Somewhere in the Middle

Jealousy

Jamie knew it was wrong. Knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help himself.

He paused, breath caught in his throat, as voices filtered out through the closed door of the back lounge, muffled and low. And rather than climb up into his bunk like he'd planned to, he leaned closer, pressed his ear to the door.

Her voice became clearer. "...he wasn't the same anymore, and I - I tried to ignore it. Tried to go about my days like I normally would. But... I knew something was off."

Jamie's heart was pounding. She was in there with Luke. He and Greg had left them alone about twenty minutes ago, and despite the cup of coffee he'd just had, he thought he might catch a nap before they made it to Toronto that night. But now...

"He had a shorter fuse with me. He was disappearing for large chunks of time in each city. Partying too much. Smoking too much." She paused, sighed. "The happy go-lucky guy I'd fallen in love with was slipping away, and... and I got scared. Paranoid, I guess. So, I pushed him. Stayed on his case. Tried to get him back. It only made everything worse."

The ex. He'd known it almost immediately, but hearing that just confirmed it.

"But there was nothing else I could really do. We couldn't even take a break. We were in the middle of a tour, and had to be around each other constantly. So I tried to ignore the fact that he seemed to want nothing to do with me anymore."

She'd never given him any details, but he already wanted to bash the guy's head in.

"And that's when... that's when I found out. He threw it in my face, actually, during a fight. The last fight we ever had." She sounded like she was laughing. Maybe trying to laugh. Jamie's heart squeezed. "He freaked out cause I asked him -"

"What are you doing?" a voice said, too loudly from behind Jamie.

He whipped around, his body seized by terror at the thought that Luke and Evie had heard Greg, too.

"Nothing," he whispered quickly, waving his hand frantically at Greg. "Shhh."

Greg's lips tilted in a smile. "Am I supposed to believe that?" He walked closer. And Jamie's heart leaped up into his throat, the air around him abruptly growing too thin. But he couldn't yell at Greg to get away, to leave him alone—not when Evie and Luke could so easily hear them through the door.

"What are they saying that's so interesting?" Greg asked, whispering now, leaning closer to the door beside Jamie and smirking as he listened.

Much to Jamie's relief, Evie and Luke were still talking. And though he felt even more guilty now that Greg had started eavesdropping as well, he had to know what she was saying.

"In every state. Every city. Right under my nose," Evie said, her voice lower, more... controlled. "And of all that I thought he was doing... that never occurred to me."

What? What never occurred to her?

Greg's eyebrows were drawn together, just as confused as Jamie was, and he silently mouthed, "What's she talking about?"

Jamie rolled his eyes in response. If Greg hadn't interrupted, he might have actually heard what she had said.

"So... that's it," she said then, only frustrating Jamie more. What was it? She tried to laugh again. "That's why... musicians, I - the fact that I work with them, I just, felt like it was better to just, steer clear."

Jamie sensed the conversation was about to take a turn, and Greg must've, too, because as soon as Evie said that, he stood back.

"Come on, dude," he whispered, a hand on Jamie's back as he cocked his head toward the front lounge. Jamie could see it in his eyes—the same thought that whipped across his mind and lodged itself in the corner, just beside the wanting to stay and hear the rest of their muted, private conversation: We've heard enough.