Love to Hate You

Chapter Fifteen

I decide the perfect time to bring up the money issue is Friday after practice. Now, the problem with asking about money is that I don’t want to seem like a total jerk about it, even though I want to. I mean, how can you forget about sharing the money with your new band member? I’m not even that new! I’ve been on and off for a while, sure, but come on, Reese Bentley has proved to be hard to forget.

During the whole of practice I’m scheming a way to bring up the money situation. I’m not exactly distracted, but I’m not exactly one-hundred percent into practice either. Justin notices right away by pointing out my forgetfulness or lyrics, but hey, our relationship is on the line, buddy. I’m worrying about hush money, so excuse my forgetfulness.

Right after, when Sean is unplugging his keyboard and Kris is turning off the amps, I switch off my mic, which used to be Justin’s, and set it on the stand.

“So,” I start, getting Justin’s attention. He glances up at me from where he’s setting his guitar on its stand and I continue on with a small smirk, “are you ever going to buy me a new mic?”

Justin quirks an eyebrow, his eyes flicking over to where his old mic sits on my stand, “What’s wrong with mine,” he asks.

I shrug and answer, “Well, that’s just the thing, it’s yours.”

His eyebrows rise higher on his forehead and he looks around the room at the other guys who seem to all be a little suspicious.

“Hey, Shortcake, if you have something to say, beating around the bush will get you nowhere,” Alex cuts in after receiving a look from Justin, “Besides, the mic thing was a long time ago.”

“Yeah, what’s your real problem?” Austin adds.

Okay, I’m either really not good at hiding things, or these guys know me way to well—which I doubt. So, obviously I need to find better leads, but I already screwed this one over so I might as well be blunt.

“What happens to all of the gig money?” I ask curiously, my thumbs finding the spaces in my back pockets as I rock back on my heels.

Justin blinks multiple times, his eyes glancing from boy to boy that each mimics his behavior by flicking their eyes from one to the other. I don’t know if they’re confused or just playing dumb. It takes a couple moments of stillness and a clearing of Sean’s throat to bring everyone out of the silence.

“Justin,” Alex says slowly while pausing from fiddling with his drumsticks, “you’ve been paying Shortcake, right?”

Justin continues to blink, his jaw tight.

“I forgot,” he finally murmurs and turns to me, “sorry, Carrots. I guess I kind of forgot I have to divide the money between six now.”

I unhook my fingers from my back pockets and cross them in front of my chest instead while giving him an “I’m not buying it” look. Justin’s a great actor, and he’s doing a fabulous job of it right now.

“Justin,” I start, “that’s a horrible excuse.”

He shakes his head, “No, I forget you’re in the group sometimes seeing as you just come and go. I mean, come on. We had one performance together and then you left to start Karma, you came back and then you left again. Then, you snuck out to perform with us, left again, and now you’re back. You expect me to remember there’s a sixth member of the band after all of that?”

I look down at my feet and swallow guiltily. Well, he could have at least tried. When you put it like that, I guess it seems like I’ve barely been around at all. But, that’s changing now. I’m here for good. I’m permanent. They’re not getting rid of me, so he better learn to pay up.