by Wendy Knight
"You must have seen your pictures all over the Forums," she muttered, turning her phone on silent and tossing it into her bag. She was just buckling her jeans when the first period gym class came in.
"Hey."
Harli looked up, smiling at the familiar voice. "This is a girl's locker room. And you don't go to this school anymore. You know that, right?"
Jace, tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed Jace, waved his hand through the air as Kim, Harli's best friend in the entire world, appeared behind him.
"I've been looking for you," she announced.
Harli winced. "Sorry. Avoiding my phone."
"Well, I was worried." Kim adjusted her bag on her shoulder. So she'd seen the Forums, too. Harli felt her cheeks redden. Damn you, Levi.
"She enlisted my help," Jace added.
Since she had no idea what to say to that, she went a different direction. "We're going to be late for class. Again." Harli looked pointedly at Kim, and then turned to Jace. "Jace, your class starts in a half hour."
"And you're changing the subject." He raised an eyebrow.
Harli grinned. "That's what I do best."
She slung her bag over her shoulder and led the way out of the locker room. "It's eight-thirty. If you drive fast and get lucky with a parking spot, you can still make it to class on time."
"It's true. I could."
She stopped and planted her hands on her hips. Laughing, Jace raised his hands and backed away under the force of Harli's glare. "Fine. I'm going. Just stop sending my girl here into a panic, yes?" He ruffled Kim's curly hair.
Harli kept glaring until he pushed his way out the main doors.
"He's so gorgeous," Kim said dreamily, watching him walk away.
"Yeah," Harli said distractedly. Jace was beautiful. But he was nothing in Harli's eyes compared to Levi.
Nobody was.
Levi was as tall as Jace, lanky, and covered in tattoos, with irresistible dark brown eyes and wild black hair.
They wound their way through the halls, dodging students running for class. "How bad is it?" she finally asked.
"The pictures or the articles?" Kim nervously played with her dark curls, blue gaze sliding away.
Harli sighed, running a hand through her hair. "My grandmother told me boys are bad."
"The article actually says he left the club early and went back to his room alone."
Thank the heavens.
Her heart had been granted a reprieve. Unless she counted the text with the wrong name. Then her heart hurt again.
"But the pictures… they're not good, Harli. The girls love him."
The bell rang and there was mass chaos as everyone left in the halls sprinted for class, like they could possibly turn back time. She slid through the door, Kim on her heels, and made it into to her seat before the teacher noticed they were late.
"Of course they love him. That's what makes Shattered Assassin so popular. And plus, he's gorgeous," she whispered while she dug her book out of her bag. Her phone was blinking. More missed calls.
Kim had no response for that.
History was her favorite subject. Music would have been, had she ever taken it. But that would have made her stand out, and standing out was bad. It drew attention to her gift.
Her mother did not like when Harli's gift got attention.
Today, though, even history couldn't distract her. She wanted to cry, but not in front of these people — half of whom were just waiting for Levi to forget Harli and put her in her place. She would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her break.
Today was the same story as every other story since Shattered Assassin had made it big. Levi'd be on tour. He'd go to the after party, because he had to — manager's orders. He'd have girls all over him, and he'd get caught. Or he would send her a text with someone else's name — this wasn't the first time. Or something else stupid and hurtful without ever meaning to be. And then he would call her a hundred times the next day, apologizing.
This was what her mother and her grandmother had warned her about. She'd been so sure Levi was different. Levi was going to prove them wrong.
Apparently, though, something happened to boy hearts when they turned nineteen. They stopped caring.
So maybe it was boy hearts that were the problem.
She made it through the day without a single tear. No moping, no pouting. She smiled, she laughed, she joked. No one had a clue how badly she hurt.
"I'm so sorry, Harli." As always, when Harli felt lost or hurt or scared or sad, Angela's voice echoed in her head. Was she crazy, hearing a voice of a girl she'd never known in real life?
Probably.
Did she care?
Hell no.
She wasn't sure how she would survive without Angela in her head. She needed her.
Now more than ever.
Because without Levi, Harli was lost. Angela was the only light still holding her hand.
If she'd have had any idea what being famous would do to him, she never would have helped him win that contest. Stupid Last Chord anyway.
"We won! We won because of you!" Levi snatched her off her stool and swung her around and around, his lips finding hers in front of a gazillion people watching on national television.
"These kids, I tell you. They're gonna be huge stars," the announcer, Cameo Prince, yelled into the microphone, but Harli could barely hear him over the blood roaring in her ears. They'd won The Last Chord, after weeks and weeks of fighting their way to the top.
"I love you. More than anything. None of this would be possible without you," Levi whispered, his breath against her ear sending delicious shivers down her spine.
Tears burned the back of her throat, but she swallowed them, glaring fiercely at her math book.
I'm done. He's not going to hurt me anymore.
LEVI DROPPED HIS PHONE and leaned back, his hands behind his head as he sucked in a breath.
"She still not answering?" Colin asked, watching him.
"No." Levi ran a hand over his face. "I can't figure out what I did."
Colin glanced out the window. "We're gonna hit Dallas in a few hours, and our concert's not 'til tomorrow night. I could cover for you at rehearsal."
Levi met his eyes, feeling the first sliver of hope all day. "She can't ignore me if I'm there, can she?"
Colin shook his head. "She's too damn sweet for that. You go back, tell her everything's fine. She'll be okay."
"I hope so. I can't lose her, Colin." He'd passed panic about four hours ago. Now he was almost sick. As scared as he was that she was mad at him, there was a darker fear he couldn't talk to Colin about.
What if Selicia came home?
What if that's why Harli hadn't answered?
"I'm gonna go check with the driver. Find out our estimated time of arrival." Colin disappeared through the doorway, but Levi barely noticed. He grabbed his phone, hit her number again and waited, heart in his throat.
It rang twice and went to voicemail. "Arrgh!" Levi threw his phone against the wall, but it didn't shatter like he'd hoped. Stupid soft bus walls. "She's okay, right? Selicia didn't get to her." He glanced around the room, but he was talking to himself. Harli had driven him mad. The thought of losing her had officially made him lose his mind. He racked his brain, but he could only think of one other person he could call to check on her.
And he really, really didn't want to do that.
But he was desperate. Swearing, he lunged for his un-shattered phone, remembering too well the last conversation they'd had, over a year ago.
"Take care of her for me?"
Jace looked up. "What?"
"There's guys everywhere, Jace. I'm gone for a week, and four guys are camped out by her front gate."
"Then don't be gone so much, moron."
Levi rolled his eyes. "I have to. We're touring."
Jace shrugged.
"I'm not good enough for her, Jace. Everybody knows that. Somehow she still wants me. I can't lose her. I don't—I don't
know if I could—"
"Fine." Jace threw his arms up. "Stop waxing poetic already." Pain, just under the surface of his best friend's eyes. Always, the sharp pain when they talked about Harli.
He'd been right, though. Levi was gone too much. He was too busy.
He texted Jace first, but when he didn't immediately respond, Levi called. "Answer the damn phone, Jace!" he snarled.
For once, Jace did as he was told. "I'm in class."
"Get out of class. I need to talk to you."
Jace hung up on him.
Levi paced the thin aisle of the bus, up and down and up and down, until Jace finally called. "What?"
"Where's Sunshine?"
"Not talking to you."
Levi breathed a sigh of relief. "But she's okay, right?"
"You broke her heart, Levi. Again. How is that okay?"
If you only knew.
"She's mad at me then, huh?"
"You're starting to seriously make me think it was stupid to let you have her, Levi."
Jace and his lingering feelings. Yeah, he'd had four girlfriends since their infamous fight, but he'd never gotten over Harli.
"I'm not your spy. And you calling me thirty times a day while I'm in class is not okay. You wanna know how she is, get your ass home and talk to her." Jace hung up just as Colin ducked back through the door.
"We'll get to Dallas in two hours. Wanna go home?"
Levi nodded, still staring at his dead phone. "It's been too long since I've seen her." He had pictures of her everywhere. On his guitar case. On his luggage, on his phone and his bunk, and in his wallet. But still, he was plagued by the fear that he would forget the sound of her voice or the way her eyes sparkled with that mischievous smile. Or the glorious way she played music — the way she could make anything sing, the peace on her face while she played. He was terrified that he would forget that.
"Okay. I'll tell Michael to set it up."
Levi shook his head, standing, swaying with the bus as it went around a corner. Second nature to him, now. He was so used to walking on a bus, he wasn't entirely sure he remembered how to walk on steady ground. "I'll make my own arrangements. Michael will just come up with some stupid reason I can't go. He hates Harli."
"She's gorgeous and scares the girl fans away." When Levi started to object, Colin held up his hand. "Not her fault, but someone that hot is intimidating, no matter how sweet she is."
"That's bull—"
But Colin was still talking. "Michael's a good manager. That's all that matters."
It was an argument he'd had with every single member of their band. At least twice. "Yeah, except when he chases my girlfriend off and tells her she's bad publicity. Harli was the reason we won that contest. If it hadn't been for her, we wouldn't even be here." He dug his laptop out of his bag and waited impatiently for it to start up. I'm going home. I'm going home. I'm going home.
"Harli chose to quit, Levi. That wasn't Michael's fault," Colin said quietly.
"No. That was Harli sabotaging herself because she feels like she has to." Because of Selicia. World's worst mother.
Before Harli had met him, Levi'd been constantly on the brink of juvenile detention and probably a wild life out of control. She'd saved him that day, holding his hand, and taming the insanity, but old habits died hard. There was still a monster in him.
He didn't know how to control that monster without her.
He flipped through the websites, trying to find the earliest flight out of Dallas. Now that he knew she was okay, he wasn't overwhelmed with the panicked need to get home, but a horrible sense of dread had taken its place.
She'd been mad before, but never so mad she'd go a whole day without answering his calls. And this time, he didn't even know what he'd done.
That was what scared him. Had he gotten so emotionally far away from her that he was hurting her and didn't even know it?
Harli was his angel. His sunshine. Without her, this whole world was unbearably dark.
"Did you ever talk her into Julliard?" Colin asked, picking idly at his torn jeans. He was the same age as Levi, but they'd never met until Colin had come looking for a drummer and a singer for his band. He'd found Harli on the Forums, and they'd been fast friends. They were inseparable all through the The Last Chord's competition. All the way to the top.
"No. She won't go."
"That's stupid. It's her dream school. And she's a freaking musical prodigy. She'd get in, no problem."
Levi was only half-listening. None of the flights were soon enough to suit him. He wanted to go home. "It was Selicia's dream school, too. So Harli won't go." Five hours. Five hours was too long. It was a three hour flight from Dallas to Salt Lake. That was eight hours until he could see her again. It couldn't happen soon enough.
"Yes!" he yelled, startling Colin nearly off the couch. "Flight home in three hours. I'm coming home, Sunshine."
Please don't hate me.
Chapter Two
"TODAY SUCKED," HARLI SIGHED TO RUST BUCKET, her adorable, albeit rusty, old red Chevy truck. When Levi's first record had hit platinum, he tried to buy her a new one.
But Rust Bucket was loyal. Rust Bucket never hurt her. So Levi gave the little black death-trap car to Jace's mom, instead.
Rest in peace.
Harli was exhausted. Exhausted driving meant she drove home in a daze. If she'd been paying attention, she would have seen the light on in the upper window as she came through the gate.
She walked in, shut the door, and leaned against it, moaning as she slid down into a heap on the floor. "Safe."
"Get up."
Harli's eyes flew open. "Selicia." She scrambled to her feet, trying to get the door open. "I—I thought you weren't coming home until next week."
"Surprise." Selicia was drunk and her words slurred. The bottle was still in her hands. "Get away from the door."
Harli swallowed the raw fear burning her throat. "You—you've been drinking. Why don't I—I run you a bath and you can relax—"
"Are you judging me¸ Harlequin?" Selicia straightened, albeit still leaning to the side.
"No! No, I'm not judging. I—"
"Think you're better than me? Think you can play better than me?"
"No!"
"I could play. I can play. I could play better than you until you ruined everything. Stupid little bitch ruined everything."
"I didn't mean to," Harli whispered. Her hand was slick and the doorknob wouldn't turn. Help. Please help me.
She recognized the look in Selicia's eyes. The anger. The hatred.
"You—" Selicia pointed the bottle at Harli's chest, "—ruin everything. You ruined Levi. His career hit the wall. Because of you. Just like you did to me. You're poison!" Selicia screamed.
Harli made the mistake of covering her ears and closing her eyes. When the liquid splashed all over her, she couldn't help but scream, her eyes flying open, choking on the alcohol.
The lighter, she did see.
Just in time to jerk her hands up in front of her face. The lighter caught the alcohol and ignited her arms and torso. She screeched, dropping to the floor and rolling in frantic circles.
Selicia's laughter rang in her ears.
Harli ripped her burning shirt off, tearing burned skin with it, and threw it on the floor, barely able to see straight through the haze of pain. Stumbling to her feet, she finally got the door open and escaped to the cool night air.
But the air burned, too.
Sobbing, she somehow made it to her car. "Call 911. Call 911. Dammit, Harli! Call 911!" Angela bellowed.
But she didn't. Somehow she made it out of the driveway, down the road, onto the highway. Three turns. Four red lights. By the time she made it to the ER, she was holding on to consciousness by sheer force of will. She got the door open, made it almost all the way inside, before her legs gave way.
Luckily, someone saw her. She was swarmed by medical personnel, many blurred hands and faces. "What happened? Can you tell me your na
me?"
"Harlequin Lee," she whimpered.
"What happened? Can you tell me what happened?"
No. No I can't. "I fell. Into a—a fire."
"Liar."
LEVI GOT OFF THE plane, flipped his phone on, and tried Harli again. She didn't answer, which was pretty much expected by now, so he called Jace.
"Blugh," Jace moaned. "It's one. In the morning. Some of us have school tomorrow."
"I'm in Salt Lake. I should be there in about an hour."
"Good for you. Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Have you heard from her?"
"It is one in the morning. I'm not her bodyguard."
Levi hung up, fairly positive Jace was already asleep again.
Colin had rented him a car, which was small and fast and waiting at the rental counter. It was a Jace car. Levi drove a truck, big and black with huge tires. Too big to fit in a canal.
Angela.
Levi got in his fast little car and roared onto the freeway. He drove way too fast through the darkness, the roads almost empty. The further he got away from the city, the fewer cars there were, and the faster he drove, her name humming around the sound of the wheels.
Levi pulled off the freeway and slowed to a crawl going through the, quiet little town he'd grown up in. Nearly every block had something that reminded him of her. He'd first kissed her at that park. He'd first held her hand on that sidewalk. He'd gone to his very first movie with her at that theater.
And he'd first met her…
There. In the canal where he'd lost his sister.
He pulled the car to a stop at the front gate. Every light was on in the house, but no one answered when he hit the buzzer.
"Come on, Sunshine. Let me in."
She didn't.
He sat there for two hours, alternately hitting the buzzer and calling her cell. The sun came up, and she didn't answer. He got out of his car, wandered around the tall gate, but he knew from four years of experience that there was no getting over that wall if someone didn't let him in.