I just missed her.

“Do I have a girlfriend?” I mused. “Hmmm, that’s a good question. Apparently, there’s a ton of reporters wondering the same thing. You don’t work for TMZ, do you?”

He scratched his head. “Don’t watch that sh-show.”

I chuckled. I liked Kevin more and more.

Of course, there was Blair. Everything in me rebelled at posing for more fake relationship pictures, but I had allowed Mila to release a press statement saying we were still an item. It was a compromise of sorts. Reporters were following us around separately, wondering what was going on, but so far we’d been tight-lipped on the entire thing. Obviously, she still wanted to cling to me because of my younger age, and I still wasn’t ready to give up on Hing and the zombie movie. But I wasn’t with her in public anymore. She wasn’t happy about it.

I glanced back up at Kevin. “I got all sorts of music here. What do you want to do next?”

“G-got any Nirvana?” He sent me a hopeful look.

Hell yeah.

I gave him a fist bump. “Keep that kind of music in your heart, my man, and you’ll be playing on the stage with me someday.”

His face shone.

A flash of purple hair went by the room and caught my attention.

“Wh-where you going?” Kevin called as I took off for the door at a slow jog.

“Thought I saw someone,” I called back. I reached the wooden door, which was much like a classroom door with a thin glass panel above the doorknob. I flung it open and stepped out in the hallway. There was no one there, and I exhaled and paced around. Not only was I dreaming about her, but I was seeing her in places where she clearly wasn’t.

I went back in to Kevin.

“Y-you okay?” he asked.

I thought about it. I took in Kevin, seeing how everything I said or did would make an impression. I pushed my melancholy behind me and instead thought of V and how she played like every note was a physical touch. “Music makes everything better, Kevin. Never forget that.”

Spider and I left soon after. We walked out to my Hummer and climbed in. Before I started the car, I paused, needing to share. “Teaching those kids—shit, man—that made me feel good. It’s like they’re teaching me something.”

He sent me a long look and I could see from his face that he too had felt it. “Yeah.”

I cocked an eye. “Better than the The Vampire Dairies?”

He snorted. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, mate. Nothing beats The CW.”

THE NEXT DAY, V opened her door at seven on the dot ready to run, her hair scraped back in a high ponytail.

And I was waiting. Patiently doing leg muscle stretches on her driveway.

She came to a halt, her eyes big as she took in my running shorts and Vital Rejects T-shirt. “What are you doing here?”

Good question. “I’m sick of not seeing you.”

She stood there, a wary expression on her face. It made me ache to soothe her.

I clenched my fists. “I know you’re still mad at me, because I never hear you play anymore, and I’m sorry for it. It kills me to think I hurt you. I was a total douchebag to you at the coffee shop when I told everyone you played naked for me. I was a callous dickhead at Masquerade when I just assumed you wanted to have sex with me. I’ve been full of shit, and I don’t deserve to have a girl like you give me a second chance, but I’m asking. Right here. Right now. You are a hundred times better than me. You’re beautiful and your music makes me fucking happy, and all I did was make an ass of myself. And if you want Geoff—pompous nitwit, sorry—I’ll try hard to be good around him. For some reason that I can’t explain, I need you, V.” I paused and took in some air. “Will you—will you be my friend? I hope so, because I need to bitch about Spider and Mila—who are probably having sex. Not to mention, Harry called today and told me that Hing is vetting new guys for the role I wanted.”

She still stood there. She swallowed.

“Do you want me to go?” I asked.

Had I gone too far with the nitwit remark?

A car went by. A bird called out.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she spoke. “Douchebag, dickhead, and an ass? Wow, you didn’t hold back. I’m impressed.” She gave me a grin.

Right then a fluttering took up in my gut. Like butterflies. I didn’t try to analyze it or dissect it. I just sucked in a sharp breath and went with it. “Do you forgive me?”

She nodded.

I relaxed, letting go of some of the tension that had ridden me for two weeks.

She frowned. “I’m sad for you about the movie, though. If you hadn’t helped me—”

“No, V, stop. Please don’t feel guilty for that. I wanted to help you. It’s done and over and I’m moving on from it.”

She cocked her head. “You’d take it if Hing offered, though, right?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I’ve been chasing this film for three months—ever since Harry approached me with it before I moved here.”

She smiled. “Spider and Mila, huh? The girl who wears pink and the boy with blue hair?” She snickered. “God, it’s too much. Can I say anything? Can we tease them?”

I snorted. “If I catch them together, he will marry her.”

She laughed. “You really do try to be a hero. You try to hide it, but I see it in you.”

I tingled all over. “I’m no hero.”