With our path forward blocked by bodies, a sideways trajectory became our only course of action and that’s how we ended up here—hiding behind a group of mannequins— until the police managed to cordon off the area and free us from the horde.
Shawn popped his head up, peering at the fans banging on the storefront window. He groaned. “If they break through that glass, we’re all toast. Police need to get this under control. It’s dangerous. Now I know how Bodhi felt escaping the fire.”
Yeah right.
“I’d take this every day of the week over a flaming roof collapsing on my head.”
“Dude.” Dane nudged me. “Now that you’ve been through it yourself, any advice on what steps we should take in the event of a fire?”
“What steps? Big fucking ones!”
All five of us dissolved into a fit of hysteria and had to be shushed numerous times by the guards tasked with getting us out of this mess in one piece. I looked around at the absurdity of the situation, seeing it for the first time through fresh, unfiltered eyes. Through Breeze’s eyes.
A flash mob of preteen girls prepared to shatter the glass and bleed all the way to the hospital for just one special moment with their boy band idols. Full grown, ex-military men speaking frantically into their phones using words like ‘Under Siege’ and ‘Extraction Point.’ Roads being cordoned off as everyday citizens were physically removed from public streets under the threat of arrest.
All for us.
Five unassuming, unremarkable, and unworthy twenty-something guys just trying to find their way in the world like everyone else. It was pure and irrefutable insanity. And very soon, it would no longer be mine.
“Guys?” I whispered. “What the hell are we doing here?”
Not understanding the true meaning of my question, Hunter replied with an entire rundown of the situation.
RJ punched him in the arm. “He means, in this place in life, half-wit. Hunkering down like combat soldiers in a war zone.”
I nodded, pointing at RJ. “What he said. Look, I don’t want to let you guys down, but these past few days, I’ve really had some time to evaluate my life, and what I’ve concluded is—this shit sucks. I need things to slow down or I’m gonna go fucking crazy. I hate to do this to you but, after the tour is over next month, I think I’m done.”
Silence. My gaze jumped to each of my bandmates—hoping and praying that they’d understand. We were family. To my amazement, nobody seemed surprised.
“So, I haven’t said anything yet,” Hunter whispered, “but Daisy and I are getting married.”
We all jostled him around, congratulating him.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were going to propose?” I asked, truly surprised he’d keep something like this a secret. He was the TMI guy of the group, and had even been known to confess rubbing one out in the tour bus shower.
Color rose in his cheeks as he replied sheepishly, “I just wanted it to be between the two of us. But now that she’s said yes, I’m so stoked and I wanted my best friends to know.”
“Of course she’d say yes.” Dane said, ever the optimist. “You’re a catch.”
RJ nodded. “Exactly. And what woman wouldn’t want a virgin? Now Daisy can mold you into her very own sex-puppet. Good for you, man.”
“Well, since we’re sharing confessions,” Shawn chimed in. “I’m going to be a daddy. Shoshanna is four months pregnant.”
Dane’s eyes widened. “You?You’regoing to be a father?”
Shawn nodded, his grin spreading from ear to ear. “DNA tests pending, of course. But yeah, call me Daddy, boys.”
RJ rose to one knee, setting off a volley of screams from the crowd so intense a security guard was forced to drag a rack of clothes over to shield him from view.
“Bodhi, you asked me why I wasn’t going to come to your funeral. It’s not that I didn’t want to honor you. It was because I wasn’t going to stand next to all the hypocrites mourning your death when they were the ones who put you in the coffin. When I heard they found your stuff and you were presumed dead, I lost it. I wish you would have called or something. I mean I almost drank myself to fucking death over it.”
A lump settled in my throat the size of a boulder. “I’m… ah, shit, RJ. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Or maybe I was just thinking about myself.”
“Yeah, ya think?” His lips flattened into a thin line. “Dick move, dude. Anyway, I beat you to the punch because I quit the band three days ago.”
“You what?”
“You heard me.”
