Bullet by Jade C. Jamison Read Free Book Online Page B

and I was at a loss for words.  I just shrugged my shoulders and looked over at Zane.  My head felt like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between the two guys.  Zane was genuinely enjoying the repartee, but I was starting to feel frustrated.
    Ethan let out a long sigh.  “ Turns out that Bullet has been taken as a band name…over and over and fucking over.  Apparently, we weren’t the only guys to think that was just the sickest name ever.”
    “Well, shit , that sucks.”
    “Yeah, and even though I was pissed to find that out, I am glad to find out before we got a big following or tried to get signed to a label.”  I saw the look on his face change.  Now he looked satisfied, and when he talked, I knew why. “But what do you think about this? ”  He took a second to glance over at us again when he said, “ Fully Automatic? ”
    Zane ’s brows bore down on his eyes as he tried the name out on his tongue.  “Fully Automatic…”
    I was holding my breath without even realizing I had been.  I thought the name was fantastic, but I didn’t want to jump in yet.  Zane said it again.  “Hmm…Fully Automatic…”  He nodded his head.  “Yeah.  I think that’s pretty cool.”
    “Good.  Problem solved.  And I checked.  There aren’t any bands that go by that name.”
    “Ours now.”
    I smiled.  “I think it’s great too.  It’s still evocative of a gun.”
    “That it is.  So… thanks …I think.”  Ethan looked over at Zane.  “I’m gonna need your help convincing Brad and Nick.”
    “I don’t think it’ll be that hard, do you?”
    He shrugged.  “I dunno.  When we first came up with our lists of names, Brad pushed for Bullet.  He loved that name.”
    “Yeah, but he’ll feel like I did.  It kinda sucks if it belongs to other people.”
    Ethan nodded and bumped me with his elbow.  “Maybe we’ll make Val tell him.”
    I started giggling and waving my hands in front of myself as though to ward off trouble.  Zane said, “I think she could definitely soften the blow.”
    “Then it’s decided,” Ethan said.
    “I didn’t agree to any such thing.”
    Ethan looked over at Zane, an earnest look of confusion on his face, but he was teasing me.  “Zane, did you hear something?”
    “Nope.  Not a thing.”
    “I didn’t think so.”  He grinned at me and winked, then leaned over and turned on the CD player, cranking it, and Slayer came through the speakers.  I leaned my head against the back of the seat.  The roads might have been bad, but I was having fun.  Although I didn’t know it, it was one of the last innocent fun times I was going to experience in my young life.
    After some time, though, we drove through a sleepy little town.  Ethan turned off onto a side street and pulled his truck to a stop in front of a large white ranch-style house.  Zane opened the door and Ethan said, “See you in a while.”  Zane bobbed his chin in agreement at Ethan and smiled at me, then reached in the bed of the truck for his bag.  He shook off the snow and started walking down a path to the front door.  A woman with short brown hair opened the door and pulled Zane into an embrace.  I was fairly certain the woman was his mother.
    But before he was fully in her hug, Ethan was already driving down the block where he turned the corner.  A few more blocks and we reached his house, a two-story brick home that had to be decades old.  It didn’t appear to be rundown, just older.  Once we got out of his truck, I enjoyed the feeling of stretching my legs a bit.  Ethan reached in the back of the truck and grabbed both his luggage and mine.  He said, “I guess mom’s not back from work yet.”  I followed his eyes to the driveway and figured out his mother’s car was missing.
    He handed me my suitcase , and we walked up to the door.  Once inside, I looked around and fell in love with it.  Just seeing the house made me love his mother.  The place was decorated in warm,