Lost Without You » [Luke Patterson]-Au

Chapter 18

Alex Mercer

"I know you hate it, but Tan, I just need to-"

"-Make sure I'm eating. Yeah, I know." She sighs, lifting her fork up to her mouth as she bites down on another piece of pasta.

Slowly but surely, though that's even more than I can ask for right now. "I promise I am."

"I know, I trust you but you know it's my job to look after you."

"You're only a year older than me Al."

"Which in other terms, means an entire year wiser than you." She laughs, shaking her head as she looks away from the camera down at her bowl.

"Take your time." She lets her eyes drift back up to mine through the phone screen and I could immediately tell what she was about to say.

"I don't want to be wasting your time. You don't need to be babysitting me while you're in the studio."

"I'm never wasting my time with you Tan, and besides, if I need to go, I'll just pass you on to Reggie or Luke, I'm sure they wouldn't mind." I chuckle softly, feeling happier as I see her eyes light up in amusement.

Luke and Reggie were keeping themselves occupied in one of the recording booths, understanding that I was on the phone with Tanna.

It's obvious that the two of them are also worried about her, but as much as we all want to watch over her, we've made an effort to try not to overwhelm her- and having one person watching you eat was overwhelming enough.

"I hope you boys aren't playing around." My eyes snap away from my phone, landing on Sharon waltzing into the room, without moving her eyes away from her phone to even glance at us.

I keep my gaze on her for a second and narrow my eyes as if it was going to make her leave the room.

One could only be that lucky.

"What's going on?" Tanna's voice seems to catch not only my attention, but Sharon's as well, seeing her finally unglue her gaze from her phone.

"Do you boys always need to be on your phones in the studio."

"One second Tan." I lean over to mute the call, not wanting to stress her out with whatever Sharon decides to go on about today. "Sharon, what are you doing here?"

"Someone has to keep you boys from running yourselves into the ground. I've spoken to you about being on your phone unless it's to post online, but that hasn't seemed to change anything."

Luke Patterson

Five lyrics.

I've been stuck with only five lyrics since I walked into the recording booth and I can't help but think it'll be the exact same five by the time I leave.

My mind couldn't seem to piece together any words that made sense. Maybe it was because of some writers block, or maybe it was because of the fact that Alex was on the phone to my girl and I couldn't help but wish I was with her, or just be able to see her so I knew she was okay.

She'd been so much better recently, but that doesn't mean that she didn't struggle now and then, and seeing her distressed, from whatever internal battle she was facing, makes me wish I could take all her worry away.

I would do anything to take all her pain away in the blink of an eye.

"Luke."

"Yeah Reg." I respond to Reggie's muttering without looking up from my song book, hoping that the longer I'd stare at it, words would magically start to etch themselves across the lined paper.

"Sharon's here." I sigh, knowing how unsettled we all felt around her, yet we couldn't do much considering she is our publicist.

We want a good reputation and she has the power to make or break us.

I finally raise my head, my eyebrows furrowing inwards as I notice Alex and Sharon talking. I'm not sure what I'd use to describe the encounter, but friendly would definitely not be one of the words I'd use.

"What's she going on about now?" I huff, knowing that both Alex and Reggie were usually too soft spoken to speak up for themselves when Sharon started to boss us around.

As I'm about to stand up, Reggie says something that stops me in my tracks and face him completely.

"I think she said something to Tanna." His voice was soft, but hearing the tone in his voice, there was no way I could have missed it.

"Reg, I need you to say that one more time."

"I think Sharon said something to Tanna."

"Why do you think that?"

"We'll I was speaking to Tan the other day about wanting to go visit Ella and I guess I mentioned Sharon's thoughts on us being in relationships."

"Yeah? Then what Reg. I need you to help me out here a bit more." He nods slowly, breathing slowly as if he was trying to wrack his brain for the correct information.

"She said that the things Sharon told us started to make sense to her. I don't know what she said, Tanna tried to avoid saying anything else, but she never denied any of it."

I nod slowly, taking in the information as I try to gauge what was going on.

"Are you okay?" Reggie nodded hesitantly, only making this odd feeling morph into something stronger.

"I'm just worried about her. She's gone through enough already. I know how harsh Sharon can be, I just don't want her to be like that to Tanna as well."

"I'll handle it, I promise." I turn my head to the glass of the booth, seeing Alex still in the same heated conversation as before. I needed to get him out of it. "Oh and Reg, as soon as we're done recording, I think you should go visit Ella."

"Really?"

"Yeah man, we could all use a break anyways." Reggie smiles widely at me, nodding excitedly as he reaches into his pocket for his phone, assumingely to message Ella.

I step out of the booth, letting my mind wander for a second or two before deciding not to mention anything to Sharon just yet.

I wanted to speak to Tanna first, not that I don't believe Reggie, it's the exact opposite actually. I'm worried that Sharon did say something and Tan decided to keep quiet about it.

But right now, I just needed to get Alex out of this conversation.

"This writers block is killing me Al, you know what it's- oh, hi Sharon."