Wylder and the Almost Rockstar (Reluctant Rockstars Book 2)

by Michelle MacQueen

  “Who knew writing something so bonkers would be kind of exhilarating?”

  “Bonkers, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She crossed her arms. “What’s wrong with bonkers?”

  “I’m not sure I know anyone else who has ever used that word.”

  “Then you haven’t known anyone as cool as me. Now, move aside.” She didn’t wait for him to move as she lunged over his lap for the bag of Oreos. Losing her balance, she let out a squeak as she fell on him. “Oops.”

  “I think someone is drunk on velociraptors.”

  Wylder laughed as she pushed herself off him and opened the Oreos. “You’re not such a bad partner, Mr. Cook.”

  “Why, Miss Anderson, you do flatter me.”

  She swatted his arm. “I’m being serious, you dork.”

  “That’s new.”

  “Will you just shut up? I’m trying to do the nice thing and say it hasn’t been completely detestable partnering with you.”

  “Aw.” He placed a hand over his heart. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  “I hate you.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  She bit into an Oreo and hid her smile. He was right. She definitely didn’t hate him anymore. Logan Cook was the most infuriating guy she knew. He was annoying and smug, but he could also be something else.

  And that something else kept her counting down the hours until she got to work with him again.

  “Who took my Oreos?” Killian stood in the kitchenette, peering into a cabinet. She’d been too distracted by Logan to see him come in.

  Shoving the package into Logan’s hands, she scrambled to her feet. “It was your roomie. You really need to watch him.” She crossed the room to wrap an arm around Killian’s waist and gave him an innocent look.

  Killian leaned down, dropping his voice. “I know it was you.”

  She twisted away from him. “Well, maybe I was saving you. Shouldn’t your hockey-star self be on a diet that doesn’t include Oreos?”

  “They’re my one cheat. Give them back.”

  “No. I’m doing you a favor, Killer, helping your game. When you reach the NHL, you’ll have to thank me.”

  He chased her back toward the couch, and she screamed as he caught her around the waist and lifted her off her feet. “Don’t. Eat. My. Oreos,” he growled.

  “Yeah, Logan.” She laughed. “You heard the man. You really shouldn’t steal your roommate’s food.”

  Logan held his hands up. “I thought she brought them, man.”

  Wylder didn’t try to break Killian’s hold on her. It would’ve been no use. She knew what was coming next. He hesitated for only a moment before launching her toward the couch. She landed on her side and glared at Killian. “It’s not fair to just throw me around like a rag doll.”

  Killian snatched his Oreos from Logan. “And it’s not fair to eat my cookies.”

  She sat up and stuck her tongue out.

  “Real mature, Wylds.”

  “Hey! I have never once claimed to be mature.” She stood and pushed him back before reaching for the Oreos. “Just one more. Please.”

  “Addict.” He held the package over his head.

  She jumped, but they were too high. “Oh, go eat a hockey puck.”

  Killian grinned, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m off to Diego’s, and I’m taking these with me.”

  As he walked out the door, she called after him. “When they interview me about superstar NHLer Killian James, I’m going to tell them he was a jerk who stole cookies from a girl!”

  The door shut, and she sat down with a huff.

  Logan laughed as he pulled his hand out from behind his back. A hand that was attached to a second pack of Oreos. “He didn’t realize he was missing two packs.”

  A slow smile spread across her lips. “You’re diabolical.”

  “Not any more than you.” He held out the package. “Want one?”

  She looked from the cookies to Logan and back. “I mean, not really. I already ate too many. You?”

  “Same.”

  “I kind of just wanted to fight Killian.”

  “You do love your fights.”

  Reaching forward, she grabbed the notebook. “We should probably polish this up.” But she suddenly didn’t want to work anymore. Setting it back down, she pulled her legs up under her and turned her entire body to face him. “How is Luke doing?”

  Logan sighed.

  “That good, huh?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, guilt flashing in his eyes. Wylder didn’t know how to make him believe it wasn’t his fault. “Uncle Bruce isn’t happy. I got a call from him last night. He basically just yelled at me for making this happen. He wants me to make a statement.”

  “What kind of statement?”

  “The denial kind. He says it could all go away if I do a TV interview and explain what happened. They want me to say Luke came to the academy to perform for me so I could get a better grade.”

  “But that’s not true.” She chewed on her lip. “Who is ‘they’?”

  “Uncle Bruce and the label.”

  “Not Luke?”

  Logan sighed again. “No, Luke wants me to stay out of the limelight. But he’s just protecting me. He doesn’t want me to have to lie for him.”

  “I was wrong about Luke, wasn’t I?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Yes. And no. He can be a grade-A jerk. But when it comes to me, I couldn’t ask for a better twin. The only thing he’s ever wanted is for us to do this music thing together. That was why he agreed to the dishonesty in the first place. He knew I wouldn’t stand beside him on stage, but if I recorded the albums, I was still in it with him.”

  “But he’s the one who told you to come back here?”

  “He knew there were people here who cared about me.”

  “No, there aren’t.” Wylder shifted her eyes away.

  “Wylds,” he breathed. “Tell the truth.”

  “So, are you going to do it? The interview, I mean?”

  He pushed out a breath. “I’m not really sure. The L.A. Morning Show wants me, but the thought of sitting there in front of an audience and lying to the world—again—kind of makes me want to puke.”

  “Great visual.”

  “I aim to please.” One corner of his mouth hitched up.

  “And what will happen after this lie?”

  “Well, I imagine Mrs. Shepherd will change my grade on our project to an F. Instead of everyone seeing Luke as a liar, it’ll be me. The privileged academy kid who thought he could do whatever he wanted.”

  “That’s not fair.” Indignation rose in Wylder. “You rocked our project. You shouldn’t lose credit for that. It was you who stood on that stage and wowed everyone. You. Not Luke. You’ve been in the shadows your entire life. Don’t you want to be seen?”

  His eyes met hers, and his lips turned down. “I… I don’t know. I don’t think I care if the world sees me. But my friends… the kind of friends I’ve never had before… I don’t want to hide from them.”

  Wylder got the distinct impression he didn’t mean Killian and Diego. “I don’t think you could hide from me if you tried.”

  Logan looked away, but she didn’t miss the twitch of his lips. “I think I do want another Oreo.”

  “Fine.” Wylder groaned. “You’ve convinced me. Pass them over. We need to finish the evidence before Killian gets back, anyway.”

  She took two and looked down at them. Two Oreos. One for eating and the other… She twisted it apart, reached over, and wiped the filling on Logan’s cheek.

  His eyes snapped to her. “Did you seriously just wipe an Oreo on my face?” He scrubbed his cheek against his shoulder.

  “Maybe. What are you going to do about it?”

  Logan’s hand clenched around a cookie, and Wylder didn’t see what he was doing until he sprinkled crumbled Oreo into her hair. “Oh, now you’ve done it.” She lunged for him, shoving her second Oreo
into his mouth as she pushed him to the ground.

  He ate it and gave her a closed mouth grin.

  With a final shove, she sat up. “And people say I’m trouble. You, Logan Cook, are like a sneaky kind of trouble.”

  “Oh yeah? How so?”

  “Well, first off, you make me be nice sometimes.”

  “The horror.”

  “Before you, I’d never stuffed anyone in the trunk of a car or gone swimming in the school’s lake.”

  He laughed. “Don’t think that the second one was my fault.”

  She turned serious for a moment. “Before you, I’d given up my drums.”

  Logan smiled at that. “Before you, I’d never have stood on stage singing.”

  Against all odds, the two of them had been good for each other. Heaven help her, Wylder was glad it was Logan at her side.

  She looked sideways at him, taking in his patented smirk. She knocked her shoulder into his. “Stop smirking.”

  “Why?” He bumped her back.

  “Because it’s annoying.”

  “Wylds, I don’t think you find me nearly as annoying as you try to.”

  She didn’t answer that, because it was true. Logan was many things, but annoying wasn’t one of them. She enjoyed his sarcasm and their arguments. She loved that he could go from biting wit to deep conversations in the blink of an eye, that his words meant more than they appeared to mean on the surface. He wasn’t like anyone she’d known before.

  Turning to face him again, she studied the lines of his face. The way his resting expression was one of contentment, unlike most people she knew who looked angry when they didn’t make conscious expressions. His eyes held so much of the pain he tried to hide.

  Compared to Logan, her life had been a cakewalk, and it made her feel bad for her years of acting out, of rebelling against the normalcy. The only person she’d ever lost was a mother she barely knew. The only hardships she’d faced were brought on by herself.

  Expulsion, detentions, all her trouble… But she didn’t regret any of it. If she hadn’t gotten herself expelled from Twin Rivers High, she wouldn’t have found her way to the Academy, to the friends she was never giving up. Killian, Diego, Devyn, even Logan.

  Logan didn’t look at her as he sat in comfortable silence, his eyes closing for a brief moment. Wylder wanted nothing more than to stretch this moment into the next, never letting it end.

  And she’d do just that. Leaning toward Logan, she didn’t think as she pressed her lips to his, enjoying their warmth for a second before Logan’s eyes popped open.

  What was she doing? This was Logan. Logan Cook. Scrambling back, a laugh burst out of her. She’d just kissed Logan. This would make it into the bad decision scrapbook of her life. Another laugh rolled through her, and she slapped a hand over her mouth as a snort escaped. She couldn’t stop as the hilarity wound through her.

  But Logan wasn’t laughing. His piercing eyes burned into her, and he rose up on his knees. She expected him to keep going, to get to his feet and walk away from her because she’d just made a complicated friendship that much more complicated.

  Only, he didn’t move away. Inching forward, he kept his eyes on hers. “What’s so funny?”

  Her laughter cut off moments before Logan leaned down, fitting his mouth to hers in a soul-stealing kiss. She tried to breathe through her nose, but her lungs squeezed as Logan drained all oxygen from her brain, her body, until all she breathed in was him.

  He parted her lips and warmth traveled down her spine, into every cell until her body buzzed with it, with him.

  He didn’t touch her, his arms remaining at his sides, yet she felt him everywhere, alighting the nerve endings along her skin.

  It was the kind of kiss one never forgot, the kind that put all others to shame. It imprinted itself on her, and she knew she’d never rid herself of this moment. No matter what came next, it would always be there.

  No one had ever kissed her like that. It felt like her first kiss and her very last, her best and her very worst. Because she knew… Logan’s kiss ruined her for all others.

  And she didn’t care. She just didn’t want it to end.

  13

  How was Wylder supposed to sleep after Logan kissed her and left? It was his room, and he just walked out without so much as a conversation about what happened.

  Ugh, she hated him.

  No, he was right. She definitely didn’t.

  Lifting her head, she looked toward the clock on her dresser. Just before six in the morning. What sorcery was this? She should still be sound asleep for another two hours.

  Stupid Logan.

  Stupid kiss.

  Just stupid Cook brothers in general. They were the root of all her problems.

  Wylder couldn’t just lay there in a dark room staring at the ceiling. With the light off, she couldn’t even count the dots on the ceiling tiles.

  Sliding from her bed, she crossed the room to her drum set and flipped it on. Pulling on the headphones, she sat on her stool and lifted the sticks. She tapped out a beat, but before long she found herself playing the drum part to the song she and Logan had performed. He was intertwined in every part of her senior year, thus far, and there was no escaping him.

  Not even her drums could help.

  She needed to do something drastic, something so un-Wylder-like. She needed to move. And there was one person who could help her. Changing into a pair of yoga pants and a hooded sweatshirt, she pulled on her tennis shoes and charged into the common room.

  But Devyn wasn’t up yet. Wasn’t it time for her run? Devyn was the most predictable person Wylder knew. There was no way she wouldn’t run this morning.

  Wylder knocked on her door. “Dev?”

  Devyn yanked the door open. “Is the room on fire?”

  “What? No?”

  She walked by her to fill up her water bottle at the sink. “Did someone die?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Oh, you must have just gotten home. I didn’t even realize you weren’t in your room. Why were you out all night?”

  “I wasn’t out all night.”

  She twisted the cap on her bottle and turned. “Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Why are you up?”

  Wylder gave her a grin that belied the angst inside her. “I want to go running.”

  “Oh my gosh, you must be sick, hon.” She pressed a hand to Wylder’s forehead. “Tell you what, go get back in bed and after my run, I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

  She pushed Devyn’s hand away. “I’m not sick.”

  “Delirious?”

  “No. I just… please take me with you. I need to get my mind off… stuff.”

  Devyn arched a brow. “We won’t slow for you.”

  “I’m not asking you to.”

  “Okay, fine.” She marched to the door and held it open for Wylder.

  The two of them took the stairs to the lobby and stopped by the front doors. “What are we waiting for,” Wylder asked.

  “Killian. He runs with me every morning.”

  “Oh, I can go get him.”

  Devyn leveled her with a glare. “We can’t go into a boys’ wing this early in the morning.”

  Wylder shrugged. It never bothered her. She was about to suggest it again when a familiar boy called to them.

  “Is that the Wyld Child?” Killian grinned when he reached them. “You okay?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” She suddenly had the horrible thought that Logan told Killian what happened. Her gut churned at the thought.

  “Because you’re awake at six in the morning.”

  “Oh.” Relief flooded her.

  “And she’s coming running.” Devyn gave Killian a skeptical look.

  Killian stood in shock for a moment before lifting a hand to her forehead like Devyn had done. “You sick, Wylder?”

  “Why does everyone keep asking me that?” She pushed him away. “Can’t I just want to run?”

  “No,” they both sa
id.

  Wylder huffed out a breath as she looked at her friends. “I… need this. Please.”

  Killian met her gaze, holding it for a moment before nodding. Devyn shrugged before the three of them stepped out into the biting cold morning. Wylder mimicked Devyn’s stretches, wanting to be prepared, unlike the last time she’d gone running with them.

  It felt good just to get out of her room, to move her muscles and prepare to do something that wasn’t her, almost like she could be someone else.

  Why had she decided to kiss Logan? The two of them were so mismatched, it could never have been a good idea. And now look at her. Sebastian never made her feel this way. She’d never questioned herself, even after they ended. She’d been confident and cool.

  But he’d also never kissed her quite like Logan had, like there was nothing else in the world he’d rather do.

  And then Logan walked away, leaving her in a puddle behind him.

  “Ready?” Devyn asked.

  Wylder nodded.

  They started off at a slow pace as they made their way down the hill from the dorms. And it wasn’t enough. The steady steps did nothing to erase Logan from her mind, nothing to distract her.

  She needed more.

  Speeding up, she passed Devyn and Killian. They matched her pace, coming up on either side of her. Killian gave her a strange look, but she didn’t, couldn’t stop. The faster she went, the more her mind filled with the steady beating of her heart.

  Thump. Thump. There was no room for anything else. Blood rushed in her ears as she gulped in air, trying to even her breath. Her legs burned, but it felt good.

  Pumping her arms, she ran faster.

  “We aren’t sprinting, Wylder,” Devyn yelled.

  “Let her work this out,” she heard Killian say behind her.

  As her best friend, of course he’d know something was up. Wylder didn’t run for the fun of it or for the exercise. She ran away from her own thoughts, from the sleeplessness brought on by a certain obnoxious boy, one who’d brought her back to drums and stood on stage beside her before his world was turned upside down.

  A boy who only sang on stage because she’d made him. He thought all of Luke’s problems were his fault, but he was wrong.