Overkill

08 | nobody likes a secret

Houston had the best food in Texas, as Stevie had once proclaimed, so The Kings and their entourage tried to enjoy as much as they could with what little time they had in the city. Well, Moxie certainly tried her best. Her brother, on the other hand, had other plans.

"Do you think Beyoncé is here?"

Moxie sighed. "No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"Let me check Twitter..."

Instead of researching where to stop tomorrow morning before they made their way over to New Orleans for the next show, Mick took to attempted stalking of the queen herself while Moxie worked on her makeup. She liked to change it up for every show, and she found it a relaxing change of pace from the rest of the tour duties. Since they didn't have any friends stopping by for this show, it was much quieter than Austin had been.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he answered without looking up from his phone.

She debated not saying anything after all, but that would have looked more suspicious, and her brother would have made it his life's mission to figure out what was on her mind. Given their closeness, it wouldn't take long for him to figure it out as well.

"What do you think about Cruella?"

He shrugged. "I like her. She's sweet and funny and hot in that sort of intimidating way."

"You get me." Moxie sighed in relief. "It's almost unfair how someone can be that hot, you know? Hell, she needs like... smelly feet something."

"Smelly feet?" Mick questioned. Mildly concerned.

"Even the playing field."

"Ah, yeah. True." Mick continued scrolling through Instagram. His search for Beyoncé's whereabouts had been derailed by his ADHD brain becoming distracted by all the pretty pictures. "Her friend followed me."

"Which one?" As if she didn't know exactly who he was talking about. Cruella's queen best friend. The friend who visited and watched their show in Austin. (Talented in his own right and probably more deserving of his own identity outside of being Cruella's friend, even under their small talk circumstances.)

"Bronx Harlow." Mick leaned closer to her with his phone angled enough that she could see the singer's page. "He was kind of quiet the other night."

"Yeah," Moxie agreed, "but he seems like the quiet type. Bet he was just tired too."

Bronx Harlow was a child star who grew up to ditch the silver screen in favor of the stage, much like Cruella. With his veteran festival status keeping him busy, Moxie assumed, especially given the recent release of his newest album, that he was a busy (and tired) man.

His most pinned post was a carousel of photos from the release party of his newest EP, Vacancy At World's End, which took place a couple of months ago in January. (God, Moxie regularly lost track of the time, all the months buzzing by in a blur. How the hell was it the end of March already?).

The first photo was of Bronx alone on a stage. The next was with a couple of people who looked like they were either his agent or producer. The following highlighted Bronx with his arms wrapped around Cruella who held onto one of those party sparklers they used at every fancy restaurant in a party-heavy city. The final included Cruella, her sister Ursula, and the infamous Ritchie Mendoza.

"He's hot too," Mick said.

"They're all hot." Moxie shoved his phone back toward him. "This whole industry is just... full of hot people. It's a little uncanny valley."