When I could breathe evenly again I flushed the toilet and washed my hands, knowing that Emmie would bitch at me if I didn’t. Opening the door, I found her already under the covers, her head on one of my pillows and a cup of warm milk ready for me on the bedside table. For a moment I just stood there in the doorway of the bathroom. With the lights dimmed it cast a soft glow over the bed and Emmie’s skin. Her hair was spread over both pillows, and I pretended for a moment that we were a couple and I had every right to climb into bed beside her and make love to her until dawn.

“How are you feeling?” she asked with concern.

I moved away from the door. “I feel…” Like my heart is going to burst from my chest if I don’t tell you how much I care about you. “…better.”

“We can do this again tomorrow night if you want to,” she offered, cuddling close when I crawled under the covers with her. “If you don’t find something that will keep you busy after the show.”

My gut twisted. She was so nonchalant about it, as if it wasn’t a problem for her that I slept with random girls so often. Meanwhile I was left with a ball of guilt, as if I had cheated on her, after I fucked those girls. It was becoming more than I could handle, and I was getting to the point that I rarely sought out a girl to keep me company at the end of each show anymore.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close, tucking her head under my chin. “Tomorrow night it is, baby girl.”

Emmie’s Enemy

“I hate her!”

“Why?”

“Because …” Emmie broke off. “Just fucking because.”

Jesse sighed. “I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“I don’t need you to fucking fix it. Just let me be pissed, okay?”

I heard the raised voices coming from the bus before I even opened the door. When I heard how upset Emmie was I had a sudden urge to run for the hills. A pissed off Emmie was not something I wanted to deal with today. Three weeks into the Australian tour and I was ready for a break. Not just a few days, but a month long break from everything.

“I don’t like it when you’re pissed. Just tell me what happened,” Jesse commanded.

Hearing my best friend consoling her made up my mind for me, and I opened the door to our tour bus. More and more I saw how close Jesse and Emmie were. Part of me knew that they were just friends, that Jesse would only ever think of her as his sister. He was a better man than I was, after all. But another part of me, the irrational part of me that was associated with Emmie and all my crazy feelings for her, didn’t see it that way. That part saw every little thing my friend did as romantic, lover-like. I hated for them to be alone for even a moment. Hated to see him cuddling with her or see her laugh with him when I wasn’t around.

Stepping onto the bus, their conversation became even clearer, and I stopped at the front to listen for another moment. I had no idea who she was that Emmie hated, but there weren’t many shes to choose from. Other than Emmie, there was only about ten other females touring this go-round.

“I was just minding my own business, making sure that everything was ready for you guys tonight. I didn’t even look in the bitch’s direction. And she had the gall to come up to me and…” Emmie stopped and let out a high screech, venting some of her anger. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I hate her, that’s final.”

“She’s a little hard-core, I’ll give you that, Em. But I hadn’t gotten that vindictive bitch vibe from Gabriella before.”

I frowned. Gabriella Moreitti? Emmie was having problems with the opening act’s vocals? Why would they be arguing? It didn’t make sense.

Unless… OtherWorld was also headlining our tour, and I had seen that Axton and Gabriella were sparking off of each other. Could the two girls be arguing because they both wanted Axton and were jealous of each other?

Not sure if I wanted to know the answer to that particular question, I moved to the back of the bus were Jesse and Emmie were still talking. “What’s all the commotion about back here?” I demanded as I entered our living room.

Jesse shrugged. “Emmie and Gabriella got into it pretty heatedly backstage a while ago.”

Emmie’s eyes glared at me for a moment before she turned her head away, hiding her eyes from me. But not before I caught a glimpse of hurt and pain in those big green eyes. What had I done? I couldn’t help but wonder because she had looked accusingly at me for that brief moment.

“Emmie doesn’t get along with other members of her sex,” I excused, frustrated with Emmie’s sudden snub. “It’s not exactly a surprise, Jess.”

“I don’t really give a fuck either way. But she started it with Emmie and now Emmie is upset. So something needs to happen here, bro.”

I thrust my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. “Emmie is almost twenty years old now, Jesse. She can handle a little female squabble on her own.”

I wasn’t expecting the coffee cup to go flying by my head. I yelped and looked at Emmie. She was standing there with another coffee cup ready and waiting to be hurled at my head. She was almost shaking with her anger. “Fuck you, asshole!” And she threw the cup.

I had time to move out of the way this time. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded, shocked by this sudden rage coming from her. “I didn’t do a damned thing to you!”

“Just leave me alone, Nik. I’m done with it all anyway.” She pushed past me and practically ran from the bus.

I turned to follow her because I was sure she had had tears in her eyes. I couldn’t stand her tears. They were like acid to my soul. A big beefy hand caught my shoulder, stopping me from taking another step. “Don’t. Just give her a little while to calm down.”

My head drooped. “What just happened?”

Jesse sighed. “A bunch of idiots that refuse to open their eyes happened,” he muttered.

Confused and not for the first time in as many minutes, I raised my head to ask him what he meant but he was already leaving me to follow after Emmie.

Chapter 6

Twenty-one

Planning a surprise party for the person that normally runs almost every aspect of your life is fucking hard.

Between trying to pay for the club, ordering the food, and making sure that only the right people were invited was no piece of cake. Yet somehow, between the four of us, we got it done. Of course I was reluctant to admit that Axton helped us out with a lot of it. Damned man, now he would get to share in the credit and Emmie was going to be all kinds of gushy over that.