Page 50 of Rock Star

“Yeah, say it,” Foxy echoed from where he was sitting in front of me.

“Ella begged me not to tell anyone we were together. Neither of us had come out to our families. We were gonna do that at the end of the tour.” Camila was visibly shaking. “I found out she was shooting up and I tried so hard to get her to stop.”

Heat flushed through me and I exploded out of my seat again. “You knew?!”

Jake pushed me back down.

Shocked silence radiated around the plane.

Tears were streaming down Camila’s face. If she thought she was going to get off the hook by crying, she was seriously mistaken. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?” I growled.

“Or any one of us,” Rhys interjected from the seat behind.

“Ella wouldn’t let me. She said it would be over between us if I did.”

Camila was sobbing openly now, but I hardened my heart.

I was in shock at her revelation.

At her fucking subterfuge.

All these months, and she hadn’t breathed a word.

I bunched my hand into a fist and hit the back of the seat in front of me.

“Steady, mate,” Foxy muttered.

“Ella tried to give it up. Multiple times. But her addiction was too strong.” Camila shot me an accusing glance. “You were too much of a cokehead to notice.” She swept her gaze around the plane. “All of you were. She was scared to tell Jake, so she had no one to turn to but me.” Streaks of black mascara ran down Camila’s cheeks as she gulped for breaths. “And, in the end… in the end,” she stuttered, “I failed her.”

Silently, Zach got up and went to stand next to Camila. He put his arm around her. “What happened?”

“I gave her an ultimatum.” She sniffed. “I said she had to choose between heroin and me.” Camila lifted her face and raked her eyes over us. “She… she… she chose heroin. I ran out on her in Madison Square Garden and she overdosed.”

Camila’s body wracked with shuddering sobs.

Phoenix and Hayley joined Jake and Zach in the aisle. They led her away to the restroom, and Zach returned to his seat.

I stared down at my hands. Tears prickled behind my eyelids. My heart was breaking to the point where I wasn’t sure how it could still be beating.

My sister had died alone.

I wasn’t there for her.

And now I could lose Phoenix because I’d resorted to coke again.

This was all so fucking fucked up.

Jake was still standing in the aisle. “Now for the next point I want to raise.”

Every eye was on him... he was without doubt the most adult of us.

“I’m giving you all an ultimatum like Camila gave Ella.” His tone was deadly serious. “If you don’t stop doing drugs, I’m quitting the band.”

Shit!

“Bloody hell, bro’,” Foxy’s voice had risen in pitch. “We only did them at Wembley and Glastonbury.”

“You can’t slip like that,” Jake snapped. “Drugs are addictive and they take over your life. You saw what happened to Ella.”

I hung my head, so fucking ashamed of my own weakness I was in danger of crumpling. But I didn’t. Instead, I got to my feet and shot my bandmates a determined look. “ChiMera is more important to me than getting high. And we all know how much we need Jake to keep things running.” I nudged his shoulder with mine. “He’s the backbone of the band, the brother I should have had.”

“What about Axel and Phoenix?” Rhys stood up and came right out with it. “Axel lied and went behind our backs.”

Jake glared at me. “You got anything to say about that?”

“I fell for Phoenix,” I told them, my breath rasping. “But I didn’t lie about the muse aspect. You heard the songs she inspired. I think they’re the best I’ve ever written.”

“Axel has a point,” Zach said quietly. “They’re the shit.”

“Thanks.” I bit down on a smile. “I knew I was breaking the rules, but Phoenix is special.”

“Who made that fucking rule anyway?” Foxy tapped his chin. “Oh, yeah. Now I remember. It was you, Axel.” He barked out a laugh, stood and grabbed me in a headlock. With his other hand, he ruffled my hair. “The first of us to fall for a woman. I really didn’t see that coming…”

I squirmed from his hold. Firebird was approaching down the aisle with Hayley and Camila in tow. “I’d like to talk,” I whispered to her as she brushed past me.

“I’d like to get some sleep,” she countered. “It’s been a hell of a long day.”

“Good night, baby,” I risked saying.

“I. Am. Not. Your. Baby,” she bit out the words before turning her back on me.

My heart sank.PhoenixFalling asleep was impossible. I tried to drop off in my reclining seat after the cabin lights had dimmed, but so much had gone down my mind was in a whirl. Axel’s revelation that he’d snorted coke. Camila’s confession. I’d been worried him and me being busted would have torn the band apart, but they had far bigger problems than one of them shitting where they ate. God, I hated that expression, but I couldn’t think of another way to describe it now I knew how stupid Axel had been.

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