Page 84 of California Wild

It was that she felt different.

Four weeks ago, she had left this city on fire.

A blur of heat and adrenaline and Jesse’s hands on her body, his mouth telling her everything his words couldn’t. A final night together, tangled in sheets, burning through every last second before he disappeared into the unknown.

She had told herself not to think about it.

Not to wait for him.

Not to hope.

And for a while, it had worked.

The tour had been a fucking dream.

They had opened for Linkin Park in Auckland, stepped onto the biggest stage of their careers. The stadium had been packed, thousands of voices screaming their names. The moment Hayley had hit that first note, everything else had faded into static.

Show after show, city after city, the energy built. Sydney. Melbourne. Brisbane. Soundwave was a machine, and Dead Run Riot had become a part of it—an unstoppable force riding the tidal wave of momentum.

She had been living the dream she had worked years for.

And she had felt it slipping away with every passing day.

The label was thrilled. They wanted more. More songs, bigger albums, more touring, more exposure.

Caiden had been right in her ear the whole time.

“We’re hot right now, Fox. We gotta keep pushing.”

“The label wants a full-length album. They want it yesterday.”

“We have a shot at a headline tour next year. Do you even get what that means?”

She did.

She got it more than anyone.

She had been fighting for this dream her whole fucking life.

And she should have been excited.

Instead, she was exhausted.

Her body ached. Her voice was wrecked. She had pushed herself harder than she ever had, driven by the thrill, the momentum, the pressure.

But something was off.

Something had been off for weeks.

She knew it in the way she woke up nauseous every morning.

In the way she had to force herself to eat, the way exhaustion had become bone-deep, unshakable.

The doors to the airport slid open, a gust of warm, salty air rolling over her skin.

Hayley stood still.

People moved around her, brushing past, fans staring, whispering. She was used to it now. The fast-tracked fame, the extra attention, the way her name was suddenly in headlines, in hashtags, on magazine covers.

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