The Height of Fame

Chapter 15

We're playing in Portland tonight, Connor's hometown. Our bus pulled up to our hotel for the night at seven A.M. and we all disembarked groggy and cranky.

Connor catches my eye as he gets off his own bus and tries to motion for me to go over and talk to him but thankfully Julia herds Dani and I into the hotel. I think that I'm in the clear but to my dismay, Kevin holds the door to the huge elevator, allowing Twin Peaks to ride up with us.

I try my best to ignore the stares boring into me from both my sisters and Connor's band but you could cut the tension with a knife. When the doors open, I rush to be the first one out behind Julia but Connor catches my arm. 

"Hey, can we talk for a sec?" he asks running his hand through his hair. Dani shoots me a smirk as she walks by us, following Julia down the hall to our suite. 

"I don't know, Julia and James are pretty anal about keeping us in sight," I tell him. 

"It's fine. I can wait at the end of the hall for you guys. The floor is closed to only us," James says, overhearing my excuse. I curse in my head. Can something go my way for once? 

Connor leads me down the opposite end of the hall and stops by the fire exit. I stand there, staring at him, waiting for him to start. 

"Well..?" I ask, finally realizing he needs to be prompted. 

"Are you doing okay?" he says after a minute has gone by. This surprises me. That's not where I thought he was going with this. 

"What?" I ask, too confused to answer. 

"Are you doing okay?" Connor repeats. "You've been kind of ignoring me and I heard your sister say something yesterday before the show about how you've been kind of withdrawn. I guess I'm just worried." 

Anger flashes through me immediately and I ignore his question entirely. 

"Which sister?" I say through gritted teeth. 

Now he's surprised. "Does it really matter?" 

"Oh, it definitely freaking matters."

Connor's face contorts into what looks like a painful grimace as he debates whether he should tell me. I soften my gaze and tone.

"Just tell me what happened. The truth. Please?"

"It was Katherine and I didn't overhear, she actually came to me to ask. But she didn't mean anything bad by it. I think she's just worried. She just wanted to know if you'd talked to me about anything," he explains hastily.

I nod my head, processing the information he just gave me. Kath was going to get it from me as soon as I was done with Connor.

"I'm fine. I've just been really tired and really busy lately. I'm behind on a lot of stuff the band needs done," I say.

It's not entirely a lie.

"Oh, okay. I thought maybe I'd done something to upset you...," he trails off.

Guilt pangs at my chest. I didn't realize he cared that much.

"No, not at all. I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. Maybe once I catch up on my work we can go back to our movie nights?" I suggest.

His face brightens at this possibility.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

I turn to walk away but he catches my arm again. This time, his eyes meet mine and we stare at each other for a minute.

"Hey Laur?"

"Yeah?"

"I know you're lying about being fine but I'm not going to push it. Just...don't do anything stupid," he says quietly.