Lost Innocence

Chapter Thirty Nine

POV Christine 

A few days before the wedding Samantha and I got to New York. Everyone wanted to be moved in and settled before the wedding so that once Emily and John got back from their honeymoon they would be ready to move in hassle free. Luckily, we all moved in fairly close to each other. Even the apartments owned by the members of The Runaways were close by to us. Sherrie moved into Steven's apartment and Sophie moved into David's. Paul and Joe lived in their own apartments and Ryan and Sunshine still lived together with Daniel. Ian had an apartment in the city and Zach owned one with Mary. Emily and John moved into a large apartment and Samantha and I moved into one in the same building. The studio that we would be working at was, to our advantage, right down the street. 
"This is our new home?" Samantha asked as she held my hand. 
"Yes it is."
"I like it Mommy." 
"I do too. Come on, let's move the last of these boxes upstairs and then I'll make us dinner." 
"Yay!" Samantha yelled as she grabbed a few small, and light boxes. I grabbed the last of the boxes and we put them down when we got into our apartment. It was huge. It felt more like a penthouse rather than an apartment. The walls of the bedroom were mostly made of bulletproof glass that overlooked Times Square. I felt like royalty. Samantha looked out the glass window in awe. Samantha and Daniel would be attending a small private school a couple of blocks away from our new home and she was very excited to be finally attending school with her best friend. Samantha walked around the apartment and took in her surroundings as I watched. I couldn't believe she was ten. Ten years have flown by. I walked into the kitchen and began to prepare dinner when Samantha called my name. 
"Mommy, look!" Samantha said pointing to a huge billboard with The Runaways on it. I was very surprised but at the same time I wasn't. They were extremely popular around the world. 

While the pasta cooked, I took the time to call Emily and make sure she was settled. The wedding was in a few days and she was very excited. 
"I love it, it's amazing and I have a good feeling I'm going to settle in quite quickly after the honeymoon." Emily said.
"I can't believe we are living in the same apartment, I think we've been inseparable since we met." I replied. 
Emily laughed at my reply. "We will always be together my love." 
"You and the girls. I'm very blessed to have you all in my life." 
"Please don't stop, keep those compliments coming." Emily said laughing. 
"Don't worry this is probably not the last time you'll hear me compliment you, have you heard from Steven lately, ever since Sophie and David announced their proposal he's been kind of off." I said.
"Haven't heard from him lately, he has been closed off, it's probably hard from him, he's still madly in love with her and I don't think that will ever go away."
I sighed. "I hope Sophie knows what she's doing by deciding to get married to David."
"Yeah, I hope it's not a mistake." 
I looked out the window as I sat down on the couch. Samantha was still glued to the window staring at the billboard that he father was plastered on. 
"Paul is here, he wants to say hello." Emily said as she passed him the phone.
"Hey Christy." Paul said in the voice that I always loved to hear. 
I smiled when I heard the voice of the man I loved. 
"Hey, this is a nice surprise." 
"I'm glad, it's always a pleasure to make you smile." 
"How's Emily apartment, I might come up either later or tomorrow." 
"It's beautiful and very large." 
I smiled as I looked over at the billboard. "Have you looked out the window?" I asked.
"Yeah, the billboard looks pretty awesome. I'm going to go off topic and say I can't wait to walk with you down the isle for Emily's wedding, hopefully one day you're dad will be walking you down the isle and give you away to me." Paul said. 
"That would be a dream come true." I said. 

The next morning I dropped Samantha off at Sunshine's apartment while I went to the new studio I would call my own soon. Emily and I started organizing and making signs for the doors. We came up with a logo and a title for our new company. The rooms were large and had perfect acoustics. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail as I draped a tarp over the room I would use for vocal lessons. Emily and I had gotten there early to make sure we had time to get a lot of stuff done. 
Sophie and Sherrie arrived and were kind enough to help and agree to teach dance lessons. 
"Need help?" Sophie asked as she came dressed in a white t-shirt and overalls. I smiled at laughed softly at her outfit choice. I walked over and hugged her.
"I came dressed for the occasion." Sophie said as she passed me a water bottle. 
I smiled. "I will not refuse help and you have always had a great sense of fashion for any occasion."
"Let's get this room painted, it need some color." Sophie said as we grabbed supplies and started painted. 
While we painted we talked and after an hour we took a water break. Sophie and I ended up having a grand time painting the studio and it was coming along quite nicely. 

POV Sophie

I helped Christine paint her room for vocal lessons and it ended up being a lot of fun. We sat down in the middle of the room while drank water after a whole hour of non-stop painting. Emily had come in with Sherrie to let us know we already had a couple parents that called to get their students lessons. We gained four vocal students that would be with Christine. We had three piano students that would be with Emily. Six hip-hop dancers that would go with me and five acrobatic students that would be with Sherrie. In total we gained eighteen new students thanks to Zach, Ian, and John promoting us. We ordered some lunch in the middle of the day and all ate together. 
"When the boys finish this tour, they'll be working on their fourth album." I said bringing up something to talk about. 
"I am beyond proud of them." Christine said. 
"We should invite Mary, I hear she plays guitar and we could use a guitar teacher." Emily said as she picked up the phone but looked at all of us for approval. We all agreed and she called her. Mary arrived an hour later and hugged us. 
"I'd be happy to offer my guitar skills to the younger generation." Mary said with a smile. 
We talked to Mary about the studio, our name, showed her around and gave her a room of her own for her lessons. I had a feeling this business venture would be very successful. 
"How's Sammy?" Mary asked Christine.
"Good, we got her into the private school that Daniel goes to, they pretty much already knew who she was. The Runaways are very popular." Christine said. 
"I need to ask you girls a question." Mary said as she sat down with us.
"What's up?" Sherrie asked. 
"Zach's girlfriend is back in life and apparently he recently found out he is the father of her ten year old. Should I be worried about him running off?" Mary asked.
"I don't think so, they broke up so long ago and now she's with Joe's brother, I don't think there is need for you to worry." I said.
"I know he still has some feelings for her, that's why I worry." Mary added.
"Zach may still have some feelings for her but he loves you, you two have been together for nine years, I don't think he is going anywhere." I said placing a comforting arm around her. 
We tried to change the subject after that to something much happier. 
"You still writing songs?" Mary asked Christine. Christine smiled. 
"A few." 
"For The Runaways?" Emily asked. Christine looked at us. 
"Some are possibly for them, others I wrote for myself." Christine said passing us one of her songs. It was three part harmony. It had a tenor line, an alto line, and a soprano line. I could imagine Paul, Christine, and Emily singing it. 
"At first I was thinking this would be a cute song for me, Emily and Paul but I actually think it would sound very nice with Sophie, Sherrie, and Steven. Fun fact Sherrie, Sophie, and Steven have very lovely singing voices but they won't admit it." Christine said looking at me and Sherrie. We both looked at each other and smiled while we continued to look over her new music.