I glanced at Jaden again.
His face was wooden now, like he'd been thinking, too. Whatever it was, he didn't look real happy about it.
"Jaden..." I began, my voice low.
"What, Allie?" he said, focusing on me directly. "What is it?"
I fell silent, looking at him. Seeing the fight in his eyes, I backed down.
"Nothing. I just..."
"Well, whatever it is, can it wait?" he said. "We have to get ready...and I need to get back there, okay? They want to make some changes to our set list..."
I stared up at him, thrown by the coldness of his voice.
"Sure," I said.
"Great. Then you can just save it up and yell at me later, okay?"
"Jaden," I said, bewildered. "Seriously? What did I do?"
"I asked you to wait, Allie," he said angrily. "...Can you for once just not pretend you know what's going on in my head? I'm just stressed about the show...and I have to go get changed. I can't just sit here and get drunk with the rest of you, not unless I want to tank the show..."
Jon and Cass were staring at Jaden now, too.
Corey seemed to take the weather reading and wander off, without his beer.
"...I'm glad you had fun with your friends," Jaden added. "It must be nice, just hanging around all day, not having anything to do."
"Is that why you're pissed off?" I said, still trying to catch up. "...That I was gone all day?"
"For the last time, I'm not 'pissed off,' Allie. Whatever it is you think I'm doing wrong, we'll talk about it later..."
I watched, bewildered, as Jaden walked away towards the backstage door. I couldn't help but notice he was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt and motorcycle boots that he wore onstage for a lot of gigs, so I knew the changing clothes excuse was probably b.s. Was he really pissed that I'd been gone all day? I'd told him about our plans in SF, and he'd said it was a good idea, that we'd get bored stupid at the photo shoot and all the networking crap he had to do.
But maybe he'd wanted me there, despite what he'd said? I knew it was a big show for him, so maybe from his perspective I wasn't being supportive. Or maybe he was mad I took off that morning without saying anything to him?
As I watched Jaden go, the feeling I got was different, though.
It felt like he was just running away from me. I wondered if he'd been doing that more lately, and I just hadn't noticed.