Page 63 of Selling Out
She tilts her head to the side, not amused.
Kelly takes a seat next to her. “Don’t play, Mia. Bobby told us how he found you and Austin at the festival yesterday. Very cozy indeed.”
I shrug, slipping my earbuds inside their case so I don’t have to look my interrogators in the eye. If I do, they’ll see the neon sign in mine that saysI’m falling for Austin. “It was nothing. He was helping me get rid of my hiccups.”
Their brows both go up.
“What exactly did hishelpentail?” Rose asks.
“Ew, stop,” I say, drawing from the suggestive expression on her face. “It was just a kiss.”
“Hekissedyou?” Rose yells.
Shoot. What wasshethinking? “Nothing else was working,” I say, “and he knew it’d take me by surprise.”
“I’llsay,” Kelly says.
I’m guessing this isn’t the time to tell them we were kissing between the buses a couple of hours ago too. On a related note, I don’t think I’ll ever wear overalls without thinking of Austin again. Which is a real problem since they make up about half of my current wardrobe.
“It’s really not a big deal.” Says the woman considering buying a fan at the next rest stop to use whenever I think about those kisses.
“Hey,” Rose says, “as long as you know what you’re getting into, you have yourself a grand ol’ time, Mia.”
“I’m notgetting intoanything.”
“Definitely not anything a whole lot of other women haven’t already gotten into,” Kelly teases.
Rose shoves her. “Don’t listen to her, Mia. You do you. Just don’t let things get awkward.”
“You guys are the ones being awkward,” I say. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Like how Noah Hayes showed up at the concert?” Kelly suggests.
Rose scoots to the edge of her seat. “Yeah, what was that about?”
I shrug. “He was in the area, I guess.”
“Did you talk to him?” Rose asks.
“Um, yeah. I did.”
“And?” Rose prods.
“Are you going to make us milk this information out of you?” Kelly says. “What was he like? What did he say? And don’t act like it wasn’t a big deal. We know how you feel about that man.”
I lift my shoulders. “It’s not like we sat down for hours to chat. He was nice. Really nice. He mentioned the possibility of me going on tour with him for his next album.”
“What?” they say in unison.
“Isn’t that, like, your greatest dream?” Rose asks.
“Well, no,” I say as the bus slows in a gas station parking lot. “My greatest dream would be myowntour. But yes, it would be incredible. If he actually meant it.”
Rose motions for me to expound. “Did he say he’d call you? Did you make a plan?”
“He gave me his number.”
Four big eyeballs stare at me.
