JACKS

A knock wakes me from my sleep and I glance at the bedside clock. It's just a bit after noon. I stand up and stretch as another knock sounds and I realize it's not coming from the door to the hall, but from the adjoining room.

I rub my eyes and open the door to Dré holding a binder and two coffee cups.

"Rise and shine, superstar!" he says as he walks inside and sets the coffees down on a nearby table. He looks around suspiciously as if he's searching for something else.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing." He smirks slightly but shrugs. "How was your night?"

"It was really good, actually."

"Must've been. I heard you two laughing all night long. What the heck were you doing, anyway?"

He sits down in the armchair, crossing his ankle over his knee.

"Reading fanfiction."

Dré raises a brow and tilts his head as I sit across from him on the sofa.

"Come again?"

"We were reading Jackson Ford fanfiction."

"No kidding." He laughs and shakes his head side-to-side. "That's hilarious. What's it like?"

"In summary, everyone on the internet thinks I'm an asshole womanizer with a 10-foot dick. Oh and sometimes I'm a vampire or a werewolf—or both."

"I don't even know where to start with any of that. I'm not touching that with a 10-f... you know what, bad choice of words. Was it all sexy stuff?"

"Sexual? Mostly. Sexy? Not so much."

"What'd she think of it all?"

"She said women like to fantasize about bad boys."

Is that what she likes? Bad boys?

Her boyfriend is about as far from a 'bad boy' as I can imagine. Maybe that's a good thing for me.

"Daaamn, she said that? You might just be in there after all."

I sigh and lean back, combing my fingers through my tangled morning hair.

"I don't know. I just... I really like her. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, like maybe she's not really everything she seems... but she just keeps getting better."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe this girl is the one."

"Really?" I ask, sitting upright and giving him a questioning look. "You're not gonna make fun of me for being a hopeless romantic or scold me for being interested in an unavailable woman?"

He shrugs and takes a sip of his coffee.

"I guess I just see why you like her," he says.

"What do you mean? You haven't even met her yet."

"I did actually, last night in the hallway—it's a long story. Let's just say I was having a lousy night and she stepped in to help me. I got a good vibe off her. She seems like the real deal. Reminds me a lot of you actually."

"That seems about right. Everybody who meets her loves her."

"In a sense, that's kinda your problem though, isn't it?"

He's right, but I'm not exactly in the mood to hear it. I'm well aware that she's already taken.

"Thanks for the reminder," I groan. "This guy, though... I get why he would want to be with her, but the other way around? That's a mystery to me."

"What're you going to do?"

He looks me in the eyes with a sincere expression.

"I have no idea. I'm in completely over my head here. When she was just a girl I met at a cafe, there was this probability that she wasn't all that I imagined her to be. But now... I really like her. I'm scared of how much I like her. Is there any way I walk away from this without having my heart stomped on?"

"You're asking the wrong guy. You know my track record with women."

I'm so screwed.

Dré pushes a cup of coffee toward me and I grab it off the table.

"Alright," he says, putting his hands on his knees. "Let's talk business. You want the good news or the bad news?"

That's always a good way to start a conversation.

"Bad news."

"Mark got back to me about the album, they aren't satisfied with the other material you've sent them. Now, they wanted to push back the release date..."

"Fuck, how far?"

"Calm down, I said they wanted to. By a year. But I know you don't want that, so I was on the phone all day yesterday and they've agreed to give you another two weeks for the final track."

"Weeks?"

"They need a rough mix by next Monday."

"Shit. What was the problem with the stuff I sent them?"

"They want something sexy, sensual. You know how it is, you're a sex symbol. Sex sells."

"Uggh... It's not exactly like I'm having a lot of sex right now, Dré. I'm a little short on inspiration."

"Sorry, Playboy. We could go with one of the ones the writers pitched."

"No. I didn't connect to any of them. Besides, since my N3XT days I've always written my own stuff. I don't want to change that now."

"Then you've got a week to come up with something."

Wonderful.

"What's the good news?"

"You know those photos your girl took of you? Well, Lindsay says she has a few magazines interested. Willing to pay a good rate too. So, assuming you're down with that, you get to take the news to Miss Skye."

It's unbearably hot under the midday sun and men are still running around loading the last bits of equipment into the busses.

"Come on, guys, we need to get on the road!" Kaylani shouts as we approach my bus with our bags in hand.

"Morning, Kay," I say, giving her a quick side-hug.

"Morning! How was the room? Good? Any issues?"

"Everything was great; you're doing a great job."

"Hey Kay!" Dré says with a smile.

She looks at him with an emotionless expression.

"André."

I see things are still going great between those two.

"Hey, uh, wh-" I begin to ask, but Kaylani interrupts.

"She's already on the bus." She winks at me and returns to directing the roadies.

I ask Dré to take my bag to my own bus and hop up the stairs to the crew bus. Skye is sitting in the front booth working on her laptop and one of our roadies is sitting across from her on his phone.

"Hey!" I say to her as I walk up.

"Oh, hi!" she says. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about those photos you took of me. My publicist liked them and she's talking to some magazines who want to bid for them."

She stares at me with a blank expression and I can't quite tell if it's a good or bad reaction.

"They want to publish my photos in a magazine?"

"Yeah, we can talk over the various offers, I think one is People. I can't remember the others."

"People Magazine?" Her eyes widen. "Oh my god, that's amazing!"

She leaps up from her seat and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in for a hug. I'm almost frozen under her touch—as though any slight movement could scare her away.

My mind is blank aside from one thought: I like this and I want more of it.

SKYE

About three hours into the drive to Sacramento, I've finished uploading my latest concert photos and going through emails and I'm officially bored as hell.

My phone suddenly starts vibrating in my pocket and I pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Dude, how's my sister doing on her big music tour adventure?" Ollie asks from the other end of the line.

I walk to the back area of the bus where Kaylani is relaxing in the seating area with her headphones on. I gesture to confirm it's okay that I'm on my phone and she gives me a thumbs up.

"I'm good. We just left Las Vegas and are heading to Sacramento now."

"I saw the photos you sent me, they look amazing Skye. I knew they would be. Is everybody on tour cool?"

"Yeah, everyone's really nice."

"What about Jacks?" he asks in a suggestive voice. "Is he really nice?"

"Everyone is nice."

"Aww, come on. Did you at least try to get me in there?"

"I did, actually, but he wasn't going for it. Sorry."

"Did you even show him a picture?"

"I don't remember... I dunno."

"It's fine, I get the impression he has his eyes on someone else anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Based on a couple of those photos you sent, I'd say he was giving his photographer some serious flirty eyes."

"Oh my god, nuh uh! You're ridiculous Ols."

"As jealous as I am to admit this, he likes you Sis. It's so obvious."

"No, he doesn't," I say in a hushed tone.

"He totally does," Kaylani says.

She can't even hear my conversation. How did she do that?

"What?" I ask, but she ignores me and stares at her phone, so I return to my call. "Anyway, we know that's not on the table. Okay?"

"Because why?" Ollie asks. "Because you're engaged to Gregory?"

"Yes."

"Have you talked to him lately?"

"I mean... what do you mean?"

"It's a pretty straightforward question. Why are you being so suspicious? You have talked to him, right?"

"You mean since I left?"

"Yeah."

"Our schedules are just so different. I told him to call me whenever he could."

"Jesus, Skye, your fiancé hasn't called to talk to you since you left town?"

Thanks. No need to rub it in.

"It's not a big deal. He's probably just waiting for me to reach out."

"Be serious a moment. You've been on the road without Greg for a bit now. Have you missed him?"

No.

I want to answer, but I'm not sure I can even admit it to myself.

What would it matter, anyway? Do I want to leave Greg just because he hasn't called me and I don't really miss having him around? That would be a mess and my mom would be so disappointed.

I shake my head like I'm trying to shake the idea out.

No. Greg and I are good together. He's good and stable and I should hold onto that.

"You've been silent a long time, you know that?" Ollie asks.

Shit.

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