Ben grabbed his guitar and did the same, wincing as he strummed the first few chords. For a moment, Matt was envious that Alex had a brother who would always have his back.
Matt stepped up to the microphone and looked at Jase who still looked pissed. “Are you coming?”
Jase sauntered up to the middle microphone, and as he did, his features totally changed. The sour downturned mouth loosened as Jase wiggled his jaw from left to right, before opening it wide to stretch the muscles around his mouth. Stiff, hunched up shoulders fell away from his ears. An aura of confidence replaced the uncertain gait, the loping step replaced with one of confidence and purpose.
It was as if the few square feet at the front of the stage was the only place he felt at home in his own skin. And it was the only reason Matt put up with his shit. Whatever pressure or anger or loathing Jase felt evaporated once he’d stepped up to it, and Matt would give anything to know what caused it to come back the minute he jumped back down.
Because for a brief couple of hours, depending on Jase’s mood, he’d see his brother. Would meet him there in front of their fans.
“Evening, motherfuckers, we’re the Sad Fridays.”
Only Jase would pretend there was an imaginary audience. Luke led them into their first song.
Two hours later, when every song had been played, pulled apart, and perfected, Matt changed into a clean T-shirt.
“Need a ride home, Matt?” Luke asked as he disassembled his kit.
“That’d be great, thanks.”
He gave Luke a hand getting his kit into his van and climbed aboard.
Matt waited until Luke had navigated his way out of the Northern Quarter and onto the ring road out of the city. “I need to chat with you, mate. About Iz.”
Luke glanced at him and looked back at the road. “What about her?”
“Saw her taking some shit from Harry.”
“Fucking arsehole. I should have nailed him when I had the chance. What was he saying?”
“Stuff about some wedding coming up.”
“Ah, shit. Yeah. It’s a bit of a cluster.”
Matt paused and looked out of the window. He didn’t want to give Luke the impression he was overly invested. “Yeah, Iz mentioned it was something like that. Turns out, Harry decided the right time to officially introduce Iz to Sophia—that bird he was screwing on the side—was on the tram, where he also told her he was taking Sophia to the wedding, and they were going to use the room they’d booked.”
Luke ran his hand along his jaw. “I’m gonna kill him.”
“Would have done it for you had there not been two police officers on the tram.”
“How did Izabel take it?”
“I think you’d have to ask her, but she looked pretty crushed. Defeated. To make things worse, Harry was looking at her like a starved man. Sophia, she’s pretty in that too-much-makeup, high-maintenance kind of way. Tits that defied gravity and heels she could barely stand up straight in, but she’s not Izabel.”
“Do you think he wants her back?”
Matt shrugged. An important part of getting Luke to agree was to show absolute indifference to the whole thing. “The way he was practically drooling says he does.”
Luke thumped the steering wheel. “Always knew he was a sleaze bag. Guess he thought he could have my sister and whoever else he wanted. What’s to say he’s not going to try and bait-and-switch at the wedding? Get Izabel drunk, play on her good nature, like that dick of a brother of yours.”
Fuck. How he wished Luke hadn’t brought up Jase. It wasn’t going to make the next part of the conversation any easier.
“Yeah. Well. You might be a bit pissed at what happened next, but I didn’t know what else to do, mate.”
Luke slowed as he approached a red light. “Tell me.”
“Well, you know Harry gets a bit intimidated around us, being the pussy he is?”
“Yes. And?”
“Well, I might have led him to believe me and Izabel were dating so he’d stop looking at her like a piece of meat . . . and I said I’d take her to the wedding.”
Luke threw a punch, but Matt backed up against the window and blocked it as the van swerved before stopping. “Calm down, you idiot. I’m not ready to die today.”
“Your fucking brother already did a number on Izabel. Now you’re getting all up in her face. Do I have to worry about you too?”
“Luke. It’s not like that, and you know it. There’s Iz, looking like she just got trampled on by a raging bull, and there’s Sophia, eyeing Iz like she can’t wait to stick a butter knife between Iz’s shoulders. And then there’s Harry, too busy staring at her tits to realise how much he just crushed her. And there are two Metrolink cops on the tram five feet over, stopping me from doing what I really wanted, which was to punch Harry in his fucking mug.”
Luke took a deep breath and screeched away from the lights. “You aren’t going through with it though, are you?”
“I can do you both a favour. She’d no plan. No transportation, nowhere to stay, not enough cash.”
“I’ll pay for her to go. I’ll even take her.”
“You can’t. It’s the weekend you asked for no gigs because you were going to London for that lad from footie’s stag do.”
“Fuck me.”
“Listen. It’s no skin off my nose. A weekend in the Lakes will be good for my creativity. I’ve felt a bit stifled recently. Iz can go do her wedding stuff, I’ll take a hike. I’ll be there on the wedding day to keep Harry and Sophia from causing problems.”
“You don’t have ideas about Iz, do you?”
“Don’t be stupid. Do you think I’d want to go where Jase went?” And fuck knows he’d grappled with it. If Luke only knew how many nights he’d spent in bed thinking about the messed-up series of events stemming from Luke’s stupid demand. If Matt had not been resistant to settling down, if he’d not hooked up that night to resist the signals Iz had been giving him that she was his. When she’d sat on his knee after the gig, when she’d run her fingers through his hair. When she’d let her fingers trail beneath the bottom of his T-shirt so those soft fucking fingertips could draw circles on his back.
Luke blanched. “Don’t even make me think about it. I don’t think you or him realise just how close I came to quitting the band. I know I’m a hypocrite. Every gig. Every other night. Some random girl. But the idea of my sister catching any of that makes me want to hurl.”
Yeah. The idea of Jase and Iz made him want to hurl too.
“I hear you, man. But Iz, before Jase, she was a really good friend. And I can help her out while you can’t. It’s not a big deal.”
Luke’s knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel. They drove in silence until he pulled up to his parking spot in their apartment building.
“You need a hand getting this to the apartment?” Matt asked, grabbing his guitar from the back of the van.
Luke shook his head. “Nah. I’ve got it.”
“Alright. Well . . . we’re good, right? Because I’ll not take her, just tell her it’s not cool if it bothers you so much. I’m sure Harry will be cool. It’s his brother’s wedding after all. How big a douche could he be in front of family? I mean, there’s a slim chance Iz might go along with anything he might try, just because she doesn’t like confrontation. Doesn’t mean they get back together or anything.”