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“Did you forget about my stint in that a cappella group?” Liz asked. “The school newspaper said we were ‘radiant’.”
I snorted as the memory came back to me.
“Didn’t we join that group because you had some crush on a boy?” I asked, but Liz quickly corrected me.
“It was you who had a crush!” she laughed. “You went on and on about Darren Sykes for weeks until I finally got tired of you not doing anything, and I signed us up for his a cappella group.”
“And what happened?” Callum asked. “Was it a true-love connection?” He raised his eyebrows in mock interest, as if it were very important to know if this relationship worked out between us.
“We quickly realized Darren Sykes had no interest in me, though Liz did her best to push us together any chance she got,” I laughed. “Until we found out his boyfriend sang in the tenor section!”
I looked up at Callum, expecting to see a laugh spreading across his face, but he seemed disconnected, as if he hadn’t heard my story. Instead, his eyes were scanning the sea of people filling the auditorium. He looked slightly panicked, as if he had just caught sight of a ghost.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Sorry—I just saw someone who looked familiar.”
In a town of a few thousand people, the chances of seeing familiar faces at the summer camp play were high. But I had to remind myself that Callum was only recently back in town. There were bound to be tons of people he hadn’t run into yet, and each new face could inspire a flood of memories for him.
“Callum Jones!” We heard in front of us. “Can I have your autograph?”
We glanced over to a middle-aged man holding out a napkin he had just picked up from the snack table. I was standing close enough to Callum to feel his body stiffen as he took in the man’s request. The evening had felt so normal, but I realized all at once that normal evenings were few and far between when you were Callum Jones.
“Why don’t we leave the autographs to the kids tonight?” Callum suggested, and a few of the parents around him chuckled in appreciation.
“It’s just an autograph, man,” the guy said. He continued to hold the napkin out and now he was pushing it even closer to Callum’s chest. It made me uncomfortable, and I wanted to push the man’s hands away from him and tell him to leave us alone. I looked up at Callum to see if he would appreciate my help, but his eyes were once again scanning the room. He seemed to catch sight of someone, and I read shock on his face once more.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Callum said, and then he was squeezing past me so he no longer stood behind the snack table. Liz and I shared a look as we tried to figure out what Callum was doing. As Liz took the next payment from the woman in front of her, I watched Callum cross the room and lock eyes with a short man with spiky hair dyed far too blond.
“Who’s that?” I asked, nodding over at the man, but Liz couldn’t look up. She was too absorbed in counting out the quarters that had just been handed to her.
I watched as Callum’s face grew dark and saw confusion in his features as he spoke with the man. I was too far away to hear anything, but they looked like they were arguing. I felt unease settle into my stomach and tighten the muscles along my shoulder blades. I didn’t like the look of things, and I suddenly wanted to be over there, protecting Callum from whatever unpleasantness was in front of him.
“Be right back,” I mumbled to Liz. There were plenty of moms behind the snack table, so it wasn’t a problem for me to leave. I locked eyes on Callum and the blond man and began to weave in and out of the people. I pushed my way past bouquets of supermarket flowers parents held in their arms, ready to give to their kids after the show, and I narrowly avoided cups of fruit punch and orange soda that others held, likely wishing it was alcohol.
But by the time I got to the spot where Callum and the man were standing, they were gone. I looked around and caught sight of them at the edge of the room and then saw Callum press against the crash bar on the door and push his way out, this man following behind him. I knew I should leave them alone. I told myself it was probably a private conversation and I shouldn’t get myself involved, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this guy was bad news.
Even though I knew Callum could handle himself, I didn’t want him to be alone. I made the quick decision to go after them and, before I knew it, I was weaving through more gifts and oversized cameras on my way toward the door.
24
CALLUM
“You didn’t answer my calls!”
I stood outside in the school parking lot, my manager across from me. Brady had his hands on his hips as he spoke to me. He had recently acquired a lip ring that made him look like a high school drug dealer instead of the rock star I’m sure he wanted to look like.
“So, you show up here?” I asked. Seeing him in the auditorium had been a shock to the system. At first, I didn’t think it was him. Well, I hoped it wasn’t him. But not many people in the town had bleach-blond hair and a penchant for leather jackets in the summer. Even now, I couldn’t believe he wasn’t sweating underneath all those layers of clothes.
“It was important I talk to you,” Brady explained. “I know you’re taking a break or whatever you’re calling it, but I’m getting concerned.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine.”
“Sure, you’re fine. But what about the band? All of these rumors about a solo career are really hurting us, man.”
“I didn’t start those rumors!” I was frustrated to have this conversation with him when we had already talked about it. But I knew this defensiveness was also hiding the truth of what I was planning. If I stayed in town and opened this recording studio, then my life with the Horizon would change. And I couldn’t forget that moment in the hardware store when I finally admitted to Darcy just how much I wanted to write and record my own album.
“Well, you’re not doing much to dispute them,” Brady accused. He had a way of stating things as fact even when they were only half true. It had always driven me crazy, and I felt anger surging through me as I heard this.
