More than anything, Alex, we are friends. I care what happens to you, and I want to keep in touch and share our adventures from afar. It will give us something to look forward to, don’t you agree?
So, I’ll be sliding into your DMs until you get sick of me. Count on it.
xoxo Jace
My heart swooned. What a note. Every minute I’d spent hoping he’d notice me and being disappointed that he didn’t had been worth it. My girly bits tingled at the memory of all that we had done the night before. He wanted to stay in touch. All I could do was hope that he meant what he said.
Realizing that my mom would be home soon and that I needed to clean my sheets, I got to work and put everything into the laundry. There was a ton to do before I left so I got to work, but I was on cloud nine. Lugging my travel backpack out of the hall closet, I packed my clothes. I organized my electronics and double-checked my sim cards and made sure I had passwords backed up in a few locations. I ran to the bank and once back home was waiting for the sheets to dry when my phone pinged.
Zoey: RU packed?
Alex: mostly
Zoey: I’ll miss u. Have a great time.
Alex: You too, I’ll ping you when I get settled.
Zoey: Ty’s here, we’re leaving.
Zoey love u
Alex: love u 2
Alex: Oh gawd! Tonight’s the night. Have fun!!!!!
Alex: Z?
Chapter 7
JACE
Ten Months Later
My head was pounding by the time the bus rolled into the load-in area at the Sonar festival in Barcelona. After a whirlwind year, LTZ had hit the jackpot. Our first single Rise was holding strong at the number-one spot on charts all over the world. The band’s meteoric ascension was mind-blowing. We’d toured the US to sold-out crowds in increasingly bigger and bigger venues and moved on to our first stop in Europe with no sign of slowing down. Our manager, Katherine, had let us know that we’d likely be heading to Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand when we finished the European festival circuit after Oktoberfest in Germany.
Pulling double duty as the drummer and social media director, I never had a break. I loved every minute of it. Sure, until we’d been on the road, my idea of touring had been so naïve. I thought we’d be hanging out together all the time writing songs, shooting the shit, exploring the cities, and then going onstage and rocking our asses off.
But the day-to-day reality was much different than I had imagined. We had a tightly packed schedule and because we were rising stars, there was very little time off. Each day of a show, we’d roll into the venue, get cleaned up, rehearse, do a sound-check, have hours of press, radio and appearances, and I’d have to also make sure to keep all our social channels populated. On days off, we were packed tightly in the bus struggling to catch up on sleep. Luckily, we had a road crew now, so we at least didn’t have to hump our gear anymore.
Zane and Ty were hotly in demand, but because Ty was still heartbroken from Zoey ghosting him, Zane had pretty much taken over as the band’s spokesperson. He reveled in the attention and was great at it. Funny, zany, and full of energy, he made my job easy to document LTZ’s antics as we lived life on the road.
Ty was the consummate professional, his stage presence was otherworldly. His reputation as a performer was already leaning toward legendary. Playing live seemed to be his salvation, he’d release every bit of anguish, sadness, anger, and bitterness into his performances. When he wasn’t onstage, however, he’d withdraw into his own world. Retreating into his shy, hermit tendencies, he rarely left the bus or his hotel room. Lucky for us, he was writing. His notebooks were filled with dozens, if not hundreds, of new songs or ideas for new song lyrics. This was great for LTZ, but all of us were worried about his state of mind.
He’d stopped trying to contact Zoey after months of obsessively trying to get her to talk to him. Until, for him, hope at reconciling was in the toilet. Bearing witness to his utter heartbreak was awful so we did our best to protect him. Nothing about Ty was suicidal, thankfully, we just needed to keep him going until he could ignite his own pilot light again.
His looks combined with his reclusiveness made him irresistible to women. Under the theory that the way to get over a girl was to get one under you, all of us in LTZ took turns trying to get him to partake in the bounty of beautiful ladies at our disposal. He had no interest whatsoever and was back to the chaste existence he lived before Zoey.
My wistful thoughts of Alex and the night we shared had been pushed into the back of my mind. I certainly hadn’t disclosed it to Ty or anyone else for that matter. Furious at Zoey for eviscerating Ty’s feelings, I hadn’t kept my promise to stay in touch and ignored all her messages until she stopped texting me. A little time and space made me realize that she’d been as blindsided as the rest of us, but I never reached back out.
Zane and I most definitely became each other’s wingman. We’d partied and fucked our way across the US with women of every size and shape and ethnicity, which for a while was my teenage fantasy come true. My sisters would give me shit, but they didn’t really need to. Reality was setting in for me. The more well-known we became, the more I was starting to get grossed out at getting with random, naked women. Monotonous blowjobs and hurried fucks in strange and often public
