Playing Russian Roulette.

Close your eyes and take into the night
Why don't you forget about my history?
Close your eyes and take into the night
Why won't you just forgive me?
Close your eyes and take into the night
Why won't you show me your conscience?
Close your eyes and take into the night
Walking home, feeling hopeless

-The Blackout..

The crowds rushing the Invisible Children tent was a massive sea of trendy girls and grungy boys. Neon colors, odd hair, spikes, chains, animal print, and bows. Kids ran - streaked - from the gates, across the grounds, and to the merchandise filled tent to get in the front rows, to be the first to buy a shirt from me, the special guest.

Word traveled fast over the internet. Dominic, the representative for I.C. on Warped, posted on all the usual social networking websites, causing an uproar of many, numerous people coming fourth to see if Piper Oakes was actually at the tent, selling things for the day.

Up until two, at least. Not missing Escape the Fate, of course. I’d have to leave at that point, and come back after their set if people still wanted me to be at the tent. If I was lucky, the boys would follow after their Vans signing session.

Invisible Children wouldn’t know what hit them.

Beyond the kids, a blue, cloudless Georgia day was in full spin. The heat was bearable with enough iced water bottles and a rather skimpy outfit, but the weather forecast called for rain in the evening, explaining why Atlanta was not its normal, overwhelming, sticky self. Not that I felt like complaining.

The slight, fresh breezes sending coolness over my body would help for my duty to be out in the sun all day.

Of course. Just when everything was getting the way I wanted, Rachel decided I needed to work my ass off until time to return home, which I found to be a very welcoming thought. I loved this job, but what could be better than sitting in my house with Ghost, Kit Kat, and Max?

Nothing in my opinion.

But, first, I needed to get through today, then the rest of Warped. The agenda for the present day was the Invisible Children job, give Devin the commentary for out I.C. video, get a few clips from several sets to put into a tour recap, watch the boys, and take Ghost for a walk.

On top of that, I wanted to talk to Max about the important discovery from last night… and sending Rachel an update of how things went wouldn’t hurt.

I felt like laughing as I surveyed all the kids from my spot in the furthest corner of the merchandise tent, out of the other workers’ way. As much as I enjoyed whining over the jobs Rachel gave me, I liked being busy.

Busy kept me from my own thoughts and reserved me from trouble. I loved having something to do, to focus on, instead of wandering out in a clueless, bored state of mind. I would do physically anything to keep myself from that position yet again.

“Okay, Miss Piper. You ready?” Dominic’s voice broke through my thoughts, and I snapped my gaze back to his post at the front table. Smiling, he patted a spot on the large, long, faux wood platform to his left.

I shimmied away from my comfortable corner and slid across the concrete parking lot. I took my given spot beside him and a tall, fair haired, tan skinned merch girl, wearing a dark shirt of her job’s namesake, and across from where Devin and Stefan stood off to the corner of the tent with the camera ready.

I pursed my lips and grazed my hands onto the table.

My eyes glanced over the few shirts laid out on the table, then to the others hanging in the back of the tent. “Should I buy one of the shirts to wear? Show the love?” Get out of Devin’s gay marriage muscle shirt. There is nothing worse than a shirt that shows my bra.

Dominic shrugged a nonchalant shoulder, giving me the one over of my mismatched outfit. A man’s revealing shirt, ragged blue jean shorts, and tennis shoes with holes in the heels. What I would do for a cheap, close by Laundromat to wash my clothes.

The only downfall of our fancy RV was the lack of washer-dryer access. Our bus just wasn’t that rich, luxurious, or lavish. But if Stefan’s aunt owned just a little more money--

“Whatever you want, Piper.” Nonetheless, Dominic bent and picked up a white tank top from a box placed on the blacktop and pushed it into my hands. Of course, it was a size small. Ha. “But I think you should change your shirt. You look a little… uncomfortable in the No Hate thing.”

I snatched up the merchandise sitting in front of me and held it out. “Invisible Children” read up and down the shirt in blocky, black letters. Good enough, as long as I could change out of the rather embarrassing, four-year-old top.

I turned around so my back was facing the growing crowd. Tossing my gaze over my shoulder, I smiled at Dominic., then at Devin, who looked upset. My best, adorable, cute smile. “Do you think you could shield me?” I questioned. “I’ve had one too many articles written about my bad behavior.”

Dominic grabbed a discarded jacket from a chair and held it up to my torso. With the knowledge of hundreds of kids approaching, I yanked Devin’s shirt up and over my head, tossing it at Stefan who caught it perfectly, and yanked the other one on.

I turned once I was finished, and he lowered the jacket.

“I’ve never seen our merchandise look better.” And with a smirk, he moved back to the table.

I actually didn’t mind him saying things such as that. He was a very nice, kind guy who I had nothing against. Not a hint of creepy anywhere, and I didn’t believe for a moment that he meant anything he said of it. He was just being… sweet.

Yeah, people flirting with me used to make me feel uncomfortable, but something about the abundance of admirers seemed to help the issues. And I could only thank hell that Max didn’t often gush over how gorgeous or beautiful I was. Clingy was not a turn on for me, but neither was abuse.

Max was a happy medium. He made sure to remind me how good I looked enough to keep me happy, but he didn’t overkill it.

I strolled back to my spot at the table and leaned a hip against the wooden structure, perching a hand on the corner. The first group of people bustled up to the front in one large rush… and the line of girls before us seemed to be in the same flock of friends…

That is, if their matching homemade shirts had anything to say about it.

Devin lifted his camera, the red light piercing the shadowed area.

Dominic flew into professional mode. “Form three lines, please. One for donations and other business type products in front of me.” He motioned to a spot ahead of him, where a girl with purple hair stood. “And two for merchandise in front of Piper and Kelli.”

Kelli! Remember that to avoid awkward confrontations later. Kelli, Kelli, Kelli!

Amazingly enough, everyone obeyed and split, several -- more people than I expected -- flew over to me and formed a perfect line. Today was going to be interesting and rather busy. But the amount of fans I had never ceased to amaze me. A Buzznet reporter with the following of some superstar or internet model.

Plastering on a smile, I waved the first girl up. She had a cute, baby face with blonde highlights in her brunette hair, and her particular shirt had a giant pair of red lips on the front. “Hello,” I greeted.

“Hello!” Her voice dripped with sweetness. “I’m Ashley. I’m one of your biggest fans! I love you and Devin and Stefan, and the way you are such good friends with Escape the Fate despite all the things that happened in your past--”

My heart skipped several beats, almost stopping completely. My past? Impossible! No one outside of the boys knew my past! And most certainly I would never tell my fans or the general public about what I had put my friends through.

My eyes scanned over the girl’s innocent face. How much could she know? Not much, considering there had been no press about my bullshit life after Ronnie went to jail. “My - my past?” I breathed, hands reaching down to grip the only sturdy object in sight.

The girl -- Ashley -- looked confused. “Yeah, your past with Ronnie. The rest of the band was surely upset that you are still with him, I assume.”

Relief flooded over me! Of course. “Yes, they were, but I’m not with him anymore.” I raked my hand through my hair. “So, would you like to buy a shirt? The line is getting longer.”

Ashley didn’t say another word. She pointed to the top she wanted. I plucked it from the corresponding box below, she paid, and turned and disappeared into the crowd. Though crushing people’s dreams and snapping at teenaged girls for asking questions wasn’t good for my karma, it made me realize something.

No one in my fan base could find out about the past, not if I wanted to keep working at Buzznet. But, that wouldn’t be so hard. All I had to do was keep what I said about it to a minimum, and the only other people who knew were the boys, Devin, Stefan, and Gabrielle. The boys, Devin, and Stefan wouldn’t say a single word.

Gabrielle, I couldn’t be so sure. However, she wasn’t in the limelight like she was when with us on the tour. Sitting at home in Las Vegas, where would she get the proper soap box she needed to kill whatever credibility I owned?

Nowhere.

“Yeah, perfect reputation.” It would remain that way, just as Stefan said on the first day of our amazing new job.

Perfect. Spotless. Clean.

I pointed a finger at Devin’s camera. “You will edit that out, Devin Reilly.”

“He will.” Stefan nudged Devin in the back. “Won’t you, darling?”

Devin nodded. “Fine.”

The next few girls didn’t associate with me following the ass I made of myself to their friend. They bought their shirts, some even transferring to Kelli’s line, and left without a word. They didn’t even respond to my “hello”.

I took it, though, and did my job with a smile. Invisible Children, Dominic, and Kelli deserved that much, even if I was having a pretty crappy time at first. But, once the collection of bitchy teenaged girls disbanded and went their separate ways from the merchandise tents, I started getting into it.

Actual fans, I discovered, didn’t ask questions like Ashley did. They gushed over how great my hair looked, how cute Max and I were, all their favorite moments in the Warped Tour or Bust! series, and blurted out random lyrics from the songs I loved the most.

A guy even showed me his recent tattoo. It said “My Dear Juliet” and it was both an homage to his beautiful girlfriend and the love they both had for Escape the Fate and my web series.

There was no way I would ever get used to the feeling of having so many people love me.

But, eventually, there came a time when the good bands hit the stage about two hours later, and the steady flow of customers slowed to a trickle of a couple people every ten minutes or so. Dominic and Kelli sat down in the chairs behind the table and I rested myself on the corner as Devin set up another memory card for my commentary.

Stefan stood at my back, leaning over the table tiredly.

“Oh, sorry about that girl, earlier, Miss Piper. I don’t know what she said, but you seemed pretty upset by it,” Dominic said.

My gaze snapped over to him. “What girl?”

“The one wearing the lips shit,” he answered. “I don’t know what she said, but you seemed pretty upset by it. Are you okay -- not that it’s any of my business or anything, but… are you okay, Piper?”

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was really nothing.” But, I avoided his and Kelli’s prying eyes and looked at Stefan. “Just people sticking their noses in places that don’t belong, staring drama, and shit like that. The usual in my life.”

A silence filled the tent. Kelli and Dominic stared at me continuously, making my skin squirm uncomfortably. I listened to the Millionares’ earsplitting vocals, glanced over my shoulder at Devin; anything to ignore how awful and awkward this job had become on such short notice.

“Okay!” Devin called. “I’m ready for you, Jay. Come here.”

I spun around on my ass and hopped off the table on the other side. I hurried over to my best friend, snatching the microphone he was holding out, and took my spot in front of him, grinning. It was almost over!

“Dominic, we need you over here, too!”

He quickly joined us and was given a microphone matching mine, and he took his spot at my left side. I straightened my hair and waited…

“And, action, darlings.”

“Hello, Buzznet viewers! This is Piper Oakes, and I am standing in front of the Invisible Children tent at the Vans Warped Tour 2009. Today, I have been assigned as the special guest to attract new customers for this amazing charity.”

I gestured my hand at Dominic. “And this is Dominic, the representative for Invisible Children at the tour, and also quite an amazing person. Would you like to inform everyone on what the charity does exactly? For those who don’t know.”

I let Dominic take over the commentary, and lowered my microphone, listening to what he was saying. But only for a second. My mind wandered to Max. I knew he was doing a signing at the Vans tent at the moment, with the other boys and all their ecstatic fans, but I wanted him with me.

It was strange. I’d never honestly been so attached to a boyfriend that I couldn’t spend more than a few hours away from him without desperately holding on to the hope that he would pop up for just enough time to satiate me.

That, however, was one hell of a dream. Max wouldn’t leave his fans. No way. And I didn’t want him to. I could always visit him, of course. The commentary for the video couldn’t last longer than a few minutes, and I was surely able to live through that.

I glanced up at Dominic. He was in the middle of explaining how the support of bands and musicians helped the charity by spreading the word further than they already had, and then listed a few bands that were most recognizable within the Invisible Children stream of customers.

Thrice, Fall Out Boy, All Time Low. I already knew about them. I’m thirsty… Hmm. I wonder what Rachel has planned for me tomorrow. Or the next day. How busy will I be for the rest of Warped? How much time will I get to spend with Max?

Ha. My thoughts at all times came back to that.

“--but, yeah. That’s the whole Invisible Children story,” Dominic finished.

I glanced up at him, only then realizing that he had drawn the commentary to a close. Quickly, I raised my microphone and faced the camera. “So, that’s all for this episode of ‘Warped Tour or Bust!’. Keep checking back for the remaining days of this amazing tour.”

I sent a smile at Devin, and he flung the universal cut signal at Dominic and me. He dropped the camera to the crook in his side, the light switching to black.

“Perfect.” Devin kicked the equipment bag over to our feet. “Microphones in the bag, then I’m going back to the bus. I’m done with the humidity.” I didn’t think it was that bad, but Devin -- being the person who loved air conditioning as much as he did -- was a little too delicate for the climate of Georgia in the dead of summer.

I removed the microphone from Dominic’s hands and dropped them into the bag before kicking it back to him across the concrete. Stefan shouldered it with a quick fling of an arm, slipping his other one around his boyfriend.

I wracked my brain for a reason to split from the premises… And the first thing to come to mind seemed foolproof. “Wait, before either of you leave, I’m going to make a water run. Do you want a couple bottles for the bus?”

Please say yes. I had learned a few hours earlier that the Ethos Water was located in front of the Vans tent, where the boys were doing a signing at the exact moment.

Devin’s face scrunched into an expression of thought, but finally he pulled away from Stefan and vacated into the tent, tackling one of the nearest fold up chairs. “Fine. Two, Juliet. And please hurry back before I melt.”

“Okay.” I shook my head. “Kelli, Dominic, are you dying from dehydration, too?”

Kelli’s hand shot into the air. “Me! Can I have two bottles?”

“Just one for me,” Dominic added, flipping his hair out of his eyes. “I’m used to hot weather. Unlike these two, apparently.”

I laughed. “Yeah, Devin can’t handle anything above a cool, balmy sixty degrees.” I glanced over my shoulder, meeting Stefan’s gaze. “Come with me?”

“Sure.”

Bidding everyone a quick wave, Stefan and I pointed ourselves in the direction of the Ethos Water tent and shmmied into the crowd, hustling our way forward. Though most everyone were attending the current sets, a good amount of people still wandered around, partying in a very Warped Tour kind of way.

As usual, a few teenagers called out greetings to me and snapped pictures, but they didn't attempt to start a conversation. Thankfully. I was very tired, very thirsty, and I missed Max, a combination that didn't exactly make me in the mood to be cheerful.

But I appreciated their kindness. They, my fans, were still amazing.

The Ethos Water tent emerged at the corner of the long line. I quickened my pace, Stefan gripping my elbow to keep up… But I came to a complete stop a few feet to the back of the crowd waiting to get a chance to get close to their favorite band. Everyone spoke with an excited air, gushing over how great they looked.

I couldn’t see them, dammit!

“Stefan,” I sang, smiling up at him. “Can we wait just a few extra minutes before getting the water? Please? I want to see Max.” I interlaced my fingers and flashed my best pleading eyes up at him, hoping it had the effect I wanted.

It worked on Devin once or twice. Why not on the sweeter of my two best friends?

His face fell for a moment, eyes searching over my desperate appearance. To add an extra air, I stuck out my bottom lip.

Finally, Stefan’s expression visibly softened. “I don’t care, Julie. Go ahead. Suck his lips off for all I care.” He patted the side of my face and kissed my forehead. “But no fighting and no rude behavior.”

“Thank you, Stefan!” Boyfriend first, dehydrated friends second. Great plan for going to hell. I took a few steps toward, closer to the edge of the crowd, and peered around to get a glimpse of the boys. My attempt was unsuccessful, but I did hear Max let out a loud, infectious laugh that coursed through the rest of the fans like wildfire.

I smiled. I may be going to hell, but as long as it is because of Max, I couldn’t care less.

Mission set in place, I inched myself through the excited fans, invading the flock of girls around the tent. I bowed my head to avoid any of the fans recognizing me and giving me away, and, of course, some of them did not like me trying to assault on their great spots.

Some cussed, a few called my names. I ignored it, took it all in stride. After all, anger wasn’t a huge part of me anymore… and I told Stefan I wouldn’t get into any fights with innocent people. No need for that kind of negative press.

Rockstar girlfriend sued for knocking a local fan out at Warped Tour. Max would not be happy with me. Nor would Craig, Robert, or Bryan.

So far so good, though. I repeatedly told myself the fans did not mean a cross word they shot at me and, even if they did, they would take it back once they realized it actually was the other half of Maxper. Letting it go. Letting it go.

The final layer of kids -- the only thing keeping me from seeing Max -- appeared in front of me as I pressed between a blue haired girl and a dude with long, rather luxurious hair. Only one girl stood in my way now.

She had long, brown and blonde, straight hair. Tucked in her arm was what appeared to be an autograph book. I stooped frontward and tapped on the girl’s shoulder.

She tossed a look across, then down. It took her a moment, but she gave a little gasp and mouthed, “Juliet Oakes!” silently.

I nodded and whispered, “Can I cut in front of you?” I tapped the book. “And borrow this for just a second?”

She gave me a gentle shove forward, placing me in her spot and thrusting her book into my hands, and I was able to see the boys for the first time all day. Max sat in front of me, furthest right at the long, L-shaped table, wearing a DCMA t-shirt, sunglasses, and his hair messy. He had his head lowered, signing the picture belonging to the person beside me.

Robert sat beside him, in his usual, cut-off black vest shirt, Craig coming next, shirtless, then Bryan, his purple tank top almost blindingly bright in the sun shining in from the back of the tent.

Behind them stood an intimidating female security guard dressed in a bright, iridescent yellow t-shirt with a black radio clipped to the front. I had a fleeting thought of her not having any idea who I was and launching herself at me if I tried to kiss Max.

But, then again, Max always kissed me first in public. The security guard couldn’t attack him.

Max pushed the picture down the line to Robert, and I seized the moment to lay the open autograph book in front of him. Lazily, he lifted his pen to the page and scribbled his name in curly, yet untidy letters.

He tucked his hand beneath the book and lifted it. “Here you go,” he said, and finally looked up, his eyes catching mine.

A grin burst out on his face. “Hey, Juliet.” He rose and leaned over the table, catching my lips in a quick kiss. When he pulled away, he plopped back down in his chair. “What are you doing here? I thought you were working.”

“I was.” I handed the autograph book back to the girl behind me, thanking her gratefully. “But, I really wanted to see you so I told them I was coming on a run for water. Sneaky, huh?”

“Sneaky,” Max echoed. He waved his hand to the left, and I stepped sideways, making way for the people present for a real signing. I leaned my torso over the table and smiled at him. “Did you have fun selling merch?”

“Not really,” I whispered, sliding my hand through my hair. “The other merch girl is kind of a bitch, and she’s out on probation for doing something that she won’t admit to anyone. The representative guy is too sweet and nice for me, and there was a girl who tried to poke into my personal business. She kind of ruined my whole day.”

Max looked up immediately from the picture he was signing. “Why? What did she say?”

I sighed, rolling my gaze up to the sky. She made me realize that I never want any of my fans to find out my past. She has made my paranoia slightly worse. I’m not telling you all of that, Max. You’ll have to be left in the dark.

“She asked me if you and the rest of the boys were upset that I was still dating Ronnie, and I got kind of bitchy and snapped at her that I wasn’t with Ronnie.” I leaned closer and kissed his cheek. “I’m fine now.”

“Good.” He handed another picture back to a guy holding a toddler girl in his arms. “Where will you be in a little while? Still at Invisible Children?”

I shrugged, standing back to my full height. “I don’t know.”

“Okay. I’ll call you when I’m done with this.” For a goodbye, he kissed me again. “Love you.”

“You, too.” I wiggled my fingers at him before turning and stalking passed the three hundred teenagers packed all around me.

Stefan still stood where I left him, awaiting my return with a big smile. I jogged over to him and did a quick - more than likely ignorant looking - dance around him, grinning widely with my arms flailing at my sides.

Stefan laughed. “Do you feel better now?” He caught my arm. “Stop. You’re starting to scare me… and people are staring.”

I stopped my dance, but only to walk over to the water tent to get the water I promised everyone. Who knew what Devin was doing with lack of water back at Invisible Children. Just the thought made me feel sorry for Dominic and Kelli.

Getting the water needed to go quickly, then. If not, they would probably have him killed by the time we arrived back.

Stefan on my heels, I walked over to the Ethos Water tent, where the same girl from the beginning of tour stood at the back assemblage of coolers. Smiling, I pulled five dollars from my back pocket and placed it on the table.

The girl came forward. “Hello, how many bottles can I get you?”

“Five, please.”

She retreated to the coolers and opened the only red one around. I gave a fleeting glance at the Vans tent, already wishing I was back at his side, sitting in his lap, flaunting him around to everyone I knew until they were sick of me.

Stefan, standing beside me, curled his arm around my shoulders. “I hope that improved your mood, by the way,” he muttered. “That girl kind of ruined your day, huh?”

“She did.” I glanced up at him. “Do you want to know what she made me realize, Stefan?” He gave me an inquiring look, so I continued. “It scared the shit out of me when she asked about ‘my past’ because… I thought she knew about--”

I slid my gaze from left to right, looking at the people standing among us. None of them were truly within earshot, but I had no desire to jinx it just in case someone was eavesdropping.

“--about what happened after Ronnie went to jail.” I tired my best to give him a you-know-what look. “I’m afraid of my fans finding that out. They won’t want to be my fan base anymore.”

Stefan’s face fell. “How would they find out about that, Juliet?”

It would be nearly impossible for them to find out, but that didn’t reassure me that my reputation was safe. “I don’t know,” I whined, tossing his arm off of me and sidestepping him. “But you understand that it could get really bad really fast if people find out.”

Really bad, really fast. Like losing my fans, my job. To me, that was more than just bad. That was horrific, a death sentence.

“Everything will be fine,” Stefan assured. But, I wasn’t so sure. The knot in my stomach refused to loosen and most certainly did not make me feel better about the paranoid thoughts. Why did I keep bringing this up?

It wasn’t worth worrying over, surely. No one would find out -- not a soul -- about my bout of stupidity. After all, who was going to tell them? My loved ones were the only people who knew anything about it.

And they would never do that to me.

The sound of my phone blaring my newest ring tone -- Max, Craig, and Leila singing The Flood at the top of their lungs -- brought me back down from my thoughts. Twirling around, I pulled my phone from my front pocket and pressed the accept button without looking at the caller ID.

I pressed it to my ear. “Hello?”

Rachel’s voice exploded through the receiver. “Piper, you have to do an interview with Alternative Press immediately!” She sounded upset. That, however, was nothing new when it came to Rachel.

I took it all in stride. This was just another Warped related job. “Is AP on the Warped grounds?” I asked.

The girl set our five water bottles on the tabletop with several uncoordinated clunks. I snatched up two of them, while Stefan gathered the other three. Turning on my heel, I stalked back in the direction we came.

“Yes, they told me they were waiting at the havoc Music tent,” Rachel answered. “You have to do the interview as soon as possible, Piper. Please find them quickly and call me when it’s over, alright?”

“Uh, alright.”

“Good. Bye.” Before I could bid her my own goodbye, she hung up. Slowly, I lowered my phone and stared at the square, chunky build. What the fuck was that about?!

I cut the call and stuffed my phone back in my pocket. An Alternative Press interview should not cause Rachel to be a nervous wreck via cell phone. It was only an interview with a well known magazine, so why did she demand I call her afterwards? It wasn’t a fucking drug addict.

A picture of Josh floated through my head. I shuddered, shaking my head, and glanced at Stefan over my shoulder.

“That was Rachel on the phone,” I explained. “She wants me to do an interview with Alternative Press as soon as possible, at the Havoc music tent. Will you come with me?”

“Okay, Jay.”

X X X X

I left Dominic and Kelli at the Invisible Children tent with their bottles of water while Devin kissed Stefan goodbye and hugged me close. He knew I wouldn't act out of normal if Stefan was tailing me, so, with the motherly words, “Behave, Juliet”, he sent us on our way to find the Alternative Press woman and her cameraman.

We fought through the audience at the Skull Candy stage and waved off random fans. I was in one hell of a hurry to get to the interview and find out exactly what triggered Rachel’s anxious behavior. When I thought about it, the notion frightened me.

Sure, Rachel sounded worried a lot of the time, but I didn’t like something about this. What, I couldn’t put my finger on. Stefan kept guaranteeing me it was nothing. As usual. But a recap of all the times Devin and Stefan “assured” me things were fine proved to all be wrong.

Yet another reason to believe I was screwed with this interview.

The Havoc music tent appeared as I took a sharp corner around two photographers. Directly in front of the tent stood the AP woman with dark brown hair tied back in a bun, and her cameraman, who favored a badass biker, of all things.

I jogged up to them, heaving a heavy sigh. “Hi!” I greeted, Stefan rushing up beside me, panting. “I’m Piper Oakes. My boss said you wanted to have an interview with me.”

The woman smiled and gave a signal to her biker cameraman. “Yes, we did.”

Her camera guy flicked the handheld device on, turning it on the two of us as we stood before each other.

“How has your stay on the Vans Warped Tour been, Piper?” She held her microphone out to me, and, mustering a smile, I answered.

“It’s been great. The best summer of my entire life, in fact.” Innocent, so far. Let’s keep it that way.

“I heard you have a very large fan base from doing such a small, low budget web series. Is this true?” Was that a jab? Small and low budget?

“Yes, it‘s true I have a large fan base.” I gritted my teeth together for a split second. “But, even if our web series is small and low budget, we have a fan base the size of some internet models and some independent actors and actresses.”

The woman gave an odd look at her cameraman, who smirked in response. Here we go. That’s the ‘poking-holes-in-private-matters-questions’ look. I, an interview, should know this.

“Now, is it true that you have a past history with a very serious drug? Ecstasy, am I correct?”

Things slowed to a pathetic crawl around me. People inched slowly in my peripheral vision, the woman’s face blurred over. I felt as if I were drunk, or high on something strong, psychotropic almost. This could not be happening.

Not right now.

“Where did you hear that?” I whispered.

“Jo--” But before she even had the name pronounced fully, I already knew. My gaze had drifted over the woman’s shoulder, to find something solid to focus on before I passed out, and saw immediately who was responsible for all of this.

Josh was standing in the background, looking smug with his arms crossed over his chest. An old, violent anger surged through me, coursing from my throbbing cheeks to my clenched fists and to my paralyzed legs. Him.

Josh.

He knew of my past, of all the gory details that even Devin and Stefan didn’t know. Yet he never crossed my mind as the person who would ruin my reputation.

“Joshua Torrent, of Havoc music,” the woman repeated, solidifying my worst fears. Of course. Why was I surprised? I shouldn’t be! This was exactly something that he, the conniving little bastard would do!

Without a word, I pushed passed the woman and, suddenly, I was sprinting across the grass toward Josh as fast as my legs could carry me, ignoring all the people around me. My vision went black on the corners, creating a tunnel at Josh’s face.

I didn’t know what I was doing… I didn’t realize I had done anything until my vision surged back with color, light, and frantic voices. Strong hands were pulling on the back of my shirt, yanking me from my surprising spot atop Josh, who was yelling at the top of his lungs for someone to save him.

His lip was bleeding profusely, and a dark bruise was already forming around his left eye. And I… I was crying, sobbing, choking on my own attempts at breathing. My hands, one balled into Josh’s hair, and the other, suspended in the air before me, were both shaking.

I did this? I… I hit Josh?

Someone yanked on the back of my shirt again, ripping me away off of Josh and nearly lifting my feet completely off the ground before I could stand up straight. I was whirled around and came face to face with a large venue security guard.

I expected him to put me in custody, or whatever security guards did, but he didn’t. Instead, he pointed a massive hand to our left, at a small group of huddled figures. I followed his gesture.

Stefan, Max, Craig, Robert, Monte, Sierra, the AP woman and her cameraman, and a few of the fans from the Escape the Fate signing were standing just beyond a wide girth made around the site of the altercation. Craig had a firm hand placed on Max’s shoulder and Stefan appeared ready to either cry or scream.

The security guard gave me a gentle push toward them, and that was enough of a signal for Max. He came ripping forward through the empty space and smacked right into me, his arms wrapping themselves around my torso.

“Piper,” he breathed in my ear, bowing his head against mine. “Are you okay?”

Sliding my arms around him, I glanced over my shoulder. Three large, burly men were heaving Josh off the ground, blood, scrapes, black eyes, and all. I smirked despite the tears still streaming down my face. Josh ruined my career--

“I’m great.” I buried my head in his warm, Tag-scented chest.

--but I still had Max.