Stirring from my thoughts, I looked over to see one of those random girls riding the bus with us. She was at the table across the aisle from mine, but the minute I made eye contact with her, she left the guy she’d been sitting with—Paul—and hopped onto my bench. Paul glared at me, like I’d somehow forced her to leave him. That’s not on me, man. I hadn’t even spoken to her yet.

Ignoring his spiteful eyes, I gave her a polite smile and subtly angled my body, so my back was against the window and my leg was farther up the bench, keeping us apart. “Yeah…Kellan, hi.”

She tilted her head as she looked at me appreciatively. I couldn’t imagine I looked all that great right now. There was a bathroom on the bus, and it did have a small shower, but it was the shittiest shower on Earth, and we were always being told not to use it unless we absolutely needed to. It had been a few days since I’d had a decent rinse off, and I was really looking forward to scrubbing the grime off of me. Thank God we were getting a hotel at this next stop. From what Justin had told me, that was a luxury that his tours didn’t always have, but due to the length of this tour, the number of bands on it, and the number of repeat performances in certain cities, it was a treat that we occasionally got to partake in. And that was what it felt like every time I got to lay down in a bed—a gift.

“Kellan,” the girl murmured, like she was memorizing it. “I like it, it’s sexy.”

I shook my head at her. “I didn’t pick it, but thanks,” I said with a small, amused smile. I supposed that was one tiny thing I could thank my parents for; Kellan Kyle had a certain ring to it. Hmmm…so did Kiera Kyle. God, I loved that our initials would match…if she agreed to marry me. Would she? She hadn’t found the letter in the couch yet…so we hadn’t talked about it yet. I both wanted to and didn’t want to.

The girl next to me got the wrong idea from my smile; she leaned forward, her hand going to my knee between us. “So…what’s your story, Kellan?”

I almost sighed at her. Not one I’m going to share with you. I wasn’t entirely sure how to get out of this conversation without making her mad. Could you leave me alone? seemed kind of rude. And that was when my savior sat down across from us.