The "Biggest" Fan (EN)

27.

I was in no hurry to get to the studio. Trust me, I'd rather have bailed and let Matt kill me than spend three hours in one room with Skylar.

"Look who finally decided to join us," Jake said the second I stepped inside, putting his drumsticks down dramatically, "I was about to text Matt and tell him you got abducted by fans."

 I flopped into a chair and yanked my guitar out of its case. "Sorry. Traffic," I mumbled.

"Traffic? Mate, you live fifteen minutes away. Were you stuck behind a slow-moving stroller or something?" Jake smirked.

I rolled my eyes, but before I could come up with a clever comeback (I couldn't), Skylar walked in, radiating that 'don't talk to me or I'll kill you' energy. She didn't say a word, just brushed past me pretending I didn't exist. She dumped her bag onto the couch with more force than necessary.

"Well, hello to you too," Jake quipped, always the brave one.

Skylar ignored him, going straight to her mic. She started fiddling with the volume, and promptly made it scream with feedback. She didn't rush to fix it.

"Could we maybe not do that?" I said as lightly as possible, trying to sound chill and totally not like my ears were about to bleed. 

But Skylar's eyes flicked to me, sharp and cutting. "Sorry. Am I too loud for you?"

"Okaaay, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed," Jake said, clenching his teeth and shooting Derek a questioning look. Derek just shrugged, having no idea what was going on either.

"Can we just play? We have some concerts coming up," I said, trying desperately to steer this train wreck back onto the tracks.

Jake gave me a skeptical look, but he nodded and started tapping out a beat. Bless him.

It didn't help. It was even more awkward to sing my songs when Skylar was clearly hearing the lyrics in a different way now. I kept sneaking glances at her, and every time, she was already looking at me. But the second our eyes met, she'd whip her head away like I was contagious.

By the time we hit the second song, it was clear the whole rehearsal was a disaster, "Skylar, you're off pitch," I said as carefully as I could, fully aware I was tiptoeing on a minefield.

But politeness wasn't something Skylar was interested in today, "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize we were perfect pitch pals now."

"I was just saying..." My voice trailed off because her glare was doing that thing where it made me want to hide behind my guitar.

"Instead of talking shit, maybe focus on your own part," she hissed.

"Woah, okay, let's just chill," Jake said, holding his hands up like he was about to stop a bar fight. Yeah, good luck with that, Jake.

"I think I'm done for today anyway," Skylar announced, taking her stuff off the couch and throwing it over her shoulder.

"Wait, what?" My voice went up about an octave, "Matt will kill us if he finds out we're not rehearsing!"

"I don't fucking care." And with that, she was gone, slamming the door behind her.

We all just sat there without saying a word, absolutely astounded by what had just happened.

Derek was looking at me with a suspicious stare, and I was sure that, as her brother, he was going to cause me a lot of problems later.

Fuck, why did I have to mess everything up?

---

"So..." Jake drawled as we stepped outside, "What the hell was that about?"

"Please, I don't wanna talk about it," I shook my head, my voice exhausted and dull, "Can we just go get drunk somewhere and wipe my memory?"