Synthetic Love

It was a week into tour and I couldn’t complain. During the day we traveled to the next location, and at night I worked in the merch tent. It wasn’t hard work, since all I did was take peoples money and give them the shirt they asked for. At the same time, it was like being at a free concert every night. Tonight was our first night off though, and we were already parked outside tomorrow nights venue.

I was currently trying to find Brodon. He’d told me he wanted to do something today, and yet he wasn’t on the bus when I got up. “Hey, you’re Bel, right?” someone asked from behind me. I turned around to see Chris and Angelo standing there.

“Uh, yeah. What’s up?” I asked.
“Not much,” Chris said. “Are you busy?” I guess Brodon could wait. After all, he was one who was missing first. I shook my head. “Cool. So, Devin and Balz both said you seem really familiar, and we just wanted to see why.” Fuck. It had to be just suspicion right?

“Alright, I guess. What is it that seems so familiar?”

“Not sure. But you do look slightly like someone we knew in high school. There’s no way you’re her though, as much as we’d all love to see Anna again,” Chris said.

“Maybe Ghost’s just getting desperate,” Angelo said. “You remember how crazy he got after she left.” The good news was that Angelo didn’t seem as angry as he did the last time I’d seen him.

“Sounds like he was close to her,” I said. I had to pretend like I had no idea who they were talking about. I had to pretend to be someone they’d just met a week ago.

“You could say that,” Chris said. “But based on your reaction, it’s obvious you’re not here. Just, if you do hang out with Dev, try to make him see that you’re someone else. He needs to move on and find someone else.”

“Are you sending me on a mission?” I asked. At least my disguise was working.

“No,” Chris said with a laugh. “We’re not going to put that kind of pressure on you. You do seem pretty cool though.”

“Uh, thanks,” I said. Before I could say anything else, Phil Manansala joined us.

“Some of us are going into town” he said. “Any of you want to go?”

The two guys shook their heads. “I’ll go,” I offered.

“Cool, meet by our bus in half an hour, ok?” After he left, I told Chris and Angelo that I needed to find Brodon to let him know I was going. I still couldn’t find him after half an hour, so I gave up and sent him a text instead. There weren’t many people there waiting to go into town, but I was surprised to Devin there.

“Listening to something good?” Devin asked, slowing down to walk with me.

“If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be listening to it,” I said. I saw a flash of recognition on his face. “It’s End of Prom Night, by Snow White’s Poison Bite,” I added.

“I’ve only heard one other person answer that way,” Devin said, somewhat sadly. I remembered that. It was my last class in Scranton. How did he remember that?

We wandered down as a group, stopping at a few stores, leaving groceries until the end. I decided to try and get closer to Devin as the new me. I was careful what I said, changing the conversation whenever it came close to being about my past.

I kind of felt bad for the employees when our group of six came in to eat. This was a fairly small town, so I doubted they ever got big groups. By that time, it felt like old times, when Dev and I had been close before. But it made me wish we could go back to that. I knew that couldn’t happen. I was with Brodon now. It didn’t help things when Dev jumped in line in front of me. “What do you want?” he asked.

“I’m fine, I can pay for myself,” I said. There was no way I could let him pay for me.

Unfortunately, Dev wouldn’t give in. “Go sit down, I’ll bring the food when it’s ready,” he said.

I sat in one of two empty seats, watching Devin while he waited at the counter. Why did he have to be so nice? Maybe this was a bad idea, trying to become friends with him again. “Don’t you have a boyfriend on this tour?”

I forced myself to look away. “I do, but there’s something about Devin that’s different,” I said.

“I’m not gonna tell you to not look at anyone else, but you could try to make it a little less obvious.” I met Michael Vampire’s eye. “I won’t tell anyone about your secret crush, don’t worry” he said.

I thanked him quickly, as Devin sat down. Was it really that obvious? “So, what are we talking about?” he asked.

“Bel and I heard a rumor this morning that someone here on tour is hitting on you,” Michael said.

“Wait, who’s hitting on Devin?” Jonathan Vigil asked, sitting down across from me. Of course, that got the attention of everyone else.

“Not sure,” I said answered. “It’s just a rumor we heard earlier.” I looked over to see Devin eating quietly, ignoring everyone else.

“It’s about time too,” Andy Glass said. “It’s pretty well known that Devin has been hooked on some chick he knew in high school. Looks for her at every show too.” Seriously, were they just going to talk about him like he wasn’t even here? I jumped when Devin shoved his chair back and made his way out of the restaurant.

I turned back around to find the guys still talking about Devin and his mysterious lost love. “Maybe there’s more to the story than Devin’s letting on,” I said. “I doubt he’s told everything there is about her or why he’s looking for her now.” I waited for the conversation to change directions. When it finally did, I grabbed both our drinks and left, going in search of Devin.

It didn’t take long to find him. “Hey, I brought you’re drink,” I said, taking a seat next to him on the bench.

“Thanks,” he said quietly, taking it from me. “So, I’m guessing you want to know the story now.”

I shook my head. “No, I actually came out here to tell you that I changed the conversation, so you can go back in if you want.”

“I’ll pass. But why did you do that? You didn’t have to support me.”

“No, I didn’t have to, but like I told everyone else in there, I doubt you’ve told everything there is about this chick. You’ve probably been keeping some details back so you know it’s really her.”

“I haven’t told anyone much about her, or what happened” Devin said. “Things didn’t end well.”

“I understand the feeling. I’m sure things will work out for you.” What was I supposed to say? Surprise, I’m really Anna? That didn’t seem right. “We should probably be getting back.” Devin and I decided to go straight to the grocery store and back to the buses instead of meeting back up with the others. I was impressed when Devin walked my back to Peace For Minds’s bus. Even though Brodon had bailed on me, today had turned out to be a pretty good day after all.