Alexa was so damned cute when she was mad, or worried, or anxious. He rubbed his knuckles down her arm. “Seriously, relax. I was just pulling your leg. I didn't mention you stayin' at my place, but I would really like it if you would.”

“I will,” she said. “Just not—here--not right now.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

“Have you looked outside?”

“Earlier,” he said. “Why?”

“There's so many people.”

“Ah,” he waved his hand dismissively, “yeah. Comes with the territory. You'll get used to it.”

“Will I?”

“If we're going to be together, you're gonna have to,” he said. He planted a kiss on her nose. “We're gonna be together, yeah? You know that, right?”

She looked down at her feet.

“Remember what I said,” he whispered. “This is the beginning. Nothing is ending, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Good. Now stop being all hot and distracting. I have to get ready.”

“Wait,” Alexa said. Her fingers looped through the skull scarf that was knotted on her handbag. She took the scarf and wrapped it around his shoulders. “I had this on the day I met you,” she said. “It brought me good luck and I know you have a lot of money to raise.”

Sawyer smiled. “Thanks sugar. Stick with Chuck, okay? She knows the ropes.”

Alexa's eyes shot over to where Charlie stood fussing with Sebastian's watch. “I don't plan on leaving her side,” Alexa said.

“Oh, one more thing,” Sawyer said. “Keep on eye on my sister, will you?”

“Yeah,” Alexa said. “Of course.”
“And stay away from Jerry,” he teased.

“I'm all yours,” she said. “I promise.”

“Good answer,” Sawyer said, giving her arm a gentle squeeze. “I'll see you outside.”

Alexa proceeded to head to where Rachel stood near Robbie. Devin was standing next to his guitar waiting patiently with a smile on her face.

“Hey you,” Sawyer said as he approached. “Step away from the guitar.”

“I will step,” she said, “cast free away from your guitar.”

He looked down and sure enough that awful pink hindrance was gone. “Now you can dance with me.” He winked at her. “Better watch out. I'm a terrible dancer, might end up stepping on your other foot, breaking that.”

“Oh good,” she said sarcastically. “Then you will have a cast you can actually sign.”

“Ouch,” Sawyer said. “I sense you're pissed with me.”

Devin held up her finger and pinched it to her thumb, “little bit. I'll get over it, I'm sure but you said you would sign it.”

“I'm sorry, sugar, I forgot.”

Her mouth was in a firm line and he stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I'll make it up to you. It's just I've had a lot on my mind.”

“I know,” she said, sighing. “I guess you are forgiven on a very temporary basis. I'll let it slide for now, but you need to sign it.”

He kissed her forehead. “I will.”

Satisfied with his answer, she turned and headed to the door where Alexa and Charlie were already waiting. Rachel was talking quietly to Robbie. “Good,” Devin said. “Break a leg.”

As they were leaving, Bennett was coming in the door. “Ladies,” he said.

“Are you in a good mood?” Robbie asked him. “Because if you are, I don't think I've ever seen you in one.”

“A good mood,” Bennett said. “Is an understatement. I'm in a spectacularly fantastic place right now. Have you looked outside?”

“Lex just asked me the same thing,” Sawyer said. He shouldered past the table and chairs and headed to the window that Alexa could never open, peering outside at the grounds. “Holy crap, that's a lot of people.”

“Close to twenty five thousand of them, to be exact,” Bennett said. “Each who paid handsomely for their tickets.”

“That's great,” Seabass said. “We can make a decent sized donation to Paper Planes for hosting it.”

“You know something,” Bennett said, “You all are a bunch of crazy little shits. I mean who in their right mind, would have a concert at an asylum?”

“Good marketing?” Lane said. “It's not like it's really been done before.”

“Yeah,” Bennett said. He scratched the stubble on his face. “Anyway, such a media circus has ensued down there, I spoke with management this morning and we'd like to announce your world tour at today's show.”

What? “What world tour?”

“This isn't news to you,” Bennett said. “We've been talking about this for months.”

Robbie did a fist pump. “This is awesome.”

“Talking,” Sawyer said. “That's all we ever do is talk about it.”

Bennett thrust a piece of paper at Sawyer. “Talk is cheap. The dates were set this week. Here's your schedule. Sebastian,” he directed. “Work this into your set.”

Sebastian nodded.

Sawyer glimpsed at the paper, two weeks away. He had one week after Alexa went home before he left himself. The tour was split in two parts and for the first one, he'd be gone for four long months. How was he going to explain that? Would Alexa wait for him?

Alexa followed Charlie's oversized hair. The same security team from the pool was there and Alexa couldn't but feel like she was a kid in a human chain of daycare children. Her hand was linked with Rachel and Devin, Rachel also held Charlie's hand, Devin held Sadie's and so on. It made sense, of course, this way no one would get lost in the masses, but it was still a bit ridiculous.

An all girl opening band called Dropping Like Daisy was rocking out onstage, and it was hard to hear herself think over the lead singer's voice.

“Who is here to see Bach's Revenge and that hottie Sebastian?” she asked the crowd.

The screaming was ten, a hundred, a thousand times worse than it had been at the pool. Charlie reached into her purse and pulled out a small square package, handing it to Alexa. She did the same to everyone who was in their group. Foam earplugs. Brilliant idea.

Alexa smooshed the foam and shoved them in her ears. The relief her eardrums felt was instantaneous. “Doesn't that make you jealous? Or upset?” she shouted. She pulled out an earplug, realizing how redundant the entire thing was, and waited for Charlie's response.

Charlie's ear plugs were still in her hands and not in her ears. She shook her head. “No. Not anymore. It's just something I had to work through. Everyone loves him but he loves me and that's enough. Seriously, they're up next, you should your earplugs in. Consider yourself warned.”

“This is the best day of my life!” Rachel shouted.

Dropping Like Daisy finished their set. Alexa sat perched on the side of the stage, with Sadie beside her. “Are you okay?” she mouthed.

Sadie gave her a thumbs up as the stage crew took the stage. The girls began to scream and Alexa was sure it was because the guy was on the stage and some of them were so far back there was no real way for them to tell who it was.

They moved swiftly, like they'd done it a thousand times before. Sawyer and Sebastian's guitars were lined up on the side of the stage, same with three bass guitars which obviously belonged to Lane. Robbie's drum kit was wheeled out on stage, the Bach's Revenge logo across the front.

One of the greasier looking stagehands went to the mic and fiddled with the stand. “Testing, one, two, testing, one, two.”

For whatever reason, this prompted far more screaming. She was so involved with watching what they were doing, that she didn't see the boys line up beside the stage. Sawyer winked at her and she waved back. Sadie noticed and nudged her in the ribs with a knowing smile.

The stagehands finished and Robbie reached in his back pocket, pulling out a pair of drumsticks just as familiar background music began to play. He inhaled and marched out onstage and the screaming intensified tenfold. Alexa realized then why Charlie had warned her and urged her to put the earplugs in place.

Sadie's eyes were wide as saucers, and as Alexa looked over, she noted Devin's hand was wrapped around Sadie's.

Robbie took a seat at the drums and began to beat in time to whatever the background noise was. Lane and Sawyer were up next, slinging their guitars around their necks. Sawyer strutted out like he owned the place and quickly found his pedal board, making minor adjustments as his fingers moved from fret to fret on the guitar. Lane took the space opposite Sawyer and the three of them quickly began to play in sync.

So much screaming.

When Sebastian appeared from the side of the stage, the crowd went absolutely mental. He had a huge grin plastered on his face. He didn't say anything, just began playing his guitar in time with the others and started to sing.

Alexa recognized the song from their CD. Affliction.

“The ways you left me dreaming, compose a lonely contradiction, inside my mind, I scream for you, you don't know my affliction.”

The crowd began to echo Sebastian, joining him in belting out the lyrics. Charlie, Devin, Sadie, Lindy, Rachel and Alexa were all singing along. “You can have what's left of me, with sickened satisfaction.”

Sebastian pulled one of his own ear plugs from his ear, took the mic from the stand, bringing to his lips. “I need your help, alright? Who knows the next part?” he held the mic out toward the crowd as they sang, “Of all the things that you could be, you are my fatal attraction. I'm falling on my knees, sinking in constriction, inside my mind I scream for you, you don't know my affliction.”

They finished off the song that way, Seb would sing followed by the crowd. By the time the introduction to their show was over, the air surged with electric excitement. Sebastian was beaming as he went straight into the next song, Does He.

Each of the songs were for Charlie. Every single one. How strange that must have been. Charlie was standing, leaning against part of the scaffolding that supported the stage. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked at Sebastian like the was the only person among the thousands and thousands of them.

Watching Sawyer play the guitar was equally as fascinating. His feet were constantly moving around that pedal board and Alexa made a mental note to ask him to show her what exactly it did. He handled the guitar like he could do it with his eyes closed. He probably could and as Sebastian would go from one tune to the next, Sawyer would sometimes play chords strung together that were nothing but sounded incredible.

About halfway through the show, she could see the beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and when he absentmindedly brought the hem of his shirt up to wipe at it; unintentionally allowing a glimpse of his abdomen, hysteria ensued.

This is how Charlie must have felt. All the time.

“You guys are so rad,” Sebastian was saying. “Seriously, we have the best fans in the world! Because of your generosity today, we've raised a hundred and thirty three thousand dollars for Paper Planes and helped bring awareness about mental illness to the forefront. It's not something to ignore,” he continued.

Sadie's eyes welled with tears and as she wiped at them, Sebastian happened to look over and gave her a reassuring wink. “In fact,” he said, “one of my favorite people in the world struggles everyday and because of you, she'll get a little help.”

Thank you, Sadie mouthed.

“And because you guys are so awesome, we have an even bigger announcement.” He found a cameraman positioned at the front of the stage. “Bach's Revenge is pleased to announce our upcoming world tour.”

Their what?

Charlie's eyes widened and Alexa was certain this was news to everyone, not just the audience. Up until that point, she'd been doing fine. But when Sebastian said that in two weeks they'd start the first leg of a six month long worldwide tour, it was like the Universe sucked the air out of the atmosphere, and suddenly it was impossible to breathe.

Sawyer gave her a worried glance. He'd been wrong before.

It was over.

Everything was ending.