Page 85 of Rock Me All Night

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"That appears to be the case, yes."

Kara fixes her makeup and mine and drags me back to the upstairs VIP section. The band is no longer here. The manager, Aiden, assures us that Sinful Serenade is getting ready to go on stage.

I get comfortable on one of the black cubes posing as a normal seat. Kara sits next to me. It's too loud for meaningful conversation, so we trade gossip about Professor Rivers, our poetry professor.

The stage lights go dark. Almost show time. The crowd starts screaming. This is a small space. After all, the band is working on their new material. Miles is singing a song about me. They can't show that off to a large audience. Not when it isn't finished.

How can he be writing a song about me?

The lights go on. The song starts.

It'sIn Pieces.

I can't bring myself to look at the stage. Certainly not to look at Miles. I press my eyelids together.

His voice seeps into my veins.

Three weeks now.

Can't sleep.

Two weeks now.

Gaping hole in my chest shows no signs of recovery.

That word, a joke, you laugh.

"Running away again, kid?"

A minute here

and then you're gone.

His pain swirls around me, mixing with mine. It's a roller coaster. The only thing I can do is hold on and try to survive the ride.

I pry my eyelids apart. I can't place the expression on his face. But I know what the song means. I know it means he hurts. And I hurt. But together, we hurt a little less.

Or do I have that all wrong?

His voice cuts clear across the room. "Would you like to hear something off the new album?"

The crowd cheers. Every girl in this club is screaming with glee, including Kara, who's at an ear-bursting volume. I'm sure twenty pairs of panties drop, but who am I to judge?

"It's calledNo Way in Hell. About someone very special." His eyes are on me.

Drew strums his guitar. The song starts. It's something fast and hard, and there's a desperation to the music.

Miles's voice fills the room.

Three a.m.and I can't sleep.

A common refrain, I know.

As a sentiment, it's cheap.

Someone to call, to hold,

to love. No way that word—

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