Ethan’s mother held up her phone. “The recruiter’s secretary left me a voicemail confirming Ethan’s meeting.” Her botoxed forehead didn’t budge, but I saw the confusion in her eyes as she added, “Some place called The Tailgate?”
Olivia and I turned to one another.
“What is going on?” she whispered.
I shrugged and shook my head. I had no idea, but I was excited. I had no other word for it. My heart was racing at the thought of Ethan performing live.
My head was still saying ‘we’re mad at him’ but my heart was tripping over itself in anticipation. “I have to be there.”
It was like a universal law or something. There was no debate, just a fact. If Ethan Morrison was going to play live, I had to be there.
The need to be there—now—was overwhelming. My eyes widened and Olivia grabbed my arm, clearly seeing my desperation. “Come on, we’ll find a ride.”
My mom was lost in the crowd. She wouldn’t leave to go drop me off at a club, anyway. We looked for anyone else we knew, and then…
“Oh no,” I sighed.
“Oh yes.” Olivia took me over to the bar area where a bored-looking Bianca was standing, tapping at her phone while some guy who looked just as bored looked on, holding two glasses of club soda, by the looks of it.
“Bianca,” Olivia said. “We need you.”
She lifted her head slowly. “Since when do they allow just anyone at these events?”
Olivia opened her mouth to reply, but I beat her to it. “Please.”
They both turned to look at me. Slowly. Like maybe they’d misheard. “What did you say?”
I huffed. “Come on, Bianca. I know you don’t like me and I don’t like you and you don’t like Olivia and Olivia doesn’t like anyone and blah blah blah…” I paused to inhale. “But I need your help and despite what you’d have everyone believe, I am almost twenty percent positive that somewhere within that skeletor ribcage, you have a heart.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“Whoa.” The bored blond guy broke it with that eloquent rejoinder.
“Wow,” Olivia muttered.
Bianca slipped her phone in her clutch. “Fine. It beats standing around with bozo here.”
And that was how the three of us—blond guy opted to stay behind—ended up at The Tailgate just in time to see Ryan’s band go onstage.
“Ew, this ishisband?” Bianca whined as we made our way through the crowd to the edge of the stage.
“I told you we were coming here to see Ethan,” I snapped.
“That’s not what I—” She sighed. “Forget it.”
Already forgotten. I was tugging both her and Olivia along behind me in my eagerness to get close. I didn’t wantto miss anything. Not. A. Thing.
The guys were tuning their guitars, Ryan was doing a mic check.
It was so freakin’ legit. I wondered if Ethan’s heart was beating just as hard as mine was.
“This is incredible,” Olivia squealed beside me as she shook my arm.
Bianca did not squeal but her lack of whining spoke for itself. She was impressed—just a little.
“Hey look, it’s the prom queen and her court!” Some drunken buffoon pointed to us and laughed. Olivia sneered but I was looking up at the stage and saw Ethan’s head lift. I ducked down behind Olivia and just as he scanned the crowd.
“What are you doing?” Olivia asked as she moved in a circle to get away from me.
