Oh, Baby! #Wattys2020

Chapter Twenty Three

One minute she was there, the next she and her whole family were gone. Hale didn't even see her leave. And the standing ovation they got barely meant anything to him when he looked down at where she had been standing to find nothing. She was supposed to meet him back stage after the show, so he didn't worry about it until he asked around for Bella. No one had seen her. No one saw her family. Not even the other guys saw her leave the show. And she wasn't answering her phone either.

"Dude, calm down. She probably just had an emergency." Omar tried to reason. But Hale's mind flies into a whirlwind of possibilities. Did Kevin get her? Does she not like him dedicating the song to her?

Did the crowd become too much? He was worried. But there was nothing he could do. He didn't want to seem like a clingy, controlling boyfriend. That wasn't him. So after the second time he got her voicemail, he stopped calling. He begrudgingly cleaned up the dressing room with the guys, took a few photos for Viv and declined their requests for him to join them going out and headed home.

His mind fogged over in a thick blanket of haziness. He tried to push Bella out of his mind by thinking about things to do with the family tomorrow. He figured he would take them all furniture shopping. They loved things like that, shopping in general. And with their move in day coming up, he might as well get that out of the way. Maybe they could all go out for lunch too. He knows his mom has some meetings to go to for the band early in the morning.

But no matter how much he distracted himself by day dreaming about taking care of his family, his mind always jumped back to Bella. He knew deep down what he thought. He thought that maybe she just decided she couldn't handle him being the talk of the media, on his way to topping the charts. And he didn't blame her, he would understand if she decided this was too much. It was almost too much for him to handle, everything was happening all too fast. Just last week he was still part of a small town band. Now all of a sudden, radio stations are playing the songs he wrote.

He didn't think little of Bella. That wasn't why he thought this way. Deep down he feared losing the only beautiful thing he's ever been fixated on. He's never loved before. Never even liked. He's always been so guarded and tonight has just made him realize just how invested he is in Bella. Maybe it was a bad thing, he should take it slow. But what he feels for her is like an avalanche, already buried him in feelings too deeply to hold back down.

When he gets home, Emily is sitting on the couch, watching TV. Hale doesn't spare her a glance, his head too stuffed full of anxiety for him to care enough to glare at her as he kicks off his shoes.

"You're home early." His sister comments, her eyes not moving from the TV screen. Looking at him would only provoke him. If there's one thing the Nathans know how to do, it is hold a grudge.

"You call midnight early?" Hale doesn't have it in him to sound snarky or rude.

Emily glances up at the less hosted repsknse than she expected. "You said early morning hours, so I figured..."

"Yeah, I get it." He mumbles. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he jumps to look. Instead of seeing Bella's name with a little heart that she added next to it, he sees the unknown number.

Unknown

You ruined my life and I'm going to ruin yours, just you wait, Nathan.

A shiver runs down Hale's spine.

"You get messages too?"

👶

She felt as though the air was sucked from her lungs when she turned to face Austin's crystaline blue eyes. She gets sucked into every smile, every fit of laughter and every tear shed because of him and her head spins, the edges of her vision darkening. He caused so much trauma in her life, opened her up in front of a whole school of pretentious pricks who wiped their asses with money, as a small town girl stupidly in love with someone who was far too out of her reach.