Sing For Me

Chapter Twelve: The Neistat Twins

I stare at Tim like he's just grown a second nose.

"Get out of here?" I snort. "What takes your fancy? Dinner, perhaps a show if we can squeeze it in before your next three-minute thirty-second lesson in public gyration?"

Tim raises an eyebrow and side-eyes me like I'm the one who's losing my mind. He goes to speak, but I cut him off with an overexaggerated gasp. "Don't tell me you've got us tickets to see Hamilton!"

He grabs my hand and pulls me into the corporate box, away from the cameras. Red follows closely behind us. "Err, no. I was thinking I could accompany you to the hospital to make sure your friend's okay."

Okay, yeah. Because a member of Babel escorting me to the hospital mid-concert makes so much more sense.

Red hacks out a barking laugh. "Like hell you will! You've still got a show to do, in case you've forgotten that after your little performance out there."

I see a muscle in Tim's jaw twitch. He turns from me to Red. "Come on, Red. You know you could spin this into something newsworthy. Babel Star Races to Urgent Care for Fan in Need. Find an angle. Make it work."

"Abso-fucking-lutely not, Eric." As Red emphasizes Tim's stage name, Tim winces. His hands ball into fists, but he otherwise ignores her, turning to me again.

"Yes or no, Meg? With a police escort, we can be there in five minutes – I already checked with Wayne, they have a car waiting outside."

Red's eyes are about to bug out of her head. "Now hold on one hot-damned second, Mister–"

"–Yes." I interrupt her. My stomach squirms. Because bad Hamilton jokes aside, right now there's nothing more important than getting to my friend. And if that means accepting a baby-faced Babel escort? So be it.

Tim grabs my hand again. I'm starting to think maybe he has a thing for my nervous, sweaty palms – either way, he's definitely not averse to the sharing of body fluids. I note that little nugget of information away to dramatically narrate to Abbey later. Tim nods once, definitively. "Okay, let's go."

Red splutters. Her healthy rosy glow turns crimson. "Tim, be reasonable." She softens a little but then puffs herself up again to full plumage. "No. No! This isn't going to happen. You need to be back on that stage in three minutes. There's no way I'm letting you out of–"

But Tim just tugs me in the direction of the door, ignoring her still. He's not even making eye contact with her. And from the look on Red's face, this complete lack of subservience hasn't ever happened to her before.

"Just keep walking," Tim states, dragging me through the winding corridors and back out to the roller door.

When he opens it, Wayne is waiting there, looking at us quizzically.

"Your grand escape vehicle awaits," he ushers to a waiting black sedan, opening the door. "There's a couple of them reporters roaming about, so you'll probably have company."

Tim sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. "Damn. Okay, we'll deal with that when we get there, I guess."

"And if Red comes for my neck–"

Tim slaps Wayne on the arm. "She won't. This is all on me, Dad. Thank you."

"No worries. Anything to make sure the little lady's okay." Wayne shoots me a sympathetic half-smile.

I jump in the back seat of the car and scooch over, Tim right behind me.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Wayne winks as he closes the door. "Crazy Kids."

As we peel out of the alley, we both turn and see Wayne's shoulders slump as Red emerges from the building, her hands wildly gesticulating.

"Shit, I really owe him one this time," Tim mumbles. He turns around and slams his head back into the headrest.

"Okay, wait. Like, hold back one second. Did you just call that big, burly-yet-lovable security guard Dad?" My eyes are open so wide I probably look like an Anime character.

Tim rolls his head toward me. "Well, yeah," he shrugs. "Having him come with us on tour was the only way we'd be able to spend any time with him, and he was going nuts standing around without a job to do."

"So now he stands around with a job to do?"

Tim grinned. "Yeah, pretty much."

I smirked. "Please don't tell me that this means Red is your mom..."

 Tim put a hand to his chest like I'd wounded him, making groaning, heart-attack sounds. "Oh, god, no! She's the worst, isn't she?"

I shrugged. "She has basically zero chill."

"Tell me about it."

Tim sighed and settled back in his seat as the gears turned in my head. Never had I heard anything about Eric and Lachlan's dad being on tour with them - and I lived with a walking, talking Babel Wikipedia. This was the kind of information that Abbey would die for.

My throat constricted.

That Abbey had almost died for. 

Ahead of us, a police car indicated out in front of us and turned its sirens on. Our driver speeds up to tail it. He clears his throat. "Might wanna hold on back there, we'll be there in a jiffy."

I start to relax a little, looking forward to putting as much distance between myself and the horrid stadium as possible.

But before I can get too comfortable, a couple of guys on motorbikes point at our car and swerve into the traffic behind us. Within seconds they're roaring along beside us, simultaneously trying to drive and shoot bright, flashy cameras into the windows.

"Err, what the hell?" I turn to Tim.

"Well, that's one point to Gryffindor." Tim sighs, turning to me. "My dad. He's a Gryffindor. It looks like he was right about us having company."

I'm so surprised and overwhelmed that my eyebrows may as well have knitted in with my hairline. I'm squirming in my seat, thinking about all the horrible ways a situation like this could go wrong. I do not want to go out like Lady Diana.

"Meg, meet the Neistat brothers," Tim states. "One of the many banes of Babel existence, always popping up where you least expect them." Tim rolls down the window and gives them a little wave. One of the Neistat brothers takes the shot, and then peels off, the other following a moment later.

"Great thing about those two is that you give them what they want, and they'll back off. Some of the others aren't quite as considerate." Tim states.

I raise my hands in front of myself. They're shaking. I really don't think I'm the kind of gal that has the constitution for high-speed paparazzi chases.

Tim sighs as he rolls the window back up. "Welcome to my world. Meg. I hope you're ready for it."

~~~A/N~~~
Thank you for reading Sing For Me Chapter Twelve!

What do you think of those Neistat brothers, huh? Sounds like there's a whole world of trouble awaiting Meg...

Wishing you a wonderful day!
Em xx
~~~<3~~~