Somebody I Don't Know : Book 1 of the Teeth Series

2

Three pairs of eyes snapped up to meet Fallon's as the door to the rehearsal space closed behind her. The silence around them was deafening and she knew that the three members of her band were all expecting an explosion, a fit of rage and a complete meltdown from her but she wouldn't give them that satisfaction.

"Hey Fal." Erin Harding, the band's singer and Fallon's older sister by thirteen months, said tentatively, obviously testing the waters.

The waters were fucking blood filled but Fallon was playing the long game. She couldn't just tell them that there was no way in hell they were going to get her to agree to this tour with Five Seconds of Summer.

"Erin." She said cooly, bypassing her sister as she sat her bass guitar case down and began to unpack for practice.

"How's your day been?" Chayse Connel, their guitar player, tried.

"Fine." Fallon forced out through gritted teeth and a fake smile.

She could practically hear the silent conversation as it swirled around her. The three girls using their eyes to ask if Calum had been by to see her, if she knew about the tour offer, if she knew they had signed on.

"For fuck's sake. Fallon, did Calum come see you or not?" Wesley Grant, drummer and resident wild child of Revelry, their band, asked.

There it was.

She met Wesley's questions with a glare. Oh if looks could kill.

"Why would my ex-boyfriend come see me, Wes?" She asked, feigning innocence and waiting for the girls, who knew her better than anyone, to try and explain what the actual fuck they had been thinking.

"It's a tour, Fallon. A big one. We need the exposure to help our album sales and push our label for a headlining tour." Chayse offered calmly, ever their peacekeeper trying to keep this conversation from heading down the dangerous road it was moving towards.

Too late.

"There are other fucking tours."

"Not being offered to us there aren't!" Wesley shot back. It was obvious at this point who the ringleader of this ingenious little idea had been.

"You can't seriously be in support of this Wes. I know you're aware of what that would mean for me."

"For once in your life Fallon can you put the good of the group before yourself!"

Fallon recoiled at Wesley's words.

"Are you shitting me? Wesley, you of all people have zero room to talk about putting the good of the group first. Little miss constantly-getting-kicked-out-of-bars." Fallon said back, her hands on her hips and her patience evaporated. "You have no fucking clue the things I've done for the good of the group."

Fallon was right, she knew she was. Her friends just didn't even know what they didn't know. It wasn't any of their faults, it just wasn't something that Fallon had wanted to discuss back then or even still now.

"So I go out and get a little wasted sometimes. You know what that gets us? Hits on google and name recognition."

"Not all publicity is good, Wes."

"Well we could get some more positive publicity if you would just agree to do this fucking tour, Fallon." Wesley took a breath and shook her head before speaking in a softer voice, the fire within her from before reduced to more of a burning ember. "I know that you and Calum had a really good thing and it didn't work out the way you wanted it to but this is an amazing opportunity for us. I mean maybe if we even knew what had happened between you guys we would understand." Fallon started to open her mouth but Wesley raised her hand "I know, I know, it's between the two of you but you have to see how frustrating that is for us. We love you Fallon, but we also want what's best for the band, and I think the rest of us agree it's this tour."

"You think that?" Fallon asked. Looking to Chayse who gave a small nod, though guilt was evident in her hazel eyes. "And you?" She asked, finally turning to her sister, the one whose signature on the contact had surprised her most.

"I think Wesley is right, Fal."

A quiet moment passed between them as Fallon felt her stomach sink to the bottom of her shoes.

"I know that whatever happened between you and Cal hurt you. Believe me, I hate the idea of forcing you to be near him for so long but I also know that when we were on tour with them we had better numbers than any other time in our career and we need that right now. Our label basically has us on the back burner and barely paid any attention to our release last month. I'm scared that if we don't do this we might be on our way out, and I'm not ready to give up on this dream yet."

Fallon stared at her sister, stunned silent. She had been so completely sure that there wasn't anything that they could have told her to make her change her mind but the idea that Erin was worried about the longevity of the band was the one thing she had never considered that might be enough to make her reconsider.

"You really think we might be done?"

"I think our label could definitely use a reminder that we exist. If we could get our sales up it would definitely strengthen our argument for even a small venue headliner. I know this is asking a lot of you, and as far as I'm concerned were Cal to step a foot out of line he'd be a dead man, but I really do think it's what would be best for the band."

Fallon sank into a chair that had rested against the wall of their small practice space. She was feeling a tad overwhelmed and was desperately in need of a moment to just sit and process everything she had taken in over the past few minutes.

"If we do this I want zero lip if I am not a bubbly ray of sunshine." She said firmly, her mouth set in a straight line and eyes hardened, daring any of them to question her.

"So we're really gonna do this?" Chayse asked, the girls all exchanging glances.

"I guess so." Fallon sighed. "Doesn't sound like it's an opportunity we can afford to miss. I'm not calling him though. You guys can handle getting this paperwork to them." She said, grabbing a pen out of her backpack and signing the contract before handing it off to Erin.

"We can handle that."

"And I'm done talking about this for today." Fallon told them, grabbing her favorite bass from its case, it had been a gift from Calum but no one dared bring that up, and standing to her feet. "Let's just practice."

An: yeah I can't stop myself from posting this 🤦🏻‍♀️ I've written 10 chapters for it already and my other book still has a week left and I'm dragging my feet with finishing it out 😂

So enjoy another chapter courtesy of my procrastination!

What do we think about the girls of Revelry?

Do you agree with their reasons for the tour?

How would you feel if you were Fallon?

What are your predictions for the book?

Thanks for reading, ily!
Sav 🖤