“I'll domybest."
As soon as Avery walked inside, I sat down in one of the cheap plastic chairs. There was an ashtray on the ground that was overflowing with butts. It meant the people who worked here either chain-smoked like nobody’s business or were way too lazy for their own good, considering the dumpster was less than five feet away from their smokingsection.
I considered emptying it myself when the door opened again. A bartender took that opportunity to walk out and light up a cigarette proving it would be futile to do any housekeeping in thebreakarea.
“Shouldn’t you be inside?” I asked, taking my frustrations out on the blonde girl who looked to be aboutmyage.
“Shouldn’t you?” shesnappedback.
“What’s that supposedtomean?”
“Nothing. Just between your performance in there and your shirt, I assumed you were some hardcore groupie trying to get theirattention."
I looked down at my top and back at her, but didn't sayanything.
"That was the point of all that,right?"
“No, the point was to… you know what? I don’t have to tell you why I did that. It’s none of yourbusiness.”
The girl laughed, and I wanted to claw her eyes out. Is this what it felt like to be on the other end of such biting remarks? I was far from crying, but I didn't like her commenting on my life. She didn't know a thing about me. She had noright.
“I’m Mila, bytheway.”
“Idon’tcare.”
“You're feisty. Any chance you're the infamousMichelle.”
"What didyousay?"
"I heard one of the guys from the band mention that name. The cute one with the glasses. I just wondered if you might be the girl he was talking about out here." She threw her still burning cigarette on the massive pile and went inside after giving me a smirk I couldn'tdecipher.
I was convinced she'd been drinking tonight. One shot for the customer, one shot for the bartender. Regardless, I couldn't get what she said out of my mind. What if Rainier really was talking about me? I needed to know what he said and what itmeant.
I raced inside shortly after Mila had left me alone outside with herwords.
When I opened the back door to see what was going on, I was met with the loud sound of applause andwhistling.
As I got further inside, I could see Avery and Carter on stage together. They were kissing, Avery's left hand firmly planted on Carter’s cheek. The spotlight causing something on it to shine. Anengagementring.
Carter had freaking proposed to my best friend, and I hadmissedit.
I blamed Rainier for this. If I weren't feeling so upside down from things between the two of us, I would have been inside instead of sulkingoutback.
Rainier was laughing from beside the happy couple. His eyes scanned the crowd. They stopped and lingered for a long time on the bar, and I knew why. He was looking for me. For some reason, the idea of him finding me wasterrifying.
I ran back outside before hefoundme.
ChapterThirty
Rainier
Oh,no. She was not running from methistime.
I’d barely spotted Michelle in the crowd before she turned to run. Thankfully, I knew exactly where she was going because it was the same place I’d been hiding out earlier thatevening.
It was time for the two of ustotalk.
Something was going on between the two of us. We’d both fought against it in our own ways. No longer. I was going to put everything out there, and Michelle was going to listen. And when I was done, we were going to make some seriousdecisions.
