Sacha raised a brow, though his attention was focused on the field. “And you don’t?”

“Well, I don’t exactly leave my binoculars at home.”

He laughed and turned toward me. I struggled not to make a stupid face at his closeness. He smelled like clean, sweet man. "You’re something else, you know that?”

I tried to take his words for how he really meant them and managed to raise the corners of my mouth just a little.

He smiled and leaned back, but his eyes were different as he did it. Those pale gray irises were bright, alert and a bit guarded. That was weird.

The game started immediately after that, and the screaming in the stands ensued. The first half was insane; there were a couple of close goals and everyone would go berserk when the opposing team got too close to the Alliance goal. When two minutes were left on the clock in the first half, a Philadelphia striker scored a goal and the stands went to hell. I wasn't even an Alliance fan, but I jumped up with everyone else and double high-fived everyone nearby. When I turned to Sacha, he slapped both his hands against mine before pulling me in for a hot, tight hug that lasted exactly three awesome, friendly seconds.

During halftime Sacha and Miles got up to go buy things from the concession stand, leaving Julian and I together.

"Sorry about the Brandon thing," the man next to me said unexpectedly, shifting in his seat to look at me.

Tearing my eyes away from the dancers parading across the field at the end of their halftime routine, I gave him a hesitant smile and shrugged. "It's okay. I’m sorry Eli and I both lost our minds."

"We’ve been friends for a long time, you know. We toured together a few years ago when I filled in for his guitar player." He pursed his lips together. "I should have known you were his Gaby, but I wasn’t thinking…”

I could remember Brandon mentioning to me when we first started dating how he'd replaced members in his ensemble before I came around, so Julian's explanation made perfect sense.

“It’s okay. Consider yourself lucky it was only temporary.”

His snicker was so loud it caught me off guard. "Oh fuck, they suck, right?”

I nodded like I’d win an award for telling the truth about the human hemorrhoid’s band.

“I don't have it in me to tell him his music blows now," Julian said with another snicker.

That had me throwing my head back to laugh. "I never did either. He thought I wore earplugs because I didn't want to damage my ears."

Julian joined me, chuckling. "You're a cool girl, Gaby. I'm sorry for being an asshole."

I’d just gotten over being an asshole to his bandmate, so I couldn’t really be a hypocrite and not accept his apology. “Don’t worry about it.”

He reached his hand out and I couldn't help but smile at him in return as I shook his hand. “You really punched him in the throat?” he asked with amusement written all over his tone.

My face got a little red. “Yeah.”

Something cold pressed against the back of my neck and I yelped. Sacha held a bottle out, a furrow to his eyebrows as he looked down at me. "I brought you some water."

"Thank you, Sassy," I told him, taking the bottle. He had another one in his hand and a small-sized popcorn tucked under his arm.

Julian let go of my hand before he spoke. "You didn't bring me one?"

Sacha snorted as he took his seat. "Fuck, no."

My gray-eyed friend settled the container of popcorn right smack in the middle of his lap. I didn't even think twice before dipping my hand into the bucket and grabbing as much as I could. Sacha smirked at me before taking his own handful and cramming all of it into his mouth.