“You can?” My voice sounded a little too eager. I cleared my throat and dropped my eyes to the frets on my guitar. “Were you a music major also?”

“Nope. Philosophy. Something my brother never lets me live down.”

“Philosophy?”

“Yep. And now I’m a bartender who writes angsty songs, which I’m pretty sure is what everyone does with a philosophy degree.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “The job market for professional philosophers does seem to have dried up these past few years.”

“Tell me about it.” He adjusted his mic and raised an eyebrow at me. “And what lofty plans do you have for your music degree?”

“I’m hoping to get into USC for graduate school. They have a degree in music scores for movies, TV, and video games.”

“Ah, joining the enemy,” he said, referring to the rivalry between UCLA and USC.

“Maybe. There are good programs at NYU and Berklee College of Music, too, but I’d rather stay in LA.”

He studied me for a moment, his bass momentarily forgotten. “So what’s your favorite movie score?”

“I don’t know. There are so many great ones.” I adjusted my glasses as I considered. “Pretty much everything by John Williams—he did Star Wars and Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and about a million more. I also love the Lord of the Rings scores and The Dark Knight and, oh, the Tron Legacy score by Daft Punk is amazing, too…” There I went, babbling in front of him again. His eyes were probably glazing over by now. “Sorry. I could talk about this stuff for hours.”

In response, he started singing “The Imperial March” from Star Wars. “Dun dun dun…”

“That’s the ringtone on my phone,” I said with a laugh. “Wow, that probably makes me the biggest geek ever, huh?”

“Nah. I approve.” He gave me a smile that sent a rush of warmth from my face down to my toes and to everything in between. “Who do you think picked all the quotes for our wall?”

“That was you?” I glanced at the wall behind us with all the quotes by or about villains. I would have guessed Kyle had chosen them, not Jared.

Kyle and Hector arrived at that moment, interrupting us. They stopped just outside the open garage door and stared at me like I was a weed in their garden. Jared must not have told them I was joining the band.

“This is the new guitarist?” Hector asked.

Ouch. I knew I didn’t look the part, but it still hurt to hear it out loud.

“Maddie?” Kyle’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes swept over my guitar and back up to my face. “You play guitar?”

“Not really,” I said, and then realized that probably didn’t help matters, since I would be auditioning with them tomorrow. “I mean, I know how to play, but…”