Come Back

Part 7

"I think you've had enough, darling." Not exactly sober herself, Christine lay her hand on Stevie's shoulder, who was trying to pour some more brandy into her glass. "Come on, I'll get you home."

"No!" Stevie shook her head, shrugging Christine's hand off. "Just leave me alone, Chris."

"Well, I can't do that, now, can I?" The older blonde of the two sighed. She looked across the room and locked eyes with Lindsey, he immediately looked away. Turning her attention back on Stevie, Chris asked. "Hey, will you be alright for a minute by yourself?"

"Yeah, 'course." Stevie nodded, her eyes half closed as she slumped down in an empty chair.

It wasn't very often that Christine was the least intoxicated out of everyone at a party, however, she knew that something had been going on for days. Stevie and Lindsey didn't speak to each other, unless it was absolutely necessary. Lindsey seemed upset and Stevie looked pissed off. Christine just guessed it was going to pass as it usually did, but this time it felt somehow different.

"Talk." Christine stood in front of Lindsey, backing him into a corner. She lit up a cigarette and possibly blew out the smoke more into Lindsey's direction than away from him. "What the fuck's going on?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Lindsey attempted to sound nonchalant. "I'm just tired."

"And as far away from Stevie as possible." Chris pointed out and Lindsey shifted his gaze over to Mick, who was telling some story to a guy from another band, Lindsey didn't know which band it was exactly. "You two had a fight?"

Lindsey shifted his weight from one foot to the other, cocking back his head to suck out the last drop of his beer. He and Christine weren't friends, but they weren't exactly enemies either. Besides, her concern seemed sincere. "We're on a break. I suggested we spend some time separately."

Christine frowned, stubbing out her cigarette, she tossed what was left of it in the first empty glass she noticed. "You're an idiot, Buckingham."

"What? How am I always to blame?" Lindsey scoffed, ready to walk away from the conversation, but Christine grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him back into his previous spot. 

"You're not on a break, Lindsey." Everyone in the room was more or less drunk or high, or both, but Christine lowered her voice anyway. "You broke up."

"No." He shook his head, rolling his eyes. "I told you-"

"Yeah, you did and that's bullshit." She cut him off mid sentence. "I'd get it if you two were middle aged people, living in the suburbs, with no friends. You could spend a bit of time apart and then get back together. This..." Chris showed around the room. "This is not it. You two are gorgeous, sexy, young, talented people. Rock and roll is your life. There's substance abuse, there's a lot of temptation. You might try and fool yourself that you're taking a break, but you're not together now, Lindsey. Have you agreed to stay faithful to each other? If you were to begin with. Have you set some boundaries?"

"I-we haven't... I just... I left." Lindsey gulped. "No. No, Christine, I disagree. Stevie knows this isn't permanent. There's just been a lot going on lately, we do everything together. We simply need a bit of time to-"

"Lindsey." Christine, again, interrupted. "John and I were taking a break as well." She lifted her hand up, where a faint tan line could still be visible from her wedding ring, which was no longer there. She then pointed over to Stevie. "She's a mess. She's angry and she misses you. She'll take any affection she can get. Trust me."

Lindsey grabbed the nearest alcoholic beverage to him and took a big gulp of it, then another one. Christine was just thinking out loud, surely she couldn't be right. Stevie wouldn't do anything behind his back, she wouldn't. Or would she, Lindsey thought and his body went numb, when he saw her slide into Mick Fleetwood's lap.