She should have read the signs for what they were instead of brushing them aside. Now, here she was, barely breathing, as her boyfriend was kissing another girl. It didn’t even seem possible.
Her Damon couldn’t hurt her this way.
“Trihn,” Bryna whispered, putting a hand on her shoulder, “we should get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without talking to him,” she said with conviction in her voice.
“He did stop her,” Stacia said.
“Awesome,” Trihn said sarcastically.
“I just mean…maybe it was unwanted?”
“Are you defending him?” Trihn asked.
“No,” Stacia peeped.
“Yes,” Bryna corrected. “Yes, she is. Let’s talk to him first.”
Trihn stood and threw her hands wide. “Yes, let’s defend him, even when we see with our own two eyes what he did.”
“If I could interrupt,” Pace said, holding his hand up.
“You can’t,” Bryna snapped.
“You’re causing a scene,” Pace growled low.
Trihn and Bryna both stopped what they were doing. Looking around their area of the arena, they saw it was true. Eyes were drawn toward them. Several girls had taken pictures of them. Some of them even seemed to have recognized who Trihn was.
“Shit,” Trihn whispered. “We should go backstage.”
Her friends nodded without a word. They veered out of their aisle and headed toward the nearest exit. Trihn heard her name as she passed by the Avanaddicts. She ducked her head and hurried out of the room. The last thing anyone needed after Chloe’s breakdown was to draw attention to Trihn.
Bryna had been to the arena before and lapped them around the room to the backstage entrance. A crowd had formed by the door, and a bouncer was standing there, directing people to return to their seats.
“What’s going on?” Bryna asked the nearest girl.
“They won’t let backstage-pass holders in to see Chloe even though we paid for them.”
“Once again,” the bouncer’s voice boomed, “if you are not on the approved list to be backstage, then you should all return to your seats. No backstage passes will be granted at this time. I don’t have official word yet on a refund. Please return to your seats.”
No one moved.
“Are you on that list?” Bryna asked Trihn.
“Damon doesn’t know I’m here.”
“Then, maybe you should get ahold of him.”
Trihn nodded. “Yeah. Right. Okay.”
She grabbed her forgotten phone to text Damon, but she already had a message there. That was fast, considering what he’d just been doing.
I love you.
Trihn wanted to melt at those words, but it just infuriated her. He’d just been kissing Chloe, and now, he wanted to tell her he loved her. Did he think that the word would get out, and he wanted to protect himself before she could find out? Because she had seen it firsthand and wasn’t going to roll over.
Then, you should let me backstage.
What?
Surprise…I’m at the show.
In Los Angeles?
Yep.
Fuck…I’ll be there in a minute.
Trihn showed the messages to Bryna. “Clearly, he knows something is up.”
Bryna and Stacia frowned but didn’t say anything. They all waited impatiently for Damon.
A few minutes passed before a bouncer called over the crowd, “Trihnity Hamilton!”
Trihn’s head whipped around, and she raised her hand.
“You’re all cleared.”
A bunch of girls glared at her. Bryna and Stacia both squeezed her and wished her good luck.
“I’ll see you guys later.”
“You’ll do great,” Stacia said.
Bryna just smiled forlornly. Trihn took a deep breath and then elbowed her way through the crowd and past the bouncer.
Damon was standing on the other side of the door, looking as ruggedly handsome as she had ever seen him. At the moment, it was actually unfair for him to be that attractive. He still had on the dark jeans and dark blue T-shirt he’d had on while onstage. His baseball cap was missing, and he looked like he wanted to be fiddling with it to give his hands something to do.
“Hey,” he said. His face brightened when he saw her, and he pulled her against him.
Trihn was stiff in his embrace, and he quickly pulled back. He looked concerned at her lack of enthusiasm. And she figured he had every right to be afraid after what had just happened.
“Um…let’s get out of here. We’ll go to my dressing room.”
She followed behind him as he hurried away from the crowded backstage area. Trihn wondered if it was to tell the crowd that the show was over. Chloe hadn’t looked like she would be ready to go back out there anytime soon.
But who knew? Maybe Damon’s kiss had reenergized her.
Trihn frowned at her own negative thoughts as she followed him into the dressing room with his name on it.
By the time she walked inside, she was seething. All she wanted to do was blow up and demand answers, but she also wanted to give Damon a chance to tell her the truth.
“Not the best concert for you to show up to,” Damon said, closing the door behind her.
“Why is that?” she asked. Because you kissed someone else?