By the afternoon, my ankle was good enough to walk on, so that medic did know what she was talking about. I headed to the lobby to meet the other guys, my stomach heavy with dread. I hadn’t heard anything from Jared since last night. Not that I’d contacted him either, but still. He was the one who’d initiated this mess. He could have texted me at least.

I spotted him the second I walked out of the elevator, sitting at the lobby bar with a blonde leaning close to him, hands pressed against his chest. Typical. He met my eyes and something crossed his face, but I’d seen enough. I walked out of the revolving doors and stood under the warm summer sun, hoping it would burn away the jealousy swirling through my veins like poison. What had I expected really? That’s who Jared was—the guy with girls all over him, who slept with one and then immediately moved on to the next. Kyle had warned me, and Dan had encouraged it, so I couldn’t even say I hadn’t known what I was getting myself into. I was mostly angry with myself, since I’d let myself fall for Jared’s easy charm and good looks. Last night I’d been drunk on the moment, still high from the performance, half-asleep and delirious, but during the light of day everything was clear again.

I checked the time. The other guys were running late and Jared might walk out any moment, and I wasn’t ready to deal with him yet. Screw it, I’d walk to the theater by myself. They could catch up. It wasn’t far—just a short walk across LA Live past the restaurants, shops, and the Staples Center. It was empty this time of day with most of downtown’s population still at work, and a faint breeze blew my hair back, helping cool me down by the time I got to the theater.

Even though we weren’t performing, we still had to go through hair and makeup, plus a brief run-through so we’d know where to stand on stage at various points. The winner of last year’s show was performing tonight, followed by a duo between Angel and Lance, along with recaps of last night’s show and eliminations from each team. That gave us a lot of free time to sit around and wait for Team Dan to be called up.

As the night went on, I managed to steer clear of Jared by hiding in the bathroom whenever we might be alone together. Kyle must have noticed something was off though because he cornered me when I finally came out.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Just checking the ankle and all that.” It was throbbing a little from all the walking around, but not too bad. Still, it was the only explanation I had for spending all night in the bathroom.