Fandom (Famous #3) - Eden Finley Page 0,3
since being home, and that’s only because I respect him too much not to return his calls.
He’s come out here twice already trying to convince me to come back—he even offered to be my manager again—but I can’t bring myself to make him break his promise that he wouldn’t choose between us. Why I still have that loyalty, I’m not sure, because the rest of Eleven can go fuck themselves for all I care.
Wow, maybe I’m even more bitter than I realized.
“I’m sure you’ve heard Harley is trying to get Eleven together again. I think it could be the right move for all of you.”
I’ve had a million missed calls from Harley, and all the voicemails about getting back together were deleted immediately. “I can’t go back.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Cameron says.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m done with Hollywood and music. That’s all.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Oh really. I’m not, am I?”
“Nope. Because I know you loved those guys like brothers, so to go from being that close to nothing, something happened, and I want to know what it is. Because if that’s your only roadblock, I’m going to find a way to fix it.”
Of course he is.
“I … can’t. I’m really sorry, but I can’t go into it.” Because it would involve outing someone I used to care about. Still care about. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m still too angry to work out my emotions when it comes to Denver Smith.
And out here, in the middle of nowhere, I don’t have to deal with it at all. That’s how I like it, and that’s the way it’ll stay.
But talking to Cameron about it does make me flash back to that night, the last night Eleven was on tour, just hours before the announcement that we were breaking up.
The screams were deafening, and the crowd was going insane for us like they always did, but it was as if they all knew that it was our last show ever. Or maybe I knew that it was the last show we’d ever play together, so I was focusing on it more.
The last few years had felt a little lackluster when it came to performing. We were all burned out. We were ready for a break, and we wanted to do our own things.
It was our last encore. The last song.
All five of us on stage breathed heavily as the song finished and we stared out at our adoring fans.
Denver purposefully stepped in front of me when it was time to take our bow, and I laughed as I shoved him out the way. His shaggy light brown hair was dripping with sweat, his aqua eyes were shining, and he’d never looked happier than when he was onstage performing. The guy had gone through some serious shit in his life, but you wouldn’t have known it looking at him in that moment. With the lights shining down on him, he had an ethereal glow about him.
He threw his arm around my shoulders while the crowd took photos of us all lined up next to each other. Those were the types of shots that got posted all over social media, but this particular one would go down in history as the last time Eleven ever played onstage together. Not that the crowd knew that yet.
Eleven breaking up was massive news, and hearts were about to break all over the world. Telling rambunctious fans their favorite band was dead was a good way to get someone trampled if they did it at the wrong time. The label had prepared statements to release into the world after the stadium had cleared out.
The fandom was manic, but there was no doubt we did something special.
I thought the only sucky thing would be saying goodbye to them all, particularly Denver. He was like my kid brother, and we hadn’t spent more than a few days away from each other since we were first signed to the label. Even on breaks, if we weren’t with my family, he’d drag me on some tropical island vacation somewhere. We were tight, and I didn’t want to lose that, but we both needed to spread our wings.
I knew it would be hard, but I had no doubt we would support each other through this next venture. He would still be in my life.
Boy, was I fucking wrong.
I had no idea my life was about to implode. I was too excited about moving on and becoming a grown-up