Tomorrow came earlier than expected. I had gone out the night before in hopes that I could release some stress and it was a complete failure. I had not been able to forget about anything. Now I was stressed more than ever. I woke up to a new day and nothing had changed. Things were still going as planned. My life was still in the shitter and now I had the Alex situation on my hands. I still hadn’t spoken to him yet.
I griped at the memory of the conversation that had taken place outside the diner. His comment had slightly moved me. He was glad to see me again. I couldn’t help but to think that night could be the beginning of rebuilding our friendship. I know I had moved on and come to terms with the fact that we’d grown apart but all said and even with all the time that’s passed, part of me still missed him. And for the first time I had felt a little hope that things would be the way they once had been.
Unfortunately, I had been completely mistaken. He had gone from missing me to hardly noticing me at all. Yep, things definitely hadn’t changed. But that was only my own damn fault. For the first time in ages, he had made an attempt to speak to me, to be nice to me, and I had unwittingly shut him down. I don’t care what he may have said, I think I still know him well enough to tell when something is up with him and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that he had been bothered, even if it was just a little.
It wasn’t very easy to get him alone, that had been the first time and it would probably be another decade before an opportunity like that came along again. Fortunate for me the days following were a blur. With so little time left, hectic schedules, everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I’d hardly the time to think about Alex or my family. I’d always suffered from chronic headaches but the last couple of weeks of every tour, they always grew into full-blown migraines. And this year a good portion of them had Nick’s name all over it.
“Nick!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, scaring everybody in the room, including myself. “What the hell is this?” I held the box that I had found in my bag earlier. It had been addressed to me and had the blonde’s name plaster all over it in big red inked letters.
He laughed hysterically as if it were they funniest thing he’d ever witnessed. “An early Christmas present.” He smiled angelically. “I thought the snowflake wrapping paper would have been a dead giveaway on that.”
I was too angry to notice the shocked looks on the faces of Brian, Baylee, Howie and Leigh.
“Ha ha, very funny, you know what I’m talking about.”
Correction; some things had changed. Ever since that outing, Nick had done nothing but tease and pull nasty practical jokes on me. I suppose I’d been over reacting and I should have just seen the humor in it and laughed about it, but I’m not used to being the subject matter of this type of comical attention and I was at my wits end. At first when I had seen the gift I was touched that he would go all out of his way to buy me a gift, but when I’d ripped off the wrapping paper I’d lost it. The little prick had gotten me a voice box. Can you believe that? The nerve of him. Where do you even get those things? Amidst traveling and working, where would he have the time?
“Well, I thought you’d be needing it, with all the smoking you do and all. You and AJ both, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Arghh!” I threw the freaking thing at him. “I’m gonna kill you!"
He ducked just in time to avoid a collision; half a second of hesitation and it would have taken out one of his pretty little blue eyes, and then what would he have left to woo the ladies? I don’t know how Lauren puts up with that boy. Yeah I said boy-he’s a big kid trapped in the body of a huge ass man.
“Carter!” The door flung open hitting me right smack in the head.
“Ow. Fuck!” I yelped.
“Oh, shit I’m sorry.”
“Alright! Too much violence and foul language in here for us.” Brian said as he guided his son out of the room. “Trust me little man, you do not want to see this.”
“You alright?” Alex asked. He took me by the arm and helped me to the nearest seat, which gratefully was the farthest from Nick.
I peered into his brown eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“You sure you’re okay?” He questioned again before turning to meet the instigator. “Nick!”
I rubbed my head and noticed the object in his hand. “Looks like Nick strikes again.”
“This is all your fault.” He yelled at his friend. “What the fuck is this?” He flung the black object identical to mine at him. Thank the stars he had better am than I. It hit the left side of Nick’s head just below his temple.
“How the hell is it my fault you hit her with the door?” He asked, now rubbing his bright red ear.
“If you hadn’t given me that damn thing, I wouldn’t have come running in here and none of this would have happened?”
He listened attentively. I could tell he was thinking hard about it and then he said innocently, “yeah, I fail to see how any of this is my fault.”
Alex ignored Nick’s comment and turned his attention to me. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked once more.
“Yeah.” I answered. “I’ll live.” I took a glance at the prankster. “Thank you.” I whispered to Alex and turned my eyes back to him.
“For what?”
“For hitting him. I missed.”
He smiled. “What’d he do to you? Dare I ask?”
“Well from the looks of it, he got us a his and hers set.” I lifted my head pointing to the other voice box that rested a few inches away from its twin.
“I see.” He nodded and stood up. “Well, in that case, you are very much welcome.” We stared into each other’s eyes.
“Whatever!” Nick hollered. “I don’t have to take this. I try to do something nice for you two and this is the thanks I get. A concussion.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “It was hardly a concussion, Carter, but in a about a minute, you’re really gonna get your concussion.” He said calmly.
“Sheesh, such violence, people. You two would make a good couple, you know that.”
Alex glared at him venomously. Nick did good running for the door before Alex made good on his promise.
It was only after Nick had left that I realized the room had been cleared. I thought I’d take this opportunity to get it off my chest, what had been bothering me.
“Hey, Alex.” I said softly.
“Yeah.”
“I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“Uh sure, what’s on your mind?”
“About the other night. When I said…I didn’t really mean-”
“AJ! We gotta go, come on. We’re all waiting on you.”
Jennifer is a nice girl, we’re not the best of friends but I do get along with her. But I despised her that second for interrupting, but duty calls. I couldn’t be selfish and cause any more delay. It would have to wait.
“Alright Jenn, I’m going.”
She stood in the doorway waiting.
“I said I’m going!”
“Fine! Hurry up!” She looked at me, then back at him, threw her arms up, and walked away.
“Grace, can this wait ‘till after the show?” He looked at me with pleading eyes.
“Yeah sure, go.”
“Um Grace? It’s alright, really. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” He said right before he left.
“What exactly did he mean by that?” I heard a voice say after he disappeared.
“Huh? What?” In popped the all too familiar figures. “You know Leigh, it’s bad manners to eavesdrop.”
“I don’t make it a practice to eavesdrop but it’s not my fault if you guys were talking loud.” She said, carrying James in her arms.
“We were not?” I defended. I was certain we hadn’t.
She nodded with a smile on her face. “Loud enough.”
“Yeah, loud enough for someone who was eavesdropping to hear.”
“Fine eavesdropping whatever. What’s going on with you and Alex?” She plopped down on the couch next to me, more than eager to hear the gossip.
“Nothing’s going on with me and Alex.” I shivered.
“Cold?”
“No, just the suggestion of something between me and Alex creeped me out.”
“Haha.”
We sat there in silence together. Me rubbing my head still and her watching me rub my head.
“He really banged you up good didn’t he?”
“Yeah somewhat.” In more ways than one and no I don’t intend that to be a sexual innuendo, but my heart had been bruised in the past by his hands and I think that was just beginning to manifest.
“Here, why don’t you hold James and I’ll go get you some Tylenol and an ice pack or something?”
“Okay.”
I was a little uncomfortable holding him, babies just don’t like me but it sure beat talking about Alex. I held the baby in my arms. The feeling was a little strange, the fear of being in care of a whole life was enough for me to shy away from having any of my own, but as I sat there with him, waiting for his mother, he looked at me with his little brown eyes identical to his father’s. His tiny hands gripped around my finger. He looked very much like an angel. I’m not sure where or when the shift occurred inside of me but the longer I sat there with him, the more I found myself pondering what it would be like to have a little one of my own and to tell you the truth, the idea wasn’t half bad.
Thankfully, the sound of James gagging brought me out of my head. Out, shot streams of chunky white, melted cottage cheese looking baby vomit.
“Uh, God.” I gagged and tried to hold down the contents of my own stomach. “Leigh!” I yelled. “Come get your nasty baby.”
“What, what happed?” She asked holding a bottle of Tylenol in one hand, a towel and a bottle of water in the other.
She stepped in close enough to get a better look, but I’m sure she already had a good idea of what happened.
She burst out laughing. “It’s just a little baby vomit. It won’t kill you.” She dropped the Tylenol and the water on the couch. “Here.” She stretched out her arms, the well-known common sign for hand me the infant. I was more than happy to oblige.
“This was supposed to be for your head.” She handed me the wet towel.
I wiped off the baby vomit. “Ahh. Cold, cold, cold.”
“You alright?” She asked, referring to the vomit.
“I will be once it’s all gone.”
“Sorry about that, but babies will do that.” She said.
“Yeah.” Thank you, James. I was reminded why the thought of having kids repulsed me.
I took the bottle of Tylenol, emptied two tablets into my hand, and chugged them down with the water while she cleaned up the baby.
“Well then,” she said, now satisfied her son was clean enough she laid him beside her, “tomorrow’s the last day.”
“Ugh, yeah, don’t remind me.”
“Do you have any plans for tomorrow?” She played with her son’s feet, jiggling them around and then planting little kisses on the bottom footsies of his onesie.
“Aside from working? No.” I fanned my shirt, trying to air dry the wet spots.
“I was thinking before work maybe we could do something. Just the two of us.”
“I don’t know if I’ll have the time. What’d you have in mind?”
“I thought we could go shopping or the spa or something, you know girls’ day out. You’re not needed until after six, I checked with Jenn and I’ll have you by the arena long before then.” Looks like she had everything covered.
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, it’s Vegas! You need to go out and have a little fun. You have to, it’s a must.”
“It’s not like I haven’t been to Vegas before.” I explained. In fact, I’d been to the city numerous occasions with the boys.
“Yeah but you were always either preoccupied with work or locked up in your hotel room. You’ve never really experienced Vegas.”
I tried to come up with something to say to that but she got me there. I hadn’t so much as left the hotel other than work related outings. I guess it would be nice to get out and actually see what Vegas has to offer. My sister always teased me about it. She always said, “You’re the only person I know that’s been to Vegas and doesn’t know squat about what’s there.” And Leigh and I had both been too busy that we hadn’t spent much time together the past few weeks, it would be nice to have some alone time with her, to catch up on things.
“Alright. But what if the guys need-”
“Stop right there!” She interrupted. “They are big boys, I’m sure they can manage on their own.”
“Alright, then.” I said in defeat.
“So it’s a date then?”
I chuckled. “Yeah.”
“What’s so funny?” She asked.
“Nothing, it’s just… that’s about as much action I’ve had in a long time.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the new chapter. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter End Notes:
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