Somewhere in the Middle

One Condition

Evie didn't want to listen, but she couldn't very well help it. For one thing, Pete's voice was always loud, and for another, he and Jamie were now shouting over each other.

"No!" Jamie shouted. "You can't do that, man, come on! The label -"

"Will trust me when I say that you're not fit for this tour anymore!" Pete yelled in response, and something in Evie's stomach seemed to clench.

She knew she wasn't alone in her fear when Lucas froze beside her.

Evie glanced over at him when he sat forward moments later, hanging his head in his hands.

"He can't do that, can he?" she asked softly. Jamie and Pete had gotten relatively quiet again in the front of the bus.

Lucas looked up, and shrugged when his eyes met hers. "I don't see why not." He let his hands fall to dangle between his knees, and rubbed his palms together, his eyes on the floor instead of on her. "Maybe it's for the best."

Evie wanted to agree, but she couldn't ignore the very real fact that if Pete called the tour, she'd be out of a job. The best job she'd had yet. Sure, it was challenging, and dealing with Jamie was the reason for most of those challenges, but she'd somehow come to love it anyway. She'd come to love them. All of them. Especially...

"He can't," she said, more to herself than to Lucas. He looked up anyway.

"I - I just mean..." What did she mean? "This is supposed to be a four-month long, international tour. He can't just end it. We're not even halfway through. What about all those people who bought tickets? All those fans?"

Lucas sat back with a sigh, and brought a hand up to his hair, raked his fingers through it. Evie watched as the curls bounced right back into place.

"I know. God, I don't even want to think about that, but..." he started to say, lifting his feet and propping them up on the coffee table. "If it means getting Jamie back, it'll be worth it."

Evie's stomach turned to straight mush at that. At the way he loved his friend enough to do what was best for him, even though it meant putting off what Lucas loved to do.

"There'll be other tours," he said then. Evie wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself. "And if Jamie's better, the tours'll be better."

He turned to look at her then, and Evie tried not to smile.

"What?" he asked, one of his own tugging at his lips.

She'd thought they'd kept enough distance between them when they sat down. She couldn't feel the heat of his body, or the way his arm brushed against hers, and there was a nice chunk of couch showing between their legs. But in that moment, it still didn't feel like enough.

Evie shrugged. "Nothing."

Luke tilted his head back, his grin growing. "That wasn't nothing. That was totally something."

Evie looked away then, embarrassed and nervous to be put on the spot when she was feeling so attracted to him. She picked at the frayed hole in the knee of her jeans. "I don't know. That was just... sweet of you, I guess. That you're okay with the tour ending if it means your friend gets better."

What she didn't say was that she didn't think she'd feel the same way if she was in his position.

"You going soft on me, Evie Porter?" he asked then, and winked when she met his eye.

She gave him a shove. Luke laughed, but then grabbed her hand, and Evie regretted touching him altogether.

For the most part, anyway.