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“No problem.” I wanted to kiss the side of his head and pull him to me, but it felt too private for this open, public setting.
“Okay, then…” Miami moved to open the bottom compartment on the bus. “Let’s get some chairs out. We have some time to kill anyway.” They often stored chairs in there so they could hang out when needed. It was particularly useful at festivals, and at the upcoming Rocktoberfest, it would be a necessity. Jinx got on the bus and came back with towels for the three of them to wipe down and helped with chairs. We all sat in a semi-circle with two empty seats, and I assumed Ziggy’s friend would take up at least one of them.
I’d never met any of his friends, so I was intrigued. Finally, Drake walked up with the guy, Zade. He was wearing one of the new Midnight Hunt shirts, and it looked like it had been signed. Drake hovered in the back, alert as if he didn’t totally trust the guy.
“Hey, Zade.” Ziggy stood and reached his hand out for Zade to shake. “This is Miami and Jinx, you know, of course. And this is Coleman.”
I stood to shake his hand and noticed Zade’s eyes narrow a little, but he shook anyway. “Yeah, hey.”
Ziggy shuffled one of the chairs to the side. “You can join us if you want. I don’t know how long we’ll be staying. The busses have to get going soon.”
“Yeah, New Jersey is next, right?” he asked. “Loved seeing y’all in Atlanta, and we had such a great time backstage, I thought, why not, right?” He gave Ziggy a look that read more like they’d gotten up to something, but I knew better. First, Zade wasn’t Ziggy’s type at all. He was younger—too young. And he was scrawny, and Ziggy was likely to break him had they messed around. He was certainly nothing like me, and maybe that was the ultimate thing. I wanted to be Ziggy’s type. And…I recognized the green-eyed monster lurking there, even if it didn’t make sense logically.
“Yeah…uh. Atlanta was cool.” Ziggy sounded awkward as if he wasn’t entirely sure what Zade was talking about. That eased my monster some. “Anyway, kind of a long drive for you from there.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t have anything going on anyway.”
“Cool. Cool.” Ziggy didn’t have much else to say, and I wondered how well they actually knew each other.
“So, you guys met in Atlanta?” I threw the question out there to get things started, and dig a little, maybe. Miami and Jinx weren’t helping. They were looking at us, back and forth, like a tennis match.
“Uh…yeah. My friend knew Ziggy and I’m like a big fan, right.”
“Sure…” I glared at Miami, who only smirked, obviously enjoying this.
“But I’m more than that now, right, Ziggy?”
Ziggy screwed up his face. “What do you mean?”
“Like we’re friends now, right? We know each other. Look…” He stood and held out the bottom of his shirt. I could clearly see that Ziggy was the only one to sign it. But neither Miami nor Jinxs offered up adding to it.
“Yeah, sure.” Ziggy glanced at me and reached over to grab my hand. Maybe he was looking for some security in this situation, or maybe he was dissuading his new little friend from anything more.
Zade sat back down and cleared his throat while staring blatantly at our linked fingers. “So, who are you? I mean, you don’t have the look, right. You look like a businessman, not a groupie.”
“I’m their promoter. I organized all this. And I’m Ziggy’s boyfriend. So…”
“Nah…” Zade laughed like I was making a joke. “Ziggy doesn’t go for a stuffed shirt. No way. I don’t believe it.”
I sent my most menacing stare. I was hardly astuffed shirt. My hair was cut short, and I wore a polo with khaki shorts, sure…but that wasn’t stuffy. It was appropriate since I’d been traveling. “You don’t know Ziggy.”
“I think I do. Better than you, right. He’s a fucking rock star, dude. He’s going for hot young dudes.”
Miami cleared his throat and scowled at the dude. “Not all rock stars are into that, man.”
Zade’s eyes widened. “Oh. Yeah, I didn’t mean anything. Of course, y’all are perfect for each other. I only meant, you know, Ziggy is a little wild, right.”
“Not that wild. Maybe when I was younger.” Ziggy chuckled like his reputation was a joke, but I knew he didn’t give any fucks about any of that. He wasn’t so much wild as he did what he wanted, when he wanted, no matter what.
“You know what I mean. I just can’t see you with this dude, that’s all.” Zade stuck his thumb out toward me.
Ziggy held our hands up. “Well, it’s true. We’ve been together for about two years now, give or take, with some off and on in the beginning.”
The kid scoffed again. “Won’t last,” he muttered.
The driver came around the front of the bus and indicated it was time to roll out.
Finally, Miami spoke up. “Sorry, Zade, but we have to head out, man.”
