Pretentious. Sellout. Those words cut far deeper than Billy would have liked, and he had to use his coffee once more to help hide his grimace. Is that really what people thought? Sure, his music wasn't entirely his own. Half the time, he barely had a say in what he got to write, and the sound wasn't quite what he'd wanted it to be. But his music still had heart, he was still passionate about it.

Billy gave a vague cant of his head, dismissing the question. He was too hung up on what Mark had said. "There's a lot of stuff I like..." But for some reason, at that moment, he couldn't think of a single band. Not even one he shared a label with. "Do you really think his--their music is pretentious?" He tried so hard to keep his tone neutral. Blandly curious. But there was a slightly raw edge to it that he couldn't mask.