I glance at my brother, who stands only a few feet away from me while Bishop and Priest are deeper in the room. “You didn’t tell them?”
With a shrug, my brother says, “Nah. I thought you should, if you want.”
Walking over to Bishop, I say, “Yeah, I’m doing a bit of playing. I’ve been writing a lot of lyrics lately. Wren and I will play together sometimes. Well, she’ll sing and I’ll play.”
That gets Bishop’s attention. “She sings?”
I nod.
Priest comes over and drapes an arm over Bishop’s shoulder as he says, “She seems nice. Too nice for you. Walking by her on the street, I never would’ve pegged her for you.” He means she’s not my type, and if he was talking about the old Logan, AKA Pope, he would be right.
But for Logan? For me? Wren is perfect.
“She’s—” I stop myself. I don’t want to sound like a lovesick puppy when it comes to Wren, but at the same time, I want these guys to know I’m serious about her. That I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. “She makes it better. I used to be angry at the world, but when I’m with her, I can just… be.”
“My man,” Priest says. “Smitten with a girl. Never thought I’d see the day.”
I chuckle as I fold my arms over my chest and shoot back, “I could say the same for you.” The only one who could ever keep up with me when it came to hooking up was Priest, and now he’sin a long-term relationship with Angel, same as my brother and Bishop.
“Fair,” he says.
Bishop shrugs his arm off his shoulder. “You know, all these instruments here—even a drum set—kind of make me want to play.” He eyes me up. “You up for something like that?”
I glance between the guys. When I first got kicked out, I was in constant disbelief, and then as time wore on, I started to believe I’d never play with them ever again. Now… now the need to play with them doesn’t cling to me as hard as it used to—I’d be completely fine never picking up an instrument with them again.
But, at the same time, I can’t lie. It would be nice to play with them one last time.
“Sure,” I tell them. “Let’s do it. Any song in particular you want to play?”
“You pick,” Bishop says.
Out of all the songs I could pick out of our old albums, I go for the one that changed my life the most, but it didn’t change my life until I met Wren. “Godsent?”
Priest nods. “Hell, yeah. Let’s do it.”
Everyone goes to their chosen instrument. Priest and Bishop pick up guitars, while my brother heads to the drum set in the back of the room. It’s nothing huge, not like the set he’s used to. It’s a throwback to when we had to play in our parents’ garage.
A few minutes later, we’re launching into it. The first verse is a bit stilted, but we quickly get the hang of it. It feels weird to sing with no mic, but hearing the others play along fills me with a certain kind of contentment I could not possibly get anywhere else.
It’s nice. It’s cathartic. It’s just what I needed to truly say goodbye to that part of my life.
Wren and Angel slip inside the room. They must’ve heard us playing downstairs and wanted to see the show for themselves,so we give them one. They lean against the wall facing us, watching with smiles on their faces. Angel’s gaze is divided between the others, while Wren’s eyes are glued to me.
It’s like we’re on stage all over again, only this time there’s only one girl in the audience I want to impress, only one girl I want to take home. The same girl I want to wake up next to every damn day from here on out.
I don’t know where I’d be without Wren, but I know for a fact I wouldn’t be here, with my ex-bandmates, playing. I’d still be lost, still be struggling with everything that happened. I’d be a shadow, a shell of who I am today. I owe Wren everything, and I’ll spend the rest of my life repaying her for that.
After Godsent, we play another song, and this one Priest picks out. We get so into the groove that we play a whole set, like we actually are on stage and we’re performing. It’s a nice throwback, even if our audience is made of two.
Playing together for so long got rid of any lingering awkwardness, and the afternoon progresses into the evening. We get pizza delivered, and we wind up in the living room, chatting and laughing. It’s all so normal, like they come to visit all the time. Like I didn’t spend so long envying them and wishing I was still a part of the band.
It’s a fun time, so fun that, when it comes time for them to leave, I find myself saying, “You guys should visit more often, when you aren’t busy recording or touring.”
“Yeah, that’d be fun,” Priest says. “You could show us around campus, since you’re a bigshot around here.”
I roll my eyes, and my brother says, “It would be nice to see you more.”
Angel says to Wren, “It’d be nice to hang out with another girl every now and then, too. This, uh, sausage fest can get old sometimes.” She can’t say it with a straight face, though. WhenBishop gives her a hurt look, she adds, “I’m kidding. But not about the hanging with another girl part.”