“Nope, you get the VIP treatment tonight. Backstage tour and—” I slid to a halt when I saw Jared ahead of us, near the front of the line. Groupies surrounded him, taking pictures with him and having him sign everything from their phones to their bra straps to their bare skin. He wore dark sunglasses and a black leather jacket, and with his hair spiked up, he looked every bit the bad boy rock star. A girl in a slinky dress pressed her red lips to his cheek, and he never dropped his smile. I wondered if any of his groupies could tell it was his stage smile and not his real one or if I was the only girl who knew that.

“Maddie?” Carla asked. She followed my gaze and then said, “Ah.”

I tore my eyes away after another girl squeezed her body against him for a photo, and he whispered something in her ear. It was actually really cool of Jared to take the time to meet our fans. I didn’t know of any other musician on The Sound who did that, and there was no doubt all those people would vote for our band now. But these women were so much more aggressive than the one in the supermarket, and I wanted to shove them all aside and prop a big sign on him that said, “MINE.” I knew he had to keep up his reputation for the show, but god, it hurt to see him do it in front of me.

Julie clucked her tongue at me. “Still obsessed with him, I see.”

“I’m not obsessed.” Okay, maybe a little. For good reason. “Besides, we’re just friends.”

She nudged me with her hip. “Yeah, but you’d like to be more, right?”

“So nothing’s happened with him?” Carla asked.

“No,” I said, and my chest tightened up at the lie. I never kept anything from them, but there was too much at stake with the show and I didn’t know if the girls would be able to stay quiet tonight if I told them what was really going on. Especially Julie. She meant well, but she was terrible at keeping secrets. I’d tell them when our time on The Sound was over, assuming my whatever-this-was with Jared lasted that long.

I led my friends around the crowd, away from the Jared Cross Fan Club, and into the backstage area of the theater. I hoped giving them a behind-the-scenes tour of The Sound would keep all our minds off of my love life, but no such luck.

Near the rotating stage, Sean was talking to one of the roadies, and he perked up when he saw us. “Hey, Maddie. Are these your friends?” He held out his hand to each of them. “I’m Sean. Nice to meet you.”