Page 40 of Crash & Burn

Eddie takes my chin between his fingers, and a bad idea has never looked so good. “Take a picture, sunshine,” he whispers. “It’ll last longer.” He lightly lifts my chin to close my still-opened mouth and turns around to walk back to the passenger seat.

“Mia?” I hear from behind me.

I whip around to see my brother with a plastic bag in one hand and a bottle of Diet Coke in the other, and I slam back into reality.

What the fuck did I almost do?

No, not even that. I didn’talmostdo anything.

What the fuck did I justwantto happen?

I just melted in the hands of my brother’s best friend while my brother was inside the gas station getting us snacks.

And the best part, it was all a game.

A game where Eddie is the winner, and I am the absolute loser.

But this game is far from over, and the tables are about to turn.

Chapter 13

Eddie

It isn’t until the last hour of the four and a half hour drive that I feel like I can relax. Mia stays awake for the rest of the ride, her headphones on listening to her true crime podcast. We have light conversation here and there for the rest of the ride, but the three of us stay mostly in our own minds until we pull up to the venue around noon.

Mateo wanted to scope everything out before our sound check at 1 p.m., and then we will head over to our hotel to prepare for tonight. We go on at six tonight, so we will have a few hours before we have to head back over here.

Even though Mia took a little nap, she looks even more tired than before her eyes closed. I can’t explain the feeling I had watching Mia sleep. I have never seen someone look so tense when they were sleeping in my entire life. I find it hard to believe that her body could even relax enough to fall asleep with how strained her face looked.

I know Mateo noticed too, but he didn’t say anything. He was gripping the steering wheel much harder than he needed to, and I couldn’t blame him. My fist clenched with every small gasp or whimper Mia made.

When we stopped for gas, I wanted to ask Mateo if he thinks we should wake her up, brushing it off as she might want a snack or need to go to the bathroom, but instead I told Mateo I would fill up the tank while he went in to grab what he needed.

I wanted to make enough noise to wake her up, but I don’t think there was any noise loud enough that would have woken her up from the state she was in. I watched through the window as her brows furrowed and her eyes squeezed tightly shut, even though they were already closed. Her hands were in fists and seeing that made mine do the same as I filled up the car.

Then, when her eyes shot open, and she yelled out, I had to stop myself from opening the car door and telling her everything would be okay.

If I was a better man, I wouldn’t have let myself be her distraction when she got out of the car. I would have urged her to talk to someone,anyone, about it, but I am so selfish when it comes to her, only wanting her to feel as light and free from worry.

When she looked at me with those pretty brown eyes, telling me without the words that she wasn’t ready to talk about whatever happened in that dream of hers, I knew that what I initially thought was wrong.

I couldn’t give her the world if she asked for it, but I could burn it down if it meant that nothing would ever hurt her again.

I know it isn’t fair, and I know it isn’t healthy.

But I never said I was good for her.

She may not believe me, but she really is my sunshine.

And I’m too broken to be anything but her rainy day.

When we get through security and into the concert hall, I can’t help but feel the kick of excitement in my stomach at the thought of this venue being packed with people in a few hours. I have my drumsticks in my back pocket and my guitar case over my shoulder.

With our down time between sound check and the show, I plan on finishing up the song we will be debuting at the last show of this mini tour. I decided to scratch everything I initially had written aftera certain tunegot stuck in my head.

I look around and see Theo and Silas chatting with someofthe band membersfromthe other two openers. They arrived about fifteen minutes ahead of us; they had already brought in all our equipment. The members of the headlining band are set for sound check any minute, and then it is our turn.

I’m never one to get nervous, but I feel some uneasiness at the thought of not knowing how tonight will go. We knew the first show of this six-show series was going to be the hardest because first impressions are important.

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