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“Why, you want to join us?” She flashed me a smirk. I just rolled my eyes and gestured for her to continue. “You know me. We had a fun couple of days and that’s over now.” She shrugged and went back to her papers.
“You okay?” My tone softened.
“Fucking peachy. Can I get some work done now, please?” She opened her laptop and started typing furiously.
Forty-Three
Cee was on her best behavior, if a little bitchy, for the next day. The second I went on stage, she made it a point to do shots in my eyeline knowing I couldn’t do anything about it. As our set continued, I pounded harder on my kit, breaking several sticks in my rage.
When I left the stage, she was nowhere to be found. “You have twenty minutes to get your shit together and then we’ve got VIPs.” Elle handed me a bottle of water.
“What the fuck, Serge?” Connor shoved my shoulder from behind.
“I know,” I barked, swatting him away. Storming toward the shower, I chugged the water, ignoring everyone on the way.
Connor pretended we were cool while we met with the various people with backstage access, and I did the same. I made my way back to the bus before he could confront me about my performance. I was off. Not to the point many fans would notice, but the band noticed, and that was bad enough. I just couldn’t get my shit together while Cee was icing me out and falling apart.
I tried texting her, knowing I wouldn’t get a response. This woman was fucking me up. She wasn’t addicted like Sofia; she was just depressed, trying to function, and reckless.
Reading my book in my bed, I ignored the texts from the rest of the group, only looking to see if it was her, but it never was. As the hours drew later, others started returning to the bus ahead of our four o’clock departure time.
“Serge, you back there?” Beth called out.
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“Just checking.” She peeked around the door. “She’s with Bill.”
I just nodded, trying not to show my concern. Everyone thought I was overreacting, and maybe I was, but they were certainly underreacting. Beth left, and I grabbed headphones from the bag beside my bed. I needed to drown out the noise of my travel mates as they wound down from their night.
The pounding of the early 2000s emo/screamo in my ears lulled me to sleep as the bus drove off into the early morning. I woke an hour later to the sound of the music cutting off and the phone ringing in my ears.
“I need you,” she cried on the other end. Fucking Cee.
“Are you on the bus with Bill?”
“I’m on that bus, but not with him. I need to get off. Please. Help me.” Her urgent cries had me on edge.
“Yeah, of course. Let me just figure out how to make that happen, okay?” Getting my driver to stop was easy enough, but getting a hold of someone on the bus she was on, and hoping they were actually somewhere near us, was another story entirely. “I need to talk to someone on that bus. Can you find someone for me?”
She hiccupped, “Yeah.”
“Hello?” a deep voice I recognized as the Sparrows bass player, Anders, said.
“Hey. It’s Sergio. Listen, I need to get Cee off your bus and onto mine.”
“Yeah. She’s… I agree.” I could hear bickering in the background. It sounded like someone was asking Bill what the hell he did to upset Cee.
It took a few minutes to get our drivers to work out a plan but twenty minutes later, we were at a rest stop. When I boarded the other bus, Cee rushed into my arms as if being rescued from a kidnapping.
“I’ve got you, Kate,” I whispered. I waved thanks to the guys on the bus and brought Cee stumbling back with me.
I got her settled in my bed and crawled in next to her, pulling her into my arms. She sobbed into my chest for a few minutes while I rubbed her back, once again feeling helpless but relieved to have her where I could make sure she was safe.
When her crying slowed, I asked, “What happened?”
“He kissed me.”
I was confused. She had clearly been fucking this guy for the past week. “Okay? And you didn’t want him to? What were you doing?”
