I'm sick of being called Junior. Sure, I'm William Nicholas Martens, Jr., but I just want to go by Nick. I'm sick of my boyfriend mismatching his socks on purpose. And I'm sick of being in the closet.<br><br>All this changes when my band Taking Back Nick lands a record deal. My friends Casey, Kennedy, Levi, and I are about to make it big. In one night I come out to my parents and break up with my boyfriend. And then the hard part starts. Casey is my oldest friend, and I move in with him after my breakup. But things ... start to happen.<br><br>We skyrocket to fame, but Casey finds himself in the middle of some serious addiction issues. Combined with him showing me so much affection, I start to worry there's more going on than just the stress of success. Will Casey be able to overcome his addictions and find happiness? More importantly, will that happiness be with me?

Porch Light

We hadn’t simply hung out in a long time. We ordered pizza and watched action movies. It also gave us an idea for another song we were planning to present tomorrow.


The next day, I got a call from Omar about the record. Unfortunately, I missed it because I was at work.


I caught my front desk manager as she was heading out the door. “Hey Bethany? Can you cover the front desk while I return a phone call?”


“I’m sorry, Junior. I’m on my way out the door. Maybe when I come back, but I’m swamped with the transition right now. I can’t promise anything.”


Of course, when you take a two-hour lunch, you don’t get a lot of work done. I gritted my teeth in a smile when she returned looking happy and well—fed.


I chided myself mentally. I should have taken the dollar an hour more to be able to set my own schedule and get off the desk. Because of course she was behind. She took two-hour lunches and left before three every day.


Chapter 18