Hey, you’re that girl who was there that day Bryce Baxter beat up that guy.,” the man at the table loudly identified me, then he turned to his friends at the table. “I told you I recognized her from somewhere, didn’t I? I knew I did.” He turned back to me with a triumphant smile. “What the fuck happened? From what the cameras caught it looked like he just went apeshit on the guy.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was growing used to the question, but it wasn’t one that I enjoyed answering. The entire thing had blown up into such a spectacle, it was the talk of the town. Even though I’d moved from New York City and was now living in Buffalo, I still felt like there wasn’t anywhere I could go where I wasn’t recognized as the girl who was at the diner that day. It would be my legacy, it seemed.

“Didn’t you work with Bryce or something? What was it like? I heard he was pretty much a loose cannon no matter what,” one of the other men at the table chimed in.

I smiled at him to be polite, though I wasn’t sure how to answer the question.

There were countless rumors about what happened that day between the tabloids getting their hands on the photographs and the people uploading what little they were able to film online. I smiled and passed their drinks around on the table.

“Sorry, I can’t say.” That wasn’t entirely true. Though I was working as a waitress at one of the smallest diners in town, I was still allowed to talk about what I wanted with whoever came through the doors.

“Ah, c’mon. We’ll leave you a nice tip.” The two of them laughed.

I paused. Though I really didn’t want to talk about what happened, I could use the money. This place didn’t pay jack shit, and I was having a difficult time making ends meet. Though on paper I should have been.

I didn’t know where all the money was going. I didn’t have a fancy cell phone, and my apartment was far from being fully furnished. I couldn’t remember the last time I had owned a car, and I didn’t ever eat out or really treat myself.

All in all, I should’ve been living far more comfortably than I was.

It made it tempting to take the man up on his offer. Though, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the thought that it wasn’t going to be worth it.

I’d seen these men come through the diner more than once. They would talk big, especially when it came to tips. But, the fact of the matter was they would often leave only a dollar or two extra and act as though they were doing me a real favor because of it. While I didn’t want to act like I needed the charity from them, I did.

“What exactly do you want to know? It’s nothing more than just one of those fights that happen.” I brushed off the incident as best as I could. The tabloids were nothing but click bait articles, and weren’t even close to what’d really happened, and I didn’t think it would change their minds much if I told them the truth.

They laughed for a moment, and I began to think I should be giving them more water than beer. The main guy pushing for the gossip wiped his eyes and looked at me with a grin.

“Can’t really say it was just like any other fist fight when it was with one of the most famous rock stars in the world.” He grinned.

Every time he brought it up it was like a dagger through my heart once more. I hated the fact he was famous, and over the course of the past month I’d often thought if there was some way he was just a normal guy, we might have had a chance to be together.

“You should say former rock star,” one of the other men at the table piped up.

I cocked my head to the side as I was looking at them. I hadn’t heard anything about Bryce since the day I’d gotten fired. I intentionally blocked his phone number and changed all my settings on my social media so he couldn’t find me.

I didn’t want him to. I didn’t care what he had to say, and I didn’t want to get drawn into any more drama. I’d heard the record label did their best to sweep the entire thing under the rug, and I could only imagine that was because of David. I was sure he tried hard as hell to make it all blow over.

But, I didn’t know what that meant for Bryce. He was known for getting into trouble, and I could only imagine even if the record label was able to make it look like it was no big deal, there was still a pretty big chance he got into some sort of trouble for it.

Not that I would know.

Without any way for him to reach me, I basically fell off the face of the earth. I didn’t go far, since I didn’t feel the need to run across the country. Of course, I didn’t have any way of running across the country even if I’d wanted to.

My last paycheck was enough to get me into an apartment, and I was able to halfway furnish it and buy some groceries until I got a job at this diner. The days seem to drag by, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sustain this sort of life. Something was going to have to give eventually, or I was going to go crazy.

I was used to not having a lot of money, but the fact of the matter was that this wasn’t paying enough for me to get by long term.

“What do you mean former?” I asked.

The men looked at me for a second, then exchanged looks with each other.

“Look who wants to talk now. Thought you didn’t want to gossip about this guy.” The first man looked at me with raised eyebrows as he spoke, and I felt my cheeks flush red.

“I didn’t want to gossip about what happened with the fight. There’s no need to go back into all that when it’s over and done with. Besides, what do you think I’m going to say that wasn’t already in the news?” I gave him a super fake wink, looking from one to the other and trying to lay on the charm as much as possible.

I’d learned quickly flirting was the best way to maximize tips, and I knew that as rowdy as this group of men was getting, it would likely help me. Drunk guys always tipped better when you flirted with them.

“Don’t you watch the news or keep up with anything that’s going on? He quit right after the fight happened. Same day,” another of the men at the table said, and I turned my attention to him.

I hadn’t heard any of this. It wasn’t surprising since I’d tried to tune out from everything after the day it’d all went down.

“What do you mean? I thought rock and roll was his whole world?” I wasn’t afraid to play dumb to get what I wanted.

In all honesty, I didn’t have much in the way of friends, and the few weeks I had spent with Bryce were the closest I’d had to family in years. But now, I was alone. I didn’t have anyone to tell me every detail of what’d happened after I took off.

“Evidently there was a lot of personal shit going on for the guy. He was feeling really torn up about it, and couldn’t bring himself to write anything. Plus, I heard he had a falling out with the record label or his manager over something, but they’re not saying anything about him quitting. Thought you might’ve known.” He shook his head and drained the rest of his beer.

“Do you want a refill on the pitcher?” I asked, as my coworker brought out a tray full of food. Several of the men agreed, and I quickly scooped up the empty glasses along with the tray.

“Be right back with the beer. Let me know if you need anything else.” I smiled at each one of them, trying to appear friendlier than I had before. I knew I was coming off as rude initially, and I definitely needed a good tip.

Evidently, these men knew more about the situation than I had originally thought, and I wanted to find out exactly how much I could about Bryce from them. Sure, it was all gossip, but there was plenty of information I could get if I got enough alcohol in them.

I’d be generous with the beer and see what they’d give me.

It was hard to concentrate on anything but Bryce. If he wasn’t working as a rock star, what the fuck was he doing with his time? I had no way of calling him, and I’d made sure he had no way to contact me.

So where the fuck was he?