Page 20 of Ticket to the Stars: Part Two

The salon was a ten-minute drive downtown—although that ten minutes depended on traffic. It happened to be the lunch hour, so the streets were pretty busy. Bishop kept tossing looks at me while we were waiting at a red light, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d heard me in Priest’s room. I wasn’t exactly quiet.

“How are you doing?” Bishop asked.

“How am I doing in general, or about this whole rock star business? Or maybe you’re asking about having three boyfriends?” I clarified, turning my head to stare at him. His brown hair needed a trim. It was almost long enough to cover up his hazel eyes, and I loved looking into those color-changing eyes.Maybe he should come in the salon with me for a quick trim.

“Any. All” was his semi-sarcastic answer.

“Maybe I should ask you howyou’redoing sharing your girlfriend with two other guys,” I joked. It still didn’t sound real. Heck, it didn’t reallyfeelreal. I know, I know, it was strange all around.

Bishop chuckled at that. “It’s… not easy, but I’m making it work.” He tossed a quick glance at me, but then he had to look straight ahead because the light turned green. “I couldn’t lose out on you a second time.”

“You never lost out on me a first time,” I said.

“I consider having to move away and not being confident enough to keep in touch with you all these years a loss. Seriously, if we didn’t hang out as kids so much, I don’t know that I’d even be here. I am where I am becauseof you.” He paused, his hands tapping the steering wheel. “So I refuse to sit back and lose you again.”

I could tell he was really bothered by it, by what had happened all those years ago, and I wanted to make him feel better, so I told him, “You won’t.”

He glanced at me, a slow smile creeping along his face, his dimples making an appearance. God, I really did love those dimples.

We made it to the salon, but there was no available parking on the street, so Bishop had to go somewhere else while I got my hair done. I’d have to text him when I was done, and then wait for him to drive around the block.

Which was fine. My hair wasn’t exactly a quick process. My roots needed bleached, and then the whole thing needed toned. I think they were going to trim my ends, too. It wasn’t a ten-minute appointment.

I spent the time scrolling through my phone, looking at pictures Alexa had posted online. A part of me still wished I was with her, going through my first year of college, but now… let’s just say I was becoming more thankful for this opportunity with Black Sacrament.

Who knew my sister had it right with her whole three boyfriends thing all along? Cleo was only eleven, but she knew where it was at.

After the bleaching, the toning, and the trimming, the woman styled my hair for me. I didn’t have to pay; Ramona must’ve already handled that. I texted Bishop that I was done, and then I went outside and hung around the entranceof the salon, waiting to see his car pull up. He texted me back a minute later, saying it’d probably take him ten minutes.

Driving in the city wasn’t easy or quick, that’s for sure.

I leaned my back against the building, watching the cars stuck in traffic. People walked on the sidewalk with a purpose, many people in business attire, but not all. Everyone had their own lives; I used to think it was weird that no one knew who Black Sacrament was, but without the clothes, the paint, and the masks, the guys were just guys and I was just a girl. People were too busy dealing with their own crap.

Unless you counted the fans online. Black Sacrament’s sinners, but every band had some of those. It just so happened that the algorithms were agreeable the night Priest had kissed me on stage, and things had spiraled from there.

We, uh, hadn’t told Ramona about our semi-confusing relationship status. After Deacon’s almost-confession to the radio show host, Ramona never asked for more details, so we’d decided to keep it a secret for now.

When would we come clean? I wasn’t sure. The moment we came clean, she might get pissed. Plus, my mom was already on my case about kissing Priest, if he’d forced the kiss on me, blah, blah, blah. It was just too much to deal with right now, so we’d push it off for later. We wanted to enjoy it, and that meant it had to be only us in the know for now.

My eyes surveyed the street. Bishop should be here soon. I stepped away from the building, walking across the sidewalk to get closer to the street. I stood near a well-manicured tree, huddling in its shade.

The sidewalk on the opposite side of the street was just as busy, only there was a guy standing underneath a tree, similar to how I was. He wore a black leather jacket and huge sunglasses that hid half his face. I couldn’t see much else, other than the fact that he had tanned white skin.

Oh, and the little fact that he was staring at me.

I mean, I was pretty sure he was staring at me. It was hard to tell since there were four lanes of traffic between us and those sunglasses, like I’d mentioned, hid most of his face. So, I guess I couldn’t be certain he was watching me, but it sure felt like it.

Normally I wouldn’t care, but now that life was a little different than what I was used to, I also knew I had to be more careful when it came to strangers. Maybe it was nothing more than paranoia rearing its ugly head inside me, but goosebumps rose on my arms, and I couldn’t seem to shake them.

A minute ticked by, and the guy didn’t move. He stayed rooted in place across the street, his head turned my way. He didn’t move a muscle.

Okay, he had to be staring at me. He had to be. But why?

I must’ve been too busy staring at the guy across the street and wondering what was going on that I neglected torealize Bishop’s car had pulled up, and he was honking for me to get in. Since there was nowhere to park, he was holding up traffic until I got into the car, so time was of the essence.

Once I snapped out of it, I hurried into Bishop’s car, and as he started to move, I tossed another glance at the guy across the way—but I couldn’t see him anymore. I looked all over the nearby sidewalk, thinking I might see him hurrying away or something, but I couldn’t. He was gone. Whoever that guy was, he’d disappeared without a trace.

Weird. Very weird, and it only got weirder the more I thought about it. I mean, who was that guy? And was he really staring at me?

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