"So..." KayKay starts as Calum and Tilly join the others at the elevator to head to the venue.
"What?" Calum laughs.
"Can we still Tilly for a couple hours? We want to take her out for her birthday." Sierra blurts quickly.
"Please!?" KayKay begs, bouncing slightly as she does.
"You guys have soundcheck to do anyway. We won't be all afternoon, just a couple hours." Sierra pushes.
"I don't own her you know. Why don't you ask her if she would like to hang out with you girls for a couple hours?" Calum chuckles.
"I would definitely say yes to that, just in case you were wondering." Tilly rolls her eyes.
"Yes! We will meet you boys at the venue later." KayKay fist pumps excitedly.
"Don't get lost, girls. Should we send a driver with you?" Ashton laughs, punching the button for the lobby as they all make it into the lift.
"You realize this city is as more a home to me that anywhere else, right?" Tilly laughs. "I know the language and my way around just fine. We won't get lost."
"You speak French?" Calum turns to her, surprise written across his features.
"You do know who her parents and sister are right? Like they are the most French-non-French people in the world." Sierra laughs.
"I've was raised bilingual, English and French. Also I know Spanish because the maid taught me."
"So your trilingual?" Michael looks impressed.
"I know a touch of Italian, Portuguese, and Swahili also." She nods.
"How did I not know that?" Calum laughs, pulling her behind him as the elevator door opens.
"You never asked?" She shrugs.
"You know Swahili, that's fucking cool."
"You know Māori, I don't." She shurgs.
"Ya, but my mom is Māori. You're not Kenyan."
"But I have been there and the other countries where it's spoken about fifty times. And it would be even more if I hadn't been terrified to set foot in Kenya for three years."
"I guess that's true. Alright, be safe, have fun, and make the show, please." Calum smiles, spinning to face her as they approach the doors to the hotel.
"Don't worry. El and I have ran this town for our entire lives. We will be fine." She laughs.
"I know. If you can handle the jungle I think Paris should be easy. I'll see you later, AG." He smiles, pecking her lips softly before turning to leave with the boys.
"There is a back entrance if you ladies would like to leave that way." A concierge comments as the girls wait for the boys to clear out.
"Ya. Let's do that." Sierra nods, grabbing KayKay by one hand and Tilly with the other.
The girls manage to get out of the hotel without an issue, the band still our front distracting the few fans that were waiting.
Sierra seems to have a plan since she is dragging the other two down the street with a purpose.
"Where are we going?" Tilly laughs after a couple minutes.
"Shopping. Duh. Then to get food. Then off to the arena."
"If course. Shopping. How could I have not guessed." Tilly laughs.
"I mean honestly, it's pretty obvious isn't it. Why else would we ditch out on the guys. Girl time, talking, and shopping. It's a must." KayKay grins.
"Sounds like exactly what I could use after the last month." Tilly sighs.
"Good. How are you holding up anyway? With losing your dad?" Sierra asks carefully.
"Honestly, I have no clue. I feel like I should be sad, but I'm not. He wasn't a great parent to me. Better than mom but that's saying very little. He wasn't in my life at all the last three years, so it doesn't really change a lot now that he's gone. He was barely part of my life before that anyway. I'd see him maybe twice a year after I left home." She shrugs.
"You've mentioned before that your parents don't really support your career path and your life style right? But what was it that really ended it all. That made you leave and refuse to talk to them for three full years?" KayKay frowns.
Tilly takes a deep breath to steady her heart, which went into overdrive at the question. "When T died, his body was sent back to his family in New York. That's where we buried him. A couple days after the funeral I was at my parents home with my sister, trying to work through all the emotion. To make any sense of my life, my future, trying to figure out how I'd get through the next hour, let alone a day, or week, or month without him. Years weren't even a thought my mind could comprehend. Losing someone like that, it just, it doesn't process in your mind at all for a very long time. And my parents point blank told me to stop acting like a baby, and move on. That T deserved what he got because of his career and that I was doomed for the same ending, and they wouldn't be shocked when I showed up on their doorstep in a cardboard box shipped from the jungle. My mom literally looked me in the eye and said at least that way they'd already have the casket taken care of."
"What!?" KayKay suddenly stops walking yanking Sierra who pulls at Tilly.
"So I left. I left so fast I didn't grab a thing from my room. Not a single outfit, any photos, not even my engagement ring. I left everything."
"Your parents actually said that to you? At all ever. But especially while you were already in such a vulnerable state?" Sierra's eyes are swimming with pain.
"Yep..." Tilly blows a heavy stream of air between her lips. "So we don't talk anymore. I went to New York to say goodbye because it was the proper thing to do. I never got a goodbye with T, and now I have to make sure if there is the chance, everyone in my life gets a goodbye from me before they go. Even if they don't necessarily deserve it, I do. I deserve to know I won't live on regretting not saying goodbye to someone. Because I already live with that regret everyday." She shrugs.
"Fuck, Tilly, your life is a little messed up." KayKay frowns, pulling Tilly into a tight hug.
"More than a little, and my dad dying on the same day T did, it was like a big fuck you from the universe. Like now I can't think about T on that day without remembering my dad died that day too."
"This necklace, the T is for him right?" Sierra asks touching the charm around her neck.
"Actually, it was for me. It originally was his." She smiles sadly, "When he died, we were in Kenya, and he got swept away in a flash flood. It took 34 hours to find his body. And," she pauses, trying to find the most delicate way to say what she needs to, "in a safari landscape there is a very fast turn over from an animal or human dying to another animal finding an easy meal."
"Oh my gosh!" Sierra's eyes go wide. "Did you-"
"I never saw him after, and I am thankful for that fact, but I also never got the closure of saying a proper goodbye. It was a couple of local boys who found him actually. The village leader sent a crew of men out to retrieve the body and his things. When they came back the women from the village cleaned and wrapped his body in their traditional scarves to cover his wounds. He looked like a beautiful colorful African mummy. And they returned his washed items to me. The only thing worth saving was this." She lifts the chain, "Everything else was beyond salvageable. I've only ever taken it off once since that day. For the party in Sydney, because I was being irrationally stupid with myself, and I regretted it a lot that night."
"And the diamond? I don't remember that being there before." KayKay asks quietly as they enter the shopping center.
"It's the diamond from my engagement ring, I got it from my parents house when I went to see dad. Since I didn't want to keep wearing the ring as a ring, T's mom helped me get it placed in this charm for my necklace."
"That is so beautiful. Keeping it close without it being obvious." Sierra smiles.
"It works for me, and Calum doesn't have any issues with it, that is important to me too. He didn't like the idea of me still having the ring when he found out. But this he is okay with."
"He knows what the T and the diamond are for?" KayKay asks.
"Ya, we discussed the whole story earlier this week when he asked. I hadn't shared the details of T's death with him befor that. But he's okay with me wearing the necklace, since it a T." She shrugs.
"Or because it is the most compassionate and understanding guy out there." Sierra laughs.
"No shit. I literally could not have got luckier. Meeting Calum was the best thing to happen to me since my quarter life implosion. He is taking my mess on with such grace. He's only slipped up once on any of it. And he has apologized profusely for that fight."
"And he will continue to do so for a very long time. He felt awful about that. He was afraid he'd lost you to his own stupidity." Sierra smiles.
"I just had a shit ton going on, and I needed to deal with all of that before I could deal with him again. And maybe I was taking advantage of the fact I knew he would wait until I was ready, but I also didn't know how else to manage everything. I mean I had to see my mom multiple times, and act cordial. That is literally an impossibility."
"Well now you are here and she is not. But Calum is, and you should find something hot to wear tonight, especially because we know what he has planned for you two after the concert." KayKay smirks.
"Wait, he has more plans?"
"Welcome to birthdays with Calum Hood. Plan to be spoiled for about three days. Especially after the month you've had." Sierra nods.
"Not three days. I'm shipping back to New York to get this damn cast off tomorrow hopefully. So I can get back to work for a couple weeks before I hit the trails for some camping with friends."
"I love that your whole job and life is basically camping, and then you still go camping for fun." KayKay laughs.
"T's and my best friend from childhood and his wife invited me to go camping with them to celebrate their little boys third birthday. I have to go, and also I want to. I haven't met little Trev yet and I want to. Calum was maybe going to come with us, I have to ask him if he got that cleared in his schedule."
"Good luck taking Calum real camping." Sierra laughs.
"It should be pretty entertaining that's for sure. I hope he can go just for the stories." KayKay agrees.
"Oooh!" Sierra's eyes suddenly go wide as she cuts Tilly off heading into a store.
"Oh no." KayKay laughs.
"What?" Tilly frowns following the two dark haired girls into the store.
"Margaret Warren has done it again." Sierra squeals holding a black dress to her front.
"She is obsessed with MW clothing. sorry." KayKay chuckles.
"Guys, we are supposed to be having fun, and talking about my mother is not fun." Tilly frowns, her eyes falling to the airbrushed photo of her mother on the wall, a small piece about who she is written below it.
"She designs amazing clothes though, Tilly." Sierra shrugs.
"Also had about two hundred wrinkles not in that photo, and the personality of a poisonous cactus."
"You don't have to wear it. But I'm gonna try some pieces on." Sierra giggles, pulling a few things from the racks of newly released products.
"So is that your sister then?" KayKay chuckles at the look of disgust on Tilly's face, motioning to the model on the wall, sporting an outfit from the line.
"That's my Eloise." Tilly smiles softly, nodding.
"She'll just be a minute, then we can shop something other than MW."
"She better. The last thing I want is to be caught looking like I'm shopping my moms new collection."
"I'll make her buy your lunch too as payback. She owes you. It's your birthday after all. And you aren't enjoying it."
"I'm fine. Just hate the woman on the wall and all the tags."
"Hate is a strong word, Matilda." Both girls turn at the thick French accent of the deep voice.
"Liam! What are you doing in the womens department?" Tilly laughs, toeing up to hug the man. "And do not call me Matilda. Ever."
"I saw you from the window, I did not know you were in Paris since Eloise is still with your mother in New York."
"I'm here with some friends. Including my boyfriend."
"El mentioned you had acquired a new gentleman. Is he here?"
"No, girl time. This is KayKay, and Sierra is over there." Tilly laughs.
"Damn, I was looking forward to scaring the new man. Making sure he is what you need."
"Next time we are in Paris. Or you and El are in the same city as us. We'll plan something."
"I am holding you to that, Matilda Jane."
"Call me that again and I'll mess up your pretty face, Liam."
"Also, I wanted to say happy birthday, Tilly. Glad to see you for a moment."
"Thank you. Sorry you don't get to celebrate with El today."
"We will celebrate when she gets home. Your mother needs her more than I do right now. She could use you too, Tilly."
"Ya right. Did El not inform you of the massive yelling match mom and I got in when I went to visit dad before he passed?"
"She did. But you are someone who could empathize with your mother more than El in this event. I feel it could help mend the hatred you share for each other."
"I feel nothing could help that. Sorry, you and El have to accept that answer."
"We will not. We know there is always hope. I better go, I was on my way to meet some friends. Good to see you, Tilly."
"Good to see you too, Liam." She smiles, hugging him again before he heads out of the store again.
"Who the hell was that very attractive man and how do you know him?" Sierra is suddenly back at their sides.
"Liam, he's my sister's boyfriend." Tilly laughs.
"Wow, of course. She's a model, why wouldn't she be dating a model."
"Sierra, Luke has modeled, remember. You're dating a model and a rockstar rolled into one. Stop drooling over Liam and finish shopping. I'm tired of looking at my mom's face."
"Right. Going."
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Apparently Tilly's birthday is turning into a 3 chapter event. 😂
What do you think Calum has planned for Tilly after the concert?
Late update 'cause I'm busy as hell and haven't written in days. Plus it was my daughters birthday today so we were busy celebrating.
Vote and comment!
I love you guys!!!
~M =)