I had a feeling I wouldn’t.

All of Avoiding Redemption ended up going out with us, and sadly, I did end up drinking way too much. Evan practically had to carry me to our hotel room. I was laughing as he let me fall onto the bed.

“Ev…you’re the best.”

Slight smile on his face, he shook his head. “And you’re blitzed.”

I laughed again. “That doesn’t make it not true…you are the best.”

He patted my knee. “Goodnight, Kellan.”

As he got ready for bed, I stared up at the ceiling. Then I grabbed my phone and stared at the screen, debating. I looked at my messages, at the numerous ones I was careful to never read. There were more from today, I’d ignored at least three. God…Gavin was so damn persistent. Maybe I should just talk to him…get it over with. I could send him one message—tell him to leave me the fuck alone. I almost did it. My finger was right there. But even wasted, the thought of contacting him nauseated me. He won’t leave me alone. He’ll just think I’m finally talking.

Ignoring him, I scrolled down to Denny’s name. It had been a long time since we’d talked. Since I didn’t have a clue what time it was in his area, I texted him a message instead of calling him. ‘Hey. How are you?’

I waited…but he didn’t respond. Maybe it was late there. Or early. I didn’t even know what fucking time it was here, let alone there. Pretending he had responded, I texted, ‘Things are good here. I guess. Hope you’re doing all right.’ At least, that was what I meant to type. My fingers missed a few letters.

After I sent the garbled message, I wondered if I should have done that. Maybe Denny didn’t really want to talk to me anymore. Maybe I was bugging him. Maybe I should just let that friendship go. But the thing was…I couldn’t. He mattered to me. He probably always would.

Annoyed at myself, I texted Kiera. ‘I really miss you.’ Again, my slow fingers missed some letters, and my message didn’t exactly look like my thoughts. I hit send anyway.

Kiera’s response was instant. ‘I miss you too. Sing to me?’

Grinning, I called her. “What do you want to hear?”

She laughed, and I closed my eyes, savoring the sound. “Mainly just your voice. Sing anything.”