Falling Down(69)

Trace is direct and informal, telling us about why he left his last band--drugs. Their use not his--and while he enjoyed drinking and partying, he didn't want to be mixed up in that shit. Who could blame him?
"Let's go jam," Trace says.
We head into the sound room where instruments are already set up for us. Trace picks a Flyleaf song and I smirk at the challenge.
I stand facing away from the window and meeting Trace's gaze. He counts it off and Jace leads us, I add the betrayingly sweet vocals at my cue, and Sera, Jace, and Trace come in as I growl out the lyrics. Trace's eyebrows go up and he smiles as he beats the hell out of the drums.
I turn around and note Cage, Damian, the guys from Falling Down, and another guy working the boards watch with straight faces. Sheesh, hard crowd today. I close my eyes as I reach deep and just lose myself in the music.
When we're done Trace belts out, "Cage, dude, where'd you find these guys?" He fist bumps with Jace.
Cage grins. "I'll let them fill you in on that."
We all walk out of the room and into where they're all standing. Jesse's grinning.
"Crazy vocals," Ben says and smacks my ass. I yelp. My ass is seriously sore from yesterday. Jesse smirks.
I laugh. "Thanks. Seems Trace wasn't the only one being tested today."
Trace shrugs. "If I'm going to sign on with a no-name band, they better be f*cking good and I needed to see it for myself. No offense to Cage or you, X."
"None taken," Cage replies and Xander shrugs.
"Fair enough," I say. "I don't think I'd respect you very much as a musician if you didn't want to see what we were capable of."
He nods. "I'm in if you all are."
"Fucking A," Jace says and Sera and I laugh.
"Sera?" I ask.
"Oh yeah."
I nod. "Absolutely. Let's do this."
Trace grins.
Cage shakes his head. "Somehow I knew that'd be a perfect match. Good suggestion Xander."
Xander shrugs. "Only the best for our friends and that goes both ways."
"Oh Xander, I love you so much right now," I say dramatically and run and jump hug him, wrapping my legs around his waist. He's laughing so hard he nearly drops me and then he smacks my ass(the same cheek as Ben, mind you) and I squeal rubbing my ass.
Jesse smirks again and I narrow my eyes. I point my finger at him and his grin widens. "Don't do it."
He holds his hands up, palm out as if saying, "Hey, I didn't say a thing." He may not have said anything, but his smirk said enough. That man. Everyone's snickering.
"Trace, why don't you stick around and help us pick out the guitarist?"
"Legit."
Cage talks into his Bluetooth headset and tells Marta to cancel the other drummer he had scheduled for this afternoon.
Jesse walks up and slings his arm around my shoulders.
"How are you doing, Cupcake?"
"Pretty damn good. As Sera would say, Trace f*cking Styx. Unbelievable."
Jesse grins. "As I keep telling you, you guys are going to kick serious ass."
I slip my hand into the back pocket of Jesse's jeans. I really, really like his ass. "It doesn't seem real."
Sera shakes her head. "It doesn't. Joey's going to go all girlie when he finds out Trace is joining us."
"Oh my God, I never thought about that. Trace, my little brother is your biggest fan. He's going to go crazy over this."
Trace grins. "It's cool. I'm a fan of his too."
Sera groans. "Don't tell him that. His head is big enough as it is."
"True that," I say.
"I'll be honest," Trace says. "When Cage and Xander came to me and told me about your band needing a drummer then telling me who you were, I was skeptical."