"You're late." Aiden mouthed into the microphone while giving me an evil side-eyed stare as I walked onto the stage.

"I overslept," I grumbled and rushed to get my guitar unpacked so I could join in.

"Well, maybe if your ass didn't get stupid drunk last night, you might have been able to wake up on time." Aiden's annoyed voice bounced off the almost empty room. The only other people inside the building were a bouncer and Levi, who both looked up at us and shook their heads. Aiden was making it his personal mission to publicly shame me for some reason.

If this was his way of forcing me to apologize for running late, it wasn't going to work.

"I'm here now. Get over it." I huffed and whipped my guitar strap over my head.

I plugged my wireless in and grabbed a pick from my bag. I stuck it in my mouth and rolled it around my tongue as I closed my eyes to concentrate on tuning my guitar. I began plucking the strings one by one with my fingers to check to see if any of them had slipped while in transit. Luckily, only two of the strings were off and needed to be tweaked slightly. I fiddled with the pegs and made a few slight adjustments. Once I was finished, I dove straight into the first few bars of the opening song.

We would have time for maybe a full two or three song run-through if we didn't have to adjust much on tempo, blend, or snarky attitudes.

Mark and JD joined in and started playing at the spot where the first verse started. It took them a few measures to fall in sync with me. I could hear them loosening up and evening the sound out by the time we hit the first change-up to the chorus.

Aiden stood behind the microphone with his mouth in a tight line, refusing to sing anything. Every few seconds, he would look over at me and loudly huff into the microphone just to get under my skin.

JD and Mark shrugged it off and ignored him like he wasn't even there. But, that was not something I could do. If we were still planning on playing the show tonight, Aiden needed to keep his vocals warm or he would end up sounding like a squished frog halfway through the set.

Soundchecks weren't only for the instruments and Aiden needed the prep.

"Are you planning on singing tonight or are you just stand there, pouting like a baby?" I asked as I played the next transition into the second round of the chorus.

"I'm not going to sing the song when you are rushing it. Play it right." Aiden lashed out at me.

I let up off the neck of the guitar with a loud squeal from the strings. I held my hands to stop and mute them, leaving Mark and JD on their own to hold it down for a few seconds.

"I'm not off beat. My pacing was perfect." I wasn't going to stand there quietly and take the criticism from an inferior musician. Aiden might be able to sing better than most people, but he hadn't studied and spent the hours I did perfecting my music.

I was a fucking human metronome with perfect pitch. I had a better natural rhythm than even Mark. Aiden was wrong.

"It doesn't even sound like the same song," Aiden argued back.

"Come on, you two, we are running out of time. Let's just finish up. You guys can compare dick sizes after the show." JD scolded both of us.

Aiden snarled, turned back to the microphone, and began belting out the complex bridge. His vocal cords were cold and rigid. He sounded a bit strained, like he was struggling for some of the higher notes. I placed my hands on the neck of my guitar and counted myself back in. Everything was going well until we hit the beginning of the last chorus. Aiden forgot where he was in the song and went slightly off-key on the next line of lyrics.

He kept singing like he didn't notice his mistakes. Finally, I stopped playing and Aiden sent me another irritated glare.

"Your flat," I informed him so he could fix it.

Aiden kicked his microphone stand off the stage and it fell down with a loud clatter. It hit the metallic railing in front of the stage, which caused deafening feedback to ripple through his speaker . I ran over and hit the power button on it before all of our ears started bleeding.

JD and Mark stopped playing and threw their hands up in the air.

"What's going on now?" Mark sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Aiden was off-key and is pissed off about it," I answered.

"I was not flat!" Aiden barked out.

"Calm down, Aiden. Ezra is right. You were a little under the note at the end. It's not a big deal. It happens. We can do another run-through." JD interjected.

"No, I'm not doing it again." Aiden spun around and snapped at JD.

"Why not? We still have a little time to fix it." JD asked.

"Are you serious? I'll tell you why. First, Ezra holds us all hostage by being late, then he ruins the song by playing it too fast, and now you are trying to make me sing it again even though I did it right the first time. Don't you see that he wants us to flop tonight? Ezra doesn't care about anything other than himself. He just runs around taking whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants, and you all just give him a free pass. I'm over his shit. If Ezra doesn't want to be a part of the band, then he should just leave."

This bickering between Aiden and me wasn't really about my punctuality or a few wrong notes. Aiden was fighting with me over Riley. He could pretend to be with Brynn or any other girl, but he had never fooled me once. He was trying to push me out so he could have her all to himself.

That was never going to happen.

"You would like that, wouldn't you? How about I knock your teeth out instead?" I growled.

"So, you really want to do this here?" Aiden puffed up and turned towards me.

"Yeah, I think I do." I ripped my guitar off my shoulders and dropped it on the splintering wooden floor. The clash of notes rang out through the amp and cut through the room like nails on a chalkboard.

The whole room went silent around our pissing match. We were only about five feet apart from each other and closing in fast. My long arms would reach him before he ever got close enough to stand a chance. I could flatten Aiden like a pancake without even having to take another breath.

Levi and the wide-bodied bouncer were already racing towards the stage to get between us, but they wouldn't get here in time before I got a few punches off. Mark dove between Aiden and me right as JD jumped off the stage to run interference with the two men headed in our direction.

I pulled my arm back to swing at Aiden. Mark waved his hands in front of me to try to get me to stop. I ended up having to yank my fist back at the last second to stop from drilling Mark right in the face. I didn't want to hurt Mark; he hadn't done anything wrong. It was Aiden who was begging for the beat down.

"Get it together. We have a show we have to get ready for." Mark hollered, pushing us apart.

"He started it." Aiden accused.

"You were the one throwing a fucking attitude since the second I walked in the door." I gritted my teeth and balled up my fists until my fingernails dug into my skin.

"Quit being divas. Both of you are pretty. Now, knock it off before you get us fired." Mark attempted to reason with the both of us.

Both Aiden and I turned around to see JD trying to sweet talk a very irritated Levi. Levi was red-faced and yelling at an extremely repentant JD who was doing his best to smooth it over. Mark was right. We were going to lose the job if we didn't reign it in. It still didn't mean I had to stick around on the stage for round two of a disastrous soundcheck.

My guitar was plugged in, working, and my hands already knew all the notes. I did what I needed to do to be ready.

If we ended up having a shitty performance tonight, that was on Aiden's conscience and not mine.

I backed down and Mark released his hold on me. His shoulders relaxed the second I wasn't a threat to Aiden any longer.

"See, that wasn't so hard. You two good now?" Mark nervously shifted his eyes between us to evaluate our posturing.

"Yeah, we're good." I lied.

Mark must have deemed that we were no longer a danger to each other. He walked away and went back across the stage to sit behind his drum set. He began pressing on the bass drum pedal, giving it a few quick taps.

Aiden waited until Mark was good and distracted before opening up his mouth to run it again.

"Give me my phone. I know you still have it." Aiden spat and glared at me.

"Oh, you want it back?" I dug into my pocket and pulled Aiden's phone out. I held it out to him and waved it around. Right when he went to clamp down on it with his fingers, I dropped it in front of his feet. It bounced twice and hit him in the shin.

Aiden scowled at me and bent down to pick it up. The look on his face was one of pure hatred and disgust as he turned it over to inspect it for damage.

"What the hell is all over it?" Aiden turned his nose up as he scratched at the white spots covering the front of the screen.

"Why don't you give it a little lick? You might like it. Riley tells me all the time how good my cum tastes." Aiden's face went pale as his brain registered what he held in his hand.

I raised my eyebrow with the rings in it and smirked at him.

Aiden bolted off stage and ran towards the bathrooms with his phone in his outstretched hand. I snorted and grinned while I watched him trip over his feet. I was glad I had forgotten to clean it off before leaving the house. It was what Aiden deserved for being a dick.

I walked over to the edge of the stage and hopped down to make my way over to the bar. Soundcheck was officially over and it was time to get loosened up before the show.

I sat down on a stool and pulled out my phone to check the time. We had about twenty minutes before the doors opened to the public and approximately two hours before the band was scheduled to play. Hopefully, Riley was going to get here early so we could spend some time together before the show.

I would love to sneak off with her for a little bit of a warm-up backstage.

This was going to be one hell of a night and I couldn't wait.