After DC told me I fit the qualifications of someone he'd murder, I never wanted to speak to him again. So I probably shouldn't have blamed him for something he didn't do, against someone he couldn't stand. It sort of cheesed him off...
Okay, this i...
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"You're being weird."
I was, I knew it. I didn't need Dorian pointing it out to me. But after everything that Paisley had told me, I didn't know how to compartmentalize as well as Dorian Birch. How he could leave behind the way he'd lost his mother—I mean, how he could function every day, how he could even get out of bed and go on—was a mystery to me. I now felt that I completely understood what he'd meant about the music being his only option. He'd said it was the band, or drugs, and the 'or insanity' was implied.
Now I knew that he'd meant that. Now I knew that had been real.
I also thought I understood what would compel a boy to sneak into my bedroom after midnight and crawl on top of my sheets, just to make sure that I didn't hate him.
What I didn't know was if what Paisley had said was true. If I was a novelty in Dorian's life. And if—like Savannah—he would lose interest the second that I wasn't as wrecked as I was when he met me. It seemed plausible. Actually, it seemed inevitable, now that she'd said it. Obviously. Of course.
So instead of answering him, I just shrugged.
"Was it the vocal lesson? Was it awful?" He'd asked me at least a hundred times already, and we had only just gotten to Styx. The first band hadn't even set up their equipment yet, much less taken the stage.
This time he hadn't even pretended to take the seat that Perry so explicitly saved for him—as far from me as possible. And Perry, in turn, looked incredibly bemused by Dorian's hovering against my side.
I didn't know how to answer him about the vocal lesson, either. Or how to put Angeline into words. I didn't know if I wanted to answer him, truthfully. Because if I were being honest, the lesson had gone well. Progress had definitely been made. And that just meant I was one step closer to being this person he was trying to turn me into. One step further away from him.
It was an unpleasant realization.
"What are you guys whispering about?" Perry prodded, leaning his elbows into the table and staring at us with a huge grin, as Paisley slid into the seat beside him with her drink. She cast an obviously pitying glance my way that made me shift uncomfortably and look away from them.
"The vocal lesson," DC snapped it, and I knew why. Perry had been implying something with his tone, and Dorian's answer was just a verification that the implication was unfounded.
But in a moment his annoyance had cleared and he cast a slight frown at me. "Care won't tell me how it went."
"It was awesome, actually. I drove her." Paisley announced, putting my own mental dilemma to rest. The satisfaction on her face just made me hate her even more. "She'll be ready for open mic in no time. And, really, I think you've been going about your rehearsals together all wrong. She responds best to being challenged, judging from what I saw today."
