Delaney kept grabbing my arm and mouthing oh my god, which I couldn’t help but laugh at. It all ended too soon.
“We should go,” Lexi said into my ear once the music stopped and I’d taken my earplugs out. “We can come back.” Then she turned to the rest of them and said, “We’ll be back.”
I asked Delaney if she wanted to go or stay and she said stay. She hadn’t seen Courting Chaos perform yet. Neither had I, but Lexi said we’d come back.
Lexi threaded her arm through mine as we passed the guards securing the barricade blocking backstage. They saw our passes and let us through.
“What’d you think?” she asked as we made our way back there.
“That was… amazing.”
“Right?”
We’d only made it about twenty steps into the hallway leading to the dressing rooms when Lexi squealed and was swung away from me. She almost took me down and it took me longer than it should’ve to realize it was a very sweaty Van.
“You’re getting me all wet,” she complained.
He snorted and looked over my shoulder. “It doesn’t take much.”
When Lexi realized what he’d said, she slapped his arm but laughed along with him. They were so easygoing about everything and I envied that. I wanted to be that, but I didn’t think I was easygoing yet.
“Well?” Bonham’s voice came from behind me. “What’d you think?”
27
Jurnie
Bonham’s hair was wet with sweat and his arms were folded over his chest.
“That was the most fun I’ve had possibly ever,” I told him honestly. “If not ever, then in a really long time.”
“I’m really glad to hear that.” He stepped closer to me. “I have to go shower and we have a meet and greet after, but I want at least a few minutes with you before you leave.”
I gave him a big smile. “I think I can manage that. We’re going to watch Courting Chaos, I think, and I’ll meet you back here.”
He nodded. “Perfect.” Before leaving, he leaned down to kiss me, making sure that our lips were the only contact we had, given he was so sweaty. I wasn’t sure I would’ve minded if he’d wrapped his arms around me. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
I licked my bottom lip as if I could still taste him there. He might’ve walked away, but Lexi joined me again.
“Sometimes Van is so gross.” However, the tone of her voice revealed she didn’t mind one bit.
We were back out at the concert with time to spare before Courting Chaos came on. I’d been familiarizing myself with their music too and found that this was the sound I liked. Whatever genre they technically fell into, it was my jam, as Delaney would say.
I had the time of her life there, singing and jumping, and screaming. We laughed a lot at ourselves during that show. We’d been there maybe an hour when Lexi nudged me and shouted into my ear.
“Want to head back?” I knew she was screaming because I could hear her. I nodded and did the same thing to Delaney.
“I’ll meet you back there,” I said. “Indie will show you the way.”
Delaney gave me a big thumbs-up then moved down the row into the empty seats.
“Uh.” Lexi pulled her earplugs out at the same time I did. “Sometimes I forget how fucking charmed this life is. To get to watch Courting Chaos anytime I’d like? It’s amazing.”
“It really is.”
This being my first experience, I was so glad to find that I loved it. Being with Bonham meant I’d be doing this more, I assumed.
First we checked the dressing room—which was empty.
“They must be out back doing the meet and greet,” Lexi said. We headed that way.
“Why don’t they do it inside?” I asked. She’d been here longer or at least knew how this rock star stuff worked.
“Lawson told me that they switched to this a while back because of an issue with a crazy fan of Daisy’s. He didn’t tell me everything, but the way his jaw tightened and the vein in his neck popped, suffice it to say, whatever happened was bad. They don’t want anyone backstage.”
Yikes. I hadn’t thought about stuff like that happening.
What if Bonham had a crazy fan who tried to hurt him? I assumed he could handle himself and they had security, but if someone had done something to Daisy, then they could do it to any of them.
I shook those thoughts out of my head and tried to focus on the now.
“Yup. Meet and greet.” She pointed to this large tent that had been set up in the parking lot. There was a backdrop, but the sides weren’t enclosed and the line of fans spread out away from us. Maybe twenty people waited in line to meet the band.
Daisy was in the middle with Daltrey on one side and Van on the other. The fans stepped up, said whatever they wanted to say, then were arranged around the band for a picture. Daltrey and Bonham typically had an arm at least partially around the back of whoever was there. Guy or girl didn’t seem to matter. When it wasn’t around the fan’s shoulder, maybe it was resting on their back. I couldn’t tell from here.
My stomach turned seeing him touch another woman, even if logically, I knew it was an innocent touch.
When Bonham saw us, he gave me a nod and I did my best to smile back, but my jaw was clenched so tightly that I wasn’t sure if came off as a real smile.
“This sucks,” Lexi muttered.
“What?”
“This sucks. Watching them with their arms around other women. It sucks. So if you were thinking that, then you’re right. It sucks for all of us.”
“How do you…” I adjusted my weight from foot to foot. “Handle it?”
“I don’t. There’s just not much I can do about it,
