Page 32 of Paint Our Song

Calvin, who’s still some distance away, looks up from the poster he’s signing. He looks confused, and Chase and Gil also look toward Miles.

“Yeah!” Calvin calls back. “Miles, where’s Gabby?”

“I’m here!” Gabby yells from the middle of the crowd. She waves to get his attention.

Calvin nods at her. He looks back at Miles across the small crowd. “I’ll catch up with you!”

“O-okay,” Miles squeaks, too soft for Calvin to even hear him. Theo leads him inside the bus. There are a few disgruntled sounds from the crowd, a few people who weren’t able to talk to him, and Theo blows them a kiss, which apparently is what does it for them. They squeal, and Theo disappears inside the bus with Miles in tow.

The inside of the bus is spacious, considering it’s the inside of a bus. It’s sleek with couches along the side, as well as a small table in the corner. There are dark blinds drawn down the windows hiding the outside world, and toward the back is a closed-off area that Miles assumes is likely a bedroom. The bus is… empty. Miles thought the tour bus would be much more crowded with people. It’s actually quite intimate, and Miles feels sorely out of place.

“Make yourself at home. Miles, was it?” Theo asks, urging him to take a seat. Frazzled, Miles nods and sits down. Theo rummages through a mini-fridge and grabs a can of beer, tossing it at Miles, who stumbles to catch it.

The door to the bus opens once more, and there’s an onslaught of laughter as Chase and Gil climb on up, almost stumbling their steps. Gabby comes in with Calvin behind her, and Derrick’s the last to come up. Miles is alarmed to see that Gabby’s carrying a cap from Calvin’s fan club, and has even asked Calvin to sign it. He’s even more alarmed when she drops it on his lap.

“Got this for you,” she says.

“Huh? Oh. Thanks?” Miles looks at the cap, then at Gabby, then at Calvin. Turning away, Calvin stifles a laugh, and Miles’s face heats up.

He senses someone else staring, and he looks across the bus and spots Theo looking at him with an oddly calculating expression. It’s as if he’s sizing him up, studying him, trying to figure out why a stranger like him is on their tour bus.

Miles doesn’t know the answer to that puzzle, either.

“Hey!” Chase says to Miles. Miles makes a move to get up, just because it’d be polite, but Chase sits down beside him and puts an arm around his shoulder and crowds him. Miles isn’t sure how to act.

“I’m Chase, this is Gil.”

Gil waves at him, as if Miles has no clue who they were. Still, being up this close to the band is disarming. He’s noticing things that weren’t so obvious through a screen, such as that Gil also has a good few inches on him and has arms and shoulders so defined he could probably pick up every one of them easily. He also notices that Chase’s blue eyes are alarmingly pretty.

“You’re Miles, Cal’s buddy?” Chase turns to Gabby. “Are you Cal’s friend, too?”

Gabby’s grinning so widely it must hurt. “I’m Gabby.”

“You’re cute,” he says, straight to the point.

Gabby shrugs, and Miles can see she’s unaffected otherwise. He’s never really known her to be interested in flirting. Apparently, it holds true even if it’s someone from a verypopular band.

“You’re the first friends Cal’s ever invited backstage. I didn’t even know he had friends.”

“I have friends,” Calvin mutters.

Chase grins. “Aside from us?”

Gil crosses the short expanse from the other side of the room and forces Chase to get up. “You’re done. Stop bugging them. I need you to open your bag. I left my phone in it.”

Rolling his eyes, Chase relents and gets up, but not before patting Miles’s arm. He says something to Gil that Miles doesn’t hear, and then they both disappear to the back. Miles makes the astute observation that not one of them has said a word to Theo, who’s now buried on his phone.

Calvin only moves when Derrick needs to get through, and he takes a seat on the couch across from Miles. “Did you watch us play?”

“Yeah. Of course we did!” Miles exclaims. The beer in his hand is cold and still unopened, and he absently puts it on the seat beside him. Theo’s stare flickers over to him for a moment, as if tracking his movements. “You were all incredible. It’s the first time I’ve seen you all live.”

“Miles was frozen in place,” Gabby says. “I’ve never seen him so quiet.”

“I—shut up, Gabby!” He lightly shoves her.

Calvin tucks his chin to his chest and smiles. “Glad you enjoyed it.”

Face lit up, Miles nods enthusiastically. “I can’t believe it took me way too long to see your band play live. Our tickets were amazing,too. They were so close to the stage.”