After Forever & Ever

Chapter 78

Tessa-Present

Ughhhh why did I drink so much last night. I feel awful.

"Hardin can you get me some ibuprofen?" I ask him.

"Sure babe." He replies and walks out of the room.

I turn his phone over to see if I can quickly read why it keeps going off.

'We need you back in the studio tomorrow.' One message says.

Then another 'you and Bray together are magic'

I turn it back over because I hear him coming in.

"Here you go...I brought some water too." He says handing me the medicine.

I play dumb... "so when are you thinking about going back to LA next?" I ask him.

"I'm not." He replies almost instantly.

"What do you mean you aren't?" I quickly question.

"I am probably going to get fired before I even really started but I am not going to do the album with Her." He tells me.

"What....why?" I reply shocked.

"It's not what I want to do....and it wouldn't be good for us." He tells me.

"You can't give that up for me." I tell him.

"It's not....well it partly is. But it's for me too....."he says then...

He pauses...

"Can I be honest with you?..." he asks.

"I would hope so..." I reply nervous for what he is going to tell me.

He pauses and goes into his bag he took with him to California. Then pulls out a smaller bag and dumps it onto the bed.

It's his medication I pick up the bottles and they're full.

"I haven't been taking anything. I'm scared to. I'm scared not to. Sometimes I feel like I don't need it. Sometimes I feel like I do. I lied to you before and I told you I was taking it and I'm sorry." He tells me.

I want to be mad but I get why he would keep that from me. I know he wants to be fine and be fine without it. And maybe he could be but it is too soon we just don't know.

"It's okay." I reply grabbing his hand.

"I'm okay with whatever decision you make but please don't base it off me....I'll be fine." I tell him.

"Thanks Tess....I was going to take my meds and so if I am really off can you please tell me. I don't want to be a fucking zombie." He says to me.

"Yes babe. You'll be fine." I try to assure him. Even though I guess I really don't know.

I watch him take his meds then he goes and lays down.

"Tired still?" I ask.

"Are you cool with me shutting my eyes for a quick half hour?" He asks me.

"Yea it's fine...get some rest." I tell him.

I go into the kitchen to fix myself a smoothie to hopefully start feeling better.

As I sit down and start scrolling social media. I follow the label and they posted the song and it already has 150,000 streams....

'This song is heartbreaking I hope they get back together' one comment reads.

'He is so fucking gorgeous' another comment reads.

'I ship them' another comment.

I mean they just keep going....