Right Back to You

29. Panic

Kay couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun and felt so at peace. Being back at Joey's uncle's cabin made it feel as if time had stopped, as if she'd never left.

The only difference was that, after months of living with Joey, Kelly didn't complain that she had to share the room with Kay. The two of them stayed up late into the night talking, remembering old jokes and people. During the day, it got a little odd since the presence of Jessie and Angie proved that time hadn't stopped flowing, as much as it seemed that way sometimes.

"I wish you guys didn't have to leave," Kelly said on their last evening at the cabin. "It's so fun being back together."

"We're all going in the same place," Kyle pointed out. "You guys need to get back to college."

"I can't believe you dropped out and became a rock star," Joey mumbled. "And I didn't think about it first."

"I didn't drop out," Kyle said. "I'll go back and finish at some point."

Kay rubbed her arms. The idea gave her chills. Because whether they liked it or not, the tour wasn't going to last forever, and then what? What would happen to Tom and Jimmy? The same uneasiness seemed to settle over Kyle and she was reminded of a pending conversation. But they'd been having so much fun, she hadn't brought it up. They'd have enough time for serious conversation.

"At some point," Jimmy echoed, obviously picking up on the problem.

"There will be time for everything, whatever that turns out being."

"It's so easy to just go with the flow," Tom said.

"But that can't happen forever," Angie pointed out.

"Why have you all gotten so serious?" Kelly let out a laugh.

Her question lightened the mood and Kay decided to continue going with a flow for a few more days. It was easy, after all, even as they left the cabin and headed for Dallas. Once there, she was more than happy to be alone with Kyle, drive away his worries in fun and fulfilling ways.

But as the evening of their concert approached, she could feel him becoming more tense.

"What's going on?" she asked as she watched him putting on his t-shirt.

He faltered, and it was obvious something was wrong.

"Kyle?"

"I..." He bit his lower lip. "There are more things, but I guess I should start with one of them. Macy wasn't happy with Jessie announcing our breakup."

Macy. Kay rolled her eyes. "That's not really any of her business, though, is it?"

"You'd think," Kyle mumbled. "But she was really upset about it. Said it screwed up her marketing campaign. And we also didn't give her a fair warning before it happened."

"She would've talked you out of it!"

"She would've tried. The thing is, she's pissed enough that she said she's done with us after this concert."

Kay tilted her head because she wasn't sure how to feel about that, especially since Macy did seem to scream a lot and be rather unpleasant.

"Do you even really need her?"

"She did do the organizing, so I'm not sure we could run this without her."

"Oh."

"So yeah... The tour is pretty fucked after this."

She had no idea how to feel about that either. "What does Jessie think?"

"She didn't back down on what she did. I'm a little worried about her, too, because this puts us in a position where we have to decide what to do maybe a bit sooner than we wanted."