Sunkissed by Kasie West (popular e readers .txt) 📕

night one,” Levi said. “Maybe we should find two replacements.”

“You think a drummer is just going to walk in here off the streets? It’d be way easier to replace you. Who was that guy playing at the campfire the other night? He’d work.”

Lauren and I exchanged a wide-eyed look. I was surprised she hadn’t pulled out her phone yet to record. I just wanted to back down the stairs and leave.

“Kai, stop,” Brooks said, sounding tired.

“Really?” Kai said. “It’s me who needs to stop? Brooks, love you, brother, but I can’t work with him.”

“You can’t work with me?” Levi asked, voice raised. “I don’t know how anyone has ever worked with you.”

“Brooks and I have been in a band back home for two years now without any problems. Who’s the new factor in this equation? Oh, that’s right: you.”

“You’re impossible!” Levi shoved his guitar back into its case so hard that one of the strings snapped, producing a twanging sound. This just made Levi angrier. He slammed down the lid of the case and picked it up. “I’m over this,” he said as he stormed out.

Kai sputtered a laugh. “He’s so dramatic.”

“You do like to pick fights with him,” Brooks said.

Kai shrugged his big shoulder. “It’s not my fault he runs hot.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t help.”

“And neither did you, Brooks. You always just sit back and watch. You never step up.”

“I’m tired of stepping up. I’m not in charge here. Take care of your own self for once.” The words were sharp and heated and they hit their mark.

Kai blinked. His eyes found Lauren, then me, and he offered a smile. “That’s my cue, ladies.” He tucked his drumsticks into his pocket and bounded down the stairs.

Lauren ran after him.

Brooks went to his guitar case and dropped the pages from his pocket into it, followed by his guitar.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Sure, treating my best friend like garbage always puts me in a great mood.”

“I’m sorry.”

He sighed. “No, don’t be.”

“I get it, your whole band just imploded in one night.”

“Teaches me to ask for signs,” he said with a breathy laugh.

“You don’t have to fake it for me.”

He collapsed into a chair, put his elbows on his knees and his head down. “He’s right. I should’ve stepped up.”

I inched forward, the desire to comfort him, like up at the rock slides, taking over. This time I didn’t stop myself and put a hand on his shoulder. “This is your escape, right? You don’t want to have to be responsible for everyone here like you are back home.”

He seemed to still with my touch, his breaths becoming shallow intakes. One of his hands brushed the side of my leg and I wasn’t sure if it was by accident or on purpose, but every nerve ending in my body sprang to life.

A voice called out by the door, “Ugh. Kai is being so stupid!”

I jumped back, nearly tripping over my own feet to put some space between me and Brooks. Lauren was either too preoccupied to notice or she chose to ignore it because she continued, “How big does your band have to be to try out for the festival?”

“What?” Brooks asked. Was he as disoriented as I felt?

“How big does your band have to be to try out?” she repeated. “You have a song and you. All you really need is a singer at this point, right?”

“I don’t have time to find one,” Brooks said, standing. “We hardly had time as it was.”

“Avery can do it,” Lauren said with confidence.

“Excuse me?” I asked, my head whipping around toward her.

“You can. You sing all the time. In the shower and in the car and with your AirPods in. You love music. You should do it. And then maybe Kai and Levi will rejoin too.”

“No,” I said.

“Come on, Avery,” Lauren pleaded. “Try it.”

“No…just, no,” I said firmly.

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t, Lauren. I can hardly say hi to your phone without freezing.”

Lauren crossed her arms with a huff. She didn’t care that the second I got on that stage I would crash and burn. That would probably make a better documentary, actually. She’d be rooting for some drama. Because that’s why she was pushing this—for her video. No other reason. Not for the guys, not for the music, and definitely not for me.

I met Brooks’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged an It’s okay.

Every bone in my body wanted to yell, Fine, I’ll do it. I knew that was only because I didn’t like seeing people unhappy. Especially people I cared about. But I would never be able to sing on a stage in front of a crowd and that was the only thought that kept my mouth firmly closed.

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Lauren said as we walked back to the cabin after leaving Brooks with another apology. “Everyone, and I mean everyone, is counting on you.” By everyone she meant her.

“I’m not changing my mind.”

She clicked on her flashlight as we left the glow from the lodge. The nighttime sounds of camp echoed around us—crickets and distant squeals and laughter. “I thought you were trying new things,” she said. “Stepping out of your comfort zone.”

“I am. Just not this.” Her voice was rising, so I tried to keep mine calm.

“Oh, so you just meant you’d try fake new things that really didn’t push you at all—making vases and sliding down rocks and painting blobs.”

“Singing isn’t a new thing. I’ve tried it before.”

She whirled on me, stopping us both in our tracks. “Just step up and do something unpredictable for once in your life.”

“You only want me to do this for you, not for me.”

“Fine, I won’t make a documentary out of it. Will that change your mind?”

“No.”

“That’s what I thought.” With that, she marched ahead of me in a dust-kicking cloud of indignation, taking our flashlight with her.

I stopped in the middle of the path, the anger I’d been holding back coursing