......................... “Would it help if I said sorry?” I looked over my shoulder at Chad as he zipped up his Jacket “I didn’t use my brain” He pulled up the collar on his jacket I looked back to the river
“You guys shouldn’t have to deal with my shitty life… well I’ll rephrase that you shouldn’t have to deal with the shit I bring to the tour”
“Hey what’s a tour without drama?” He put his hands on my shoulders “I don’t like to see you hurt Chris” I leant back against him
“Could you screw your kids over” I turned and looked at him “How can you turn your back on a kid when…” I looked down
“No I couldn’t” He pulled me to him wrapping his arms round me “I couldn’t do it to my friends let alone family… Well Mike maybe” we both chuckled “I keep saying this too you but you have to grow a damn thick skin in this business because people will take you down”
“Yeah but did you ever think it would be family that would do it?”
“No I guess not” he smiled
“I can handle giving the press ghosts to chase like we did with the ring and the clubs in Spain” I pulled back from him and put my hands into my pockets and began to walk he caught up to me matching my pace “I can handle going on a date and having the press in your face as you leave a restaurant… I can’t handle is feeling scared that people will put two and two together and think everything Mom writes has happened to me”
“People won’t” Chad sighed
“Really my friends in Wisconsin know what Arron did and all it took was a few wrong words in the book and it made him snap” I pulled up my sleeve roughly and held out my arm and pointed to the faint scars on my arms” Chad took my arm and moved it into the light coming from the over head lights in the street. “He used a knife to cut me because someone had made a joke that he was a red neck country idiot all because of the way Mom had made his sound in the book” I pulled my arm away and tugged down my sleeve
“You’re just a broken kid aren’t you?” Chad stopped me from walking away “You’re a broken kid that just needs acceptance for who you are?” I looked down. “What are you going to do in 10 months time?”
“I don’t know” I shook my head “I’m scared to end the tour”
“You’re career will carry on I’m sure of that I’m talking about where the hell are you going to end up Christine Sommers?”
“I hope I’ll have earned enough to get a house” he started to laugh “What? You have a huge one I saw it on Cribs”
“Huge what…? Oh the house” he hip checked me “Chris you’ve already made enough to buy 3 houses the size of mine” he offered me his arm “Where will you go?”
“I don’t know. I love Wisconsin with a passion I love weather like this and the smell of a really fire in the winter and then hot summers swimming in the lake” I closed my eyes and could almost imagine myself lying on the dock at my friends parents cabin I smiled.
“But… I sense a but”
“The rest of the band are Florida kids and how can we make records and all the other stuff if we’re 1500 miles apart” I opened my eyes and looked at him “I could by the house next to you and be the neighbor from hell” I laughed
“Okay yeah… no” he groaned “Think about where you want to be and who you want in your life you have to cuyt away the people out to hurt you Chris Friends Family whoever be selfish be sure you keep your true friends as close as possible because guys come and go…”
“True friends stay” I narrowed my eyes at him “You said that to me once before about Dimi” he nodded “You knew there was…”
“Chris I don’t take people at face value anymore I don’t trust people I don’t know”
“You trust me”
‘Ahh you’re different”
How?”
“You’re Lost Chris you were lost when I saw you the first time on stage but you have a whole lot in there” he tapped his finger on my heart
“Yeah hence the underwear contract” he groaned and then shook his head
“I’m talking about…”
“I was trying to make a joke” I swatted him “ Thank you”
“For what?”
Being my shoulder to cry on… letting me vent and letting me tell you more” I felt shy now I’d actually pointed out the scars that were normally hard to see.
“Anytime” he pressed his lips to my forehead “Now I k now we’re tough assed people used to weather like this but hell I want to soak ina tub and you look like you need a week of sleep”
“Oooo hot bath” I sounded like Homer Simpson drooling over a Dohnut
“Hey I’m first” he laughed
“I wasn’t talking about sharing” I pulled a face “I need to call Kellan and try to work out what to do?”
“You miss him?”
“I knew him for less than 3 days Chad” I linked his arm as we crossed the street “It was more physical than…” oh there goes the color inmy cheeks again “He’s sweet he’s a friend nothing more?”
“Shame you looked cute together even I he was a little big” he chuckled as the doorman opened the door to the hotel
“Have you been looking at the pictures on my phone?”
“No why?”
“Er… nothing” I pressed the button for the elevator “Thank you”
“You’ve said it already” he pushed the button for the top floor “Please if you feel like you did before come get me.. come get Mike, Ryan or Dan we all love you and…” he pulled me close to him wrapping me in a perfect hug “We don’t always give shit hugs when you need them”……………………….
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