“Bus terminal?” I repeat.
“Yeah, Seth needs to get home,” he says in a tight tone, though Seth shakes his head behind him. “He’ll miss work. We’re heading to the bus station so he doesn’t lose his job. Please come?”
“Okay,” I say, standing. None of this makes sense, yet I can’t seem to refuse Sam’s pleading.
Sam gives me a pained smile before we all start walking toward the entrance.
“You’re aware,” Seth says as we step outside, “there might not be a bus back home today.”
“Detroit has to be a main hub. There’ll be a bus there today,” Sam says through gritted teeth.
“We’ll see,” Seth says, and I notice Sam’s entire posture visibly tightening.
Sam stalks a bit ahead of us in obvious anger, but over his shoulder he says, “Just ask her your questions.”
Watching him, I’m completely confused by whatever is going on between them.
“So,” Seth says, bringing my attention to him, “you and Sam haven’t talked since—well, in years?”
No. No. No. This weird tense crap between them can’t be because of me. I draw in a breath and force myself to remain calm. “Nope. And he wasn’t too excited—was actually quite upset—when Romeo asked me to come on tour.”
“And you came because—because you’re on the school newspaper, right?”
Obviously, Seth didn’t believe Sam’s explanation and now I’m being interrogated. “Yes, Romeo asked me because this fall I’ll be on the editing team for the university paper.”
Seth looks at me blankly, lost in thought and pulling at the unkempt scruff on his chin. “Huh? I don’t recall you wanting to write.”
He wouldn’t. We never used to talk about serious stuff. “I’m getting a degree in journalism and hoping to make it as a music journalist.”
His head tilts toward me, and he rubs the back of his neck with a palm while the lines of his face scrunch in confusion. “Well, I guess that makes sense.”
I stare at Seth. He’s not just thinner but kind of disoriented, in complete contrast to the cocksure attitude I remember him having.
“Actually, things don’t make total sense,” Seth says, tapping on his chin as we stop at a corner. Sam has his back to us. Seth looks down at me, studying me again with a suspicious glare. “I have to admit, Peyton, when I saw you standing in Sam’s room, I thought you guys were still going behind my back.”
Behind his back? After so many years, I don’t know what to say. Sam apparently does, because he whips around. “Dammit, Seth! I told you to quit. I told you that shit wasn’t happening.”
Seth crosses his arms, tucks in his bottom lip, and glares at his brother. “Then why didn’t you tell me she was with you?”
Sam runs a hand through his curls and tugs on them before lowering his hand. “I didn’t want to upset you, okay?” he says in a pleading tone. “Nothing is going on. It wasn’t worth you worrying about it.”
Frowning, Seth looks from Sam to me. I fight the urge to run away from both of them. I’m feeling super weirded out.
“Tell him, Peyton,” Sam says roughly. “Tell him we’re just friends.”
“Um,” I say, my hands twisting the strap of the purse hanging across my chest. “Sometimes we are, I guess, but usually we’re not even really friends, to be honest.”
Seth looks confused by the statement, while Sam throws his head back and lets out a roaring laugh.
Chapter 16
The swipe of a card sliding in the lock has me hitting the power button on the TV remote, which engulfs the hotel room in darkness. And for a quick instant, I consider jumping across the room into my rollaway. But I’d never make it in time. I slip into the dark bathroom instead.
After Seth had refused to get on a bus, Sam reluctantly agreed to let him come to the concert. Seth had hounded me all day with questions. He’d been by my side while I ran the booth, before and after I took pictures of Luminescent Juliet onstage, while I packed up the booth, and then backstage. No matter how many times I’d refuted the notion, Seth had come up with more ways to insinuate that Sam and I are together. He’s obsessed with proving it. The harassment got so bad that I snuck away, paid for a cab myself, and came back to the hotel alone. As the door starts to open, I’m practically praying Justin is on the other side of it because I can’t deal with Seth anymore.
Unfortunately for me, it’s not Justin. I hear Sam’s voice blare angrily, “No, no, no. Gabe doesn’t give a shit about you.”
“Wrong!” Seth’s voice sounds wild. “He’s after me. Wants to take me down! Of course he’d slip something in my drink! He tried to poison me!”
What? Seth has to be wasted or something. I stand quietly in the bathroom, debating whether to turn on a light or say something to make them aware of my presence.
“Enough of this bullshit! No more of your bullshit!” Sam yells angrily. I freeze at the tone and volume of his voice.
“It’s the truth,” Seth says in a tone that borders on a whimper. I can sense that he’s cowering and refusing to back down at the same time. “It’s the truth,” he repeats.
Someone hits or kicks the bathroom door, then Sam says, “Okay. Okay. Why is he after you?”
“I don’t know. Ask him.” Someone, most likely Seth, stomps on the floor. “But I could tell he was planning something.”
I hear the frown in Sam’s voice as he says, “He was making out with a groupie. How or why the fuck would he be worried about you?”
Seth’s voice drops to a conspiratorial tone. “He wants to get rid of me,” he says. “Do me in. He might be one of the bad guys or even an alien for all we know. “
At those words, I want desperately to disappear, melt down the drain or something, and avoid hearing all this craziness. But there’s only one way out, and it involves leaving the bathroom and passing the brothers. So I stay put.
“Alien? Do you in? Do you in?” Sam repeats incredulously. “A drummer for an up-and-coming band has plans to murder the bassist’s twin brother because . . . ?”
“He’s evil,” Seth says in a wild tone. “You refuse to see it. Like always, you refuse to listen.”
Sam groans. “How long have you been off your fucking meds?”
I hold a gasp in. Somehow, I stay frozen, probably because of the shock hammering my brain.
“I told you, the pills were poisoning me!” Seth takes a deep breath. “The pills are bad. I can’t think with them, and they slowly kill a person, like arsenic. Everyone in my therapy group knows that.”
I’m still wishing I could dissolve into thin air when everything clicks into place: Seth is certifiably insane.
Sam’s next words come out sounding dull and cold. “You are getting on that bus tomorrow if I have to tie you to a fucking seat. Then you’re going back to your doctor and taking your fucking meds.”
“No,” says Seth, sounding stubborn. “I want to stay on tour with you.”
“What about the guy who wants to do you in?”
“He—”
“No!” Sam shouts. “Forget I asked. We’re going to bed, then getting up early so you can catch that six o’clock bus.”
The door to the bathroom opens and the light flicks on.
I stand frozen, staring at Sam.
“Peyton?” he asks, horror in his tone.
Seth is instantly by his side.
Oh crap. They both stare at me wide-eyed and openmouthed.
Seth takes a step past Sam, pointing at me. “She was listening!” He turns to his brother. “She’s spying on me,” he says angrily. “You brought her to spy on me!”
I back away from him and almost run into the tub. “I—”