Mindblown

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Kirstie paces the front of the KO building, the building is off a main road so there isn't much foot traffic, she is glad of that.
     Avi is inside having a semi-formal meeting with Kevin about his next album, so now is the perfect time, but this still has to happen outside.
     Her and Avi are okay again and she doesn't want to mess it up, his seeing this meeting could very well mess it up.
     She takes a deep breath as the perfectly clean, dark red sedan pulls into the carpark, she recognises it because that's the car Avi took her on their second date in, because his was being de-vomited. That's Esther's car and the poised woman steps out looking immaculate in her business attire as always.
     Kirstie waves but Esther doesn't wave back, Kirstie sheepishly hides her hand. "Hi."
     Esther doesn't bother with pleasantries as she steps up beside the blonde. "I got in contact with Twitter while Instagram still hasn't gotten back to me. But apparently there's nothing they can do."
     Kirstie's eyes roll, "How? I-"
     "Because it's verified, as far as they know it's Avi running the account."
     "But it's not," Kirstie whines.
     "No, it's not, but the account is producing new material, the only other source is Avi's verified Instagram," she folds her arms.
     "Who is doing this?" Kirstie tucks her hair behind her ears.
     Esther slowly shakes her head. "I have to assume it was someone who was on tour with him, that's what most of the pictures look like. Who was around when you got to the venue last week?"
     "His band," she shrugs, "Probably a couple of venue crewman, since most of Avi's band do their own lifting. And his new-" She stops herself short.
     Esther's eyebrows shoot up, "Who?"
     "No, I don't think anyone else was there." Kirstie doesn't want to mention Brad because she doesn't know how sore Esther could be about Avi's new manager.
     "You're sure?"
     "Yeah, well, kind of. I'll be honest like I wasn't paying all that much attention to anyone other than Avi seeing as I missed him so much and I was very happy to see him."
     "Okay then," Esther nods. "What about Brad, was he there?"
     "Who?" Kirstie replies far too quickly.
     Esther rolls her eyes, "Okay, real quickly I ought to let you know that I know that Avi has hired a new manager."
     Kirstie reels back, "How?"
     "I talk to Kevin. Brad was just tour manager now he's dropped the 'tour' in his title. It's no big deal."
     "Really?" Kirstie is a little surprised to hear Esther say that.
     "Really, because Brad's an idiot and Avi will come back to me in no time."
     "You know Esther, I'm not so sure about that. You've really upset him."
     Esther looks down.
     "But I upset him the other day too, and for like twelve hours I thought we were broken up. But we're fine now, so anything's possible, and I'm trying to get him to take your calls but he won't, so: sorry," Kirstie shrugs.
     "Him and I aren't talking because I don't like you, and yet you're trying to help me. Why?"
     "Because we both really care about him, we both have his best interests at heart and I'm gonna prove you wrong about me," she speaks confidently. "Not to mention I don't want him to lose contact with another sibling, he still seems so cut up about Josh."
     "So he's told you about Josh then?" Esther folds her arms, having seemingly ignored the first part of what Kirstie said.
     "Kind of."
     "Kind of? Either he has or he hasn't," Esther is trying to remain calm, usually any mention of her older brother would set her off.
     "Yeah: kind of , Avi told me months ago that he bought the restaurant of him before he disappeared. And then the other day I found out that Josh was a drug addict, but I don't think Avi was ever planning on telling me that part, it just came up, so yeah: kind of," she speaks quickly.
     "How the hell does that just come up?" Esther scoffs.
     "Because I may or may not have tried a couple of those serious drugs in the past," she goes red in the face with embarrassment as she waits and waits for Esther's response, feeling like a child being scrutinised.
     She focuses clearly on Kirstie, "I knew you were bad news."
     "No I'm not! This is not your place to say anything, Avi and I have sorted it out," she sticks her hands up defensively and tries to be assertive and stand as tall as she can but not be intimidating or defensive. The last thing she needs is for Esther to eat her alive right now.
     "Do you actually know what Josh did to Avi? Or did he just tell you that Josh was an addict and he ran away?"
     "Avi said he tried to help Josh, that he did everything he could to help him until he disappeared."
     Esther nods slowly, her mouth closed as her tongue traces her teeth in thought. "Have you wondered why Avi doesn't own a house, he's made enough money, yet he was renting with me."
     "Well I don't actually know how much his music makes, and he owns the restaurant and the nice car and the motorbike," Kirstie lists.
     "There would have been enough for a house because he never would have bought the restaurant if Josh weren't such a drop-kick," Esther snaps and regrets its, at least a little because the full force of anger is on Josh, not Kirstie.
     "But he loves the restaurant," Kirstie points out.
    "Yeah he does," Esther agrees. "And he loved it when it was Josh's, and Josh knew that. The place was doing well but he told us otherwise because he was using all his profits to support the habit, so it became the truth. I helped out a little bit, Avi helped out a little bit, Avi helped out a lot, we footed the bills he couldn't pay for because he was spending every penny on drugs. We found out, I withdrew immediately. Avi kept giving him money, still payed for his food deliveries and any supplies he needed, because as he put it: Josh still needs those things to run his business. But Josh wouldn't let me near his finances, and I'm good at that shit. Eventually I guilted Josh into going to rehab, I told him how upset Mom and Dad and Avi were, how much Avi was really doing to help him out. While he was there we went to visit twice, Avi went a third time on his own because I didn't want to go, I still feel guilty it. Josh talked Avi into buying the restaurant off of him, then there's less temptation for him and bullshit like that," Esther stops a moment, jaw clenched. "Avi being Avi, being nice and kind and stupid, he bought it. Josh checked himself out of rehab as soon as the papers were signed and the money was in his account and stuck Avi with almost two million dollar debt on that shithole restaurant."
     Kirstie shifts her weight from one foot to the other, "That's really bad."
     "No shit," Esther scoffs.
     "And not to undermine anything, cause that's a lot of money, I get that, but it's a lot for a normal person, Avi would make that in no time, his music-"
     "I'm gonna stop you there you air-headed princess. You're about to say his music makes a lot of money, because that's what you assume because your meaningless bouncy bops make you more money than you deserve, Esther's hands went to her hips, her eyes were slightly narrowing. "Do you remember the conversation from a few months ago? The one where you were super proud of your forty percent profits and you found out that Avi got seventy percent of his so you threw a bitch fit?" She waits a moment but not long enough for Kirstie to reply. "Of course you do, you refused to do anything until they gave you more. You're at fifty percent now right?" Again she doesn't give her time to respond. "And you'll get more when you're officially writing your own songs. Kevin mentioned though that you still make more than Avi even though you don't get as big of a percentage, but you were too busy running your pumped up lips about how unfair it was even though you know you don't do as much work as my brother. But right now, the point I'm trying to make is that with your next album and inevitable upcoming tour, with only fifty percent of your profits, you are very likely to make more money than Avi has in his entire career."
     Kirstie is at a loss for words, she knows she makes more money than Avi, but she didn't think it was that much more. And she feels bad for Avi because he deserves to get more than that. But all she can really focus in on is how many insults Esther had laced into her rants, calling her stupid and fake to name a couple. She can't believe she's trying to help this woman, maybe Avi is right, maybe Esther is better left cut out of Avi's life. So that is exactly what is going to happen, Kirstie can solve this social media thing herself.

A/N: I know I wrote it, but I'm lowkey proud of Kirstin's last thought XD XD

What do you think of what Esther said and what Josh has done?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please vote and comment, it makes my day :)

Hannah.