“Has she called you yet?” I asked Nick during a break between our sound check and that day’s Meet & Greet.

“No…” he mumbled.  “Stop bringing her up, alright?  She’ll either call or she won’t… but you reminding me that she hasn’t called bites.”

“Sorry…” I told him as I fiddled with my pack of cigarettes.  “I’m gunna go smoke.”

“Have fun.”

Nick was in one of his moods.  We were almost at the end of our stay in California and although Emma had resurfaced in my life, she hadn’t contacted Nick yet and I was left suck in the middle.  He didn’t want to talk about her and she didn’t want to talk about him.  So naturally I was the asshole who repeatedly brought one up to the other.  Most of the time it wasn’t on purpose though.  I’d be running my mouth, as I’m prone to do, and suddenly I’d blurt something out that resulted in me tasting my foot.  The harder I tried to not bring it up, the more I slipped.  I was hopeless.

Once Marcus and I made it outside of the venue I lit up and looked around in the bright sunlight of the afternoon.  “Where the fuck are we?”

Marcus laughed, “Somewhere in California.”

“No shit… I know that much. I just can’t figure out where the hell in California we are.  I hate it near the end of the tour when everything blends together.”

“We’re in Sacramento…”

I spun around so fast at the sound of her voice I nearly made myself dizzy.  “Hey…”

Emma chuckled, she wasn’t much for smiling, laughing or having fun lately at all so it was nice to hear her chuckle.  “Hey…”  She looked at Marcus and smiled, “Hey, Marc…”

“Hiya, Girlie…” Marcus said and started to move away to his “bodyguard position,” close enough to protect me, far enough so not to intrude.

Emma grabbed Marcus’ arm, not a thing many people including myself were brave enough to do.  “Stay here, dork.  I interrupted your conversation.  That means you stay.”  Marcus smiled and stayed, while Emma lit a cigarette and took the first drag.  “So yeah, we’re in Sacramento.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“I could’ve sworn we were already here before.  Wasn’t Sacramento after LA?”

“Nope…” she said blowing smoke into the air, away from Marcus.

“How many days til we leave this state then?” I asked thinking that maybe if we changed states I’d have a clue where we were.

“Three.”

“Then we’re in Texas for a week and a half, right?  Then home for the holidays to get fat eating way too much home cooked food.”

“Mmm hmm…” 

I looked at her and wondered what was going through her head.  Just like Nick, she’d been in her own “mood” since Vegas.  She’d warmed up a little bit, but even I was having a hard time getting to her.  It was driving me fucking crazy.  I’d tried being subtle and that didn’t work, being funny hadn’t worked either, so I was left with being annoyingly blunt.  “So… You going to visit any family or friends while we’re in Texas?”

She finished her cigarette, stomped the butt on the ground and shrugged looking at me.  “I’ve gotta get back to work… see ya.”

I looked at Marcus as Emma went back into the venue and he laughed at the look on my face, “Don’t ask me, kid.  She’s your friend.”

“Yeah, I know…” I sighed and thought about the weird position I was in, stuck between Nick and Emma.  I wanted to see both of them happy and yet had no idea if there was anything I could do to help it happen.  It sucked.