If there's one thing Adam knows for sure about Kris is that he is, still, shy. After all this time.

So when he shamelessly takes her in his arm in front of the crowd and kisses her then and there... He must've missed her very much. If it isn't for the screaming, Adam swears he can hear Kris' whispers in her ear. I miss you. I miss you so much, babe.

He wishes she were ugly. He wishes she weren’t so small, so smooth.

Anything but a Homecoming Queen Southern Belle.

He watches as the two resume their walk, blushing under people's cheers and shouts. And when they reach that spot behind the boys' bus, dark enough for anyone but Adam to see, Kris grabs her wrist and backs her up against the steel. And her lips must've been so soft because he seems to really enjoy them. His tongue brushes them in a slow motion. She's giggling against his mouth. He sucks her lower lip and kisses her hard. So hard.

There's a soft touch on Adam’s shoulder.

Megan is looking back at him when he turns around.

"Sick—"

It sort of comes from her and out of nowhere at the same time. Adam stares at her, confused. And it takes him a long time to realize that she’s, indeed, talking to him.

“What?” asks Adam, shaking his head.

“You have a headache,” Megan tells him.

“No, I don’t.”

Megan doesn’t say anything to that, gazing at him in complete silence instead. If there’s one thing he knows about Megan is that she’s never, never what people expect her to be. And now that her lips turn thin and her eyes set deeply into his, he just doesn’t know what to expect from her. He’s half-hoping she’s going to burst out laughing in any second and jog away, flapping her arms all around. Cawing, if you will.

But she breaks the silence.

“Yes, you do.”

And her hand stays there, tightening its grip on his shoulder. She blinks. Adam nods.

“I do,” he says.

Megan smiles at his answer, circling her arm around his back.

“Let’s get you to the bus, then.”

What happens afterwards seems to come and go too fast. He can hear Megan talking next to him; one time it’s about texting, then about producers, fans. A moment later, he’s already inside the bus; Megan wiping off his makeup with cotton balls. He doesn’t even remember going inside. Or if he walks past Kris. Past… Anyone, for that matter.

Maybe he does have a headache.

The next moment, he’s already lying on his top bunk. Megan is using her feet to balance herself on the ladder, as she covers his body with a blanket.

She’s climbing down the steps when the words slip out of his mouth.

“I hate him.”

The ladder creaks as Megan stops midway. Adam waits quietly, looking at the empty bunk across him.

But she just jumps down to the floor and trots the aisle. There’s a thud and the light is off. A click lets him know when Megan turns the handle of the door. She opens it long enough to make way for the lights from the outside to hit his forehead.

“No, you don’t.”

It’s dark again when she leaves.