Star-Crossed ✔️

20

this chapter is a fucking
rollercoaster....be forewarned
(also so late SOWWY)

- 20 -

Noah was missing.

Kailey tried to ease my mind about it, insisting he probably went out exploring and lost track of time. He didn't attend the show, which didn't bother me, but he wasn't on the bus. I tried calling him, but worry consumed me when I heard the soft buzz of his phone's vibrations buried beneath the blankets on my bed.

So Noah was on his own somewhere in East Rutherford, New Jersey after dark without his cell phone.

"He's a big boy, Theo. I'm sure he's fine," Joey told me, standing on my tour bus with his phone in his hand. "But if he's not on this bus by midnight, we're leaving without him."

It was eleven-thirty.

What was I supposed to do? I didn't know how he was feeling before the show since I hadn't seen him. When I found his phone in the bed, I noticed a number of missed calls and voicemails from MacNeil again. The two minute, one-sided conversation I'd had with the man yesterday was enough to make me want to drink. I couldn't imagine what measures Noah was willing to take to try to block that out.

"He'll be here," I mumbled, dropping my body onto the couch. "He probably got lost. Travis is driving around looking, right?"

Joey hummed in affirmation. "Everything okay with you two now?" he asked and took only a half a second to look up from his phone screen to look at me accusingly.

"I thought so," was all I could say.

Because I really did. I thought after our conversation that we were on much better terms, because we were, right? We had a new level of trust and comfort within each other, or so I thought. I'd expect him to at least let me know if he was going to grab food or go on a walk or something. Even if we weren't necessarily close, we had a connection that neither of us could deny. I just wondered if it was strong enough to last any more of this.

Joey left to go let everyone know what (who) we were waiting on. I didn't sit idly for long, eventually resorting to occupying my hands in various ways to keep myself distracted. First, I tidied up the main area of the bus, throwing away tidbits of trash and collecting loose clothing items thrown aside by either Noah or myself over the past week. Then I resorted to changing the sheets on my bed because . . . what else are you supposed to do instead of worrying? After I busied myself with feeding Chester since Noah evidently couldn't be bothered to do so before he disappeared for hours on end, I heard the latch on the bus door click open.

"Just me," I heard my assistant Travis call out.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest, heading out to meet him in the sitting area. "Any sign of him?" I asked, but I knew the answer already.

Travis looked apologetic, as if it were his fault that Noah was so irresponsible. "No, and Joey asked me to come tell you that we can't wait any longer. We've got to be in Chicago by noon with only three stops scheduled," he said, a bit of an edge to his voice that told me he wanted to get the hell off this bus before I reacted.

The anger was starting to rise higher and higher, replacing the initial worry. I wasn't even sure who I was more angry with: Joey, for being so quick to leave someone behind in a strange city, or Noah, for getting us into this bullshit in the first place.

I took a deep breath. Travis was neither of those points of anger so I reined it in. "Tell him we're not leaving without him, please," I said. "You know what? I'll tell him myself."