Page 40 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

“I’m so excited,” a girl just in front of me said.

“I know! Me too,” said another. “Dean is so hot. I hope we can get up the front. I want to tell him how much I want him.”

“Oh god! I want Jace. Did you see those pics on Rock Tonight? His body is to die for! I want to lick it all over.”

“No way. Aiden is the hottest. He has the best fuck me eyes I’ve ever seen. Mark my words. I’m going home with him tonight.”

My mouth popped open a fraction as I listened to the girls continue to tell each other exactly what they wanted to do to my friends.

A tiny girl with short, spikey blonde hair shook her head with bored eyes. “While I agree with Luce about Aiden’s fuck me eyes, Matt is definitely the hottest. You girls just don’t bother looking past the eye candy gyrating on the front of the stage to appreciate what a fine specimen the drummer is. I mean, he trumps all those guys’ six packs with a very panty wetting eight pack.”

They all nodded their agreement. I blinked, feeling the irritation starting to rise up in me on my best friend’s behalf. I mean, these girls were talking about trying to score with not only her boyfriend, but her brother too!

I was just thinking about telling them they were all cheap, slutty groupies, when I heard someone say my name. I looked up to see Amber walking towards me.

“What are you doing waiting in line?” she asked, a little incredulous.

I frowned, not quite understanding what she meant. A couple of the girls I’d been listening to looked up at the small commotion.

Amber tugged on my hand. “Have you got the ticket Aiden gave you?”

That did it. The two girls elbowed their friends and they all turned to watch. I made sure not to make eye contact and held the ticket out as discreetly as I could to show her I did, indeed, have the ticket. “Yes.”

“Well come on, silly. They’re all access passes. You don’t have to wait with everyone else. Didn’t Aiden tell you that?”

I let her pull me along, mostly because I didn’t want to stand next to those girls anymore. The security guy gave us both a hostile look when we approached, but when Amber flashed the tickets, his expression turned to more of a bored scowl before he unhooked the rope and let us through.

The guys were already on stage. Dean was talking to the crowd, thanking everyone for coming, so I assumed they’d only just got on. The horde of screaming fans was mind blowing.

“Everyone’s on the other side of dance floor,” Amber said into my ear. She had to yell for me to hear her over the noise. “Jace managed to get the club to section off an area for the band.”

She smiled knowingly and I nodded. We both knew the section wasn’t for the band. It was for Mia. He didn’t want to risk another anxiety attack.

We stood there for a while, looking up at our boys on the stage. “I’m glad I didn’t miss the start,” Amber said. “I had a shoe emergency and had to run home.”

I looked down at her glittery high heels and smiled. Amber was like no one else I’d ever met. She was like a chameleon. She could go from a high fashion diva one minute, looking every bit the upper class socialite she was born to be, to a sweat wearing, adrenalin junkie, bungee jumper the next.

To someone who didn’t know her, it would seem like she had schizophrenia or something, but everyone in our close circle of friends knew the real reason she lived life to its fullest was because she’d already faced death. Twice. The first time when she was barely a teenager, when she had pneumonia, and then a couple of years later when she was in a horrific car crash. Amber had joked once that she must’ve been too much of a handful for the afterlife.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd. Mia was the first to see me, and squealed before enveloping me in a massive bear hug. Just that one small act had me relaxing instantaneously.

“I was worried you weren’t coming,” Mia shouted over the music.

I grinned and glanced up at the stage where Fighting Fate were pumping out one of my favorite songs of theirs. Their rise in popularity was amazing. I mean, just listening to those girls out the front told me exactly how popular they were getting. I had no doubt they were going to be big. They already had people travelling hours to come see them play, as well as people rushing to buy tickets to The Dark Hybrid’s concerts, purely to see them. To say I was proud was a massive understatement.

“They sound great,” I yelled to Mia.

Mia grinned widely, her gaze finding its way to Jace as he ripped it up on his guitar. “Yeah, they do.”

I laughed. She was so head over heels, but then again, so was Jace. He’d really been a dark horse, that one. We all thought Dean was the soft one, but after watching Jace with Mia, and the way Aiden had been looking after me, I was beginning to think they all had a soft side. Well, maybe not Matt. He was definitely a wild one.

A drink appeared in front of my face and I glanced up to see Corey smiling at me. Worry spiked before I noted the relaxed set of his face, and I quickly saw the action for what it really was. A peace offering.

Returning his smile, I accepted it without fuss. “Thanks.”

He nodded and stepped back, allowing me to look around the small sectioned off area. I laughed when I noticed Corey was the only guy in there - with Amber, Jess, Amy, Mia, Lila, her friend, Carli, and the new girl, Sarah, for company. If the guys on the other side of the ropes weren’t jealous, my name wasn’t Kaeli Williams.

“You’ve got quite the harem going on here. Where are all the guys?”

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