Everything Changes (Kavi)

Oakland, CA (2)

"I don't want to go!" Kirstie whined into the camera of her laptop. Laying down on the couch of her dressing room, she was desperate not to end her skyping session with her boyfriend; it was the first time she had had contact with him since she left. Seth was in a much better mood than the one she had left him in LA which was probably due to the fact it was nearly the evening and not an ungodly hour of the morning, Seth was never good with mornings. They had been chatting for the best part of an hour while she got ready to go take pictures with fans, luckily for them she didn't have to get changed and do her makeup until afterwards so they had plenty of time to talk.

"You have to babe, you have a meet and greet." He sighed, resting his face against his hand as he sat at the desk at their apartment. As much as he loved spending time with his girlfriend, he really needed her to go, he had some work to do which he had forgone doing earlier in the day because he had gotten bored.

Pouting, Kirstie gazed at her boyfriend dejectedly, she would love nothing more than to stay there with him. She loved her job, she loved the people on the road with her, she loved the fans but, amidst all the chaos of touring life, there was nothing better than being with someone who symbolised stability to her, it helped her to keep a grip on reality. "Yeah but I want to stay with you."

"It's your job, and anyway, I have stuff to do." Seth sounded sad and sympathetic but Kirstie saw straight through it, she'd picked up a few tricks when it came to understanding his emotions from the time they had been together. It didn't upset her though, she understood that he had a job to do - a very important job in his company, if she had his job she'd also be wanting to get on with the work.

"Okay... I guess I'll see you soon?" Kirstie asked with a hint of reluctance, she really didn't want to leave him and the sense of normality that came with him.

"Yeah, see you soon." He hung up not even waiting for her to reply. Kirstie got the impression that he must have been desperate to leave her, just like Avi had been on the plane, and she begun to doubt if people truly enjoyed being near her.

"Bye." She mumbled bitterly, closing down her laptop and getting up off the couch.

"Kirstie come on! You're late!" She heard Esther's frantic voice called through the door. Since it was only just the beginning of tour, Esther was frazzled, still trying to perfect every little thing she could but they all knew that in a couple of weeks she will be more relaxed, not caring so much if someone was one minute late to an event.

Giving her self a once over in the mirror, Kirstie deemed herself presentable and opened the door to come face to face with a flustered Esther. Without even saying any words, the manager grabbed Kirstie's hand and began to drag her towards the rest of the group gathering outside of the room where the meet and greet was going to take place. They were all there and ready, even Scömìche had been able to get themselves ready before her which was a rarity.

Her and Avi stood awkwardly next to each other in the line up as always, both trying to pose the way the fans wished them to while attempting to stay as far apart as possible. She hated that she always had to be next to him for photos, it wasn't fair on the fans that occasionally their uncomfortable feelings about being in close proximity to each other was clear in their photos, they deserved to have a photo of them all looking happy.

That day, some of the meet and greet photos were hilarious, there were many super frown requests, a few fake marriage proposals and even one request of a piggy back ride. Kirstie was enjoying it throughly, there had been plenty of oppotuines to pose with Scott or a fan instead of Avi and everyone had been super nice.

But then someone asked something where closeness couldn't be avoided, they'd have to pose and try to look completely comfortable to be there. They were instructed by two lovely fans clad head to toe in merchandise to stand in a line and hold hands. As soon as the position had been proposed, the two had nervously made eye contact, know all too well how much the other person was going to hate it. It wasn't that they hated each other so much that being that close to the other annoyed them, in fact it was quite the opposite. Being close reminded them of what they once were, what they lost thanks to her decision to pursue a relationship with Seth, what they could have been. She never admitted it at the time but what her and Avi were was far from being friends.

They were close, not like the way she would tell Scott and Mitch every single detail of her life, instead she never felt like she needed to with Avi, he just got her. The two spent a lot of time together, and the rest of the group used to relentlessly tease them for it but none of them knew half of what was going on between them, they were a lot closer then even they could see. Only Kevin was aware that they saw each other often outside of work (it was hard not for him to know since he lived with Avi), the bass was always disappearing off somewhere with little notice and Kevin didn't even need to be told to know who he was going to see. They watched movies together, they went to choir concerts together, they had even been out to dinner together a couple of times. Anyone who didn't know them would have presumed they were dating, that they were an item but they weren't, none of them had dared to have that conversation.

Kirstie stared down at Avi's hand like it was a foreign object. Before she'd have taken it without a second thought, knowing perfectly how her fingers fitted around his but that was before, things had changed since then, her instincts were different now. Their hands moved hesitantly towards each other, unsure on how to go about the procedure. Should they interlock their fingers? Did they want to? There was only seconds to spare to make up their minds before the camera flashed so Kirstie unexpectedly went for it, slipping her fingers in between his well aware of what it was going to do to her. Anything for the fans.

It felt familiar despite the almost two year long gap it had been since they had last been in that position. She was reminded of how warm and comforting his hand was, remembering times when she would instinctively reach for it whenever something was amiss.

The first time their hands found each other in a non-platonic way was brought to the forefront of her mind as she posed for the camera. It was back in the PTX Volume II days, back when they were still close. She had invited him over to her apartment (just him, she never extended the invite to any of the others) which was a regular occurrence back then and by some chance of fate he had agreed to watched a scary movie with her. She knew it was cliché but that was why she had suggested it to him, she knew he hated them so it had been the perfect excuse for him to get close to her. Purposely talking him into activities to get close to him was a dramatic difference from where they were now. He had reached for her the moment the film begun to take a darker turn, pulling her hands closer to his on top of the blankets on their laps. Kirstie remembered the grin that broke out on her face when she felt his fingers pry their way between hers, anxiously playing with them as he apprehensively watched the screen. But that was years ago, a different life, things were no longer the same.

"Sorry." He mumbled, dropping his hand from her's the moment he was allowed to and turned to say goodbye to the fans.

It took her a moment to recover from the absence of his hand in her's but as soon as she did, a forced smile over came her face and she shrugged it off like it was nothing which they both knew it wasn't. "It's fine." 

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Told you this story was going to be a slow burner but I can assure you that the pace begins to quicken in the next chapter ;)

If anyone wants to make a nice cover for this story feel free to do so and send it to me, I'll repay you in one-shots!

Please Vote/Like/Comment if you enjoyed oh and my other story East Side Line will return on the 18th September.