Page 49 of Ticket to the Stars: Part One

That seemed odd, didn’t it?

A player?Her message read:Girl, you never go for the players. What kind of magic did he put on you?A second passed, and then another message from her said,I hope he was a good kisser, at least.

He was, I sent back.He was a very good kisser.

Ugh, I wish I knew where you were and what you’re doing, because I’m dying to know who this mystery guy is!

I smiled at that. If I could tell her everything, she’d die from the shock. She was right; I never went for the players. Any guy I’d ever crushed on was someone more like Bishop, not Priest. And Deacon? He was too much of an asshole for my tastes.

Seriously, she said in a new message,it’s not fair. I miss you and wish you were here.

Even though there was evidence online of her having fun with her new roomie, I believed her. Alexa was the type of person everyone got along with. She could become fast friends with anybody. I couldn’t blame her new roomie for having fun and living up the college life with her.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but I settled for the simplest:I miss you too.

Life wasn’t going to be simple any time soon, that I knew for sure.

Lunch rolled around, and I went to the kitchen to find something to eat. I had to say, these guys did not keep a full fridge. It was honestly kind of annoying. I needed to make a list of what foods to get, and then go to the store myself. Really, the only thing I could find were the frozen foods Deacon liked to eat late at night. I pulled out one of his Hot Pockets and put it in the microwave.

As I hit the buttons to set the time to cook, I heard footsteps, and I turned to see Bishop standing beside me, expectant. His short brown hair was a little messy, but his hazel eyes were crisp and clear. He did not wear a smile, so those dimples of his were MIA. The look he wore was intense, and for a split second I wondered if Priest had already caved and told him what happened last night.

Priest couldn’t even last twenty-four hours?Oof.

“Hey,” Bishop started. He set a hand on the counter to his right, tapping his fingernails on it. “I wanted to talk to you.” Right when I thought,Here it is, here comes the semi-jealous lecture of why I should never have let Priest close enough to kiss me, he went on, “You were pretty upset yesterday. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Oh.Oh. That’s all he wanted to talk about. Right. My, for lack of a better word, pouting. Not going to lie, relief filled me as soon as he said that. I could talk about how I was feeling about yesterday no problem.

“I’m fine,” I said.

He cocked a brow at me. “When girls say they’re fine, usually that means they’re not fine.”

“This time I mean it. I’m fine. I’m okay. I’m over it.” I shrugged. “I had no right to eavesdrop, so we can just forget about it.”Forget about it like you’ve forgotten who I am and how much time we used to spend together as children.

Okay, so maybe I was still a little bitter about that.

But Bishop wasn’t done. He still wanted to discuss it, because he stepped closer, lowered his voice, and said, “I don’t know about the whole eavesdropping thing, but… I can’t forget about it. Priest only said all that because of me. I pushed him. I was—” He swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck. “—jealous, I guess.”

I pretended like his jealousy was news to me, even though in reality I’d detected it a long time ago. “Jealous? Jealous of what?”

“Jealous of Priest. Priest and you,” he said, his stare almost pained as he admitted it. “Watching him hold your hand in the studio, hearing how much stronger you sang when you were holding his hand…” Bishop shook his head. “I was jealous, and I had no right to be.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but anything I might’ve said wasn’t enough. Maybe a part of me was kind of smug about his jealousy; he couldn’t remember me from years ago, but he could get jealous over my closeness to Priest. Yeah, that’s what he deserved.

Not really, but whatever.

Eventually, I said, “I was nervous. Priest was only calming me down.”

“I know, and I had no right to accuse him of catching feelings for you. Priest isn’t the type to catch feelings for any girl, so I should’ve known it was all an act. Really wish he wouldn’t have done it in front of Ramona, though. She’s going to be on all our cases now.” Bishop probably didn’t think anything he’d said was mean or cruel, but that didn’t stop me from flinching at the wholePriest couldn’t catch feelings for anybodybit.

You could never nail down a playboy. Someone who wanted to play the field was not a good guy to have a crush on. Some girls might like to joke about how they could change a man after dating him, but some things you couldn’t change.

The microwave beeped, signaling my Hot Pocket was done, but I found myself asking, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you get jealous?” It was that smug part of me that wanted to know why. In reality, the why wasn’t important, but curiosity got the better of me, and that was why I stood there, staring at Bishop, waiting to hear his answer.

He leaned on the counter, a pensive expression crossing his face. He wouldn’t look at me after that, and I wondered if he wasn’t going to answer. But, after a long thirty seconds, he did answer: “I was jealous because… because I wanted to be Priest. I wanted to be in there, comforting you, making you feel better.”

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