When I regain consciousness, I'm lying across a seat in Sawyer's bus. It reminds me of coming to in the green room at The Domino after the explosion, only there's no alarm. This time I recall every moment of what happened prior to blacking out before I open my eyes, but I wish I didn't.

Images flash through my mind. Bowie announced I was in the audience and pointed me out from the stage. People rushed to crowd around me, and short blasts that sounded like fireworks exploded somewhere nearby. Hunter caught me as I fell, seconds after he found out about everything in the worst possible way.

Hunter. I scan the bus for him. He's close by in the tiny kitchen, peering out the window. His mouth is set in a grim line, and his hands are shoved deep into his pockets. He looks shell-shocked.

It's only him, me, Sawyer, and a festival medic inside the bus. Words fail me in this moment, so I concentrate on sitting up. My movement attracts the attention of the medic, Sawyer, and Hunter at the same time.

"Go easy," the medic instructs me. "Are you experiencing any dizziness? Do you know where you are?"

"I'm in a tour bus at a music festival," I reply. "No dizziness. I'm fine. It was just anxiety and a panic attack."

"Do you have panic attacks often?"

"Only since someone set off a bomb at my concert," I mumble.

I'm focused on Hunter, so I don't know if the medic catches my reply. He doesn't respond to it if he does, but instead asks me a couple more questions. Satisfied with my answers and that I'll live, he leaves the bus after I agree to have someone get him if I feel faint again. Now it's just Hunter, Sawyer, and me, and one hell of an elephant in the room no one has yet said a word about.

Sawyer must sense the same thing I do, because he breaks the silence. "I texted your mom about what happened. She wanted me to call her when you woke up, so I'm going to go do that." He excuses himself and heads to the door at the front of the bus, leaving me alone with Hunter.

Great. Mom must be beside herself with worry and fury. She already can't stand Bowie, and I can't imagine the scene that will unfold if their paths ever cross again. Between this, the voice mail from several weeks ago she never did let me listen to, and the texts from him I didn't read, I wouldn't be surprised if she's already gone up one side and down the other of some unsuspecting soul on his management team or at our record label, or if she's contacted a lawyer about a restraining order.

But Mom confronting Bowie sometime in the future isn't what concerns me the most. Hunter hasn't said anything since I became alert again. He's too quiet and tense, and the way he averted his eyes when he saw me watching him makes me uneasy.

"Thanks for catching me and getting us somewhere safe."

"No problem." Hunter's voice is strained. He doesn't look up from a spot on the floor. His phone rings, but he makes no move to pull it from his pocket to answer it.

The way he rubs his hands over his eyes, rakes his fingers through his hair, and won't look at me are all signals that the conversation we're about to have won't be an easy one. I wait until his phone stops ringing to speak again.

"I know I have a lot to explain." My hands are doing that twisty, wringing thing they do when I'm anxious. "I know I should have told you sooner. This isn't how I wanted you to find out, and I'm sorry."

His head snaps up. "Are you sorry you didn't tell me or that I found out? Because I feel like if you had planned to tell me, it would have come up some time in the last month."

I try not to flinch. He has every reason to believe I wasn't going to share this with him, but it doesn't lessen the sting of his words.

"Of course I was going to tell you. I had planned to do it today, but then we ended up here before I could."

His eyebrows shoot up. Doubt is written all over his face, but he says nothing. I can't blame him.

I rush to fill the dead air. "I swear I'm telling you the truth. I've been practicing what to say for over a week."

Hunter's eyebrows are no longer raised. His expression now is controlled and unreadable.

"You practiced telling me who you are? You couldn't just say it to me, when I'm supposedly your boyfriend?"

It does seem ridiculous when he puts it this way. There's no good answer other than the truth and owning up to my fears. A commotion outside the bus stops me from replying. Paisley yells to someone that her brother is inside the bus and she needs to talk to him. Hunter hears her at the same time I do.

"I need to see what's going on," he mutters. He stalks away to the bus door without another word.

Paisley and Brooke walk onto the bus a couple of minutes later. Hunter isn't with them.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Paisley seems calm, as if nothing is different from the last time we spoke, outside of the festival entrance.

Like I've been run over by a truck, anxious about Hunter, and full of remorse and regret are my top three feelings in no particular order, but I keep these to myself.

"I'm okay," I answer instead. Paisley plunks herself down on the seat across from me, and Brooke follows suit.

"I can't believe what a jerk Bowie is," Brooke says. "How did you ever date him?"

"People make bad decisions sometimes," I reply.

Bad decisions are a recurring theme in my life these days. I won't claim Bowie was different when we started going out, because that would also be defending him. I don't have to tear him down, but I also won't stand up for the person I once thought he was after everything he's put me through today and since the night of the explosion.

"I can see why Portia also dumped him," Paisley says. "What a creep. My brother is a pain sometimes, but he would never treat you or anyone like that. I'm so glad you're with him instead."

"Me too," I agree, even though I lack the confidence she has for where my relationship now stands with Hunter.

"Speaking of him, do you want me to see if he's ready to leave? We should get you home."

"Don't you want to stay for the rest of the festival?" I ask.

"You're kidding, right? I'm sure Sawyer's set will be great, but Brooke and I are ready to go. It's better for Bowie if I'm not here when he goes on, because I won't be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth if I have to look at him again today. I'd be surprised if people don't boo him off stage."

"He's canceled in our books," Brooke agrees.

It strikes me then, how relaxed and normal they're being. Neither one of them seem fazed by learning the truth about me and it's as though nothing has changed. I talked myself out of telling Hunter sooner based on a fear of Paisley finding out, and a fear of her or Brooke saying something to the wrong person. Now I wonder if I misjudged them and what that error in judgment has cost me.

The bus door opens again and Sawyer joins Paisley, Brooke, and me. There's still no sign of Hunter.

"Your mom is on her way and said to stay on the bus until she gets here," he says to me, then he turns to Paisley and Brooke. "Hunter wants to know if you're staying or going with him and said to text him. He just got escorted off the festival grounds after trying to fight Bowie."

"What?" I exclaim.

"I didn't see all of it, but our bus driver filled me in. Hunter saw Bowie and flipped out on him for putting you in harm's way. Bowie said something about you bringing it on yourself for showing up here and being drama, and Hunter lunged at him. There was some shoving between both of them but security broke it up before fists got involved."

"My brother is an idiot sometimes," Paisley declares, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. "Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed hearing him call Bowie out, but what did he think would happen? No one is going to let him fight one of the festival headliners."

"I need to find him." I'm on my feet and headed to the bus door before I finish my sentence.

"You can't go out there," Sawyer calls after me. "You'll be mobbed the second you get past security, and your mom will kill me if I let you leave this bus before she gets here."

"Sawyer is right," Paisley says. "There are a ton of people standing by the fence, waiting for you to get off the bus. You'll need security to help you get out of here."

Fantastic. I started the day being somewhere my every move isn't monitored, and now thanks to Bowie, I'm stuck inside of a bus and can't leave undetected.

I stop walking and pivot back in the direction I came from, even though every cell in my body wants me to keep going and find Hunter. If people are waiting for me, though, then that means some of them will follow me. Any words Hunter and I exchange, and any interaction we have, would be in front of an audience. He doesn't deserve to have his privacy invaded on top of everything else that has gone down today.

"Thanks for the warning." I flop onto the seat again and look up at Paisley. "Can you let Hunter know I'll come by later to talk to him?"

She nods. "We'll see you back at the lake." I sense there's something else she wants to say. Whatever it is, she decides against it after a few seconds, and then exits the bus with Brooke.

Sawyer takes a seat next to me. "How are you doing?"

"Physically?" I ask. "Fine, I guess, thanks to you and Hunter."

"And emotionally? Are you holding up okay?"

"I'm worried about how Hunter is taking this," I admit. "He wasn't thrilled with me when he left the bus."

"Give him some time. He seemed overwhelmed when I saw him, but I can tell he's a good guy whose heart is in the right place and that he cares about you. He was furious with Bowie for putting you in danger with all those people running for you and crowding around. I think he just needs to process this."

"I can't blame him for that, or if he's angry. Everything that happened is my fault for not telling him before today." I bury my face in my hands, as if this will somehow help me find a reprieve from the torrent of thoughts swirling through my mind.

"Deni, look at me. Bowie being self-absorbed, reckless, and a horrible human isn't your fault. You had no idea this would happen." Sawyer puts his hand on my shoulder. I'm dangerously close to bursting into tears.

I don't trust my voice, so I don't say anything else. I keep my face hidden by my hands and concentrate on breathing and keeping it together until someone knocks on the bus door.

"Ten minutes until you're on, Sawyer," a man yells.

"You should go." I raise my head and let my hands fall to my lap. "I'll be okay here until my mom arrives."

"Send me a text later, or ask her to text me if she won't give you her phone. I want to make sure you're all right." Sawyer holds out his arms and I lean into them, grateful for the hug. "Things will be okay with Hunter once he has a chance to cool off and you talk to him. By tomorrow, this will all be just a bad memory."

I would give anything to be as sure of that as Sawyer seems to be.

************************
Hi everyone! Well... the truth is out there now, but not in the way Deni wanted it to be. How do you feel about this? Are you mad at Deni for stalling for so long and it leading to this? Are you mad at Bowie for being an absolute nightmare of an ex-boyfriend? Are you mad at Hunter for how he's reacting to what he knows? And why are Paisley and Brooke being so level-headed about this, of all people? -Jenn