I’d come with Jasper, but Jasper was the talent (suddenly every venue in town wanted a piece of him), and by the time I’d come out from backstage to find a seat, nearly every seat had been taken. So even though Duncan was barely speaking to me and Shelby was my archnemesis, I’d decided to squeeze in with them. At least Britta didn’t seem to be freezing me out on Fiona’s behalf. Now, about halfway through Jasper’s set, I was seriously regretting my seating choice. Jasper was doing great, but the four of us had barely spoken in the twenty minutes we’d been sitting there. Aside from Shelby occasionally leaning over to whisper-shout something in Britta’s ear, we were like four strangers. “No laptop tonight?” I asked Britta during a break between songs. “I’ve covered Jasper enough,” she replied. “I’m going to wait until his first big show with the label. Which he’d better give me backstage access to.”
