“I’m gonna call Georgia. I’ll be back in a bit.” Regan stood, brushing dust from his jeans as he walked away.
I could hardly blame him for needing some space from the conversation, and I respected his desire to give me privacy, but I could have used a little assistance with the Hippie Peace Force that surrounded me.
“Do you want to take a walk, too?” Journey nudged my arm with her elbow.
Mags looked around me to her parter. “He told November he’d be right here when she came out.” She planted a soft kiss on my cheek. “I think that’s sweet.”
“It’s necessary. Did you two know anything?”
Mags looked to the sky as Journey let out a slight sigh.
Fantastic.
“Come on, Mags,” I pleaded.
Mags ran her hand over her short brown hair, stopping it at the back of her neck. When she looked at me, her large brown eyes were uncertain. “It’s not my story to tell, Bo.”
As a matter of course, I looked to Journey for a second opinion. Her blonde dreadlocks moved slowly as she shook her head in apology.
I was growing annoyed—and more anxious—as the minutes passed, though I was sure they felt longer inside that RV than out where I was sitting. “Fine. If you two don’t mind, I’d rather wait here alone.”
Without another word, the couple stood and wandered through two thick trees and into an open field far from the RV. Every other second, or so, I wanted to bail from my post and join them in the sun. In a world that existed only an hour before. The world where Ember knew where she came from. Given the unrest Ember discussed in her childhood—always moving from place to place—she always said that her family was what anchored her. I didn’t know what was going on inside that RV, but I readied the rowboat anyway.
***
A few hours passed before any signs of life came from the RV. Regan had returned earlier, but grabbed my guitar from underneath the vehicle and posted up under a tree a couple hundred feet away, toying with the strings. At some point, Journey and Mags made their way back to the second RV in our dysfunctional caravan, and I hadn’t seen them in two hours.
My legs were alternating between burning and falling asleep when the door opened. In a second I shot to my feet, regretting the hasty movement as my legs woke angrily. With grace on my side, Ember was the first out of the RV. There wasn’t anything in my emotional history that could have prepared me for what awaited.
With swollen eyes, red splotches across her paler cheeks, and her hair tied back from her face, Ember moved slowly down the stairs. The sounds from my guitar ceased from behind me, as Regan appeared to be taking in the scene.
I stepped toward her and held out my hand. When she reached me she didn’t look up. She simply took my hand and started walking toward the far end of the parking lot.
“We’re renting a car and driving to the next venue.” Her voice was hoarse and further away than I’d ever heard. She didn’t try to clear her throat as she continued. “You and I are driving to the rest of the tour dates, okay? I’ve called the car company and they’ll be here in twenty minutes. Can you get our things?”
I stopped us at the edge of the grass and grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face me. When she still wouldn’t look up, I lifted her chin with my fingers. Reluctantly, her eyes moved to mine.
“Ember,” I whispered. “What happened?”
Without hesitation, her face melted into a torrent of tears. Words stumbled out fragmented between sobs. “Just … just get the stuff, okay?”
I pulled her to me, holding her head to my chest, still left with as many questions as I had hours earlier. When her cries quieted, I kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be right back.”
Ember nodded and wiped her face dry as she turned her back. “I’m going to freshen up in the restroom.” She spoke softly without turning around.
As I walked back to the RV, I watched Willow exit with her parents and move to the other RV. I hadn’t seen Raven or Ashby yet, but I was about to since I needed to get our things from inside the vehicle.
Not knowing the protocol for such a thing, I rapped my knuckles against the side of the open door. “It’s just Bo … I’m … coming to get our stuff.”
I walked the rest of the way and found Raven and Ashby sitting silently at the table that just this morning held the laughter of me and my friends.
“Of course, Bo. Come on in.” Raven tried a smile, but it barely spread across her entire mouth before disappearing.
I pulled our backpacks down from the overhead cabinet, and stuffed them with our phones and iPod’s and other things we’d strewn around as we’d made ourselves comfortable for what was to be a long drive. Asbhy and Raven remained silent.
“So …” I started, feeling more awkward around Ember’s parents than I ever had. Especially since I wasn’t sure if I was looking at both of Ember’s parents. “Ash, can you just … give me the names of the next few venues so I can program the addresses in my phone?”