Somebody I Don't Know : Book 1 of the Teeth Series

23

"Honestly Fallon, where the fuck have you been?" Wesley yelled across the room as she tipped her head back and took a long gulp of beer from the long-necked glass bottle she held in her hand.

"Wh—I've been on stage with you?" Fallon said with eyes squinted in confusion.

"I don't mean just now though," Wesley continued. "We're on what week—four?— of this tour and I swear I see you on stage and that's pretty much it."

"You knew before we came out that I might be a bit of a recluse this time."

"That's fair I guess. Except you haven't even been around on the bus so I don't think we can consider you a recluse. Where are you going?"

Wesley had never been one to mince words and as Fallon heard what she had to say she was only truly surprised that she hadn't expected their drummer to be that particularly observant. Typically, Wes focused most of her energy on finding someone to fill her bed for that night but now that she was focused on it, Fallon didn't remember hearing about any of Wesley's escapades or conquests lately. Was there a reason their party girl had hung up clubbing shoes?

Fallon felt like a shit friend for not having an answer to that question but her life had been a bit of a jumbled mess lately and in her pursuit of what she had once had with Calum she had been neglectful of her friendships. She couldn't right her wrongs of the past few weeks, but she could do her best not to make them worse.

The weight of Erin's hard stare was on her and it was impossible to miss and Fallon tried to decide how to proceed with her bandmates. She could give them the complete truth and risk further complicating things with Calum when things with them were still up in the air, or she could dance around the topic. Pulling a typical Fal move seemed appropriate and the most safe considering it had been nearly a full day since she had seen or heard from Cal. It wasn't abnormal for him to go off the grid as far as his phone was concerned and so she wasn't particularly worried as of yet but she still wasn't ready to risk putting their fragile connection at risk by exposing them to Wesley and Chayse.

"I'm sorry, Wes. My absence hasn't been on purpose. Surviving not thriving, you know?" She asked.

Her bandmates all gave reassuring nods, even if Erin's seemed a bit less than genuine, and the guilt within her was what led to her current predicament. She and the rest of her band were seated next to each other in a spa, their feet submerged in warm bubbly water as they enjoyed pedicures as their manicured hands dried.

All around her conversation swirled and she caught up on the latest in her friends and sister's lives. Wesley's lack of socializing, it turned out, was thanks to a girl she had met just before they had left for tour. Apparently Wesley was really into her and though they hadn't even been on a date, the party girl had found herself unable to truly enjoy the nightlife she was accustomed to with her heart already intrigued by someone else. God—Fallon thought—she was well acquainted with that feeling. She'd spent months unable to even bear the thought of having to move on with someone new following Calum blowing her heart to smithereens but now it seemed that might not necessarily be the case. Maybe forever was still in the cards for them after all.

Surely though, it wasn't set in stone. As was made abundantly clear by the continued lack of contact from Calum. Their night on the rooftop of the parking garage had been nostalgic and it had gotten intense at points but they had left on good terms, great terms really. Well, apart from Erin's discovery of the two of them swinging joined hands between them as they arrived back to the bus. She hadn't done anything further than glare at Calum and remind Fallon for the millionth time that she didn't approve. Fallon had only rolled her eyes and told Erin exactly where she could stick her unsolicited opinion before kissing Calum goodnight and smirking right past her flabbergasted older sibling.

Now she wondered if Calum had actually been swayed by the brunette's words. If Erin fucked this up for her she really might resort to sororicide.

Chayse noticed Fallon's silence and called her out on it, drawing Fallon from her thoughts with a quick shake of her head as she tried to think of something clever to say to hide the fact that she hadn't heard anything that had been said by her bandmates in at least the prior five minute time span. Her gaze drifted around and she noticed that they had been left alone, their freshly polished toes air drying.

She couldn't lie to her friends faces. There were already so many complications surrounding her that she couldn't add to her plate. With the moment of privacy, then seemed as good of a time as any, she decided, not wanting to risk actually speaking the words aloud—the press were truly ruthless—she held up her phone slightly as she began to type in their band group chat.

I've been hanging out with Calum.

She dropped her phone to her lap and looked up, waiting with bated breath for their reactions.

"Shut the front door!" Chayse cried in her own form of swearing—she was by far the most reserved of their group and rarely actually cursed—at the same time as Wes screamed out, "Shut the fuck up!"

"That's why I've been missing." She said, biting her bottom lip as she watched them process the information. Chayse seemed content to simply gape at her while Wesley squinted her eyes and turned her gaze slowly from Fallon to Erin.

"You knew." It wasn't worded as a question, Wesley stated it as a fact as she assessed Erin's hard glare and folded arms.

"Unfortunately." She practically sneered.

"For Christ's sake Erin, give it up." Fallon bit back.

"Not likely." Her sister harrumphed

"I don't know why you insist on treating me like a child, Erin.You're not my mother and I'm twenty three, hardly a year younger than y—" "Because you insist on acting like one!"

"Much to your dismay Erin, my love life is something that only I get to choose what to do with. Maybe that pisses you off, maybe you're jealous. I don't know." Erin's face paled and a look of disgust took over as Fallon continued, "but I do know that my decisions about who I date, or talk to, or whatever, are just that, MINE."

"Fallon, all I'm doing is remembering what it was like bringing you back from the literal walking dead earlier this year. I don't want to have to do it again. But if I had to I would. Because I'm your sister and despite what you may think sometimes, I love you." With tears in her eyes that had Fallon's heart filling with guilt, Erin stood from her chair, pushing past the other girls, throwing enough money to cover her services and tip on the checkout counter and making her way out of the salon.

An: what do we think of the girls questioning?

Erin's still overreacting. What will come for that?

What's Fallon's next move?

Where the fuck is Cal?

Let me know!
Ily,
Sav 🖤