Sully looked over at his phone when it pinged, tempted to just ignore it. Momoko was sleeping in his lap, curled up like a kitten, and she felt so good that he didn't want to move her. However, Sullivan Palmer was a responsible man, and it might be something important, so he shifted her slightly so he could reach. He also took the precaution of muting the movie in case he had to call someone back.

It was a cool, mid-October afternoon, a gray day with rain imminent, and the loft was warm and cozy. The other three guys were attempting to bake a pie or something in the kitchen, and various bangings and swear words could be heard from time to time as things invariably went wrong.

Momoko whined in complaint at being moved and stretched, her glorious body pulling taut against Sully's, making him smile as he grabbed his phone.

He read the text and sat up, eyes opening wide in surprise.

Hm. Well.

This was the last person he was expecting to hear from.

He read it again, shaking his head, then set his phone aside, within easy reach this time. He unmuted the movie and continued watching, saying nothing about it when the guys finally got the pie in the oven and joined him and the slumbering Momoko to watch the end of the movie.

Momoko woke up just as the movie was ending, stretching again, elongating her body and yawning loudly. She sat up slowly, blinking and sniffing. "Mm, what's that yummy smell?"

"We made a pumpkin pie," Tommy explained. "It should be just about ready, too."

"We just have to whip up the cream," Jude said.

"Ooh, fresh cream," Momoko said, clapping her hands. "When can we have some?"

"Not until after dinner, of course," Dane answered loftily. "It's for dessert."

"Come on," Momoko wheedled. "I'm hungry now."

But nothing she said would change their minds.

"Fine," she finally said, pouting. "Just for that, I'm keeping my doctor's appointment tomorrow. I was going to cancel it and stay home with you guys to wait for our new equipment to arrive, but now I'm not."

"What?" The guys were aghast. "What kind of stupid logic is that? That doesn't even make sense! We won't give you pie so you're going to the doctor instead of staying home to look at our new amps?"

"I think we're glossing over something important here, anyway, mates," Jude said, slipping an arm around Momoko's waist. "Um, why, young lady, are you going to the doctor?"

"I'm not telling," Momoko said, stepping away from Jude. "You guys can just stay home and worry. Maybe I have cancer. Maybe I have a fucking tumor."

"Peaches, this isn't funny," Dane said, untying his apron and setting it on a stool as he, too, approached her. "What's wrong?"

Momoko saw the looks on their faces, all turned toward her, and relented. "Oh, you guys, I'm just teasing, I'm so sorry. It's just my routine annual girlie appointment. You know, gyno? Pap smear, cervical, all that good stuff? It's going to take a while, because I'm going to the school clinic. I'm still eligible on my school insurance, just barely, so I want to take advantage of it, you know? I'm sorry I'm going to miss seeing the new equipment delivered, but I'll be home in the afternoon when we all rehearse and play with it, okay?"

She made hand gestures to draw them all in to her for a group hug. "I'm sorry I was such a bitch about the pie," she said, making everyone laugh. "And for saying what I said about the tumor. I'm fine, I'm not sick or anything."

🥧 🍁 🥧 🍁 🥧 🍁 🥧 🍁 🥧 🍁 🥧

"It's here!" Dane called from his place at the window. "I see the truck!" He'd been watching for the last hour or so, ever since they'd gotten the notification that the delivery people had crossed the George Washington Bridge.

Momoko had left earlier to head to the clinic, hoping that arriving early might give her a leg up on the long wait times that clinic days could entail.

Sullivan headed down to open the gate and show them where to go. He waved them over and propped the gate open, apologizing for all the stairs. He had twenty dollar bills folded in his pocket ready to give out as tips to however many delivery people there were.

The rest of the guys were gathered in the doorway, ready to ooh and aah over the new amps and mixers and myriad other equipment they'd ordered in preparation for Battle of the Bands.

"Hey dude," the delivery man called. "You order some cool new music equipment?"

"We did indeed," Sully replied with a grin. "Right this way, please."

The four delivery guys began hoisting the heavy equipment, still in boxes, up the stairs, depositing them in the rehearsal area, and going back for all the cables, wires and accoutrements that came with the equipment.

"Oh wow, look at it," Sully gushed as the amplifier was unboxed. "What a honey. What a beaut!" The delivery men put the old amps in the box to take it away as Sully began hooking the new one up.

Jude was already hooking his amp up as well, saying he was "proper chuffed" about how gorgeous it was. Dane was looking at the new mixer, marveling at all of the functionality it had, and Tommy was setting up his new amp as well.

"Where is she?"

Everyone turned around in a body, including the two delivery guys who were helping, at the loud voice in the doorway of the loft.

Hunter, looking disheveled and high, stood there, swaying gently, looking around.

"Where's Momo?"

"Oh shit," Tommy murmured, rising from where he'd been inspecting his new amp.

"She's not here, man." Sullivan said, raising his hands in a gesture of supplication.

"You're a goddamned liar!" Hunter looked around again, trying to peer behind the guys. "She's always with you four, you're joined at the fucking hip!"

"Honestly, mate, she's not here," Jude said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "She had an appointment."

"What kind of appointment?" Hunter asked suspiciously.

"Just an appointment, downtown somewhere," Tommy said. "She didn't say, she just said she'd probably be gone most of the day." He could see out of the corner of his eye that Dane had his phone out, and he hoped that his friend was calling the police. The delivery men were standing awkwardly, looking nonplussed.

"Why don't you fellows take off now, yeah?" Jude suggested to them. They nodded, looking only too happy to do as they were told. "Sullivan? Their tip?"

Sully nodded and handed over four twentys to one of them, who murmured his thanks as they left, giving the eery Hunter a wide berth as they did so.

"You guys got some new shit, huh?" Hunter said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one up.

Dane bit his lips together but said nothing.

"That for that Battle of the Bands that's coming up?"

"Yes," Tommy said briefly.

"Momo singing in that with you?"

Dane nodded.

"You might win that shit, she can sing like a motherfucker," Hunter said, sitting down in one of the easy chairs, pulling over an empty Starbucks cup to use as an ashtray.

The guys all looked at each other.

We should try to keep him here, keep him calm, until the police come, right?

They all began to move cautiously toward the living room area to join him, sitting cautiously on the stools at the breakfast bar or the arms of the sofa, not too close.

"Hoping to get a record deal out of it?"

"That would be nice," Tommy acknowledged.

"What's Momo going to do about next year if that happens?" Hunter asked, ashing in the cup. He almost sounded and looked normal, if one could ignore the odd, gamey smell coming off him, and the way his pupils were contracted almost to pinpoints. He gave the impression of a wild animal, just slightly off balance, like you couldn't tell what he might do next.

"What do you mean?" Sully asked.

"About law school? You know she's going to law school?" Hunter shook his head. "She has a face and a body like a thousand dollar whore, but her brain is something else, and her family expects her to go to law school, you must know that, right? No way in hell are they going to let her fuck around with some pretty boy band instead of getting an education."

"The hell you say." Jude spoke sharply as he rose from his place on the arm of the sofa.

"The hell I know." Hunter sat up abruptly, stubbing his cigarette out on the side of the cup and leaning toward Sully. "You don't want to argue with me, you faggoty little Brit, I'll kill you dead where you stand." He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked at first like a pen. Everyone in the room heard a deadly little "snick," and the pen suddenly glittered, and they could all see the blade.

The room was silent.

"Well, it doesn't seem like our little Asian princess is coming home any time soon, and I'm sure one of you has called our friendly fellows in blue, so I'll be taking off now," Hunter said congenially, rising and grinning, a truly frightening thing to see. "But don't forget about me, I'll be around." he tipped them a wink before loping out the door, which was still propped open.

Jude exhaled, a quavery breath, and felt behind him so he could sit on the arm of the sofa again.

Sullivan crossed briskly to the front door, and the others could hear him running down the two flights of stairs to shut the gate at the bottom before running back up to firmly shut the door and throw the bolt.

"Dear god," Dane said. "Jude? You okay?"

Jude nodded. "I'm fine."

The buzzer sounded, making all of them jump.

It was the police, of course, but Hunter was long gone. They stayed for about ten minutes, asking questions, but there was nothing they could do.

After they'd left, the guys poured themselves stiff drinks, their new equipment forgotten for the moment.

"D'you think he's telling the truth? About Momoko and law school?" Jude asked, taking a swallow of his whiskey.

Sullivan nodded grimly. "Remember? She said something about that, way back at the beginning, when she first came to audition. And right after she moved in she was writing essays for her apps, I saw her one morning. We just collectively forgot."

"But surely she couldn't still be thinking about law school, not when all this is happening for us?" Dane asked the room at large.

"We don't know, do we?" Tommy answered.

"Well, we can just ask her when she comes home," Dane countered. "No big deal. We'll ask her, and she'll tell us she's not applying anymore, that's all."

"Or we can just look at her laptop," Sullivan suggested, gesturing to where it sat on the coffee table.

The guys all looked at each other, then moved toward the laptop.

"Anyone know her password?"

Dane swallowed. "PeppermintSilk."

Sully typed it in, and immediately found the folder on her desktop labeled "Law school apps."

He clicked on it, and found six smaller folders, all labeled, "COMPLETE!!!" The one for Yale was labeled YaleEarlyDec.

They all knew what that meant.

"Dammit," Tommy murmured.

"Just because she applied, doesn't mean she's going to go, though," Dane argued.

The other guys just looked at him.

"Well, it doesn't," he defended himself.

"We need to all agree that we're not going to discuss this with her until after Battle of the Bands, I think," Tommy said. "Can we all agree on that? We need to get through that before we start getting all in an uproar about anything, okay?"

Everyone nodded, even, reluctantly, Dane.

Sullivan logged out of Momoko's laptop and closed it, putting it back where it was before.

"You guys should know something," he began. "I got a text last night. I wasn't going to tell you about it, but all this might change things a little."

Everyone was looking at him.

"From Marshall. He wants back in the band. I guess things didn't work out with Mangled."

"What?" Jude's voice was shocked. "That wanker thinks we'd let him back in the band after what he did to us?"

"Besides," Dane said, "We have Momoko now--"

"But do we?" Tommy interrupted in a quiet voice.

Just then they heard the key in the door, and Momoko breezed in, laughing. "Look who finished early, you guys! Where's the new stuff?"

She smiled at everyone. "You don't look as happy as I thought you'd look, what's up?" She looked around, a searching look on her face. "And has someone been smoking in here?"