The Rush (The Siren Series) - By Rachel Higginson Page 0,76
with happy pride next to me. Her boyfriend and his band played an incredible set. She was practically glowing with the raw sentiment Ryder sang with, and still blissing from the solo song she assumed was about her. I thought the song was actually kind of insulting and if I were her and thought the song was about me I would have been pissed.
Actually, I knew the song was about me. And I was pissed. I couldn’t move on from Ryder’s solo number, the words were like razors on my skin with how exposing they felt and the emotion he sang with haunted me. The way his voice sounded husky and pained against the lyrics to his song, how his eyes shut tighter every time he sang the word inscribed on my wrist and then when his song was over how they refused to meet mine, how they looked everywhere but at me.
I had to be wrong about him. There was no way he could write a song about me and not be affected by the curse. And the song was obviously about me. Granted it wasn’t like he sang a love song… it was almost the anti-love song. His rough lyrics about a girl that hated boys and herself more, her black heart infecting everyone she touched, how even though he wanted nothing more than to get away from her, he still found himself pulled to the place her black heart bled.
Yep, sounded pretty accurate to me.
Slowly the band started to pack up their instruments. The music venue was officially closing down for the night, and so house music came on over the speakers. The smaller than normal crowd was subdued after such an emotional performance by the band and left in a kind of ripped apart stupor. Thanks to the emotional response Ryder demanded, everyone’s souls were shredded by the set tonight, not just mine.
“I’ve never seen them play like that before,” Kenna observed excitedly after we stood around quietly for a few minutes.
“Sorry, that’s my fault,” Sloane mumbled and I could tell just by looking at her how bad she felt.
Exie and I knew she would influence the room before we came tonight, but none of us expected this kind of reaction.
“What was that?” Kenna asked, not hearing her at all.
“I said, Ivy was right, they are really good,” Sloane brightened her expression and gave Kenna a winning smile.
“It’s Ryder, he’s so talented,” Kenna bragged. And she had every right to. Even without Sloane to add to his talent, he possessed something incredible every time he stood on stage.
“And so is Phoenix, oh my gosh, he’s like the most talented ever!” I squealed. He walked up behind Kenna and I shot him a huge grin.
“What is this?” He grinned back. “Are these my groupies?”
“So can I get your autograph?” I gave him my best valley-girl impression and stuck out my hip.
“Depends,” he answered slyly. “Are your friends looking for some too?” He waggled his eyebrows at me so I knew, even though we were joking, he was interested.
As if I didn’t know before that he was interested.
As if it was some foreign concept that a male would be interested in one of my female friends.
“Exie is,” I smirked, throwing her to the wolves.
She looked over at us having missed the entire exchange.
“Exie….” Phoenix smirked. “Sexy Exie?”
That got her attention....
“Oh my gosh, Sexy Exie? That is so clever. How did you ever come up with something so original? I’ve never heard that in my life. Please say it again. Go on, say it again,” she demanded flatly.
I bit back a smile because Phoenix looked so overwhelmed. It wasn’t his fault guys had been using that nickname for Exie for as long as she could remember.
“Say it again. Come on. Say it,” Exie taunted Phoenix further. The poor guy was cowering. This huge, gangly man-child was honestly cowering.
“Uh…. Sexy-“
“Don’t! It’s a trap!” I shrieked, not even willing to put up with her wrath tonight. I shook my
head at Phoenix and gave him my scary eyes. “You know better. Do not poke the beast.”
“Girls are confusing,” he said slowly with a shake of his head.
“Don’t worry, Phoenix, Exie is going to forgive you because you just met her,” I turned my
serious eyes to my friend and demanded silently that she give him another shot. He wasn’t like
the guys we normally met and he certainly wasn’t trying to impress her just to get in her pants.