One Last Shot by Jacqueline Ramsden & Lily Seabrooke

Author:Jacqueline Ramsden & Lily Seabrooke [Ramsden, Jacqueline & Seabrooke, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Ava

I wouldn’t admit it to Cecilia and least of all to Eva, but I was actually kind of enjoying this. I mean, Cecilia could tell I was enjoying the occasional… maybe not-so-clandestine bathroom rendezvous with Freja, but it wasn’t just her.

I felt ridiculous for it, but I was having fun setting up at the Philly venue. Maybe it was the afterglow of Freja spontaneously taking me in one of the staff bathrooms, but I joined the band helping the crew set up on the stage, laughing over tour-bus in-jokes together. Faye stuck by my side like she was glued to me—it had been kind of sweet, honestly, how much she’d been trying to make it up to me for the leak, even when I told her I didn’t care and Eva probably wouldn’t either. She was quickly the one I hung out with the most outside of my slightly-secret escapades with Freja, and her enthusiasm to show me hidden gems in the cities we stopped in, in our short openings before shows—it was a little over-the-top, but I think that was this band’s default mode.

I’d surprised Jovi with cream puffs the morning we’d gotten into Baltimore, and he’d been like a kid on Christmas morning. I’d felt like I was being a mom for the guy, even though I think he was the oldest in the band—physically, at least—and it had been kind of sweet seeing him get all giddy and excited and tell goofy stories about his grandparents too.

His stories never seemed to involve him doing anything, but I wasn’t saying that to his face. I’d never really done a lot, either. I mean, not until I decided to impersonate a popstar and tour the nation in disguise.

Sometimes, being the most interesting person in the room kind of sucked.

“Got good news for you, Nova,” Gwen said, the roadie girl with the blonde undercut and one ear full of shell piercings, as I knelt to help Danny wire the drums. I glanced back to Gwen, carrying Mister Pippins reverently towards the front, and she grinned at me. “Mister Pippins made it out of the gear tumble totally unscuffed.”

“Oh my god, my day is so made,” I said, jumping back to my feet and winding past where Ruth and Tae were arguing, to nobody’s surprise. “I’d have been so sad if Mister Pippins got hurt.”

Gwen patted me on the shoulder. “We can’t have anything happen to the star of the show, can we? No show without Mister Pippins.”

“No show without Mister Pippins.” I stifled a giggle, only vaguely, distantly hating what I’d become. “Thanks so, so much, Gwen. Am I, like… soundchecking now?”

“Oh, um… maybe wait until we plug it in?”

“You know, that’s, um… that’s a good idea.” Apparently I’d adopted Eva’s habit of missing the painfully obvious, too. There wasn’t even a mic on the stand yet.

But embarrassing myself was second nature at this point. I just told myself it was only Eva I was embarrassing, and I didn’t think whoever had built her had programmed in embarrassment.

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