𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄

"I don't know how I'm always the one singing."

"Because you have the voice of an angel!" Kaia shouts. She's in the kitchen, head buried in the refrigerator, arm stuck all the way in the back to get the last of the beer. And in the throatiest voice she can managed, begins to sing Lips of an Angel by Hinder.

"Because Russ plays the guitar," Patrick says, fists clenched around the drumsticks, sat on one of the chairs from outside, which has been dragged into the living room for this very special Sunday Night edition of the Taylor Residence. In a gravelly voice, he adds, "And I don't sing."

Katherine looks him up and down with a glower. "Whatever, Batman."

"You're just mad you can't sing (Don't Fear) The Reaper," Jackson drawls, sitting on the sofa with one of his arms thrown across the top. Where Kaia was sitting.

Katherine points a long, tanned finger at him, gripping the microphone near her mouth. "Nobody can sing (Don't Fear) The Reaper on key, Jackass." It echoes on the TV.

"How can you do Weezer but not Blue Öyster Cult?" Russell mutters, slinging the guitar strap over his shoulder.

Katherine taps her throat with two fingers. "Different set of pipes." She crosses her arms and kicks a foot out, shifting all of her weight to her right hip.

"We haven't done Wanted Dead or Alive yet," Patrick says, scrolling through the setlist. "That's the only one on 1 that we haven't done."

Russell looks to Katherine as every thought from her head clears, leaving nothing but black nothingness, an alarming vacancy in his mind. Her sharp blue eyes are trained on the television, shoulders stiff.

And then an overwhelming tightness in his chest. She's shaking her head, but Patrick isn't looking at her.

"And I'd be fine if we never did," Russell says, hoping Patrick moves right along. "Hate that song."

You okay? He pushes towards Katherine. Nothing.

Patrick inhales sharply, but keeps scrolling down the list of songs. "Blasphemous," he mutters.

"The songs on Guitar Hero are better," Jackson sighs. He holds up his index and pinkie fingers at the same time Katherine does to him, without even looking.

"Rock on, man," they chorus in that same flat, vocal fry tone.

"Rock on, man" had—for whatever reason—become one of their sayings. Just one.

"Rock Band 2 is better than either of 'em," Russell disagrees, shaking his head. "Kat killed the vocals on Man in the Box."

"The entire franchise only has a handful of Ozzy songs, and it's a goddamn travesty," Jackson proclaims.

Dean would love Rock Band. It hits Katherine like a sopping wet blanket.

She couldn't decide if he'd scrap for the microphone or the drums. He'd probably try to find a way to do both.

"Can we agree, though, that Guitar Hero II actually sucks?" Patrick asks, turning to look at the boys as he scratches his jaw. The other two immediately agree.

"Guitar Hero III is the best," Kaia says, plopping down onto the sofa with four beers held to her chest. Jackson takes two of them, and she sets the other two on the table.

"I disagree," he says. "How are you going to call the video game "Legends of Rock" and have no Ozzy and or Black Sabbath songs, and only one Metallica song? Literally called One."