Strung

My flight left in less than two hours.

And. She. Just. Kept. Talking.

“And then I was like, screw you, I—” Angelica waved her hands in the air, yacking up a storm, sucking up time that I’d never ever get again, and moving her head back and forth like she couldn’t decide which position was more comfortable to swallow me whole from.

Seriously. The chick made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I’d had some serious run ins with groupies.

“Look” — I held up my hands in front of me — “I know your manager wanted you to be seen with me for promo but, for real, I have to catch a plane.”

Angelica turned bright red.

Huh, so the devil did get occasionally embarrassed. Well I’ll be damned.

“But—”

“We can figure something out when I get back.” I clutched my carryon in my hand and ushered her towards the lobby, gritting my teeth the entire way as a few photographers took pictures of us.

I smiled. Because well — I had to.

And Angelica went into crazy mode.

She launched herself at me, kissed my cheek, wiped off the lipstick and then curved her body against mine. Pretty sure I hated my life at that moment. I smiled so bright my face hurt. It was totally fake. You’d have to be an idiot to believe that I was anything but pissed in that moment.

When did I start to get sick of the press? I used to eat it up. Freaking loved the attention but now, it felt like every single picture they took was like getting punched in the gut.

“So” — Angelica flipped me towards her — “I’ll see you when I get back.”

Yeah and I was going to freaking go into hiding to make sure that she didn’t follow through on that threat — yeah it was a threat not a promise.

I still had a few hours to make it to Portland, drive into Seaside and surprise my girl. I smiled at the thought, this time a real smile that I’m sure every single camera caught, and stepped into the waiting limo.

Angelica can go to hell for all I cared… I had Nat. What else did I need?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Alec

WAITING FOR NAT to ascend the stairs was pure hell. I knew she’d look beautiful — in fact I knew she’d probably make me want to punch my brother in the face, the same brother who texted me this morning and said he was flying in to surprise her.

Yeah, we would get exactly no practice time for that little concert he had planned, but I knew we could pull it off.

I pulled at my black tie for the fiftieth time that night. My ears perked up when I heard footsteps coming down the hall.

“Wow!” Evan applauded while I tried to find words that would do Nat’s beauty justice. “You clean up well Nat.”

She rolled her eyes, and then set those same brown eyes in my direction, waiting for me to say something — anything. I wasn’t sure why my mouth wasn’t working. She was wearing a cute little cocktail dress that made her legs look so long I couldn’t stop staring. Her makeup was done to perfection. I mean, she was just so… pretty.

“Yes.” My voice was hoarse. I looked away licking my lips, gaining courage from the silence, and grabbed her hand. “Okay, you got everything you need? Because we needed to be there like ten minutes ago.”

Wow. So instead of compliments I just turn into a complete ass?

If Nat was hurt she didn’t show it.

We piled into the car.

She wasn’t smiling until she checked her phone. It was Demetri; it had to be.

She giggled then asked Evan to take a picture of her. I tried not to be jealous but that’s the thing with jealousy — once you let it in, it’s hard as hell to remove it completely from your body. It’s like it plants seeds in every part of your soul until you’re physically sick with it.

I’d basically allowed her to cheat on him, with me, and I was still flirting with the entire idea of screwing it all and just having her for myself.

I told myself I wouldn’t make any more moves — if he messed up, she was fair game, until then. I stole another glance at her glossy lips and curled hair. Damn it. I’d wait years for her. Because nobody was perfect, right? At one point he was going to mess up, and I would be there to pick up the pieces.

We pulled up to the parking lot and immediately went to the door to start our patrol for homecoming committee. The only problem? I was usually the event people stood in line to see, so when they saw me guarding the door they wanted to touch, they wanted to flirt. I had two girls, TWO, offer sex in the bathroom stall. Right, because that was every rock star’s fantasy. Sex in a high school bathroom? Really?

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like a piece of meat and the door was getting more crowded by the second. I usually stayed far away from people at school so it made sense that they would suddenly think my ass was fair game.

“Hey” — Nat gave me a sympathetic look and walked up to Alesha — “Can we switch?” At least then I’d have a table to separate me from the loads of people who wanted to cop a feel.

“Sure, I’m almost done anyway.” Alesha moved from the ticket table to the door and let us take our seats.

I thought tickets would be easy. You know, people hand you money, you stamp their hands, done. Except, my hands kept colliding with Nat’s making the parts of my brain that should be on counting money — on kissing her. And that wasn’t helping my situation at all. I clenched my jaw and thanked God when we sold the last ticket and were able to go into the dance. Luckily, Bob and Lloyd had agreed to help with security, which was good, all things considering. It wasn’t every day a high school had a free AD2 performance.