As I did, I peeked over the computer monitor and looked at Liam. His back was facing me, his shaggy black hair messier than usual, given that we'd just woken up. I felt warm just watching him, and knew I was harboring a serious crush at the moment. We were just making good TV, after all, so there was no need for me to get all crazy obsessed over him, but I was heading in that direction.
He was just so freaking cute. Cute with a hint of dangerous. I was an idiot to get all goofy over a rock boy, but I couldn’t help myself.
I had an idea and opened another web browser, and did a search for Finding Threnody. A jillion web hits came up, and I pulled up their Wikipedia page. Tesla's picture was splashed everywhere, and she stood in the forefront of every photo while the three dark-haired guys stood in the background. Liam was there, but it wasn't a good picture. I frowned and scanned the text instead. There was a list of hits, and three platinum albums mentioned. They had sold six point five million albums to date, which was really impressive in the digital age, and over nine million downloads of their biggest hit, Worm in the Apple.
I headed to their webpage next, and sure enough, Tesla's picture was sprawled all over the page with Liam and two other guys standing in the background. Jeez. Camera hog much? For some reason, I was irritated on his behalf. Didn't he deserve the limelight just as much as Tesla did? I clicked on 'bios' next. Tesla's was half a page long. Under 'Liam Brogan' there was only a small paragraph.
Liam Brogan started to play guitar at the age of seven. He joined his first metal band at the advanced age of twelve. When he was seventeen, he dropped out of high school to focus on music full time and lied about his age to audition for lead guitar for Finding Threnody. His dedication impressed the band, especially Tesla Spooner, and he was invited to join. He and Tesla dated for a short time, but broke up when they realized it was going to come between them and the ability to make great music. They remain friends and their breakup inspired the song Dark Stars.
I stared at that small paragraph in horror. Liam had dated Tesla. Shit. Why had I ever thought he'd be interested in me? Silly little Katy Short, with her cutesy blonde pigtails and dorky cupcake business. I was nothing compared to the kinds of girls he was interested in, if he'd dated wild, exotic Tesla with her tattoos and stripey-colored hair. Feeling sick to my stomach, I clicked over to 'videos' and began to play the first one, turning the speakers down so no one could hear but me.
The entire thing was ridiculously dramatic, done in black and white. The only thing in color, of course, was Tesla, with her vivid hair and bright red lips. She clutched the microphone as if she was dying and sang soulfully, her eyelashes fluttering with each word. Every so often, it would cut back to the band, and then just as quickly flash away again, which drove me absolutely nuts. It was like they didn't even count, and Tesla was the only one they were interested in.
At least, until the guitar solo. Suddenly, Liam was front and center in the video, blasting into color. He held the guitar low against his hips, braced there, and his fingers danced along the strings in a familiar movement that I recognized - when his hands were moving along the backpack, he wasn't drumming. He was strumming a song. I watched in fascination as the video Liam closed his eyes as if in ecstasy, fingers moving along the neck of the guitar at a rapid pace I couldn't even fathom, as the wild notes of the song climbed higher and higher. He looked so incredibly in to the music that it felt intimate just to be watching him—
"That doesn't look like the Great Pyramid." Liam's amused voice interrupted my train of thought.
Horrified at being caught, I quickly clicked off of the webpage, only to expose the web browser search I'd done for Finding Threnody. I clicked off of that too, face burning, and returned to the Pyramids of Giza page. "I, uh, was just looking at…stuff."
"Uh huh," he said, but he sounded amused.
I was going to die of embarrassment right about now. I stared at the computer screen, unable to look my partner in the face.
Liam pushed a piece of paper in front of my nose. "Travel itinerary. We have a flight in about two and a half hours, which leaves us just enough time to get to the airport. And we should get there tonight."
"Tonight?" I took the itinerary from him and studied it, glad that it gave me the chance to avoid eye contact. "Wow, long flight."
"Yeah. Plenty of time to catch up on sleep." He paused for a moment, then added, "Or watch more Finding Threnody videos."
My face burned. "You suck."
"Apparently you don't think so." There was affection in his voice, and it made my stomach feel all quivery all over again.
As we got back into the taxi, I wondered what Liam thought of me. Had I gone from partner to fangirl in the blink of an eye? That was distressing to think about, but I couldn't take it back. The only thing I could do was continue on and act like nothing was wrong.
Meanwhile, it was starting to feel like everything was out of control.
Egypt
"I want to quit," I proclaimed loudly into the darkness. "I'm serious. I can't do this."
"Looks like we finally found something that Katy can't do," Liam murmured into my ear, but his hand squeezed mine. "You'll be okay."
"I'm not so sure about that," I said, dropping to a low crouch and trying not to hyperventilate.
When we'd first heard that we were heading to the Pyramids at Giza, I was excited. Really excited. If I could think of places in the world that would be exciting to visit? The pyramids were high on the list. It'd be such a fun experience to go inside and see what it was like. When we'd seen the outside of the pyramids, I'd been ridiculously stoked, practically dancing up to The World Races flag where a man gave us our next clue.
Visit each of the burial chambers in the three pyramids and find a clue. String all the clues together to determine your next task.
Simple enough. And not only were we going to visit the interior of one pyramid, we were going to visit all three. Fun!
Or so I'd thought.
We'd lucked into first place somehow - our stop at the travel agency had put us on a flight ahead of the others. We'd somehow managed to score the last seats on the plane. We'd arrived in Cairo late at night and even though the cab driver had insisted that the pyramids would be closed for tourists for the evening, we headed out anyhow.
Sure enough, the flag had been there, and the task. The World Races had made special arrangements with the tourism board and the pyramids were open just for us. Which meant we could go ahead and start the next task.
Except it was really, really dark. And I hadn't counted on claustrophobia. Nor had I counted on the fact that when we entered the Great Pyramid, the first passageway was narrow and steep. We'd had to bend over - even at my short height - to go up the steep steps. All around us were tons and tons of rock, and the inside of the pyramid was oppressively hot, and dark despite the anchor lights along the halls.
Then it hit me. I was fine for the first few steps, following behind Liam. But when I looked up into the darkness and saw nothing but the continually rising, narrow shaft? My breathing became shallow and I began to sweat, hard.
Just when I couldn't stand it any longer, the interior passage opened up, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We continued on into the King's Chamber, and studied the walls. We found a small group of tiny figurines in the center of the sarcophagus with a word marked on them – 'the.'
"This must be the clue," I told Liam, and counted the figurines. "There's five others left, which means someone got eliminated last round."
"Great. We can head back out and go to the next chamber." Liam didn't look bothered at all. Meanwhile, I was all sweaty and flustered and breathing hard as if I’d ran miles instead of simply walked up a passageway.
Heading back down the passageway was hard, but not as hard when I knew we were almost out. The queen's chamber wasn't as bad, but I was still grateful when we found the next clue. Another figurine, this one labeled with the word "Take."
"At least we're done here," I panted. "I hate this pyramid."
"Just one more chamber, actually," Liam corrected. He looked at a brochure he'd gotten in the city. "There's a third chamber heading down. The subterranean chamber. We should probably check it just to be sure."
"It said burial chambers," I protested. "Not all chambers."
"Yeah, but if we miss a clue, we'll have to come back, and we're already here. Come on."
We'd arrived at the subterranean chamber stairway, and that was when I had my meltdown. It descended into the darkness at a steep angle, and as I watched Liam fold himself in half to try and get his tall body down there, I took a few steps into the shaft, and then began to tremble. The walls felt like they were closing in on me. It was hot, and dark, and cramped, and…I freaked out. I sat down in the tunnel, unable to go further. Panic was hammering through me, making my pulse pound and my heart race. I couldn’t breathe.
"I can't do this," I told him, and to my horror, I felt tears prick behind my eyes. Oh jeez, I was going to start crying like a baby.
"Yes, you can, Katy. It's not so bad. I'll go in front of you, see?"
I shook my head. "I want to quit. I'm serious. I can't do this."
He grasped my hand in his. "Looks like we finally found something Katy can't do. You'll be okay."
I took huge gulps of too-warm air, my eyes squeezed shut as I tried to calm myself. I clung to his hand and we sat there in the middle of that cramped passage as I had my freak-out.
Liam didn't push me, though. He just sat and held my hand, waiting for me to get better.
"I'm sorry," I said, and hated when that it came out so incredibly wimpy.
"Hey, it's okay," Liam told me in a soft voice. "I couldn't do the mukluk. You can't do this. I totally get that. Unfortunately, though, we both have to go down to each chamber."
I sucked in a deep breath, nodding. "I'm sorry. I'll try."
His hand slid along my leg, rubbing it to comfort me. We were wearing shorts for this leg of the race, and his hand felt comforting despite the oppressive heat of the tunnels. It was night - they should have been cooler, but it was disgusting inside, and that wasn't helping my panic. "I'm here with you, Katy. You'll be all right."
"I bet Tesla wouldn't be scared of this," I said in a miserable voice. "You got stuck with the wrong partner."
"Nah, Tesla wouldn't be scared of this," he agreed. "But she's scared of animals."
"Animals?"
His hand continued to rub my leg soothingly. "Yeah. She freaked out with the dog sled. Big time. She thinks animals are full of diseases."
I gave a mildly hysterical little giggle at that, trying to picture sexy, sultry Tesla flipping out over a few huskies. "I hope there's a freaking camel race for this leg, then."
He laughed at that. "You know what? Me too."
We sat there for a moment longer, and then Liam’s fingers stroked my hand comfortingly. "You know, we have plenty of time before the next team arrives. Do you want to try and scoot down the tunnel on your backside? That might make you feel better."
I squeezed my eyes shut, picturing that horrible stifling blackness and having to descend into it. "I…I don't know."