Erica Clifford - Completed

Forty one

"And this is Steve." Oscar introduced me to the stage director. 

"Hi Steve nice to meet you." I shook his hand and he smiled. Good firm grip. 

"Nice to meet you Erica. I've heard great things." 

"I should hope so." I smiled, letting out a little laugh. "How are you today?" 

"I'm good, thanks so much for asking. How are you? Ready for the show tomorrow? Nervous?" 

"Sure. My first solo performance ever and it's to 3000 people at my dad's birthday. No pressure or anything." He laughed. "A little but it's fine. How about you guys? Are you already?"

"Almost. I actually needed to clarify some bits with you." 

"Go for it. I'm all ears." I stepped forward as he pointed at the paper work on his podium. 

"So we have you going on here but we also had someone mention you were doing a duet with The Blue Fog?" 

"I was supposed to but I don't think I am." I looked at Oz who shrugged and turned away. "Oscar." 

"Um-" He turned around and I raised an eyebrow. "Did I not mention it last week?" 

"No you didn't." 

"Levi mentioned how you'd said you were doing one." 

"Levi and I haven't spoken in almost 2 weeks. I can't sing with them if he doesn't sing to me. And it's too late now." I shrugged. "You can tell them I said that. That he left it too late." I turned back to Steve. "Just my slot." He looked at Oscar and then back at me, crossing it off his list. 

"Okay. Um-" He sighed. "The other thing was just clarity on the album release date because Mr. Clifford's emails all say Monday but you say tomorrow at 9pm?" 

"It's tomorrow at 9pm. Same time I go on. My dad doesn't know. He thinks its Monday but it's my present to him. He's been wanting me to do this since I was 19." Steve nodded. 

"And we have the reel to play before you come on too. All the clips of you in the studio. Who put them together?" 

"Brooke did." I smiled and put my hands in my pocket, pulling out my buzzing phone. "Hold on a sec Steve. Hello?" I answered the phone and stepped away from Steve. 

"What are you doing right now?" I held the phone back and narrowed my eyes at the lack of caller ID. 

"Depends who this is." I walked a little further, away from all the people. 

"It's Lee." My eyes went wide. 

"Why do you sound so-" His voice was croaky and hoarse. "Have you been asleep?" 

"That's rude." I could hear the chuckle in his voice. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm working and putting the final bits together for tomorrow. Why?" I tucked my hair behind my ear, crossing one arm across my waist and turning to face the wall. 

"Brooke sent me Nonsense." 

"She what?" He laughed and I put my head back. Little bitch. "I'm gonna kill her." I pulled the phone away from my ear knowing she was around here somewhere. "BROOKE." 

"So what are you doing? Are you busy? 5 minutes. That's all I need." I sighed. "You don't even need to leave the building. Just come down to my dressing room. No one else is here I swear."

I turned and looked back at Oscar and Steve who were both watching me. 

"5 minutes." 

"That's it. I can set a timer the second you walk in." 

"Fine. Don't move. I won't be long." I hung up and walked over to the two men who were bickering about something unimportant. "I need to disappear for like 10 minutes. Are you guys good with that? I just need a breather." They both nodded. "I have my phone on me if you need me." 

I turned on my heels, phone still in hand as I walked through the double doors of the backstage area and turned towards the dressing rooms. 

It wasn't a long walk. Just straight down the hall, a left and it was the 4th door on the right. I stared at it. His name on the door. I'd made sure they all had separate rooms before everything happened. It made sense then. It kind of did now but the reasons seemed unimportant. I sighed and knocked twice shakily. I flicked my hands, trying to stop myself shaking before pushing the door open and stepping inside. 

He stood there at the other end of the room. I could tell from how he was stood that he'd been pacing back and forth, though how long I couldn't tell. I looked around the room for any indication of how long he'd been in here. 

There was 2 coffee cups on the table, one by me and one by him. The rest of the table was littered with sheet music and his earphones. 

His acoustic guitar was laid on the couch and the cushions there indicated that's where he had been sat for most of the time. His phone was next to it. I knew how he put his phone down. This wasn't like that. He'd thrown it down. I'm guessing after I hung up on him. 

I brought my eyes to my feet, looking at the length of my pants and how tall they made me look. I sighed and put my hands in my pockets as I let my eyes trace up him. His faded black jeans, his dark red jumper and how it had risen up slightly so I could see the top of his boxers and his hip. 

I continued looking up. His hands dropped from wherever they'd been as I was looking everywhere but him. Now they were pulling on the sleeves of his hoodie, covering his hands as I moved up. His strong neck. Chin. Lips. God I miss those. Nose. Eyes. Levi.

"Hi." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Hi." I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. "Fucking Hi? Is that it. You haven't spoken to me in nearly 2 fucking weeks and one day I randomly get a call from no caller ID and you tell me to come down here. I do and all you say is Hi." I stared at him and he looked down at his feet. "What the fuck Levi." I took a step forward, turning around and opening the door. 

It slammed as he ran across the room and put his hand on it like Jason had. 

"Don't go. Not like this. Don't leave me like I fucking left." I was clenching my teeth, still facing the door. I was very aware of how close he was. If I moved just an inch, we would connect and I'd be crying. "Erica, look at me. Please, turn around." I waited a second and did as he asked, leaning back against the door and looking up at him. 

"So did you do it then? Did you go find Jason?" I crossed my arms again. 

"No." He huffed, keeping his hand on the door above me. "I went up to the roof and screamed. Then I went home and cried." 

"You cried?" 

"He hurt you Ez. And I wasn't there to stop him like I was supposed to be. I'm supposed to protect you. I knew what he was capable of and I wasn't even close by. I should have taken you with me to get a drink." 

"We didn't even know he was there Lee. If we did we would have just left." 

"Still." He sighed and gently placed a hand on my hip. "Have they healed?" 

"Pretty much." I showed him my wrist. "There's still little yellow marks but you can't really see them on my wrist. My hips are still a gross green colour though." 

"I didn't know you had them on your wrist." 

"You kind of stormed off before I could tell you what happened." I crossed my arms and he sighed again. 

"I know. You must have felt shit." I shrugged. "No don't shrug. Yell at me. Tell me how bad I fucked up. Don't push me away. Please don't push me away." His voice cracked causing me to look up into his eyes that were filling with eyes. I tilted my head as my own filled with tears too. I looked down at the floor, blinking them away and taking a deep breathe to steady myself. He put a finger under my chin and gently brought it up to look at him again. 

"If you're going to cry because of what I did on Sunday, how I handled it. And if you're not going to tell me how bad I fucked up. At least let me see it. Because none of this is hurting me more than knowing it's hurting you." I blinked and a tear fell onto my cheek.