to smoke together, so it reminded me of him.
“Don’t worry. Devyn is going to blow you away.”
That fucking voice again.
I looked around, almost as if I was expecting Carter to be here.
Instead, there was nothing but eerie silence.
I took a few drags, put the cigarette out against the concrete wall of the building, and carried the nub inside so I could dispose of it.
“Come on, there’s just three more,” Z said to me. “Let’s see what there is to see.”
“So far, we’re not even close.”
“I know.” He sighed.
“And I’m hungry.”
