Page 155 of Just Wait

Riser’s is purple with Xs for eyes and the mouth stitched closed.

Kincaid got a sick-as-fuck skull mask in this dark lime-green color.

Mine is like a jack-o’-lantern or maybe a clown.

Hell, I don’t even know what it is, outside of boring.

Tennyson’s has a nose hole like a skeleton and a mouth with a bunch of jagged teeth. It has an outline around the entire bottom half, making it look like a mask on top of a mask. The outline lights up red while the other features light up a dark blue.

Oh, and the eyes look like lightning bolts.

This is such bullshit.

Lightning bolt eyes, stitched mouth, and skull face… All of them are way cooler than a jack-o’-lantern.

Parish has the only mask that might be worse than mine. It’s an orange fox face, complete with ears.

I mean, fine.

It’s kinda cute.

Mine is definitely the worst.

Not only that. They’re putting us in these big-ass army jackets to cover the wires that light up the masks.

I was actually looking forward to not having to sweat bullets during one performance, but the masks have to be ultra-bright to be seen past the first rows of seats. They also need enough juice to last the nearly two-hour performance.

The only win of getting to Charlotte was finding out that we’re going to be in a hotel tonight and tomorrow night. There’s something up with one of the tires on our bus, and the label doesn’t play around about safety. They’re going to have it serviced while we’re here, which is crazy since it was just done.

Oh well, at least it means we get fancy accommodations for a couple nights.

“You’re pouty,” Lumen says, climbing into my lap as we chill in the greenroom.

Everyone is doing their own thing, but I glance around to make sure no one is paying attention to us.

They aren’t.

“What’s the matter?” she asks, studying my face.

My hands fall to her waist, and I shake my head. “I’m good.”

We should be called over to get into our stage clothes within the next thirty minutes to an hour.

Lumen’s hand falls to my chest.

The naughty little thing has radar to my nipple, and she gives it a playful pinch.

“Would you like to try that again, Malcolm?” she asks, fluttering her lashes. “Let’s not get into the habit of lying to one another. Yeah?”

“Sorry,” I mumble, sighing as she rubs the ache away. “Nothing has gone right today. I didn’t know we were going to be stuck practicing for five hours. I wanted to spend this afternoon doing something together. Like outside of the venue. I wanted to take you out. Just you and me.”

“Oh,” she whispers, bringing her hand to cup my cheek.

Her soft thumb runs over my lower lip, and her electric scent gets so much easier to pick out. There are sweet notes of pears and roses, but to me, there’s something much more complex going on with her scent.

Just being able to smell her soothes my system. Having her sitting in my lap while she touches me is even more relaxing.

“You’re disappointed about not being able to spend time together.” She smiles softly. “I thought you were getting bored of me. Or that you were frustrated I spent last night with Riser.”