Roadtrip Sickfics & One Shots

4. Andy :: Was There Something I Could've Said To Make Your Heart Beat Better?

"I know, I know. It was immature. But it also wasn't fair that me and Harper were getting attacked left and right by people for being at home. No one accepted the personal reasons excuse and I couldn't just sit back." There was a vulnerability in Brook's voice that reminded Andy just how young they were. He was just twenty one and Harper hadn't even yet left his teenage years. It was easy for boys as young as they were to get riled up or defeated by words on the internet.

Andy groaned as he ran a hand down his face, trying to think of what he, himself, was going to do about this whole mess because obviously, he wasn't going to watch it burn. "Just... just don't say anything else about it. Don't speak to anyone about it, either, and make sure Harper does the same. I'm going to talk to the lot and try and settle this. I need you to not fan the flames anymore. Do that for me?"

"Rye's already logged both of us out of the Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok," Brook commented, probably quickly realizing that wasn't the response Andy wanted. Of course, he wasn't surprised the two were instantly logged out. Damage control. Rye was strategic minded like that. "I can't trust him, not right now."

"Let me handle this. Okay? I'll get it all sorted. Whatever it is, be a misunderstanding or not, I'll get to the bottom of it and I'll figure out whatever I need to." Brook agreed, a sniffle following that signifies to Andy at some point during the call, the younger lad had begun to cry. But never the less, Brook did agree because he trusted the eldest band member to do what was right. Everyone had that same trust in Andy because it was his personality.

"Good. Now go play, eat, whatever. Give my regards to Harper and your mum. I'll see you on the flip side." The phone clicked and Andy realized he had just solidified himself as the middle man despite only knowing one side of the story. What he would give at this very moment to have been in that house when all the mess started.

The rest of the morning and bleed into the afternoon was spend dialing everybody Andy could possibly think of that would have a puzzle piece to the story. He knew it would be difficult to get a truth from one single person, as everyone had a view point. His tactic was to gather as much evidence as he could and strain out the lies from the consistent truths.

Of course, his advice to stay silent to anybody who asked clearly went deaf upon certain ears because in the same afternoon, two other sides of the story were shared online for the fans to once more freak out about. Whatever happened to damage control? He did not need the fans getting freaked out once again and riling up his bandmates in return. He could only stop the fanning of the flames so much from his own home.

Before Andy could seek out either guilty party to interrogate them and give them a piece of his mind for messing with his plan to fix what they broke, the boy he'd known since their teenage years reached out to him. Sonny's name lit up his phone screen and he was quick to hit the green button. This time, Andy didn't jump straight away into the scolding simply because he got one look at Sonny's distraught face.

Sonny had his legs against his chest, the tops of his knees slightly visible in the camera due to their length. It broke Andy's heart a bit seeing how broken he was from all this. Sonny lost two grandparents in one week and had just gotten home from burying his Nan. There's no plausible way the curly haired boy could handle all this on top of what he lost. "Andy, did I screw up? Should I not have spoken? I didn't know what else to do and Rye was really upset and asked me to defend him so I did and-"

"Slow down, mate. Breathe." Sonny was going at high speed and quite frankly, Andy couldn't make out a word that was being said. It didn't take long for Andy to realize that for the second time today, he saw one of his bandmates cry. God damnit. "Ryan, I need you to take a deep breath for me and just focus on my voice."