We were on the bus more and more lately, having left the east coast behind as the tour continued. We were ambling our way through the Midwest now. The drives were long, the views were dull…it was boring. And it allowed me far too much time to dwell. I distracted myself from thoughts I didn’t want to have by flipping through the photo album of Kiera and me. Seeing her content face in those photos reminded me of simpler times. Would we ever be like that again?

“Who’s the girl? She’s hot.”

I looked up to see a guy named Benji looking over my shoulder, staring at a photo of Kiera. His smile was a bit too pleased for my taste, but I shoved down the possessiveness stirring inside me. He was right after all. She was hot. “My girlfriend…Kiera.”

His smile suddenly started to fade, his expression turning dour. “She kind of reminds me of my girlfriend…well, my ex-girlfriend, I guess.”

His eyes hardened, and I fought back the discomfort in my stomach. Benji’s breakup was on the more recent side, just after the holidays. He hadn’t taken the news well. It hadn’t helped that she’d ditched him over a text message. She’d left him for his brother. His twin brother. He was all sorts of messed up.

“Sorry,” I told him, not knowing what else to say.

I started to close the book, and that seemed to snap him out of his dark thoughts. Shaking his head, he told me, “Do yourself a favor…don’t get attached.”

He walked away, to go sit by himself at the front of the bus. The sudden lump in my throat was painful. Too late. I didn’t think it was possible to get more attached to Kiera than I was right now. I debated calling her, to reaffirm our connection, but Matt walked by and the look on his face distracted me. He seemed introspective. That wasn’t all that odd, but what he was doing was definitely curious. He was slowly pacing up and down the aisle, looking deep in thought, except whenever he got close to me. Then he would unflinchingly stare at me for a solid ten seconds before dropping his eyes to the floor.

After his third pass of staring at me without talking to me, I stuck my arm into the aisle, stopping him. When our eyes met, I said, “What?”

He sighed, looked down, then started shaking his head. “Nothing.”

Bullshit. He wanted something. “Matt…what?”