Page 114 of Sky Full of Stars

“Someone in the bar took the pictures,” Arch says. “Man, I don’t know what to believe but, Jord’s right, why would Bianca do it? She’s always been big on image, she knows what she’s doing. For her to mess things up for you right now would affect her too. She answers to the label just like we do. Would she really sabotage herself?”

I don’t like what they’re saying but I can’t disagree with Archer. It doesn’t make sense for Bianca to screw us over. I’ve been seeing Jenna for a while and although Bianca isn’t overly happy, she hasn’t tried to stop me, she ignored it. Now it is out there, she’s gone into manager mode, making sure nothing blows back on the band.

“Could it be Erica?”

We all look at Jordan.

“I mean, the same shit you’re saying about Bianca, could have come from Erica,” he shrugs. “I’m not B’s biggest fan, but the woman has never steered us wrong. She scares the shit out of me on the daily but she puts up with our crap without too much complaint. I’m sure she smoothed things over with the label when I did this,” he indicates his cast. “Things could have got so fucked up cos of me but I didn’t get a reprimand from management. She tore a strip off me,” he grins. “But that was it.”

“I never went near Erica that night. How could she have got my phone?”

“Are you sure you didn’t just lose it and a roadie handed it in?”

“It was erased,” I point out. “Jenna said she called and text but there was nothing there from her when I got it back.”

“So, would Erica know your passcode?”

I rub a hand over my chin. “Shit,” I say slowly.

“Dude, you let your girlfriends know your passcode?” Jordan shook his head with a grin.

I was beginning to get pissed off with how amusing he found all of this. I took my phone out again and checked it. Still nothing from Jenna.

“Wait, what about that chick?” Archer asks Jordan.

“You’re gonna have to be a lot more specific,” Jordan winks.

“The one hanging around with Erica. Is she like an assistant or something?”

Jordan still looks confused.

“She was all over you in the bar that night.”

“Oh yeah,” he nods. “Yeah, she’s friends with Erica. Yeah, we hooked up a few times.”

I lean forward in my seat. “I remember her,” I say. “She was outside the dressing room when Jenna and I…”

“Go on,” Jordan waggles his brows.

“Grow up, asshole,” Nick mutters. “Not to be the next lewd motherfucker in the room,” he follows the train of thought. “Could you have dropped your phone in the dressing room?”

I groan. “I could have,” I got up and pace in front of them, thinking back to that night. All I could remember was the need to get to Jenna and dragging her to the dressing room. I’d mostly stripped her and just dropped my pants, my phone would have been in my back pocket and might have fallen without me realising, in the heat of the moment.

“I think I saw her too,” Archer said. “I knocked on the door to get you to hurry it up and she was there.”

“Who is she?” Nick is bewildered. “Why do I not know who you’re talking about?”

“You were wrapped up in other shit,” Arch told him.

“Right.”

“At the party, when I was looking for Jenna…” I spoke, mostly to myself.

“Don’t leave us hanging dude,” Jordan says.

“Erica collared me at the door when I was leaving to look for Jenna, said some bullshit about how Jenna didn’t fit in, she was telling me Jenna wasn’t good enough or something. She started crying when I told her to get the hell out of my way.”

Everyone exchanges looks.

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