I nodded, remembering the time I’d witnessed Gordo trying to give a cashier change at the gas station. Painful didn’t even begin to cut it. I’d ended up giving the poor lady money out of my own pocket to put her out of her misery.

Mason laughed. “You know he only volunteered to go out there so he could scope out the sausage scene in the audience tonight.”

My brother groaned. “Let’s go, G.”

“I’ll see you later, Flabby. Make Daddy some money tonight,” Mason winked with a laugh, pulling on my ponytail one last time before he made his way toward the front of the bus.

Following after my brother, he led me through the building’s rear entrance, which opened to the venue’s floor. As soon as we walked out, insanity ensued and it caught me completely off-guard. I was more than familiar with the kind of crowds Ghost Orchid brought out, from traveling with them in the past. Since then, my parents, my older siblings and I would drive out to any of their shows within a five-hour trip from Dallas. I thought I’d seen it all.

This time there were so many more people than I ever remembered seeing in the past. The place was already packed. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they could draw a crowd; it was just rare so many people would show up hours before the main act.

Eli elbowed me. “Crazy, huh?” He could sense my surprise at the hundreds of people crammed into the venue so early in the evening. More often than not, he and I didn’t need words to communicate. “We got really lucky they chose us for this tour.”

“Who’s the headlining band?” I finally asked, putting my hand on his shoulder to follow him through the crowd. The last few hours had been so hectic I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask, not that it really mattered anyway. I’d gone with them back when they’d played with everyone from a rap-metal band to a straight-up indie-pop group.

People stared as my brother made his way through the crowd ahead of me, apologizing to each person he shouldered past. It had always seemed strange to me that people would get stars in their eyes when they saw him in person. Because this was my Eliza. He wasn’t anything special or better than any other person. His crap smelled just as bad, if not worse, than anyone else’s, and I had a million other humbling stories about him if anyone wanted to hear them.

“The Cloud Collision,” he answered.

I wracked my brain for recognition of the name and only barely came up with a vague mention in the past. The band had to be well known if they were the headliners, but I still couldn’t come up with a solid memory. Not a song title, album name, band member, or even what they sounded like. Anonymity wasn’t necessarily unheard of for bands that weren’t mainstream acts. There were easily tens of thousands of bands that wouldn’t be known by the masses. Groups didn’t need to be played on the radio or television to be successful, even if they were considered unheard of.

It didn’t help that I’d really fallen off the bandwagon of searching out new music in the last couple of years. I’d been so busy with school and a full-time job that I hadn’t really kept up with almost anything.

“I have no idea who you’re talking about,” I admitted.

He shrugged his big hammy shoulders as we kept walking. “You’ll like them. They’re good; Sacha’s spot on every night too.”

Sacha? I felt myself brighten up a little. “Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t know there was another girl on tour.” She might be a raging bitch, but maybe not.

I missed the way Eli slowly turned his head to look at me, this weird expression on his face. Slowly he nodded, like you would nod at someone who asked a stupid question.