Sacha smiled. "But there's only thirty days in April."

I waggled my eyebrows. "Exactly. I have to text him to remind him of every birthday in our family." I thought about it for a second. "If we weren't born on the same day, he wouldn't know what day my birthday was. That's for sure."

"What day is your birthday?" he asked.

"December second. Yours?"

"August thirteenth."

"I'll have to make sure to remember and send you a One Direction birthday card or something." I smiled at him.

He blinked. "You're too generous."

I shrugged, still smiling. "What about you? Do you know your family's birthdays?"

"I know everyone's. If I forgot, my sisters would probably skin my nuts." He paused and thought about it. "Well, Dena, my eldest, would. The rest would put a personal ad on Craigslist for a one-night stand, men only, and put my number as the contact," he laughed.

"That's a good one." I laughed too. "I'll have to remember that in case you ever piss me off."

He mocked a gasp. "Me? Piss you off? Whatever do you mean?"

"Shut your mouth." I elbowed him in the rib. "It's bound to happen one day. You'll catch me on my period again or something."

Sacha stuck his tongue out at the corner of his mouth. "I survived eighteen years with my sisters, and you're a lot nicer and prettier than they are. We'll be fine."

My cheeks went hot, and yet again, I told myself not to take what he was saying seriously. He was nice. Unbelievably nice. Nice people said sweet things to others because that was something they did. I wasn't going to be an idiot and misinterpret it. "Yeah, sure, Sassy." I blinked at him, trying to school my cheeks so that they weren't traitorous blushing bastards. "I'll let you pay me my twenty dollars later, you don't have to sweet-talk me."

Later that night, while TCC was performing, Eli trailed to the merch area to sign some autographs.

"Flabby?" he yelled into my ear while I was helping a fan, with one eye on Sacha in his prim and proper clothing as he moved across the stage.

"What do you want?"

A finger slicked across my bottom lip. "You need a bib," Eliza laughed.

I snickered, shooting him a dirty look. "Leave me alone. You don't see me raining on your parade when you're flirting with girls."

He started to say something else, but Sacha started talking into the microphone about some guy in the audience wearing a Christmas hat and how Christmas was his favorite holiday. "But it's not my favorite day in the year," he said with a smile at the crowd.

Eli leaned into me. "It's steak and BJ day."

I leaned away from him, smirking. "That's your favorite holiday," I told him, earning an excited nod in response.

The opening rift of one of their songs swept through the venue as Sacha stood on one of the floor speakers and pressed the microphone against his lips. "December 2nd!" he screamed into it before the loud crash of the drums signaled the rest of the song.

What in the hell was happening?

"My birthday? Is he gay?" Eli asked me with a confused look on his face.

I punched him in the stomach just for being an idiot.

Chapter Seventeen.

It was the bang, bang, bang on the door that scared the shit out of me.

The fact that it was two o'clock in the morning only added to what-the-hell-is-happening panic that burned through my thoughts.

We'd gotten back to the hotel an hour ago. It was long enough for me to shower and begin to wind down from the hectic sold-out show in Perth. The fact that half the dates in Australia were sold out was both exciting and daunting.

Mostly exciting. Australians had the sexiest accents I'd ever heard. Whoo.

"Who is it?" I called out a little hesitantly, wishing I had a knife or a bat or at least a rock I could chuck nearby. Then again, every room around mine had one of the guys on the tour in it. If I yelled loud enough someone would come, right?

Eh. I could use a lamp if push came to shove.

Someone-or something?-scratched at the door lightly.

Jesus Christ. "Seriously, who is it?"

There was more scratching.

Damn it! "Eli, I swear to God-"

A loud laugh pierced through the door. "It's me."

Me.

Sassy.

I groaned and grumbled climbing off the bed. "Damn it, Sacha. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Yes."

Yeah, I rolled my eyes, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't greedily sucking up the attention, especially after what he'd said during The Cloud Collision's set. His favorite day was my birthday? That wasn't him calling me cute or saying something else along those lines. So what the hell did it mean? What the hell did it mean, damn it?

It wasn't like I could talk to any of the monsters, or even Carter, about it. It also wasn't as if I could hop onto Skype and get Laila's input because of the time difference. This wasn't an e-mail-worthy conversation; it required a face-to-face conversation.

I had no one.

So...

I wasn't going to bring it up and possibly make our friendship awkward until I could figure out how I was supposed to handle what he'd said and might have meant.

"One sec, Sassy pants," I said in the middle of turning the deadbolt. I'd barely cracked the door when his smiling face greeted me. "Hi."

"Princess," he said with a long blink of his cool-colored eyes as he pushed the door open and slid inside.

He toed off his shoes the instant after he'd kicked the door closed. Before I'd even locked it, he was climbing onto my bed and reclining against the headboard. My mind said, "Danger!" But my ovaries screamed, "Naked! Now!"

Instead I did what any friend would have done: I jumped onto the bed as if him showing up to my room in the middle of the night was no big deal, and sat cross-legged next to where he took a seat.

Fresh-faced and damp-haired, he pushed his black locks straight back before rubbing at one of the shaved sides of his head. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"I was still trying to wind down." Plus, he'd banged on the door so loud that it would have woken me up even if I'd been passed out, but I kept that to myself. "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, and I'm not in the mood to get any writing done tonight."

I raised my eyebrows. "Writing your next album?"

He nodded. "This tour is for the last record we have with our label and our contract runs out in exactly a year; we want to release another album the day after it's over. I wanted to go ahead and get started on the songs now."

"You're self-releasing it?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty certain we're going to have to sue our label for back royalties they owe us afterward." He winced.

I made a face that he mirrored.

"It'll be fine," he assured me.

"I'm sure it will."

He nodded, rubbing at the side of his head again as his eyes strayed to the chunk of my head that had met a death with Carter's clippers weeks back. Sacha tipped his chin up. "Are you planning on shaving it again?"

"No. I'm lucky if I get two haircuts in a year; keeping up with it is too much trouble. I'll just look dumb until it grows back in. And it's probably way too cool of a haircut for me anyway."

"You're cool." He smiled. "Most of the time."

I sort of choked but still laughed. "Oh, thanks for such an awesome compliment."

"It's what I'm here for."

I rolled my eyes playfully, settling my back against the headboard. "Sometimes I feel like I've known you my entire life, and other times, I ask myself what the hell I was thinking trying to be your friend."

The grin that took over his mouth astounded me. "I've thought the same about you. What would my life be like if you hadn't kicked me in the ass?"

I crossed my eyes and groaned, earning a bright laugh from the guy next to me.

"I've never met anyone I've felt so comfortable with so quickly," he said like it was nothing.

Why did he have to be so sweet? I pushed that question into the back of my brain and beamed at him, appreciating what he was saying. "I'm picky with my friends, you know."

"So I should feel honored that I'm your best friend?" he asked, raising a dark eyebrow while a goofy, crooked grin covered his lips.

I couldn't help but snort. "We're best friends?"

He sat up a little then, nodding with that same ridiculous smile on his face. "At least."

Wanting to focus on his words but being too scared, I waggled my brows at him. "How old am I?" I asked, knowing he had no idea.

"Twenty... three?" he asked, twitching an eye.

"You're fired. I'm twenty-six." I groaned, flicking his thigh in return. "What's my favorite color?"

He made another face. "Blue?"

"How did you know?"

"You're always wearing blue," he boasted with a wink. "What do you think my favorite color is?"

I stared at him right in the eyes. "Pink, duh."

He blinked those long fanning black lashes once and only once. "Do you have any idea how easy it is to love you?"

There was no way to respond to that. Plus, he was joking. I mean, he was joking, right? Instead of taking the risk of saying something I'd regret later, I reached forward and attempted to flick him in the forehead, but he caught my hand. I tried to yank it back, but almost punched myself in the face instead. I scowled.

"What's your favorite thing to listen to?" I asked, figuring that since we were on a roll getting to know each other a bit more, I might as well take advantage.

"You know, I don't have anything specific I like," he answered, pursing his lips. What a typical musician answer. "I like and hate everything. I can listen to anything as long as it's good. What about you? Kidz Bop?"

I threw my head back and laughed. "Oh yeah, I'm so glad you told me about how catchy it was."

Sacha smiled and made a gentle, amused noise in his throat that sounded faintly like a snort as he fluttered those thick, long eyelashes in my direction. "I'll send you the rest of my collection when I get home," he teased me. When I grinned at him, his expression softened and his eyes flickered down to my hands. "You haven't been with anyone since you and Brandon broke up?" he asked abruptly.

The question sort of threw me for a loop since I wasn't expecting it at all. But that void that I felt for my ex was numbed and so insignificant I couldn't bother to remember anything about him that used to mean something to me. "No," I told him simply. "I thought my heart was broken for about a little bit. Then I was too pissed and depressed with life to bother with anything besides school for a while. Now, I'm just minding my own business, enjoying the tour, taking advantage of being the captain of my destiny for a little bit."

And having a huge, massive crush on you that defies all sense, I thought.

He nodded thoughtfully. "No regrets, then?"

"None." That was the truth. "Everything happens for a reason, and I know that things wouldn't have worked out between us in the long run anyway, you know what I mean?"