"Your charming little swagger, your twisted little lies,

The truth will set you free my love, so try it on for size,

Watch your tongue and keep in check and stay the hell away,

I never thought I'd say to you, the words I speak today." - Bach's Revenge debut album, track 1

They drove for almost a full day. William had stopped about eight hours in to sleep but most of the drive was miserable. Moody footed the bill for the spectacular bus but failed to fix the air conditioning. Sebastian woke up looking like he'd taken a shower. Nearly twenty two hours after they left Moody Records, they pulled up to their first venue. Bach's Revenge first official performance was at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon.

He'd never been to Portland. Never really been anywhere before except for a trip to Mexico once with Rosa when he was eight and their stay in Los Angeles when they were cutting the album.

Portland was beautiful, but only slightly cooler than Los Angeles, or at least it felt that way with the smothered recycled air of the tour bus. When they pulled up to the venue, a small modest choir of screaming ensued and his jaw dropped. He pulled back the curtain to discover a small group of around twenty to thirty girls had already gathered and lined up outside. He looked at his watch. It was 2:00 pm. The show started at 8:00. Unfreaking believable. They were waiting for them.

"Look," he said, pointing out the window.

Robbie, Sawyer and Lane all came to see the view.

"Holy shit." Robbie tapped his drumstick on the window. "Do you think they're here for us?"

Sawyer looked incredulous at Robbie's question. "I think they're here to contemplate the meaning of life or to discuss global warming."

"Why are you always an ass? A simple yes would suffice."

"Ah, but yes is boring and I am not," Sawyer said.

Sebastian was almost too busy being awestruck to notice both his band mate's idle chatter or Charlie's reaction. She stood so straight she looked immobile. Her hands were on her hips and her face was frozen in abject resignation.

He reached out and poked her side. "You alright, bella?"

She startled like she hadn't been at all aware of the venom she'd just projected. "Yeah, of course, I'm fine."

"You looked pissed," Sawyer noted.

For once he was glad Sawyer had said something, he didn't want to be the one to point it out, but he wanted her to realize she was doing it.

"No," she shook her head. "I'm not pissed, just zoned out I guess."

Sawyer shrugged at the same time Sebastian gave Charlie a wink.

William cranked the wheel and mumbled, "Gonna pull around to the side of the building where you can unload your gear without getting swarmed."

"Don't the stagehands unload the gear?" Lane asked.

"Well seeing as how they're called stagehands and not your bitches, no," William said.

Even Sawyer laughed.

The bus finally came to a stop at the side of the stage. As they took the gear from the luggage compartment of the second bus, a surreal feeling swept over Sebastian. What had once been a dream was now becoming reality.

Charlie stood on the sidewalk as they unloaded their gear. William was completely unwilling to help and opted to stand beside her, smoking. God knew where Ben and everyone else was. So far, they were about as useful as William.

Sawyer hauled a speaker which no doubt weighed twice as much as Charlie. "Geez darlin', why don't you do something?" he teased.

Robbie marched by with a keyboard. "She is doing something loser. She's supervising and looking hot."

Sebastian shook his head and rolled his eyes just in time to see her open her purse and withdraw the camera she'd brought. She held it up. "See, I'm not supervising, I'm documenting."

"Make sure you get my good side," Seb told her. "The camera adds ten pounds."

One of the things Charlie had loved since the first "gig" Sebastian played in junior high, was sound check. Now that Bach's Revenge was playing a legitimate theater with modern acoustics it was even better. A private performance from the entire band. William, who reeked of coffee and cigars stood next to her, his arms folded into his chest, nodding his head in time with the music.

"Well I'll be damned," he muttered. "Them boys are pretty good."

Charlie smiled sweetly. She was far too lost in Sebastian's voice to use her own. After every instrument was tuned and in sync with each other to make perfect harmonious, notes, the sound check was finally finished. She was aflutter, but only until she realized this didn't give her the next few hours alone with him. They were headed back to the tour bus to eat and for the boys to get ready.

Sebastian stepped away from his mic. "Hang on a sec guys."

Lane tinkered with the pegs on his bass. "What's up?"

"Those fans outside," he said. "We should go meet them."

Charlie's stomach dropped and then tightened with a horrible jealous pang. She clenched her fists, angry with herself for having such a stupid reaction to his minor suggestion. What the hell was wrong with her? He didn't say he was going to sleep with them.

"I'm starving," Sawyer complained.

Robbie looked miffed. "You're kidding me right? You wouldn't even have that cash in your pocket if it weren't for them."

Sawyer sighed. "Whatever."

"You're an ass," Sebastian said. "But it's time to put your big girl panties on. You're outvoted."

The devil on her shoulder laughed and mocked her. You're the girlfriend. The tag along. You don't get a vote. Her and Sawyer would still be outnumbered, but how much did that really matter? She cleared her throat and Sebastian's head shot up in response.

"I-I guess I'll go back to the bus." She said it like a question, hoping he'd hear the apprehension in her voice but he was oblivious to her sudden desire for some kind of reassurance. She could shake it off on her own. She didn't need to be behaving as if she were a green-eyed little girl.

"I'll be there soon," Seb told her.

Charlie slung her purse over her shoulder and dug her hands into her pockets. She turned to look at Seb before she walked away, but he was too caught up in chastising Sawyer for his jackass tendencies to notice.

In the bus, she threw herself on the bed and opened the window, her eyes peeking behind the small strip of fabric that substituted for a curtain. Sebastian was right, there weren't that many girls, but from the pitch of their voices one may think they were larger in numbers.

"I can't wait," one of them gushed. "It's like my goal just to touch him."

"I swear," another said, "I was there the morning the CD released to buy their album."

"I broke the replay button on YouTube," another offered.

They giggled and Charlie's stomach knotted. Ugh. They were waiting in line for hours to touch Sebastian. They same Sebastian she'd touched every night for years. It was a sinking feeling.

"What's your favorite song?"

The YouTube predator chimed in. "Oh, Lovely Little Dangerous is for sure the best. I wonder how long it took him to write it."

Charlie saw the door to the theater swing open and caught herself gasping to catch her breath. "Four days to compose the music, one night to write the song," Sebastian said, "so five days."

"Oh my God!" The touchy girl's hand flew over her mouth and she screamed. She started to jump up and down producing a chain reaction as the realization that Sebastian Russo, Sawyer West, Robbie Hawthorne and Lane O'Malley were standing there in the flesh.

It was like a car accident. Charlie didn't want to look, much less acknowledge what was happening, but she couldn't peel her eyes from the scene unfolding before her. A virtual riot of teen girls screaming like lunatics and surging forward, surrounding Sebastian. She closed the curtain, rolled over, tucked her knees into her chest and covered her ears.

Sawyer mumbled something about still being starving as they piled back onto the bus. Sebastian hardly heard him, unable to wipe the grin off of his face, or the experience from his mind. He'd met a few fans since the album launched, like the waitress at the restaurant, to them he was a hometown hero, but nothing like what he just took part in.

At school, it had been similar, but these were strangers. Complete strangers. It was different somehow. They all signed shirts, CDs, had taken pictures, given hugs.

He marched to the back of the bus, intent on sharing his euphoric feeling with the one person who would be eager to share it. Charlie lay on the bed, covering her ears. He got on his knees and crawled to where she was, pulling her hands away. "You would not believe what just happened," he said. He knew he was still smiling like a total idiot but he didn't care.

"Oh," she replied. "I'd believe it."

The bus moved forward with a jolt, presumably to a place where they could get food. "That was incredible."

"I'll bet."

The sarcasm that dripped from her words was hard to ignore. He knit his brows together. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Perfect. She was sulking. Way to ruin his adrenaline rush.

Charlie couldn't do much wrong in his eyes, but she was being childish, never mind selfish. "Look," he said. "I have too much to do before the show to play your little game. If something is pissing you off, say it."

"I'm not pissed off."

"You are."

She gave a false smile. "Honest. I'm hungry. That's all."

Bullshit.

They pulled up to a burger place and Seb stalked off the bus bringing back burgers and fries for the two of them. Silence wrapped around the whole bus like a blanket while everyone ate dinner. Charlie wouldn't look at him instead fixing her gaze on the burger and double dipping her fries.

"I'm going to get ready," he announced. He had to choose from the enormous pile of clothing he'd brought. He'd already spent hours with the stylist learning which pieces to put together to best accentuate his features. Whatever. It was stupid.

William was back driving already.

Charlie was miserable. Sebastian was angry with her, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, it was with good reason. He gave her no reason to be jealous. No one in the world could be more dedicated than him and here she was, acting like a jealous freak.

She slouched at the table with her head leaning on the window, thinking she should go back and apologize, but before she had the chance to even move, the screaming started.

Robbie bolted forward from his own seat and pulled back the curtain. "Sweet Jesus," he mumbled. "They multiplied."

She didn't want to look, but she had to. Leaning across Robbie, she peered outside. The line up from before had morphed and mutated, like a virus, it spread. Hundreds and hundreds of people, mostly girls, were lined up.

"Seabass," Robbie shouted. "Get your ass out here!"

Sebastian's head peeked around the corner. He had his cell phone pressed to his ear and held up his pointer finger.

Sawyer nudged Charlie and set his Rubik's cube on the table, "Lemme see, sweetheart."

Charlie obliged and gave up her view.

"Holy crap, there's a lot of em, yeah?"

She nodded, feeling like she was going to vomit. McKenzie's unmistakable silhouette dominated her vision. The familiar feeling of jealously snaked through her, its hands clawing at her insides. "McKenzie's here," she breathed.

"She really is as dumb as she looks," Robbie shook his head. "Don't worry about her, Charlie."

Easy for him to say, he wasn't the one Sebastian was mad at.