I'm not quite sure what happened, but something happened in that café that changes things. Oddly I feel disappointed, not at my decision to stay but it feels like something was left unsaid.
The walk back to the hotel to get ready is pretty quiet, not terribly awkward but a sort of electricity filled the air. Maybe it's just the sky, now filled with dark thunderclouds. I'm not sure where they came from considering it was bright and sunny earlier.
Once I'm alone in my hotel room I get ready for the show tonight. It's indoors so whatever storm may be coming won't affect the concert at all. I turn on my playlist on my phone as I get ready, soft jazz fills the air and I him along. By the time I'm almost done getting ready I'm completely relaxed again. It's nice to be around people but it's also stressful I really needed this time to calm down.
I'm packing up my gear for the night when I hear a knock on the door.
"Come in! It's open." I have my back facing the door so I can't tell who it is.
"You know it's not that safe to leave the door unlocked. How many times do I have to tell you not to let anyone in, what of I was some crazed psychopath hellbent on killing eveyone?" Autumn leans against a chair near a small table that has the camera from earlier on it.
"But you're not." I retort absentmindedly.
She sighs. "Aria that's not my point."
"I know I know. Do me a favour and hand me that camera I want to upload the pictures I took earlier onto my laptop before we go." My laptop is already up an running so it shouldn't take too long to actually upload the photos.
"You went somewhere without me? That's not fair!" She's just messing around I can tell but it annoys me nonetheless, how dare she say something like that when she's going out with everyone else all the time and barely talks to me anymore.
I'm so absorbed in my mini internal rant that I didn't notice Autumn start to scroll through all the images. "You went on a date with Andrew!? Why didn't you tell me?! Oh my god you've liked him for how long and now you get the win! How long have you been together? Is he a good kisser? He looks like he would be a good kisser. Oh have you two-"
"Enough! No we aren't together! I was going on a walk to take some pictures and relax and he wanted to join me so I let him. There's nothing more autumn! And maybe I would tell you if you weren't so busy with your new perfect friends!" I yell at her not even thinking about what I'm saying. Once I catch myself I immediately feel guilty "Autumn I-"
"Save it I don't want to hear anything from you." She sneers her time sharp, as she leaves she slams the door shut but before she does she calls out "we leave in 30"
I slump onto the bed and run my hands through my hair. What have I done?
Thirty minutes later I'm sitting in the lobby by myself when I get a text from Andrew 'hey where are you. I hope you're almost here we are halfway through sound check and autumn said you wanted to walk so we left. It's already started to rain so hurry.' I look at my phone in disbelief and reread the message.
Autumn would never be this cruel, would she? If you had asked me an hour ago I would've said no. I look outside and see the rain and am grateful for my waterproof bag. It looks like I'm walking, I have no cash to hail a cab.
I finally manage to make it to the venue when everyone is finishing up the sound check and getting ready to go on. I slip past everyone and into a bathroom with out anyone noticing me. Once I look in the mirror I want to cry. My hair is dripping wet, what little makeup I wore around my eyes was running, my sheer black top was clinging to my camisole underneath, and my jeans and jacket were soaked through. Even my socks were squishy. In all I'm a wreck. I collect myself before I start crying and wash off the rest of the makeup which only makes my eyes red and puffy from having to rub it off with a wet paper towel. There's absolutely nothing else I can do to fix my appearance so I give up. I'm wet an I'm shivering and I want to curl up and not work. A few tears from frustration escape but I quickly wipe them away, no one needs to see me like this.
It's not until I'm setting up does anyone notice me.
"Aria what in hell happened to you?" Andrews long stride allows him to cross over to me fairly quickly "you're soaking wet." He touches my cheek with the back of his hand "and freezing too." He shrugs off his flannel and wraps it around my shoulders.
"Andrew no-"
"No, you're freezing Aria. End of story. You're a mess, have you been crying your eyes are red." Concern was written across his face.
"I'm fine it just started pouring. You have to go finish getting ready and I have to set up. I'm fine I'll talk to you later." I turn around to get back to work but am picked up. "Andrew let me down!"
"Nope. You're not working you're sitting backstage with a warm drink and then after we will take care of whatever happened, you're not telling me the full story. I can tell so don't try and lie to me, you're a terrible lier."
"Fine but I can walk." I huff and he sets me down only to pick up my gear. "I can carry that."
"I know." He responds and walks backstage.
••••WHOO over a thousand words for this chapter. ••••
