Page 56 of Crash & Burn

Even if I had wanted to, there was no way I trusted myself to fall asleep anywhere in Mia’s vicinity. I can barely trust myself when I’m awake. There is no telling what my body would do if I wasn’t awake to control it.

It is just my luck that she didn’t move from on top of me for the rest of the night except when she flipped over around five in the morning.

I escaped back to my room where Mateo was still sleeping, so I had some time to come up with an excuse for why I didn’t come back to the room last night.

I had told him I was going to grab a drink at a bar down the street. I thought he would ask questions or want to come with me, but he was tired from the show. I’ve learned that Mateo, while coming off as a total extrovert on stage, is a secret introvert. I think he was more than happy to decompress alone and go to bed. He is also a very heavy sleeper.

I take a shower and get dressed, knowing there is no point in trying to get sleep.

Mateo wakes up around seven, and he doesn’t question my explanation of coming back to the room when he was already asleep.

Theo and Silas are sharing the room next door, but they are heading out earlier because they have to drop the equipment off at the warehouse before they head home to their place. If I know Theo and Silas, they were out late last night doing who-knows-what, so I knock on their door to make sure they’re up.

Even though Mateo is the unofficial leader and dad of the band, it is easy for me to fall into my role of making sure everyone is where they need to be and has what they need. It has always been a habit for me to make sure everyone around me is taken care of before I worry about myself, and that sometimes transfers over to the band.

It takes a few minutes to get one of them to open the door, it doesn’t help that neither of them are morning people. Silas is the one to let me in. I only have to take two steps in to see their room looks like it is right out of a music video. There is a random girl in each double-sized bed and empty liquor bottles and beer cans all over the furniture and floor.

I shake my head before turning around and walking straight back out.

“You need to be on the road by eight o’clock,” I say over my shoulder.

“Fuck off,” Silas mutters before shutting the door behind me.

I laugh to myself as I head back to my room to find Mateo already packed and ready to go. I glance at the clock to see it is only 7:30 a.m., and he told Mia and I to be ready by nine.

“Ready already?” I ask Mateo, sitting down on my still-freshly made bed.

He puts his backpack on and glances at his phone in his hand. “I’m going to go with Theo and Silas. I have a meeting with the tour manager for next summer’s tour this afternoon.”

“On a Sunday?” It is weird for a meeting to be on a Sunday, but what I’m actually surprised about is that he actually landed a meeting. He has been trying to set something up with this tour manager for a few weeks now, but I haven’t gotten an update in a while. Last I heard, this tour manager is close friends with our current tour manager, and we know that if we want to get on next summer’s tour, we have to nail these six shows. The show last night went as good as it could have, aside from the issue afterwards, so I can’t help but get excited for what this meeting today could potentially hold.

“When Xander Drake wants to meet, you make it work.” Mateo took on the role of the band’s booking agent when we found out we had this chance in the first place, so it is extremely important that he gets there. “I’m going to need you to get Mia home.”

“No problem.” The words come out even, but my heart beats slightly faster.

Alone.

With Mia.

In a car.

For four and half hours.

Fuck me.

“I’m going to make sure Theo and Silas are ready to go and then we’re going to head out. Can you let Mia know? She can call me if she needs, but I’m going to be prepping for this meeting for the whole ride there. We’re meeting at Lenny’s at two.”

“Yeah, all good. I’ll get your sister home.”

“Thanks, Eddie. I’ll see you later tonight.” He heads out of the hotel room, and I’m left alone with my thoughts and the nerves of a teenager going on his first date.

Why I’m nervous to be alone with Mia, I don’t know, but it probably has to do with all the lines we crossed in the past twelve hours, and now we have no choice but to talk about them.

I pace back and forth trying to think if I should try to get out of this, but I hear Mateo, Theo, and Silas in the hallway already heading to check out, and I don’t want Mateo to think he has anything to worry about. He will see through any excuse I try to feed him about why I can’t be alone in a car with Mia all morning, and the last thing I want to do is prove his suspicions from last night right.

I check the time and decide I’ll go get Mia in an hour, and then we’ll head out right at nine o’clock.

I make sure my wallet is in one back pocket and that my phone is in the other before heading out the hotel door to grab a black coffee and an iced vanilla latte with oat milk.

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