“Ha,” I tell her. “He’ll be worse. Come here, I want to introduce you to my new friend.” I take Paige by the hand and walk over to the sofa where Chandler is sitting with her iPad. She looks up as I approach. “Hey, Chandler I want you to meet Paige. She’s going to chill with you back here while we do our thing.”
“Okay,” she says rather meekly.
Paige lets go of my hand, not that she needed to hold it to begin with, but I’m willing to take the effort for as long as possible. I know Noah isn’t happy about his baby sister being a teenager, and I can easily say, I don’t like it much either. She sits down and cozies right up to Chandler.
“What are you doing?”
“Watching a movie.”
“May I watch with you?” Chandler nods and slides the iPad to the middle. “Oh, let me grab my extender, this way we can both listen.” Paige gets up, grabs her bag and comes back. She plugs in her dual adapter and her headphones and starts laughing immediately.
“Thank you,” Keane says beside me.
“For what?”
“For this.” He points to the two girls. “She hates being here and she misses her mom. I’m trying, but this is how I make ends meet.”
“I was her once. I grew up on the road, so I get it. Paige does too. Don’t worry, Keane. As soon as my mom and aunts get here, Chandler will be doted on.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you one.”
“No, you don’t because we’re family now.”
I’m finally starting to see what my uncle was talking about when he said the band becomes your family. I see so much of myself in Chandler, tucked in the corner all by myself. I would’ve loved to have Noah or a friend on the bus or sitting next to me in the dressing room, while I waited for my dad. I don’t know if this is me giving back or what, but I’m determined to make sure Chandler doesn’t live a lonely existence while her dad is playing with us.
24
Eleanora
“I think you should call out sick tonight.” Kellie sits on the edge of my bed, while I stand in front of the mirror in my room, trying to put on some makeup. Anything I can do to cover the growing bags under my eyes.
“I can’t.”
“You’re quitting anyway.”
“That’s not the point,” I tell her.
“I know you want to see Quinn. I’m telling you he’s not worth it.”
She’s right. Nothing about this trip, aside from spending time with Kellie, has been worth it. I’m still reeling from our visit with Sofia. I don’t even know what to think about that. I thought we were best friends, but the way she and her mother acted when we were there? I don’t get it. I know Kellie and I shouldn’t have shown up unannounced, but I wanted to surprise Sofia and see her one last time before I went back to South Carolina.
The drive back to Los Angeles was nothing more than a blur. We were about thirty minutes away from the oddest experience of our lives when I had to pull over and expel the contents of my stomach. It was like the last few years didn’t mean anything to Sofia, that our friendship was nothing more than a way to pass the time, and that hurt. It still does. Since, I’ve typed out message after message to send to her but can’t bring myself to actually press the button. I think, deep down, I fear that she’s changed her number, effectively closing the door on our friendship.
Kellie though, she’s over it. While we were all roommates, she wasn’t that close to Sofia, and after the encounter we h
ad with her mother, Kellie is more than happy to be rid of the craziness that came with our drive to Arizona.
“It’s not just that. I don’t want to let Zeke down. It’s open mic night. We’re going to be busy.”
“Nope, it’s canceled. Look.” Kellie holds her phone out, showing me the Bean Song’s Facebook page and sure enough, they posted that open mic night is tomorrow instead of tonight. I frown. Why didn’t Zeke call and tell me? “See, call out.”
I look at her for a moment before turning back to my mirror. “I’m sure we’ll still be busy.”
Kellie leans back on my bed and scrolls through her phone. Ever since the incident at Sofia’s, she’s been hanging out at the apartment a bit more. I tell myself it’s because she knows I’m leaving soon and not because of the horrific moment we shared.
Okay, it wasn’t horrific in the sense we were going to die, although we thought for sure something was going to happen to us. The scene was like something out of a horror movie. I expected the backyard to start closing in and forcing us to the pool, where the Blob was going to rise out and swallow us whole, or Alicia Tucker was going to poison us with our drinks, which thankfully we chose to leave alone.
What I didn’t expect was Sofia’s indifference toward us. My once cheerful best friend looked absolutely terrifying when she was telling us to leave. It’s hard to believe I lived with her for two years and never saw this side of her.