Undercover Star

♪ Forty-Two ♪

"Mini tour, here we come!" Rich exclaimed as we entered the airport.

He slipped on his sunglasses that did nothing to hide his grin. He was way to excited about this, not to mention his overuse of the words 'mini tour'.

He had drilled it into my head that this was not going to be a huge tour like the last one. He had a few major stops that I was to perform some old music at, plus the new song I wrote while in Churchwood. Of course, my writers revised it so that I could hardly recognize my lyrics from it anymore.

I guess Rich was really just trying to make the trip more appealing to me, who still wanted to drop everything. I had been rehearsing like crazy, and although I hated it, the work distracted me from everything.

It didn't feel right practicing my old songs anymore. I felt like a new person trying to regain my old self back again. I knew I had changed, but I didn't realize how much until I put on my old clothes and stepped onto an empty stage. Life flooded back into me, and it wasn't the life I wanted.

All the times I felt like I could just pretend to be normal again disappeared when I performed and also when a crew of body guards surrounded me as we entered an off-put entrance to the busy airport. I couldn't be normal, and that kind of realization made me sick. I had my chance and I blew it.

My thoughts nearly always switched to Summer when I had the time to let them wander. Rich did everything in his power to keep me focused on my work, but you can only try to make a fish climb a tree for so long before you give up.

I had been talking to her over the phone regularly for the past couple of weeks. It was almost always in between rehearsal times and movie auditions. If I had a spare minute after running through a script, I would give her a call. Sometimes she would answer and we would talk for a few minutes. Nothing we talked about was that interesting--both of us trying to ignore the inevitable conversation of how this wasn't going to work out forever. Other times, she wouldn't even pick up and I knew she was busy with her life in Churchwood that I was not a part of.

It wasn't--couldn't be considered--an ideal relationship, but for the time being, it was better than nothing. Neither of us wanted to give up, holding on to the mere hope that we would see each other again. Of course, I would still simply, for lack of a better word, be Logan. And she was Summer and that meant we couldn't possibly ever be together.

"I heard this is the most boring place in the world," Zak said, breaking my train of thought.

I had told him not to come on the tour with us. Of course, I loved having the company, but he had already done so much for me that I tried to urge him to stay home and relax.

Being the stubborn person he was, he refused, and he even helped Rich pick the places we were going to stop. That scared me, but I didn't even bother to ask where we were going. I figured it would be a few big cities and then I'd go home.

"Fantastic," I replied to Zak's comment.

We boarded the plane. I sat in between Zak and Rich, and refused to let myself remember the last time I was on a plane. Instead, I busied myself by looking past Rich and out the window.

"I bet you're tired from rehearsing all day," Rich said.

I nodded once, realizing for the first time that I was tired. I had worked a lot yesterday, and I also was forced awake at five in the morning. I was fooled by a few cups of coffee to make me think I was awake.

"Better get some rest," Rich told me, leaning his head back and closing his own eyes.

I looked over at Zak, who already looked like he was asleep. I shook my head, wondering what could possibly have kept him up last night. I'd loved to switch places with him someday, just to see how he'd handle my lifestyle. For me, it'd be an all-you-can-eat vacation.