Finn. Beau.

Fucking Jonah.

My brothers' eyes all bored into me once I was returned to the hotel suite. I knew they wanted to hear where I had been, but I felt too much like shit to even try and explain. Instead I just craned my neck. "Where's Noelle?" I mumbled. It felt like the slim, rose-gold circle was burning a hole in my pocket.

Noelle loved rose-gold. It was her "signature," and so was glitter too, so I'd picked out the sparkliest ring I could find on such short notice.

Doing this now was imperative. Making her happy would make me happy. I knew that.

"Where's Noelle?" I repeated. I looked around for her familiar face.

But the only faces that glowered back at me were ones that all shared the same dimple as mine. "I have no idea," Beau finally said.

It was odd that he was the first one to talk, but I didn't have time to analyze the implications of what that meant. I had to find Noelle.

Fuck. Where was she? I brushed my hand down to my pocket, nervously tracing the outline of the ring from outside. I knew a box would have made it too obvious what I'd gone and done, and I didn't want anyone trying to talk me out of this. I was doing this. I was proposing to her.

I just had to find her.

"Wasn't she watching? Why hasn't she come back?" I asked.

Beau looked at Finn, the Jonah, then got up. "Here. You need to drink some water."

"I'll get it," Jonah broke in, leaping to his feet..

"You're like, always there," I grumbled. I didn't know where Noelle could have gone. My heart was starting to race.

"Someone's gotta watch out for you," Jonah was saying. "I promised mom - ."

"Oh shut up about mom," I snapped.

"Gabe," Beau piped up. "Cool it."

Jonah might have said something too. He probably did, since he always had something to say, but I wasn't about to hang around and listen to him. If I didn't ask Noelle to marry me right the fuck now I was going to lose my nerve. Hopefully she'd be too happy about getting to plan the perfect Instagram wedding to get pissed at me for a shitty, off-the-cuff proposal. But I had to do this. There had to be a next step here...

"I'm going to find Noelle," I announced, turning to leave the room. My feet were still unsteady and I swayed dangerously, but righted myself and lunged for the door, already shouting for her.

"Noelle!" I called. My throat was all raspy from whiskey and nightly singing, so I barely had any voice left. Calling out hurt too much, so I just started walking down the fire stairs.

Bennett's room was on the next level down, one of a series of four suites. The tour was taking up all four of them and I wasn't sure which one was his, but I had my all-access card and was ready to start checking. He was our manager yes, but he was her manager too. It was his job to know where the fuck she was.

I slid the card into the first door lock and swung it open to an empty suite. The hurricane like mess of cards and empty cans of craft beer told me I'd wandered in to the suite shared by our technical staff. I shut it in a hurry before I woke anyone up.

"Being with you makes me happy," I rehearsed, mumbling to myself. "And it would make me even happier to have you wear my ring. Yeah, perfect." I stumbled into the wall, one foot crossing too far over the other. "Fuck," I grunted.

"Gabe."

I turned to see that my brothers had followed me without me realizing. I couldn't believe it, but I also believed every bit of it. There was no place I could be me. "Leave me alone!" I grumbled, knowing they wouldn't listen. "I just have to..."

For a second I forgot why I was down here, then I brushed my hand past my pocket and remembered again. "What are you doing, Gabe?" Beau asked, but it sounded like he already knew.

I slid my card in the lock and pushed open the next door.

And my whole world slid sideways.

What I was seeing didn't make sense. I was definitely drunk. I was definitely high.

But I wasn't fucking hallucinating. This was real. The sight of my girlfriend on her knees, her pretty hand closed around Bennett's cock was definitely real.

And everything happened at once.

She cried out my name at the same time Bennett smiled and yanked up his pants at the same time that Jonah growled out a long string of curses. In the next nanosecond, Finn darted forward to start kicking Bennett's ass while Beau tried to hold him back.

But the whole while I just stood there with the ring outstretched.

Noelle's pretty eyes finally slid from my face to my hand. Her expression softened and an eager gleam shone in her eyes even as Bennett was still zipping up. She rose to her feet. "Is that for me?" she prompted, her giggle returning.

I let the ring drop to the floor where it landed without a sound. I looked around me.

And something....

Broke.

"I quit," I said, and the second I said it my voice grew stronger, so the next time I said it I was able to say it even louder. "I quit," I repeated, louder still until I finally was shouting at the top of my lungs. "I quit! I quit, I fucking quit!"