The Way Back Home by Alecia Whitaker Read Free Book Online Page A

type.”
    â€œThat was, what, almost two years ago?” she asks, pulling my boots off. “I didn’t even really know him then. And this just sort of happened over the past couple of weeks, where I realized, ‘Oh, for real, I think I like this guy. And he’s my best friend’s brother, and it’s weird.’ I’ve wanted to tell you, but I’ve been like, ‘Ah! What do I do?’”
    I slip my feet into a pair of retro-style pumps and sigh. “Honestly? I can sort of see it,” I admit.
    She clutches my forearms as I balance. “Seriously?”
    I look down at her face, at the excitement there and the childlike hope that I’ve never seen in her before. Suddenly it feels like there’s some sort of distance between us even though she’s right in front of me. I shake it off. “But Stel, it sucks that you didn’t tell me, ’cause you’re the only person in my whole life that I can be one hundred percent totally real with twenty-four-seven. And I want you to feel the same way with me.”
    She nods. “I do!”
    â€œThen why—”
    Jordan hands me my microphone. “You need to get out there,” she says, looking at her wristwatch. The video onstage ends and the audience cheers, meaning that even though Stella and I should probably have a real talk, we can’t. Not right now.
    â€œOkay, we’ll talk later,” I say as I back toward the stage. “But I’m pretty sure he likes you, too.”
    â€œReally?” she squeals from the wings. “How do you know? Bird Barrett, don’t you dare leave me hanging like that!” she calls. “I want details! Come back!”
    I smile as she pantomimes fishing for me, but I feel anxious inside as I rush to my mark. If Dylan and Stella get together, I’ll definitely be a third wheel. And then if it doesn’t work out, life on my bus will be miserable. Will I have to fire one of them?
    I stand between two male dancers behind a door in the big screen, and as the music starts, they lift me onto their shoulders. When the spotlight hits and the crowd swells, I plaster on a big smile and focus on the show, on the moment, on being a professional musician instead of a worried teenager. This is who I need to be now, so I sing with all I’ve got, even as I chew on the quickie backstage convo.
    I obviously want them both to be happy, but as I belt out the chorus of “Worth Being in Love,” I can’t help but think that, in this case, it may not be worth it at all.

    â€œSo, basically, after the Salt Lake show, when you jetted off for LA again, it was just me and Dylan on the bus,” Stella says a few days later. Troy had a town car waiting for me at the back door of the arena the other night, but I had called Stella on my way to the airport and we talked about every single nuance of her crush on Dylan. I felt thoroughly filled in on Stella’s feelings for him, but now that I’m back on the bus and she’s sitting across from me on my bed with a ginormous smile, I have the feeling that something happened—with my brother—and I’m not sure I want to hear every juicy detail.
    â€œSo you know how the other night in the wings you were saying that you think Dylan might like me back?” she asks. I nod. “Well, I
think
I found out while you were gone that he does!”
    â€œOh, wow.”
    Stella throws herself back against the pillows beside me and rushes into the whole story. “Okay, so that night it was just Dylan and me—alone on the bus—and I was charged from telling you I like him and admitting it out loud and everything. Like, that made it real, you know?”
    She rolls her head toward mine, and I face her and nod. “Totally.”
    â€œAnd every time he squeezed past me on the bus, I swear I thought he could hear my pulse, it was beating so loud. Or he could read my mind or something. But