9th June 2019

"I look to the sky to give me strength,

But the stars just laugh at me instead,"

"Well, that was a waste of time," Kotori said.

"You can say that again," Jaxon moaned, lugging his guitar and some of Kotori's drum equipment.

I held up the bag of spare change, my guitar slung across my back, and tried to be optimistic.

"Come on guys, at least we made a bit of money."

"Five hours of busking for forty dollars in change. Yes, this was a Sunday well spent." Jaxon rolled his eyes before falling silent.

He always became more prickly the longer he went without food, and me and Tori shared a look of concern. Right then, Jaxon was a ticking time bomb and if we wanted to escape undamaged, we needed to find him some food, and fast.

"Hey, isn't that Evie."

We all came to an abrupt halt as Jaxon pointed to the open windows of Mama Rosa's where Evie sat, her head buried in a book.

"We should definitely go say hi and get some food," Jaxon said in a sing-song voice as he started skipping towards the cafe.

Tori and I rushed to catch up with him, both wondering where his sudden energy had come from. Not five minutes earlier he had been complaining about how tired he was, and now he was skipping. Jaxon's mood changed quicker than the weather.

"Hey, Evie," Jaxon called, making her jump and slam the book she was reading shut.

For a moment she looked around in confusion before spotting us.

We made our way towards her, collapsing into the spare seats, our instruments taking up most of the remaining floor space.

"Busy day?" She grinned and looked at our baggage with curious eyes.

"You could say that." I lounged in my seat, enjoying the shade after spending so much time in the sun.

"Others would call it a giant waste of time," Jaxon mumbled behind his menu.

Evie's grin faded as she took in our downtrodden expression. "What have you all been doing?"

"Busking. Did you need another coffee?" Tori asked, staring at her empty cup.

She looked over at the cup and frowned. "It's not mine."

I looked at the boys. "That's strange, Mama Rosa doesn't normally let anyone in unless they're a paying customer."

In fact, the plumb Latino woman was famous for it. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of Mama Rosa. If her rolling pin - usually tucked into her apron for easy access - didn't scare you, then her stony stare would have.

"Guess I'm just special then." Evie laughed, but she still looked a little troubled.

Tori shrugged, took the rest of our orders, and disappeared.

"So I'm guessing the busking didn't go to plan?" Evie asked, eager to change the topic.

Jaxon leaned his head into his hands, looking horrified. "Busking is the absolute worst. It's long, hard work and for practically nothing."

"So why are you doing it?"

"Because our bandmate, who was our frontman by the way, left and we lost our regular gig. And we got to make money somehow," Jaxon grumbled behind his hands.

"And you can't do the gig without him?"

Tori came back and passed the drinks around. "Nope, me and Jaxon don't have the voice talent to be up front..." he trailed off, looking at me with raised eyebrows.

"I already told you I'm not cut out to be a frontman," I gritted out.

"Why? You've got the voice, you write most of the songs. You could do it."

"Look, I'm not doing it. Can you just drop it now?" I glared at Tori.

The arrival of the server stopped all further conversation, but I could see that he wasn't going to let it go.

"I've got a nacho full loaded sharer and your chicken, beef, fish taco platter. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"No, we're good thanks." My tone clipped.

If the server noticed the awkward atmosphere, he chose not to say anything.

A silence descended as the server left and we attacked the food, Jaxon finally convincing Evie to try one of the fish tacos, despite her objections to not having paid for it.

"So what brings you to the US, Evie?" Jaxon struggled to ask around a mouthful of food.

For a moment Evie's face went blank, as if the question was confusing. Subconsciously, her fingers reached across to her book as if it gave her some inner strength.

"Well, I was supposed to be here to meet with my American publishers about some opportunities, but it got cancelled at short notice. Unfortunately, I only found out two hours after I'd already landed."

We looked at each other in shock.

"So you're a writer?" Tori seemed impressed when she nodded. "Have you written anything we would have heard of?"

Evie giggled and shook her head. "I doubt it. They've only picked up one of my books and it'll be a year before it hits the shelves."

"And your American publishers? What did they want?" Jaxon was leaning forward in excitement.

She shrugged and munched a little at the end of her taco. "I don't know. They don't want to say too much until they're sure 'it's a goer', whatever that means."

"Can't believe they didn't tell you they had cancelled it until you already got here. How long are you going to stay?"

"At least another week. I couldn't get a flight back until then," Evie said.

"Guess you're stuck here then." Kotori summed it up for her.

"Pretty much."

She munched on her food as the conversation moved on, though her mood was much more diminished. It was easy for me and the boys to see that she was disappointed with the outcome of her trip.

Jaxon turned to watch her head to the bathroom. When he turned back, I could see the determined look on his face.

"I think we should offer to be her guide whilst she's here."

Tori crossed his arms. "You can't be serious."

"Why shouldn't we? It's not like we've got a lot to do." Jaxon scowled.

"We should focus on finding someone to replace Hunter, not babysitting some English girl."

"Cornish." I couldn't help but correct Tori.

He blinked at me. "Sorry?"

"She's from Cornwall, not England." I sounded like a crazy person arguing that point, but it had seemed important to her.

Tori waved his hands dismissively. "Whatever. All I'm saying is that we don't have the time."

"Come on, Man," Jaxon whined. "If this was Hazel who was alone in a foreign country, wouldn't you want to know that someone was looking out for her?"

I looked between the two of them, knowing that Jaxon had played his hand well. I could see it in Tori's eyes. He already knew his answer.

"What do you think, Sam?" Tori turned to look at me, his decision much less clear cut than before.

I wasn't sure what to say. Jaxon was right; it would be safer for Evie to be with us. But she was also a complete stranger to us and Tori was also right; we didn't have the time.

"Perhaps it couldn't hurt. We could recruit whilst being tour guides, especially if we're going to different places around L.A." I tried to rationalise my decision but I could see Tori was about as convinced as I was.

The truth was, I felt responsible for Evie. It was chance that we had met on the beach, but she had still listened to me. Then she spent the night with my friends; laughing with Hazel, goofing around with Jaxon, and sparring with Tori.

To round it up; she was a good person. Someone who didn't deserve to be wandering around L.A. by herself for the next week.

Tori was still giving me a questioning look, but Jaxon was already celebrating.

"Right guys, play it cool, I think she's coming back." Jaxon put on the most stoic expression and resumed hoovering up the remaining nachos.

Evie sat down and looked between us with narrowed eyes. After all, we were musicians, not actors.

"Why do you all look so guilty?" She questioned.

Jaxon leaned forward, as if delivering a great secret. "We've decided to be your tour guides whilst you're in L.A." He finished by holding his hands wide, like a magician who'd just revealed the world's best magic trick.

Evie stared at him. "Look, it's really nice of you to offer but, and this is no offence to you, but how do I know this isn't an elaborate scheme to kidnap me?" She laughed a little, but it was easy to see a small part of her didn't trust us.

I can't say it didn't hurt.

It did.

But I could understand her reasoning. Here were three random men, she'd only met less than 72 hours ago, offering to help show her around.

Jaxon's face fell. "What do we have to do to make you trust us?"

I expected her to say a lot of things. Expected her to say something that we couldn't do. But her mischievous look made my stomach sink.

"I'll agree but to show me you're serious then you'll have to do something for me."

"What do you have in mind?" Jaxon was intrigued, I could tell. Tori was resigned, mostly. I was just nervous.

Evie looked between us, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "The guy at the counter saw your cases and asked if you would play here. Apparently their usual Sunday band is sick. He asked if I'd ask you if you're interested?"

My mouth ran dry. "Absolutely not."

She pouted, but just shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"Hold on, why shouldn't we do this? It's perfect," Jaxon said, his face alight with excitement.

"He's got a point, Sam. Are they willing to pay?" Tori asked, turning to Evie.

"I am not agreeing to this."

But Evie acted like I hadn't even spoken. "$100 for two hours but it depends on what you play."

"What type of music does he want played?"

I could tell Jaxon was running through music possibilities.

"It really doesn't matter. I'm not doing it."

"We could try a few songs to see if he'd be interested?" Tori suggested.

"Is nobody listening to me?"

They all turned to look at me with varying expressions of disbelief, understanding, and sheer incredulity.

"I'm going to have a word with him."

"I'll come with you." Jaxon left with Tori, leaving me with Evie.

"What are you afraid of?"

I flinched away from Evie like her question was an open flame and I feared being burnt. It was something that I hadn't told her on the beach.

"If you have to know, it's being up front like that. Being the one in charge. I don't think I could handle that."

Being on stage, in front of a crowd, that I could handle. But being the frontman was different. The performance was me. If people liked or hated us, then it would be my face that they remembered.

"But how do you know?"

It was the way she said it that made me pause.

It wasn't demanding, like how Tori asked me, or sarcastic like Jaxon. Instead, she said it gently, like she really wanted to know the answer.

The only trouble was, I didn't really have a good enough answer to give her.

Tori and Jaxon returned before I had to find one.

"He seemed pretty pleased with some of our usual sets. He's game, if we are." Tori hefted some of his gear and looked at me, waiting.

They all watched me to see what I would do.

"You'll never know if you don't at least try." Evie smiled, holding out my guitar.

And rather than it being a terrifying concept, it felt different. It felt like someone was opening a door.

I took the guitar with a lighter heart than I thought possible.

It was time to put on a show.