Page 100 of For One Night Only

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, fine, we were sleeping together. Better than it ever was before. You happy?”

“You are very upset for someone who’s been getting lucky all summer after—what—an eight-month-long dry spell?” Cameron says.

“I’ve dated since Morgan! And that’s completely irrelevant. Did you miss the part where Valerie tried to manipulate me into returning to the scene full-time?”

“Is that really what happened?” Leah asks, her voice soft and gentle, like she’s afraid to spook me. “She manipulated you?”

I shake my head. “I think so? Things were going great, but we didn’t really talk about what would happen after the concert. I mean, I told her that I hoped we could figure something out, buthow does that translate to ‘let’s surprise everyone by announcing a permanent comeback’? She did this without consulting meoranyone else in the band. She didn’t even tell our manager!”

I found that out when Wade texted to ask if I was okay, and if I knew what she was planning. The only answer I could give him was no.

I gasp, trying to catch my breath. Saying it all out loud doesn’t exactly make me feel better, but bottling it up wasn’t working. “I just…I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. I was so stupid.”

“Let it out,” Cameron says. “This sucks, but it isn’t on you.”

“You have every right to be upset,” Leah adds.

“I know!” I say, adrenaline rushing through me. I take another sip of beer, trying to steady myself. “Valerie betrayed my trust and assumed I would just go along with it, the way I’ve gone along with everything else this summer.”

“Is that why you walked offstage?”

I sigh, running a hand through my hair, pizza grease be damned. “I don’t know, maybe? I just couldn’t be there anymore. I didn’t want people to think I had any part in her statement.”

It was all too much. I couldn’t face Valerie treating me like this again—like I’m just a ticket to fame, not a person she loves.

“Don’t you think that maybe…” Leah begins.

“What?” I demand, a little too harshly. I swallow, trying to calm my racing heart.

Leah and Cameron share a look. Finally, my sister speaks up.

“Maybe you should have stuck around to understand why she did it? At least until the end of the show? Maybe you could have worked something out.”

Shame twists in my gut. Valerie betrayed my trust again, and I’m allowed to keep boundaries in place. She did the one thing we said we wouldn’t do—promised another album to Label Records. But to the audience, it must have looked like I was throwing a fit. Give ittwo days, and I’ll be on aGossip Dailylist of the worst diva moments in rock history. I mean, who leaves in the middle of a show?

Me.

Unless they spin it to blame her, the way they did six years ago.

I left the tour last time Valerie and I argued, and this time I couldn’t even finish out the night. I’m very good at leaving her.

“Fuck, maybe,” I say. “I was just so hurt and confused and…I ran. Again.”

A familiar voice interrupts. “Does Valerie’s announcement have anything to do with her TV show getting canceled?”

We all turn to the front door, where my baby sister has just walked right in, somehow without any of us hearing her arrive. Sebastian Bark and Strawberry bolt for Carrie, giving her kisses and demanding pets.

“Where did you come from?” Cameron demands, jumping out of her spot on the couch. She pulls her into a fierce hug.

Carrie shrugs when they part. “I knew Caleb would be upset, and I wanted to be here,” she says, like that’s a good-enough reason for a seventeen-year-old to show up unannounced at eight p.m., more than two hours away from her own house.

“You drove through the Seattle-to-Portland traffic while you were texting me? What the hell?” Cameron says.

Carrie grins, flipping her short, dark waves over her shoulder. “I used speech-to-text. I’m an excellent driver. I took an extra traffic safety course to save money on car insurance.”

“We’re glad you got here safe, honey,” Leah says, hurrying over to hug her too. I feel completely out of my element, on the way from tipsy to drunk with my baby sister here. Carrie launches herself at me.

“Gross, you smell like beer,” she says, burrowing into my shoulder. “But I missed you anyway.”

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