Page 25 of Spark

“Thank you!” Kendrick bellows, making all of us crack up. “Kai always brings them up as a cautionary tale: as proof co-ed bands can’t avoid getting blown up by romantic entanglements.”

Titus scoffs. “If that’s his point, there are better bands to bring up. The White Stripes, for instance.”

“Now,that’sa cautionary tale,” Kendrick says. “Take notes, Kai.”

“ABBA’s a good one, too,” Laila offers.

“What about No Doubt?” Savage contributes, which launches the group into talking about Gwen Stefani and her bass player, and the hit songs they got out of their breakup.

When that conversation runs its course, Kai exhales loudly and says, “So, are we done here? I’m fucked out and want to go to bed.”

Kendrick shakes his head. “Not till you apologize to Ruby.”

“For what?”

“For telling lies about her, dumbass.”

“I’ve explained all that.”

“Explanations aren’t apologies. You were a dick to her. It’s time to own that and say you’re sorry.”

When Kai hesitates, the entire room screams at him to do it, once and for all, if only to get us all some sleep before it’s time to head to the airport.

“Fine,” Kai yells in a huff. He looks at me, his eyes blazing. “Ruby, I’m sorry. I was a dick. I shouldn’t have said what I did to you. And I shouldn’t have said what I did to Kendrick. Now, can I please go to bed?”

I cross my arms. “That wasn’t the least bit sincere.”

Kai scoffs. “Too bad. It’s all you get.”

“Dick.”

“You’re overreacting, and you know it.”

Before I reply, all our phones simultaneously beep. When we look, there’s a text from our tour manager, Caden, in the group chat:

Caden: Wakey wakey, folks! It’s airport time!

6

KENDRICK

I’m the first person to step foot onto our private plane for the six-hour flight to Vancouver, so I plop myself down in one of the coveted rows with only two seats, hoping Ruby will grab the one next to mine.

It’s possible Ruby will avoid me like the plague out of guilt for the stunt she pulled this morning. But knowing her, I think it’s more likely she’ll confront what she did head on and beg for my forgiveness. Which I’ll give her. But not before making her squirm a tiny bit.

In her defense, it was only when Ruby drew the comparison between my ridiculous, fleeting crush on Laila back in the day and hers on Kai that I truly understood how dead as a doornail her feelings for my big brother must have become. But even so, I’m going to make her grovel at least a little bit. I’ve never once had the upper hand like this with Ruby. Usually, she’s coming at me, rightfully so, for something stupid I said or did. So now, I’m going to milk my present state of moral superiority. But only for the duration of this six-hour flight. Probably not even that long, if she starts pulling any of herhighly effective mind-control strategies on me. The girl is good. But, still, I’m determined not to fold too quickly.

Our tour manager, Caden, and his trusty assistant enter the plane as I’m getting settled into my seat. Not surprisingly, they head toward the back cabin together, probably to go over whatever details and logistics are coming up on our busy schedule.

After that, Kai shuffles on looking like a sleep-deprived, annoyed hot mess. And after him, there’s a trio of high-level staffers.

When my brother locks eyes with me, he motions to the empty seat next to me, and I shake my head.

Whatever,his expression says as he flops down into a seat several rows away.

When our eyes met in the van on the drive to the airport, I flipped him off with both hands, and Kai returned the gesture. But apparently, he’s ready to make nice now. Me, not so much. He doesn’t realize this, of course, but the lies he flippantly told me about Ruby quite possibly changed the trajectory of my life.

Maybe Ruby never would have been interested in me romantically, but I guess I’ll never know. Why not? Because it’s too late now. Because we’re best friends and she’s never shown interest in me, anyway. And oh yeah, mere hours ago, she literally told me she’ll never date another guy who started out as a friend.

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