I awoke on a bed, the sheets were scratching at my legs and the pillow was hard. I slowly lifted myself up, suddenly realising I had the worst headache.
“She’s awake,” someone young announced in the corner of the room. I couldn’t see who he was, my vision was blurred.
“Blair?”
That voice again. The voice from last night, or whenever I was attacked.
“Who are you?”
“Blair, it’s me.”
I rubbed at my eyes, but the room was too dim to see anything. The man came closer. Damien.
“W-what are you doing here? I remember being… I breathed in chloroform and was knocked unconscious… who did that?”
I could see the features of his face now, and they looked guilty. “I did. I’m sorry Blair…”
“Wait… you…. You knocked me out?! You bastard!” I flew myself at him, grabbing his collar as we both fell to the ground. I shook him, his head was knocking back and forth. Damien reached his hands up to stop me, and I realised that one of them was bandaged.
Someone grabbed me by the waist and pulled me off of him. “Your hand,” I said, confused.
“Yeah,” he looked down and turned it over, examining it. “Thank your friend Cass for that one.”
I remembered when Cass broke his wrist. The sickening crack, the way it was bent backwards. I shivered. “What day is it?” I asked.
“It’s Wednesday, a day after the concert,” Damien replied.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in Nashville, honey.”
“Nashville?! But I have to be in Adelaide, w-with Ryan.”
“I’m right here baby.” I whirled to see Ryan standing right behind me, his hands in his grey hoodie pockets and his eyes staring into mine.
“Ryan? What are you doing here? Hell, what am I doing here?”
“Well…” Damien began.
“Laura’s wedding is tomorrow, and we wanted you back in time to be there for her,” Ryan finished for him. I guess they were expecting something along the lines of ‘thanks’ or ‘it means a lot’. Well, that wasn’t what they were going to get.
“And you had to drug me to do it?! Are you fucking kidding me you two?!”
“Hey, Ryan had nothing to do with this. I just told him I’d meet him at the airport, he didn’t know I would, ah…”
“Use chloroform?”
“I still can’t believe you did that, Damien,” Ryan sighed. “She would have gone along with this for Laura, she didn’t need to be drugged.”
“Well it’s not like I know my daughter well enough to figure that out,” Damien hissed. Ryan and I both cringed, and I saw the hurt in his eyes. I walked over to Ryan and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“Could you give us a moment?” I asked Damien. He gave me a hard look before nodding and walking out of the small bedroom, which looked to be a motel room.
“Babe, I’m so sorry. I had no idea he was going to do that-“
I kissed him, cutting off his apology. He seemed surprise at first, his body became still, but then he wrapped his arms around my lower backside, pulling me in close. I brought my hands up to his face, moving my lips in sync with his. It felt different to be with Ryan like this in Nashville. It felt… like old times. I pulled away.
“You don’t have to apologize, Ry.”
He shook his head. “But I should have told you.”
“Is that why you were acting weird before the concert? About leaving Adelaide?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, I just had no idea you’d be unconscious for it.”
I laughed, throwing my head back. I looked around the room, catching a glimpse of the digital clock on the bedside table. It read 4:03, obviously in the afternoon as sunlight was streaming through a gap in the curtains where they didn’t completely close.
“Um, so why did you come back with me? You could have just stayed in Australia.”
“I didn’t want to leave you Blair. I know it sounds a little creepy, but I don’t think I can be away from you for that long. After Adelaide it would be Japan, so a few weeks until I officially get to see you again. I… I couldn’t do it. I guess I just love you Blair. It’s that simple.”
I felt like I was about to melt into a little puddle down at Ryan’s feet. “I love you,” I whispered, bringing myself in close again, although we didn’t move apart much when I’d pulled away beforehand.
“So the wedding is at 2 tomorrow, and we still haven’t bought you a dress, you know.”
“I don’t need to get a dress-“
“As much as I wouldn’t mind it, Blair, you can’t go naked,” Ryan joked. I laughed and shoved him with my arm. He laughed with me.
“As I was saying, I have plenty of dresses. I don’t need to buy one. Remember the one Laura sent me?”
“Oh yeah, the grey one. But I’ll buy you one anyway, just for the sake of it. Don’t worry about it, Blair.”
“Ry, you don’t have to buy me anything-“
“I’m buying you a dress. You have no say in this.”
“Wait, I have no say in something that involves me?”
“Nope,” Ryan stated, smiling like an idiot. I rolled my eyes and kissed him on the cheek.
“I guess we better go then,” I murmured, looking around for my bag that I took to the concert. “Where’s my bag?” I asked. Ryan walked over to the small cupboard on one side of the room and opened it, revealing my bag hanging on a coat-hanger, next to some old coats. In the bottom of the cupboard was my luggage. I walked over and politely grabbed it from him, rummaging through the contents to find my phone. I found it and opened it, revealing about 30 messages from Cass. I went through most of them, seeing that they all basically said the same thing.
‘Are you alright? The guys filled me in on everything, do you need me to come back to Nashville?’
I quickly texted back a reply.
‘I’m fine, stay in Aus and work things out with Jamie. I wanna know everything babe! Xx’
A second after I hit send Ryan was dragging me out the bedroom door and into a small lounge, he had grabbed my suitcase and backpack, obviously knowing my intentions of not coming back.
“We’re going to buy her a dress, be back in a few hours.”
“The shops close at 5, be back by 5:30,” Damien demanded. It surged something inside of me, anger boiled in my veins.
“You don’t have any right to say that. We’ll be back when we want to be, don’t wait up, because I’m not coming back here,” I sneered. Damien winced at the harshness of my voice.
“Look Blair, I know I haven’t been a great father to you, but I really want to start.”
“How do I know that you won’t freak out and run again?”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
“Trust you? Trust is earned, Damien. And knocking me unconscious isn’t a great start, asshole.” And with that, I pulled Ryan out of the door and made my way down the hall, signs saying ‘elevator’ leading me in the right direction. Once we were in the elevator, Ryan turned to me.
“Hey, are you alright?”
I exhaled calmly. “Yes.”
“Really?” Ryan said doubtfully.
I slouched down, finally bringing myself to tell him the truth. “No,” I admitted miserably.
He chuckled. “Come here,” he whispered and brought me into an amorous hug. “If you ever need to vent, you come right to me, alright? I don’t want you keeping your anger up inside of you.”
“Thanks.”
“So… uh, how do you feel about your dad?” He asked awkwardly, obviously meaning that he wanted me to vent now.
“Well,” I considered. “I was actually warming up to him. Then he turned out to be a complete prick, so I’m not really happy with him right now.” I heaved a long sigh.
Ryan chuckled. “I think he was worried you wouldn’t go with him.”
The elevator doors opened. “Well, if he gave me the choice between going with him peacefully or using chloroform, then I think I would’ve gone with the first one.”
Both of us walked out, hand in hand. “I guess it’s done now. Will shopping cheer you up?” He enthused, nudging my shoulder a little. This time I chuckled.
“I just don’t want you to feel that you have to buy me things to make me feel better…”
“Honey,” Ryan said playfully, and even though I couldn’t see his face I knew he was winking at me. “There are so many things that I could do to make you feel better, you just have to ask.”
“Mhm,” I replied humorously.
“I mean, come on. I could scrap the dress idea and go buy a packet of-“
“Okay, wow,” I cut him off and raised my hands defensively, before the conversation got any further, because I knew exactly where it was heading. “That’s enough out of you, let’s go Ry.”
“I’m just saying.” He shrugged innocently.
* * *
“So what about this one?” I asked, stepping out of the curtained change room and twirling a little, to give Ryan a view of all angled.
He made thinking noises for a few moments. “I like the blue one, this one is too… black. And if I’m gonna buy you a dress, I at least want you to wear it most of the time.”
I rolled my eyes. “God, you sound like my mother,” I teased.
I laughed and went back into the change room, looking at the last dress on the hanger, which was hooked onto the little rack next to the full-length, floor-to-ceiling mirror. I’d wanted to save this one for last, because it was my favourite out of the whole lot. It was yellow, and the material was light and fell delicately down to my mid-thigh. The straps were made of orange and red jewels, and it wound around my neck nicely. (dress in the sidebar) Once I’d slipped it on, I pulled my hair out from under the strap and neatened myself up a bit. I slid open the curtain and stepped out.
Ryan looked speechless, and I was speechless from just looking at him being speechless. He shook his head. “You know, I’m going to have to get used to dating the most beautiful girl in the world.”
I gave a nervous smile and walked over to him, sitting down sideways on his lap. “Do you ever run out of cheesy compliments?” I asked suspiciously.
“Nope,” he grinned. I leaned down and rested my nose against his.
“So what do you think?”
“Hmm,” Ryan murmured, lifting me up so he could stand and get a good look at me. He grabbed my hand and lifted it into the air, twirling me. When he was behind me, he leaned forward quickly. “I love it,” he breathed against my neck. It gave me shivers, but I loved every second of it.
“But are you sure you want to spend your money on it? I already have a-“
Ryan put a finger over my lips to shush me. He rolled his eyes. “Blair, I would give you everything if only I could. A dress is nothing.”
I nodded and turned to change back into my clothes, which were short maroon denim shorts and a HCR top that I had been given when I’d run out of clean clothes. It’s not like anyone really did laundry while on tour. Ryan grabbed my hand.
“Don’t worry about it, just put your clothes in your bag and let’s go pay for it.”
“While I’m wearing it?”
‘Sure, why not?”
I twitched my lips, a little wary of what people would think. Would I be too dressy for wherever I was going after this? Whether it be home or not- home. Those words hit me hard. Going home meant going back to mum, and I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about me after I’ve been away for a month.
We both walked up to the desk and the girl looked at me with a smirk. “Hi, Blair.”
“Layla!” I squealed. I’d completely forgotten she worked at ‘fashion fabrics’, the only good dress shop in Lockeland Springs. I leaped over the thin counter to give her a massive hug.
“I’ve missed you so much!” She squealed back. “How was the tour? Cass called me and told me all about it.”
“It was great, really great,” I said while looking over at Ryan, who I’d inched closer to and put my hand around his waist. “I’m sorry I didn’t call or anything- I was so wrapped up in my own little world and I -“
“It’s alright babe, don’t apologize. I’m glad you had fun! Although…”
“What?” I asked immediately, my voice turning hard.
“It’s your mum…”
I stared at her wide-eyed, waiting for her to continue.
“Steph, uh, got really upset when you left. She went straight to Cass’ parents, who wouldn’t give her any information of where you’d be by now. Then she came to my house… she went completely psycho. She hit my mum, Blair.”
I brought a hand up to my mouth, it shook a little. “Oh God, I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to her when I go home.”
Layla smiled kindly. “You always apologize for your mothers actions. Tell you what? If your mum can apologize to my mum herself, then I’m sure I wouldn’t get lectured everyday that ‘you’re a bad influence to hang around with, with a parent like that.’”
I laughed. “I’ll tell her to, don’t you worry.”
“So was it just the dress today?”
I looked up at Ryan. “Unless you want anything else?” He asked.
“No, no. Just this,” I smiled. Layla came around with the scanner in hand and pulled out the tag that had tucked itself between the dress and my bare skin. There was a ‘beep’ and she walked back over behind the counter.
“That’s $93.85 today.”
Ryan handed her a small wad of money before receiving the change and ushering me out of the store before I could chat with Layla more. We got into the car, which was probably one of the Follese family’s, as I had no idea how it got parked out in front of the hotel, and I went straight for the air conditioner. It was a lot hotter here than it was in Australia, and I guess I’d have to get used to that.
“So speaking of your mum…” Ryan trailed off, looking at his hands which were gripping tightly on the steering wheel.
“I have to see her,” I replied bravely, holding my chin up high.
“Are you sure? I mean-“
“You could just drive me there, drop me off and run. I mean, if she didn’t see you I’m sure she wouldn’t try to kill you,” I joked, and the humour in my voice was obvious, but Ryan didn’t laugh. Hell, he didn’t even crack a smile. “Look, we’ll deal with all of this drama between us three later, but right now I really need to see her. She’s my mother, Ry.”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, of course, yeah. I understand.” Ryan turned the keys and started the car, instantly driving off to my house.
We arrived within 10 minutes, as the hotel my dad was staying at was quite far away from Lockeland Springs. The car had been stopped for a few minutes, but neither of us bothered to move. I sat hunched in my seat, hoping that I didn’t have to do this.
I sighed, and suddenly realised that I had to do this, I had to see my mum. After a month, I had no idea how she would be doing, and it was killing me.
“You ready?” Ryan asked.
“I guess.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“No, I’m not sure. Not at all.”