AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Skylar
Skylar Ford was pissed.
No.
That wasn’t the right emotion. Skylar was livid.
Her anger had been bubbling since the moment she saw the damned picture in the magazine she’d snuck into her cart at the grocery store the day before. She’d stayed up all night looking at it and reading the accompanying article about how in love the couple was. Every time she looked at the picture, her stomach churned.
How could she do this to me? To us? Again.
Skylar snatched the magazine off the table in the tour bus and stormed out to the tour bus parked beside hers. She didn’t bother to knock; she knew Elena Cruz would be having her mid-afternoon nap before their sold-out show later that day. Elena jumped up from the couch as Skylar slammed the magazine down on the table.
“Geez, Sky, way to give me a heart attack.”
“What the fuck is this?”
“It’s a magazine.”
“With a really great picture of you in it.” She flipped through the page that her eyes had been locked for the last few hours. Skylar pointed at it and watched as Elena looked down at it.
Elena’s expression flickered from confusion to understanding in the blink of an eye. Skylar knew her well enough to know that she would have a perfect excuse as to why Peter Hamilton’s hand was on her ass and his tongue down her throat in the paparazzi picture taken a few weeks ago in Vegas. She knew that because Elena always had an excuse as to why she was seen with men out in public.
It will help people stay off the trail of me and you, Elena had whispered each time Skylar struggled with their relationship.
Having been out of the closet since her teenage years, Skylar hated having to hide her relationship with her bandmate. She wanted to be out and proud and let people know the love songs they wrote were about each other, not some nameless man.
The problem was Elena wasn’t out yet. In fact, she had all but pulled Skylar back into the closet with her. Not that Skylar protested; she would have gone anywhere to be with Elena.
But that was all about to change.
Skylar had had enough of pretending she and Elena were just best friends and bandmates. She was tired of singing love songs every weekend to sold-out arenas while her muse stood five feet away from her. Nothing would ever change her love for Elena; Skylar knew that. But it was past time she made a stand and told Elena exactly how she had been feeling the last six months on tour.
“It’s just publicity, Sky.” Elena’s eyes softened as she closed the magazine. She lifted her hand, presumably to touch Skylar’s cheek, but Skylar swatted it away.
“I can’t keep doing this.”
“Doing… what?”
She knew Elena knew what she meant, despite the confused look on her face.
“This…” Skylar waved back and forth between them. “Me and you. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep pretending that seeing you with him doesn’t bother me. I can’t keep singing love songs we wrote together about each other when you won’t say you love me outside of the lyrics. I’ve kept quiet long enough because I love you, Elena.”
Her voice cracked, and Skylar could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She hated how she always cried when she was angry. Skylar also hated the way she wanted to tell Elena never mind—things were fine. But she knew they weren’t. They hadn’t been for a while now.
Elena’s brown eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that we need to come out. Together.”
“No,” Elena shook her head and crossed her arms. As the de facto leader of the band, Elena always had the last—and often only—word. It was her way or the highway, which was why Skylar had been stuck in the closet for years with Elena. “We’ve already been through this.”
“I know,” Skylar sighed, “but this time, it’s different.”
“How so?”
“Either we go public, or I’m leaving the band.”
