The Trouble with Rock Stars

Chapter 1

She couldn't believe she was there, back after so many years away. In all that time, she liked to imagine what this day would feel like, the day she returned home. She had always imagined it being like a parade. Confetti, sparklers, cheap candy clipping the soft heads of children.

Hey, she was hopeful.

She could hear them downstairs waiting for her. She was the guest of honor, the subject of the HAPPILY ENGAGED sign taped over the fireplace. The party had started an hour ago, and her mother had been up to check on her twice since then.

Concerned. The first time she was spread out on her bed, prone, in a bathrobe she hadn't worn since high school.

"Better tie that belt at the waist before you come down, Gabriella. Your privates are trying to go public."

The second time, she was dressed, standing at her window and staring out at the two-story house next door. His house.

"If you're looking for Kelsi, she's already downstairs."

"Her brother isn't here, is he?"

She knew he wasn't. He was in California. Still, she needed to hear someone say it out loud.

"No. Of course not."

She turned to narrow her eyes at her mother until she was sure she was telling the truth. That's what he did to her—made her lose trust in her own mother. It was a side effect of being back in Albuquerque, their old battlefield. Every square of inch of this town was covered in memories of their past.

She closed her eyes as one memory came flooding back to her. Troy was a risk-taker and never thought about the consequences of tomorrow. He did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, without thinking about the future. And he was the only boy who held one of Gabriella's first outside of Thomas Grace.

She cringed.

He was the only part of Gabriella's life she couldn't share with her best friend. And that scared the shit out of her.

*Nine years earlier*

Gabriella adjusted the pillow behind her head, glancing up at the stars in her backyard. The sound of Kelsi's cough could be heard from her open bedroom window. She cringed at the wicked sound of it, certain the Bolton's would have to rush her to the hospital at any moment—but as soon as she began to shift from her position the coughing quieted.

So much for their last summer weekend as wild teenagers. She chewed on her bottom lips and lifted the book back up in her lap. She'd been reading all week, catching up on her ever-growing list. This was their last week before college, but poor Kelsi was stuck in bed with round of pneumonia. Fevers, body aches, and a prescription for antibiotics and rest.

Gabriella really hadn't minded that their last week at home had been uneventful. She was just happy to be alone. Away from the crowded beach, bustling strip malls and for the moment...Thomas.

Mostly Thomas.

The pressure to become his girlfriend was beginning to annoy her. He'd been at her house almost daily, hinting about needing an answer before they went off to college. It was no secret that he loved her. He had confessed to as much in front of their entire eighth-grade band class. Everyone knew how he felt, but until now they'd been just friends. The best of friends.

Gabriella loved Thomas with all her heart, but she didn't like him that way. He was her best friend outside of Kelsi and she was determined to keep it like that. Dating him would only mess things up. But how could she tell him no without hurting him?