Chasing Dreams

Chapter Seventeen - 'Numb'

[Edited 21/7/14]

 Chapter Seventeen - 'Numb'

Sometimes life devised obstacles that you weren’t supposed to succeed in overcoming; sometimes life made your worst nightmare come true; sometimes life took away your greatest love.

Lacey was hurting in a way she thought she’d never recover from. She’d been sitting in a haze of hurt and betrayal for more time than she could remember. They’d already left Berlin and were currently travelling to Prague, yet she couldn’t tell you anything that she’d done in Berlin. It was almost as if her brain had shut down in order to protect itself.

She wasn’t laughing, she wasn’t smiling, she was barely eating and she hadn’t picked up her pen in days. The others seemed powerless as they watched their friend become a mere shell of the person she was before. She didn’t want them to choose between their band member and her, so she’d withdrawn into herself. She couldn’t bare seeing Ollie and Monica together all the time; it was like a never ending nightmare. They cuddled, they kissed, they seemed perfectly happy as they shopped for baby items. It was as if she never existed.

Ollie no longer smiled at her; he no longer talked to her. He’d reverted back to how he had been before they got together except this time it was a hundred times worse. It was like he actually hated her. The words he spoke were cold and hostile.  He avoided her whenever he could. In contrast, Monica went out of her way to talk to Lacey, reminding her of what she’d lost and pointing out her place aboard the bus.

Lacey no longer accompanied the boys on any engagements. During their concerts she merely remained on the bus, usually staring out into space, her eyes glazed over and her mind in turmoil. She was a fool to think her relationship with Ollie would have lasted, even without Monica they were doomed. The famous band member and an unknown writer, it would have never worked.

Lacey’s mind was stuck in a never-ending loop, showing her all the days she spent with Ollie as his girlfriend, followed by all the days since watching Ollie and Monica together.

Though Lacey didn’t realise it, the others aboard the bus weren’t fairing too well either. At first the rest of the boys had thought the whole idea had been a mere misunderstanding but they now realised that was incorrect. The fact that Ollie could have been so stupid to not think about protection, let alone the fact that he was stupid enough to have sex with Monica in the first place – drunk and angry – was beyond them. The boys remembered urging him to tell Lacey that he’d slept with Monica that night in Dublin but he’d refused stating that it would never come back to haunt him. Lacey and Monica were polar opposites and none of the boys could work out – baby aside – why Ollie would chose Monica over Lacey.

However hard they tried they could not understand his behaviour. So what if Monica was having his baby? That didn’t mean he had to give up Lacey. There were plenty of babies being born in the world to parents that were no longer together. It made little difference that Ollie was famous; the boys couldn’t work it out. Could it be a publicity stunt?

Bradley had spent his time deep in thought. He didn’t like the way Lacey was fading away, he didn’t like the suspicious look in Steve’s eye, he didn’t like the worry on his girlfriend’s face and he hated the smug look on Monica’s. There was just something that wasn’t right with this whole scenario and by the wary look on Steve’s face, he agreed.