Page 2 of Ticket to the Stars: Part Two

“Then,” I started to say, “let’s not.”

That got Bishop to stare at me. At least he wasn’t frowning anymore or giving me a hard glare like Deacon. “What do you mean?”

I searched for the right words to say. “Let’s not be in a competition.”

“So, just forget that we like her?”

“Ah-ha! You do like her. I knew it,” I pointed out.

Bishop had a comeback ready: “And you like her too. I’m not stupid. You’ve changed since she’s come around. You don’t go out, you don’t hook up with girls every chance you get. You don’t do any of that stuff because you actuallylikeher.”

I wanted to argue with him, but I couldn’t fault his logic, and I definitely couldn’t argue with him that it wasn’t true when it was, in fact, true. “So what if I do? It’s not the end of the world, me liking someone.”

“It is when your whole thing is never giving a shit,” Bishop said.

Waving his words off, I said, “Whatever. I just… we lost Pope. I don’t want to lose you too, so let’s just not compete with each other.”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, like I was giving him a headache or something. “What are you trying to say, Priest? Are you saying you think we both should pull back and forget about all of this? Act like it never happened?”

“No, you saw how well that worked out for me. Pretending none of this happened will only make things worse.” And make you regret wasting so much time, take it from the guy who’d tried to ignore Angel and the shape of her mouth for the past month.

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying—” Shit. What was I trying to say here? “I’m saying maybe we shouldn’t view each other as competition, that’s all. Jealousy makes people do stupid things—”

“Like kiss Angel onstage and give Ramona an aneurysm?” Bishop offered.

I nodded. “Yes, jealousy does that.”

Bishop tossed a glance over his shoulder, like he thought Angel would appear or something. He lowered his voice to a bare whisper, “Are you trying to say we should both go after her and let her pick who she wants? That way there can be no hard feelings toward the other person?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” That sounded better than telling him I thought we should both try dating her at the same time. I mean, two guys sharing a girlfriend. That could only end up in a disaster, right?

Chapter Two – Angel

“Cleo showed me the video,” my mom was busy saying. “Are you sure you’re alright, honey?” Eyes as blue as mine stared at me from the screen on the phone. She was at home, sitting at the kitchen table. It was Saturday morning; that meant she probably had a full shift at the diner soon, but she’d wanted to talk to me about this first.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I told her, hoping she’d drop it. “It was just part of the show.” That’s the excuse I was using with my mom, anyway. Just part of the show. The kiss itself meant nothing. Just our stage personas, blah, blah, blah.

I didn’t think she was buying it, though.

“I hope none of those boys are pressuring you into doing anything—”

My face flushed. Thank God I was alone in my bedroom, otherwise the guys would’ve heard that and seen my reaction to it. “They’re not, Mom, I swear.”

“All right. I just want you to be safe. I—Cleo wants to talk to you.” She handed the phone to Cleo, who still wore her pajamas even though it was ten o’clock. Weekends during the school year were a time to sleep in and be lazy when you were young.

I had to close my eyes when Cleo’s hand curled around the phone, and the image on the screen became blurry. Around her hand, I could see the house pass as she hustled away from our mother and ran down the hall. It was only when she was alone in her room that the image on the phone became stable and I didn’t get nauseous looking at it.

“How was it?” Cleo asked in a whisper.

I decided to play dumb. “How was what?”

“The kiss, you idiot,” my eleven-year-old sister quipped. “I bet it was amazing. Was it amazing? It had to be. Priest is so hot—”

I hated hearing those words come out of her mouth. Mostly because she was my sister and she was eleven, but also because I thought the same. “Please don’t ever say that again,” I told her.

“Right.” Cleo nodded solemnly. Her dirty blond hair was a wild mess on top of her head. She needed to run a brush through it ASAP. “Because you don’t want to hear anyone else call your boyfriend hot.”

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