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Chapter8
All The Time In The World
In an hour, my anger had dissipated, but I was still restless. Too restless to sleep. I turned off my music and listened for sounds of life on the bus.
Nothing.
Good.
I drew back the curtain surrounding my bunk and hopped out, pausing again to listen. When I was greeted by silence, I slipped my shoes on and headed out of the bus for some fresh air. The club where the band had played a few hours earlier was still alive with music and people, but since the bus was tucked away and everyone was mostly inside, no one noticed me as I leaned back against the bus and sighed.
What. A. Day.
Around four hours ago, I was on top of the world. My sister got engaged to the man she loved, and I was about to spend a few days with her before heading to America.
America!
Except she’d done the one thing she said she wouldn’t do. She’d gone all ‘big sister’ on me and ruined everything. And for what? For something she hadn’t seen and knew nothing about. Yeah, Ellie knew Jason, but she didn’t have any idea of the things that had happened on tour—not that it amounted to much, but she’d killed my buzz with her concerns. Did she really think I had no worries at all? Did she honestly think I hadn’t thought constantly about the problems?
I felt Jason’s presence before he spoke. I knew it was him just by his footsteps, and the tiny hairs prickling on my arms from his nearness told me so.
“Hey, Jason.” I didn’t look up.
“You’re good.” He gave a small laugh as he leaned against the bus beside me. “What are you doing out here?”
“Getting some air,” I replied. “And thinking. You?”
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay. I was still up, and I saw you come outside, but I can leave if you want me to.”
“You can stay. If you want to.”
I still hadn’t looked at him, and I wasn’t sure why. Was it because I was trying not to feel anything, even though my heart was hammering and my palms had grown slick? That I was scared of what he might say? Or that I was afraid Ellie had had words with him too, and he’d gone back to seeing me as a little girl again?
Tears pricked at my eyelids, and I quickly blinked them away before Jason could see them. Why did that happen? What was I even crying over?
“What happened tonight, Luce? Why did you stop talking and go straight to your bunk after dinner?”
“You don’t know?”
“I can guess, but I’d like to know for sure before I go and tear off some heads.” His calm tone didn’t match the aggression of his words, and I laughed softly.
“You know Ellie and Drew. Always trying to help. Always worrying.”
“What did they say?” he asked.
“They were talking. About you and me. I overheard them. And then I got pissed off because they were talkingaboutme and nottome. I just wanted to get away from everyone.”
“Ah.”
Ah? That was all I was getting?I couldn’t read anything from that.
“Have they really not talked to you about this?” I questioned.
Jason sighed. “I got ‘the talk’ from Drew before we left, but you know this. I mentioned it in Paris, remember?”
“You said Drew didn’t trust you, but I didn’t know there had been an actual conversation.”
Jason straightened, and I looked up as he moved to stand in front of me. He rubbed his hand across his forehead as if he didn’t want to say whatever it was he was about to say. I slipped out of the small gap between us and turned my back on him because I wanted to hear it even less than he wanted to say it. Not that it mattered. The regret heavy in his eyes had scorched itself into my mind, and there was no escaping the tension in the air around us.
