We meet in the family room and line up the way we do before every goodbye ceremony, and Dax begins talking once we’re all assembled.
“This was another difficult decision, but there was one thing Brody, Adam, and I all agree on. Some of you play better drunk and hungover than not.”
We all laugh, but it’s nervous laughter. One of us is going home, and the pool of choices keeps shrinking. It makes our chances of winning that much better, which in turn also makes our chances of being sent packing that much greater, too.
“It was a tight competition,” Dax continues, “and we were all incredibly impressed with your skill level considering how wasted some of you got last night.” Brody and Adam laugh. “Let this serve as a reminder that competitions can happen at any time. Keep your head in the game and stay focused.”
It’s a reminder I need—one I take to heart given the circumstances. I can’t let Gage distract me. I’m lucky I passed through to the next round after getting drunk last night...and I just hope that I’m still in it after Dax announces who’s going home this morning.
“With all that said,” Dax says, “we’re sorry to say that Tim, you lost this battle. You won’t be MFB’s replacement bassist.”
I let out a breath of relief.
We all say goodbye to Tim, and then Dax says, “You’ll be paired with someone else for your next challenge. We’re giving you a break for recovery, but after the next challenge, we’ll be sending two of you home.”
With those as their parting words, the three of them leave.
Two people are going home at the next challenge. There are only six of us left.
That’ll narrow the pool to four. One third of us will leave this room.
This competition is flying by. They weren’t kidding about making their decision quickly...I just didn’t think it would happen quite this fast.
Once they’re gone, the producers descend upon us to pull us into confessionals to gauge our reaction to the news that Tim is gone. Camille beelines for Tyler, Blaze is pulled back by Ben, and Decker heads out with Miles.
And then there’s Kat. She spots me, and then her eyes flick over to Gage. She moves in his direction. She slings her arm around his waist.
He looks down at her like they share a secret, and my stomach feels sick as they start walking to one of the confessional booths.
I can’t watch them together...just like he probably can’t watch me with Tyler.
It all feels so wrong. I pushed him right into her open arms by flaunting my fake relationship with Tyler in front of his face.
He leans down and whispers something in her ear, and I force my eyes away before I stalk over there and rip her off him.
He’s not mine anymore.
He was for one weekend, for one sweet fleeting moment in time, but it’s over now.
And I will no longer feel guilty for what I’m doing with Tyler. In fact, maybe we should take it to another level. I like him, he seems to like me...so maybe we should stop faking it and see what happens when it becomes something real.
CHAPTER 32: GAGE
“I’m in.”
My brows furrow in confusion as I stare at Kat in the tiny confessional room. “You’re in?”
“I’ll fake with you. I’ll pretend we’re dating,” Kat says.
“Why?”
She shakes her head a little and shrugs. “It’s probably a terrible idea, but in my last interview with her, I just got a weird sense. Something’s going on with her. She’s doing you dirty, Gage, and you deserve better than that.”
I lift a shoulder. “I don’t know about all that, but I’ll take whatever help I can get when it comes to the art of distraction.”
She chuckles, but she’s all business. “First things first, I’m going to have Ben take over my duties with Lexi.”
“But then you won’t get insider information from her,” I point out.
She shakes her head. “Ah, my sweet fake boyfriend, don’t you think I’ve already thought of that? Ben will tell me anything I need to know at our daily recap meetings, and certainly she won’t open up to me if she thinks you and I are together.”
I nod, and I tap my temple. “Okay, smart move.”
She chuckles. “Besides, if she’s switching producers in the middle of this thing, that’ll be even more evidence that something’s going on between the two of us.”
“Okay. I like where your head’s at.” Except a little feeling in my gut is starting to tell me this isn’t right.
“Let’s do our interview so I can go talk to Ben, okay?” She moves toward the camera, which I assume is currently off. She sits in the little director’s stool next to the camera where she always sits when she asks me questions in this room. I sit in my usual chair, too, my face in front of the camera.
“So Tim was just sent packing,” Kat says. “Were you two close?”
“Tim was a nice guy but quiet. It was hard to get him to talk. He’s incredibly talented, but in my opinion he was too shy to handle the kinds of venues MFB plays. He’s been in a studio for his entire career, and just because you can play for a crowd of ten or twenty people doesn’t mean you can handle big stages.”
“But you can handle them?”
I shrug. “Yeah. Tim didn’t have stage presence. I’m not saying I do, but there’s something about being on stage that’s electrifying. It’s a feeling in my bones I can’t even describe. Performing for a live crowd is one of the most exciting, thrilling, and terrifying experiences in the world.”
“Have you ever performed on a stage as big as MFB’s?” she asks.
I shake my head. “The biggest stage I’ve done is a small festival in Vegas. I think maybe seven or eight thousand people were there. My band, Sin City Crue, was the opener.”
“And how did that make you feel?”
I swear, she asks that question every time. I’ve never had to talk about my feelings so much before in my life...and I’ve never had to work so hard to keep so many of them hidden. “It made me feel alive. It made me realize that it was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
She asks me a few more questions, and then our interview is over. I walk over to the door and set my hand on the knob. Before I turn it, though, I have a question for her.
“So how do we do this fake thing?” I ask, turning back around. “You’re around all the time, but I still need to be focused on the competition. Do I grab you and kiss you in front of her? Or what?”
She takes a few steps toward me then messes up my hair and tugs my shirt so it’s a little sloppy. “You walk out of this room smoothing down your clothes or fixing your hair every time we leave. I’ll do the same. She’ll think we’re coming in here to screw around. She won’t even need to see the evidence in front of her in order for her imagination to run wild.”
Guilt darts through me. “Should we really be doing this?”
She shrugs and purses her lips. “Probably not. But you’ve got nothing to lose...except this competition. To her.”
“Well when you put it that way...” I grab her and give her a little hug. “Thanks for the help. I still don’t know why you agreed, but I’m going with it.”