It seemed like forever before Xander returned to the van with Tetra and everyone else in his wake. She was on crutches now, and in a cast that covered half her right leg, the strangest cast Justin had ever seen. What on earth had she done to it? And why was Xander making her use crutches instead of a wheelchair?

The concern on his face must have been evident, for as he slid open the van door Tetra said, “It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.”

“It looks pretty bad,” Justin said. At a look from Xander, he shut his mouth and helped Tetra carefully into the backseat.

The trip back was much quieter—now that the adrenaline of emergency had worn off, everyone seemed to be feeling the exhaustion of the day. Xander pulled the van as close as he could to Donny’s bungalow. Donny and Ona weren’t back yet, but the door was unlocked and the sheets on the bed in the guest room had been turned down. They got Tetra all settled with her leg propped up on four pillows and a bag of ice.

“Do you need anything?” Xander asked Tetra for what must have been the hundredth time. “I want to make sure you’re all settled before we leave. Food, drink, small pony…you name it.”

“You guys go ahead. I’m good.” Tetra yawned. “I’m just going to lay here and let that pain pill they gave me kick in.”

Xander kissed her on the forehead and bid his farewell. Kara set Tetra’s phone on the table beside her bed. “Your bag is right down here and I programmed all our numbers into your cell. If you need anything, call us. I’m serious about that.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Tetra. “Mostly I’ll be asleep.”

“Just promise.”

Tetra smiled. “Okay. I promise.”

Kara closed the door to the bedroom and they headed to the front door…but Justin hung back.

“I’ll stay here for the night,” Justin said quietly. Kara was the only one who turned around—Xander and Liam were already halfway back to the van.

“But all your stuff got moved to the staff quarters along with ours,” she said.

Justin shrugged. “I’ll get it in the morning. It’ll just be easier for everyone this way. I can look after Tetra, and you can get a good night’s rest without any added drama.”

Kara raised her eyebrows. “Unless I decide to punch Xander for being a world class idiot. I’m so sorry, Justin. I have no idea what got into him tonight.”

“I do,” said Justin. “Me. Trust me, that’s enough.”

Kara sighed. “I’ll bring your things by in the morning, early enough so that you at least have time to shower and change before we leave.” Then she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Call us if either of you need anything. I mean it.”

“I will.”

Justin closed the door behind Kara and rested his head against the cool surface, drinking in the blissful quiet. This was the first time he had been alone since the flight over…if one could consider a flying steel tube filled with two hundred people “alone.”

He poured himself a glass of water and settled down on the couch in the main living area, a far more comfortable spot than the chairs he and Donny had faced off in earlier. It was entirely possible that Donny would kick him out as soon as he and Ona got back from the party. The soft cushions convinced Justin to leave worrying about that until it happened.

The next time he opened his eyes, the bungalow was completely dark. The door to Donny and Ona’s room was closed. From behind the other door, Tetra was sobbing.

Justin slipped off his shoes and quietly padded across the cool tiles. He stood outside her room for a long while, still as a statue, guarding the door as she cried.

Justin had learned a lot about tears from his mother. In the main, tears were a normal human reaction to a lot of different things. But tears could also be histrionic. Some were manipulative. Some existed for the express purpose of creating more tears, and keeping the weeper buried in sadness. Some were present simply because there was someone else within earshot and nothing else to do that day.

Part of Justin was relieved to hear Tetra cry. The overwhelming emotions of the day, the unbelievable pain she was undoubtedly in and would continue to be in for some time, and the blow to her pride on top of everything…hell, Justin would have cried for less.

But the other part of him heard her despair, a sadness that came from a darker place with which he was all to familiar. He waited for the heaving breaths to subside and—before she could work herself up again—he gently knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Justin waited another beat for her to wipe her tears on the bedsheets before he turned the knob and let himself in. He walked straight past her bed and into the bathroom, where he grabbed a box of tissues. “Here,” he said as he handed them to her.

“Thank you.” She wiped her face and blew her nose. Justin moved a wastebasket to within her reach, and she thanked him again.

“Can I get you anything? Glass of water? More ice for your ankle?” Either the previous bag had fallen to the floor beside her bed or she had tossed it there—either way, the contents had long since melted.

“I’m fine,” she said, in a tone of voice that was anything but fine. “I’m so sorry I woke you. I was just…overwhelmed by my own stupidity and I guess I got a little carried away.”

Justin pointed at the empty half of the giant bed where the sheets were still smooth. “May I?”

“Of course. Please. I’d welcome the distraction.”

Justin pushed the door closed so that their conversation wouldn’t disturb Donny and Ona and then sat down beside her in the dark. Shadows of the leaves outside the window danced across their legs as they were tossed about by the ocean breeze.

“You don’t know me at all, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say what I’m about to say,” he said seriously.

“Okay.”

“Whatever stupid things you have done in your life—up to and including the events of today—I can beat them all put together. My entire existence has been nothing but a series of stupid decisions and stupider consequences.” Including this one, he thought to himself but did not say out loud. But right now, Tetra needed someone to talk to. And though he never would have admitted it, so did he.

“What happened?”

That one simple question covered a multitude of sins, so Justin went with the most obvious. “A bad girl, some drugs, way too much alcohol, and a prank that resulted in Xander losing a lot of equipment, a lot of cash, and the guitar his father gave him.”

“Wow,” said Tetra.

“Yeah. Not my finest hour. A lot of time and money was spent putting my sorry ass through rehab.”

“Did it stick?”

Justin shrugged, not that Tetra could see the movement in the dark. “That’s sort of what this circus act is all about. It’s officially my last chance to prove I’m on the straight and narrow before I’m completely cut off. My fate is in Xander’s hands now. He and I used to be best friends, you know.” He had no idea why he felt compelled to tell her all this. The room was just so comfortable and dark and she didn’t want anything from him but conversation, so he gave it to her.

“How long ago was that?”

“Pretty much since we moved to California. I was maybe four or five when we left Australia. My mum has a history of ending up in bad scrapes and worse relationships.” Justin scooted down into the pillows and folded his arms behind his head. “I take after her a lot in that respect.”

“I take after my dad,” Tetra said to the ceiling fan. “He’s a nut.”

“The best of us are,” said Justin.

“My dad’s special,” said Tetra. “Not all dads would run away from home with their daughters.”

“Not all boys would befriend a funny-talking kid from another country.” Justin turned to her and propped himself up on his elbow, still far enough away to resist touching her, but close enough to whisper their shared secrets. “What were you running from?”

“Evil.” Tetra’s voice didn’t waver, but another tear caught the light as it slipped down the side of her face. He began to imagine the worst. Assault? Rape? She seemed far too young and didn’t have the right temperament to fall down the same substance abuse rabbit hole he had, but he’d witnessed stranger things.

Justin heard her take a breath and then hesitate. Group therapy sessions had taught him about that sound as well. She was trying to decide if she should say what she was about to say, but not for the usual reasons. It wasn’t about the secret itself anymore—when something was bad enough, saying it out loud not only made it real, it also forced the storyteller to live it all over again.

“Last Fall a bunch of kids at my high school died.” The words came out evenly, as if she were telling someone else’s tale.

Justin’s brow furrowed. “Where did you say you moved from?”

“Kansas.”

Justin let out a low whistle. “Last Fall. Right. I remember seeing that on the news. God, I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine.”

“They put the entire high school in grief counseling,” she explained. “My mom is a science teacher there, and one of the strongest women I’ve ever known. She threw herself into her work after the incident, as if the entire student body’s soul was a thing she could save singlehandedly.”

“And you?”

“I tried to stay, for her sake. I really did. But in the end…I am just not that strong.”

Justin laughed.

Tetra turned to face him. “What?”

“Tonight you sustained a sprain worse than a broken bone. You did not shed a tear or lose your composure the entire time. I know. I was there.”

Tetra blew her nose and motioned to her face, still splotchy with leftover sadness. “So what’s all this then?”

“That”—Justin waved his hand in a circle around her face—“is a person who remains cool under pressure and worries about it later, out of sight, long after the danger has passed. That is the kind of person I want with me when the shit hits the fan.”

Tetra stared at him, and then glanced back up at the ceiling fan.

This time, they both laughed.

Stories now shared, they stared at each other in silence. She was almost pretty when she cried—the red of her eyes and the flush of her cheeks turned her brown eyes a shade of green. And the way the moonlight fell on her hair made streaks of it look blue. He wanted to brush her hair away from her face, trace the outline of her beauty mark, press his lips to hers and kiss what remained of her worries away…but he resisted. They had established trust here. A friendship of the kind he was sorely lacking. Any relationship with Tetra would probably damn him forever in Xander’s eyes, but he was determined not to screw it up.

“If I tell you something do you promise not to repeat it?” she asked softly.

“What’s said in this room will stay in this room,” he answered. “Cross my heart.”

“I forced the issue,” she whispered. “I told my parents in no uncertain terms that I would rather end my life than live in Kansas one second longer. I forced my dad to leave my mom and come here. In one selfish act, I ruined their relationship.” She gave a smirk and repeated his earlier statement: “Not my finest hour.”

And she would undoubtedly beat herself up about that fact for the rest of her life. “Look,” said Justin. “I’m certainly no expert on relationships, but I do know one thing. If your dad came here with you, it was his choice to leave and her choice to stay. Think about it: they could have just sent you away to some distant relative, or a boarding school or something. There were a ton of other ways to get you out of that situation. This sounds horrible to say, but if your family broke up, it was already broken. In the end, I’m willing to bet it had very little to do with you.”

She grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes and nose again, but did not turn away. “Thank you for that. I don’t know that I entirely believe it, but thank you anyway.”

“Thank your dad,” he said. “He gave you a new place to call home. Granted, it’s hotter than hell here. If your dad chose this island, he really is nuts.”

“Then again, if he hadn’t chosen this island, we might never have met,” she said.

“Then I’ll be sure to thank your dad too, when I meet him.”

“So where is home for you?” she asked him. “California? Australia?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I feel like home should be a place where one is at peace, but I can’t say I’ve ever really been at peace. I guess home is wherever my mum is…right now that’s California.”

“Who knows, maybe you’ll fall in love with Florida while you’re on tour.”

“Not bloody likely,” he said, and she laughed again.

“I’m just sorry I won’t be able to see any of the shows in person,” she said. “That would have been such a treat. But I promise I’ll watch every one that’s live-streamed. After all”—she indicated her bum leg—“it’s not like I’ll be able to do a heck of a lot else this summer.”

“I’d like that,” said Justin. “It’ll be nice to know a friendly face is looking out for me. Here, hand me your phone.”

She did as he bade, and like Kara had done, he added all his information into her contacts list. He even took a crazy photo of himself to use as his avatar, and then called himself with her phone so that he had her number as well.

“No fair,” she said. “You have to have a crazy photo of me in your phone, too.” She put her fingers in her ears and stuck her tongue out and he took her photo as well. “Good,” she said as she retrieved her phone. “Now you have someone to call if the shit hits the fan.”

He knew what she meant. She was offering to be his support should he feel himself sliding back down that rabbit hole. He wasn’t sure she was aware of the magnitude of the gesture…something that made him appreciate it even more.

“You will be the place I run to when I need to run,” he said.

She smiled at that. Oh, how he did love making her smile. “I loved that song,” she told him. “But I think you knew that. And now you know why.”

“That I do,” he said. “And thank you. I hate that you’ve been through what you’ve been through, but it’s nice to know I’m not alone in the dark.”

She reached across the pillows to take his hand, and he let her. “You will survive Xander,” she told him. “Best friends don’t usually just vanish into thin air. I bet if you try, you can heal the rift between you.”

He squeezed her fingers gently. “I’ll try to survive if you do,” he said.

“Deal,” she yawned. He could tell she was finally falling asleep, and he needed to let her. But there was one pressing question left between them unanswered.

“Tetra?” he whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you wearing my shirt?”