COLLIDE ✰ BLAKE RICHARDSON

PROLOGUE

Leah never expected this. Any of it.

It wasn't planned, wasn't even written in the fine print of the contract that she hadn't really read thoroughly before signing (yes, she went back and checked, just to make sure). Not even her manager had warned her of it or even said that this could ever be in the realm of possibility. Newly signed artists almost never booked tours right away. Frankly, it didn't make any sense at all. She barely had a following, if you didn't count her friends and family and couple thousand YouTube subscribers. Certainly not a big enough fan base for this to make any sense at all.

So, when her manager called one day and told her that The Vamps' management had contacted her about being one of two openers on their upcoming US tour, she went into shock. Like, actual shock, as in dropping her phone on the tile floor and subsequently shattering it, but in that whirlwind of a moment, Leah didn't even care. Everyone knew The Vamps. Everyone loved them for their music and infectious charm, including her -- she'd even posted covers of their songs on her YouTube in the early days of her career. The fact that they even knew who she was, let alone watched her videos and liked her enough to invite her to tour with them, was unfathomable.

After the phone shattering came the tears, which flowed out of her eyes like she'd never cried before. When Leah finally regained her composure enough to pick up her cracked cell phone and call her manager, Marie, back, her hands shook as she raised it to her ear.

"Are you okay?" Marie, a middle-aged woman who took no bullshit but also had a huge soft spot for her newest client, suppressed a chuckle from the other line. Leah could tell there was a smile on her face.

"Am I okay?!?!? The mother effing VAMPS want me to open for them and you're asking if I'm OKAY?!?!?"

"I'll take that as you want me to call Joe back and tell him you'll do it?"

"Oh, hell yes."