Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(43)

She’d been running point on our plans to attend Bound Hearts official launch in Baltimore. We’d also gotten a hotel for the weekend so that we could hang out. It was a little getaway from home for the three of us.

Me



I’ll be down in 15.





I still needed to pack. But I was sure I didn’t need to tell her that. When Jonas knocked on the door, I grimaced. Crap, I hadn’t meant to take so long. “One sec,” I called. Gathering up what I needed, I unlocked the door and headed for my room. “All yours.”

I caught sight of him, hair askew and a pillow imprint on his cheek before I tugged the door closed. It took me all of ten minutes to dress, pack my overnight bag, stow the homework I needed to take with me, and make sure I had my laptop and charging cables.

Purse with ID, credit cards, and some cash was next, and I stuffed tissue, motion sickness pills, and Chapstick into the side pocket before I was heading out to the living room, locking up on my way out.

“You going somewhere?” Jonas asked, from where he stood in the kitchen eating cereal. His hair was still standing almost straight up on top of his head. The sleepy expression on his face faded as he glanced from me to my bags.

“Yep,” I said. “I’ll see you Sunday night…or if it’s late, I’ll see you Monday morning. Have a good weekend.”

Aubrey was waiting for me downstairs. Big girl panties on, I went to grab the clipboard and knock on Ramsey’s door when she said, “Already signed you out. He wasn’t there, so I just put in the time we’re leaving and expected back.”

“Better to ask for forgiveness than permission anyway.” I flipped his room and his room’s occupants the mental bird. She laughed as she held the door open.

“Impeccable timing,” she teased as a car pulled into the circular drive. I grinned. The driver—not Dix, but that was okay—actually got out to put our bags into the trunk before we got in.

“Hey,” Lachlan called as I slid into the backseat. “Ace! Where you going?”

“Away,” I answered. “Maybe you should try it.”

I yanked the door closed and clicked the seatbelt into place. Locked the door, too. Then gave Lachlan a little finger wave as we pulled away.

At Aubrey’s snort, I stuck out my tongue at her, and then we both laughed. The school kind of peeled away as we left the campus and got closer to the train station. Bit by bit, I shed Kaitlin Crosse, Blue Ivy Prep student, for KC, Torched band member and singer.

We made it to the station precisely on time and got ourselves up onto the platform with our tickets. First-Class compartments, mainly to be comfortable while we caught up. It was hard not to scream when we saw Yvette. It seemed like an eternity since the last time we were together.

The ride down to Baltimore sped by as we caught up on various news, laughed, and teased.

“Did you ever think we’d miss touring?” Yvette asked when we were an hour outside of Baltimore. Despite the fact we weren’t going there to perform, there was a kind of delicious tension to the adventure.

How many bars and clubs had we performed in over the years? Our venues had grown fast, but there was an energy to performing that I’d always loved, and eighteen months of not being on a stage had been both amazing and kind of terrifying.

“I did,” I admitted.

“Me too,” Aubrey said, and Yvette stuck her tongue at both of us. "What? As much as we needed the break, it wasn’t like we hated it.”

Laughter shook me. “No, we didn’t. We were just tired.” So tired. No one told you when you made it big just how much work a tour was. How you forgot what city you were in or what day it was. That you lived your life one show at a time and on days when you doubled up—well, you were lucky if you didn’t introduce new lyrics to songs because you just went blank on the old ones.

They didn’t tell you that hotel rooms all smelled the same and that there are like six carpet patterns. Room service is a luxury that gets old. Or that you should never order food you know well and love from one country in a completely different country.

“Not sure I’m totally ready to dive back in…” The musing snagged their attention. “But I do miss—I miss the creating, the recording, the working out new dances and routines.”

I missed them. I missed who we were together.

At the same time…

“Graduation is in a few months,” Aubrey said like a record scratch, bringing us back to earth. “Let’s revisit this then…see if we want to work on a new album.”

If we wanted to…

“We should probably talk about it before then,” Yvette pointed out. “Especially if this experiment takes you guys to college.”

“Maybe.” I didn’t want to commit to anything. A lot could happen in the next few months. I flipped to the photos on my phone. Jackie had been sending me snaps of Pen with little anecdotes.

There were big tests coming up soon. We’d finally see if the chemo was working.

Fuck, I hoped so. Everyone kept saying the survival rates were good and that the treatment course was ideal. We had good doctors and a supportive staff.

But Pen was a baby and I just wanted her to do happy baby things. My phone rang while I was holding it, and RJ’s name popped up on the screen. Yeah, not this weekend. I needed a break from Blue Ivy drama. I still had no idea why he’d sent me that riddle to meet him.