Even during high school, there was never any doubt that we were still more than best friends. We didn’t spend as much time together by that point, but it didn’t matter. I’d woken up plenty of times in high school with Eli on my bed, his feet way too close to my face as he slept on top of the comforter with his own blanket over him. We might not have come from the same egg, but no one knew me, understood me or made me feel as comfortable as my brother did.

I guess I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed having him around over the years as we’d each gone our own ways.

When we were in the bus, I was constantly with Mason, Gordo or Carter. When we were off of it, Eliza went everywhere with me. I’d spoken to the guys with The Cloud Collision a few times, but we hadn’t been anything more than friendly in passing. They were all always on their phones or their computers, so I didn’t take it personally. We had three months ahead of us to get to know each other; it wasn’t a big deal.

I was enjoying my time, and that was all that really mattered.

And besides the couple of times a venue had been playing one of Brandon’s songs between sets, I hadn’t thought about killing that piece of crap once.

* * *

“Shouldn’t you go eat something soon?”

I finished setting the last cymbal on the stand and tightened it down, glancing at my brother over the top of his drum kit. He was closing the travel cases since we were mostly done setting up his stuff. We usually tag-teamed putting together his drum kit to save time; I’d done it so many times I could do it with my eyes closed. Most of the time he helped me bring most of the merch into the venue right after we got to wherever the tour package was playing, and then I’d help the guys set up their equipment to do soundcheck since it wasn’t like I had anything better to do. There was usually so much time before doors opened that I’d rather keep busy than sit around.

But today we’d gotten to Little Rock almost three hours late, thanks to a major accident. Now, everything and everyone was running behind schedule, including soundcheck.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a peek at the clock with a wince. Doors were opening in two hours. “Damn it, I didn’t know it was so late.”

Eli turned to look at me over his shoulder from where he was kneeling. He raised his eyebrows. “I mean, you could go without a meal or two—”

He should have known better than to talk shit when he was on his knees. I shoved him.

“Whore!” he cried as toppled over like a chopped-down tree.

“Your mother,” I muttered as I kept right on walking past him to sit on the edge of the stage before hopping down. By the time I was back on my feet, Eli was again on his knees, glaring over in my direction. “I’m going to grab something to eat.”

He was still giving me a dirty look when he said, “I can’t go with you. We gotta do soundcheck.”

I shrugged both shoulders; it wasn’t like I didn’t already know that. “Okay. I’ll be back.”

He blinked. And then he simply raised a fist with his middle finger fully extended.

I stuck my tongue out and went to look for the only other person that might be able to go out to eat with me.

The venue hadn’t provided us with food and instead had opted to give the tour members buy-out money to fend for ourselves. The TCC tour manager, who was also doing sound for them and Ghost Orchid, had walked around a few minutes earlier and passed out everyone’s cash. For once in his life, Eli had been right. If I waited any longer to go on the hunt for food, I wouldn’t make it back in time for the start of the show. According to Mason, I had something called a job. Like I didn’t know what the hell that was.