Author:rulersmakebadlovers
Then:1997
For most people.....well, most normal people, 1997 was just another year. For you, it was the year your whole world had fallen apart. Some days it seems like it was mere moments ago, and other times it seems like a completely different lifetime.
You were with him when he got the news, of course. 1997 happened to be an "on" year for the two of you. That was, until his girlfriend, Kristen, had called to let him know they would be expecting their first child together. You remember saying congratulations and trying to smile when you hugged him, but you quickly let yourself fall into the background of the group until it was safe to run away.
Run, you did; right down to the women's restroom and into a stall where you hunched over and emptied the contents of your stomach as if your soul were trying to escape your body because that's how badly it hurt.
Chris was the one who found you, of course. The guys were probably passing out cigars and getting drunk.
You vaguely remember being startled when Chris knocked on the door, "Stevie? Are you alright in there, love?"
You flushed the toilet and pulled yourself off the floor and opened the door. You must have looked a little worse for wear, judging by the way Chris was staring at you.
Nothing needed to be said as she held her arms out for you and you went straight into them and cried for what seemed like hours on the bathroom floor. Eventually you fell asleep and you remember Mick scooping you up gently and taking you back to your hotel room.
He laid you gently on the bed and you have foggy memories of Chris and Mick discussing how under no circumstance was Lindsey allowed to see you tonight....or maybe for a while outside of rehearsals and shows.
You let them chatter over you as you fell asleep and you slept well into the next day before you were awakened by room service. You had asked them to come back later and looked down to realize you were wearing the same clothes as the previous day. Then it all came back to you and once you began sobbing you couldn't stop.
Before long you were on the floor with your knees cradled against your chest and your sobs had turned into soft little whimpers because it was all you had the energy left in your body for.
Sometime around two or three in the afternoon (you truly had no idea. You hadn't even opened the curtains that day), you could hear the argument going on outside the door. Two of them with strong English accents and then...him. That confrontation you can remember quite well to this day.
"You just need to stay away from her, Lindsey," Mick's voice came booming through the door and you remember having to take a step back before you leaned your ear against it again to wait for Lindsey's response.
"I can't just....leave her. I need to talk to her. I...we had been...kind of seeing each other again, when I got the call from Kristen." He stuttered and you looked out the peephole in the hotel door to watch him take a step back from Mick.
