My friends and I started saying goodbye. I was a little choked up as I said farewell to all the guys I’d gotten to know during the super-long tour: Kurt, Benji, my bunkmate Mark, and so many others. Most of us had exchanged phone numbers during the tour, so I knew I’d talk to them again, but still…it was oddly difficult to say goodbye. We’d gone through a lot together, ups and downs.

Then I spotted the one person I was genuinely happy to leave behind: Paul. He’d been shockingly absent in my life after I’d threatened him, but he still sneered at me when he caught me looking his way. Shaking my head, I turned away from him; I really hoped I never became that jaded.

After our long goodbyes, the guys started piling back on the buses. All except us and the members of Avoiding Redemption. We were staying in Miami, for the night at least. Matt had our group booked on a flight home tomorrow. Justin said one of his guys had booked a similar flight. The buses were headed back to Seattle, back to where they’d begun the journey, to drop off the rock stars and all their equipment. We could have stayed on them, of course, but the trek home would take forever that way, and we just didn’t have that kind of time.

We were due in L.A. on Monday, where all our stuff would be waiting for us. Lana had retrieved our equipment right after our set, and all of our personal belongings—even Matt’s security bucket had been packed up to come with us. Matt had been a little leery about letting our things be taken unsupervised by someone in the band. So as a show of good faith, I’d let them take my prized guitar too. Seeing that I was okay with it had made Matt more okay with it too. And now I seriously hoped everything made it there unscathed; the only thing I’d kept with me, the only thing I hadn’t risked losing, was the Hot Wheels car Kiera had given me for Christmas. It was safely tucked in my pocket.

But I was sure everything would be fine—Lana knew what she was doing. And she assured us that she would be closely monitoring our equipment’s progress as it sped its way to Los Angeles, to a massive house the label had available for visiting artists. From what she’d told us, the house was extremely nice. Griffin couldn’t wait. I couldn’t wait to walk into Pete’s again. And see my girl again.