Page 73 of California Wild

She exhaled sharply. No.

Not now. Not when she had to be on.

She shook out her limbs, adjusted the mic, and threw herself back into the music.

The press tour was worse.

Bright lights. Studio sets. A dozen versions of the same goddamn questions.

“Dead Run Riot is blowing up right now. How does it feel to be opening for Linkin Park?”

“People love the chemistry between you and Caiden—are you two dating?”

Smile. Laugh. Say nothing.

Caiden was a fucking natural. He played the game, leaned into the narrative, flirted in a way that made it impossible to tell if he meant it.

And Hayley let him.

She let the label shape her into the perfect rockstar girlfriend.

Let the media push the story they wanted to tell.

Let the entire world believe that Caiden was the one she’d been writing love songs about.

But at night, when she collapsed into bed, her voice hoarse from interviews, her limbs aching from rehearsals, she stared at the ceiling and waited for her phone to light up.

It never did.

No messages. No missed calls.

Nothing.

Of course there was nothing.

She knew his job. Knew how it worked. He had said he’d find a way.

But what if he didn’t?

What if this—this silence, this aching space between them—was all that they could ever be? All they ever were?

She turned on her side, curled her knees to her chest, and clenched Jesse’s apartment key in her fist.

The next morning, they moved into the stadium.

It was massive. Overwhelming. A skeleton of steel and rigging, LED screens blinking to life, sound checks echoing through empty seats.

Tomorrow, it would be packed with thousands.

Tomorrow, their career would change.

Hayley should have felt thrill. Adrenaline. Excitement.

Instead, she felt hollow.

She ran through final sound checks, let the energy of the band pull her forward, let herself get swept up in the movement of it all.

But when she stood at the edge of the stage, looking out at the empty arena, feeling the anticipation crackling in the air, she felt something else entirely.

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