Chapter two hundred and fifty nine

The girls had been herded like cattle into the living room where they were urged to sit on the sofa. The boys arranged themselves on the remaining two chairs. Zac perched himself on the coffee table, and Isaac stood in front of the television.

Becky and Jen exchanged glances, both feeling awkward as if they were in trouble for something they didn’t do.

Christy studied her husband carefully, looking for some kind of tell as to what they were about to get lectured about. She imagined it would be the same as the rest of their lectures; they had only been in the hall for about half an hour. Instead of saying anything, she was much too tired to argue and yawned.

Isaac noticed immediately. “I guess we should get this over with then…. I’ll get straight to the point… We had a discussion out in the hall, and we’ve come to a decision on what to do about this stuff that’s going on…You girls aren’t going to like it, but, as a group, we decided that the best thing to do is…” He paused and swallowed. “There are three weeks left of tour, and what we’ve decided to do is… send you three girls, Luke and Jimmy to LA. We think it’s safer if you are all in one place and as far away from us as possible-“

Before he could finish, Christy was on her feet. “This is not fair!”

“Christy-“ He began, but she stormed from the room, slamming the door closed behind her.

“We called and booked a flight for you girls that leaves tomorrow morning-“ Luke added. “It won’t be so bad. Christy needs rest and you girls will have some time to vacation a bit, just the three of you.”

“No, this is fucking ridiculous!” Jen shouted; standing and following Christy into the bedroom.

“You know, you’re just punishing us for this! You’re sending us away for something that wasn’t our fault!” Becky stalked off to the bedroom, and slammed the door.

“That went well.” Zac spoke up with an almost mocking tone.

Isaac shot him a glare. “Hopefully, they’ll calm down if we leave them alone for a bit.”

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Becky was awakened by Zac. She blinked to see him through the darkness, and found herself lying in the middle of a hotel bed, between Jenna and Christy, who were both sleeping soundly. She carefully climbed over Jen and crept from the room.

Taylor, Luke and Isaac were still watching a soccer game on the television in the small living room.

Becky waved goodnight to them, but they hardly looked up and she was still furious with being sent away.

She followed him toward their room, without saying a word to Zac, as he searched for his room key in his wallet.

Becky walked ahead of him, and waited with her arms crossed over her chest. At last, he opened the door to their room and she walked inside. He watched her carefully as she went to the sofa, and began removing the cushions and pulling out the coffee table.

“What are you doing?” He asked, locking the door behind them.

“I’m sleeping on the sofa.” She replied coldly.

“Becca, don’t.” He interrupted, and flopped down onto the sofa cushion so she couldn’t move it. “This is ridiculous. I know you’re mad at me, but it honestly wasn’t my idea. I wanted to continue the tour with you, but everyone else seems to think this is the best option.”

She sighed. “I know. I just… I kind of want to go and enjoy some time off with Jen and Christy, but I really hate that I have to be away from you for so long.”

“It’s only three weeks…” He tried.

“That’s almost a month!” She protested.

He sighed. “I know. I don’t like it either. I argued against it, but there were three against one.”

Becky remained silent for a moment, then crossed the room, slipping into his lap. “I just hate that we’re going to be so far apart.”

“I know, I hate it too… but I promise to call you every day… and you know what? You girls will get to do so much shopping; I bet you won’t even miss me.”

Becky laughed. “Not possible.”

“Sure it is. You’ve got to buy a whole new wardrobe, that’s going to take some time. And you’ll have the whole house to yourselves to do girl stuff.”

Becky laughed again. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll still miss you like crazy.”

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Christy had been woken by Isaac. She had fallen asleep in Jen and Luke’s bed with Becky and Jen, but didn’t even remember drifting off. She let Isaac help her from the bed and followed him sleepily down the hall. She didn’t even remember she was mad at him until they were nearly to their room.

He unlocked the door and held it open for her.

“I think maybe we should talk for a couple of minutes before we-“ Isaac began, but stopped talking when he realized that Christy had left the room and walked into the bedroom. He sighed and followed.

“I know you’re mad at me, but we’ve made this decision already. We’ve booked the flight, you’re leaving tomorrow morning, so there’s no point in arguing. Do you really want to spend our last night together fighting?”

Christy didn’t reply right away. Instead, she pulled down the blankets to her side of the bed. ‘I figured that.” She slipped into bed, and pulled the blankets over her legs. “I’m just upset that we’re going to be apart for so long. And you’re going to miss a lot of pregnancy stuff that we won’t get to do together.”

“Honey, you’ll only be two months along when we see each other again.”

“But I need to have an appointment in two weeks, that I’ll have to reschedule for LA and you’ll miss it.”

He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I know. But I promise that after this one, I won’t miss another pregnancy thing, okay?”

She nodded slowly. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

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