Julie faced me and put her hands on my arms, her amber eyes drilling into mine. “Stop it. Those guys would be lucky to have you in their band.”

Carla wrapped her arms around both of us in a big group hug. “If you’d like, I can do your hair and makeup tomorrow before your audition, and Julie can help with your clothes. We’ll make you look amazing.”

I gave them the biggest smile I could muster up. “I don’t know what I’d do without you two.”

“So you’re going to do it?” Julie asked.

I tried to think of any other protests, but when it came right down to it, I couldn’t find another reason to say no. “Yeah, I’ll do the audition.”

Julie and Carla immediately started planning what they were going to do to me in the morning, but I wasn’t feeling as optimistic. As much as I loved these girls, there was no makeup or wardrobe in the world that could make me a rock star.

CHAPTER FOUR

An hour later, I parked in front of the Cross brothers’ house and grabbed my gear from my backseat. I’d brought my own electric guitar and matching amp, though I wasn’t sure if I would be playing it or Jared’s for practice or the audition. I’d almost brought my acoustic guitar, too, but left it behind in the end. Villain Complex wasn’t an acoustic kind of band.

The studio’s garage door was open, and Jared spotted me as I came up the driveway. He walked over and grabbed the handle of my guitar case.

“Here, let me help you.” He took the amp, too, leaving me with empty, sweaty hands, which I rubbed on my jeans.

His leather jacket was gone, and he wore a T-shirt that said, “It’s Good to Be Bad.” For the first time, I got a close look at the tattoos on his arms: bars of music surrounded by spider webs, black stars, and roses with thorny vines. Like Kyle, he also had a triangle tattooed on the inside of each wrist, one dark and one light. I’d never realized a guy’s forearms could be sexy, yet somehow he managed to pull it off.

He set the guitar case on a long table and popped it open. He whistled when he saw the vintage sea foam green Fender Stratocaster inside. “Wow. Where’d you get this?”