Destined to Explode (Adopted by All Time Low)

Chapter 10

The same thing happens the next period and by the end I'm exhausted. Dad helps me up. He leads me back to the bus. "You are exhausted." "Too much talking about myself." He laughs. "Get used to it."

I groan. "Did you ask the girl you were talking with about her bruises?" I nod. "She is out of the house now. I kind of already knew, I had to make a CPS call when I was coaching the running club after seeing things with her stepdad."

"How old is she?" "Nearly 14." I hear Vic. "I want to adopt her." "I'll give you her full name, but she has three younger brothers as well." He nods. "We have 5 extra bedrooms." I look at the time. "I'll bring you into the city to find her."

It's about 6 hours before soundcheck. "Dad, I'll meet you guys in Tacoma. I'll take the train." He nods. I go into the office, leaving Vic outside. "Hello, what could I do for you?" "May I speak to Mr Sunich?" She nods.

I get led to his office. "Hello Rachel, it's nice to see you again. What do you need?" "I know you are not technically supposed to do this, but I wanted to know what orphanage Carlei Winters is at? My uncle wants to adopt her and her brothers."

He looks down. "You are not to tell anyone I gave this to you." I nod. "She's at the Children's Home Society of Washington." I offer him my hand and he writes down the address in Sharpie. "Thank you." "Tell your uncle thank you for me. It is wonderful he is going to adopt the kids and make sure they stay together." I smile. "I will."

I go out to Vic. "Alright, let's go!" I lead him on the train and type the address onto my phone. We arrive in Tacoma and we take an Uber to the orphanage. We go in. "Hello, I would like to adopt." She hands him some papers. "Have you been approved?"

"Yes ma'am." "Okay, what kids do you want to see and/or adopt?" "Carlei Winters and her siblings. Also, Alexis and Taylor Kitt. I just want to adopt them." "Carlei, Tatum, Tyrian, Callum, Alexis, and Taylor?" He nods. I watch her write things down. "Go ahead and sign. I'll go get their records as well as the twins. Carlei, Callum, Alexis, and Taylor should be home from school within half an hour."

I watch Vic sign. She comes back downstairs with the two familiar curly, blonde haired boys. "This is Tatum and Tyrian. The easiest way to tell them apart until you discover their personalities is that Tatum prefers wearing blue and Tyrian prefers green."

I look at them. "Tatum's eyes are blue and Tyrian's are green. They may be nearly identical, but it seems not completely." I see four kids walk in. "Carlei, Callum, Alexis, Taylor, you guys have been adopted." Carlei looks at me. "Really?" I nod. "Carlei, this is Vic Fuentes. He is pretty good friends with my dad, he's in a band as well."

The older kids all disappear, coming back downstairs, they all are holding bags. "Okay, we have about a 6 mile walk ahead of us. Carlei, Callum, can you get your younger brothers' bags so Rachel and I could each carry one of them?" They nod.

I pick up Tyrian. We begin walking. Callum begins talking. "So Mr Fuentes, what do you do for work?" "Callum, you can just call me Vic or Dad/Papa when you are comfortable. I'm in a band. We're from Southern California."

Carlei smiles. "I love California. It's where we all grew up. We moved up here about 3 years ago." I listen to them talk. "Could you guys sing something for us?" We nod. "Hold On Till May, like I did acoustic with Jenna?"

I hear Carlei. "Jenna, Jenna McDougall. One of your celebrity crushes?" I blush. "She was. I don't really have a celebrity crush anymore. I do have a crush on a celebrity, but it's no longer a celebrity crush."

"Are they one of the people you told me about?" "Yes." "The guy I agreed is hot? Black hair, pale skin, blue eyes." I smile and nod. "Johnnie Guilbert." She smiles. Vic counts off and we begin singing Hold On Till May together.

"Vic, where are we going?" "To the Tacoma Dome. We are watching the rest of Rachel's shows before going home." "Okay." We eventually arrive at the Tacoma Dome. The busses are already here.

I set down Tyrian and hold his hand. He walks with me into the venue. I'm so much taller than him, the height difference is incredibly obvious. I see Danielle and she smiles. "Kids, this is Danielle, my wife."

"Vic, I should've expected one day you would show up with 6 kids." They all begin talking after introductions and I see Alexis in her normal bubble of what I presume is depression. "Lexi, I want to talk to you alone." She looks confused but nods.

I bring her to an area we are all alone. "Lexi, I've noticed from even back at running club that you show signs of depression. You're not alone. There is at least 12 people in this group that have been diagnosed with depression or manic-depression in two of our cases. I know it's hard to try to convince yourself to get help, but I want you to before you end up like me."

"It's a little late for that." She pulls up her sleeves, revealing arms scattered in red light cuts. Thankfully, none of them are deep. "C'mon, I'm going to clean them up and then I'll give you a new sweatshirt to wear. I do need to tell your dad though, so you can get the proper help." She nods.

I clean up her arms and then buy her a hoodie. I put it on her. I look at the time. There is still about 3 hours until soundcheck. I tap Vic's shoulder. "I'm heading out. I need you to cover me for soundcheck. I'll be back by 6:30." I head out to the mall. I buy four phones, as well as gifts for everyone. I get back at about 6:00.

"I hold gifts for everyone!" Everyone surrounds me. I hand the purple phone and dragon plushie to Carlei, the pale blue phone and other dragon plushie to Lexi, the red phone and cat plushie to Taylor, the silver phone and dog plushie to Callum, and the rest of the gifts to everyone else.

"I'll help you guys set up the phones." The others leave. I place my wide variety of phone case in front of me. "Go ahead and each choose one." I prepare each of their phones, setting them up with everyone's numbers, screen protectors, and cases. I also put $50 iTunes cards on each of their phones and connect them each to my family Spotify account.

We go back to everyone else. "Vic, I need to talk to you with Alexis." We go into another room. "Lexi, can you show him?" She quietly rolls up her sleeves. "Honey, I'm going to bring you to therapy. I want you to try and stop. It's addictive so it will be difficult, but I want you to try." She nods.

"Lexi, first of all, are you okay with that nickname?" She nods. "Have you ever thought about killing yourself?" She freezes before slowly nodding. "You're not alone. I do want to get you help and you'll be under careful watch though, okay?" She nods.

I leave the room and I perform. I feel really bad when I finish though. I don't know what happened, I haven't felt this bad since I began the medication. I go into the bathroom and sit with a bottle of my pills in my hands. I empty them into my hand and am about to swallow it when I realize what I'm going to do.

I drop them and back against the wall. I call Dad. "Hey honey, what's up?" "I-I-I n-need y-y-you." "Okay, where are you?" "The bathroom. I'm alone in here." The door opens a moment later and he hangs up.

He runs over to me. "Did you swallow any of them?" I shake my head. "I-I-I'm s-sorry." "C'mon, I need to take you somewhere where I can watch you. You have to stay under an adult's sight at all times."

He picks me up and carries me to the dressing room. I hear Vic. "What happened?" "Not right now. She'll be fine, there is too many kids in here though." The room gets quieter. "Rachel, Vic, Jack, Kellin, Pete, Patrick, and Andy are in here right now. Are you fine with all of them knowing?" I shrug and bury myself closer to him.

"She called me in an obvious panic. I got to the bathroom and her whole bottle of anxiety pills were scattering the floor. She was about to take them all." I hear Pete. "Alex, the safest option would be to check her into the hospital for a few days on suicide watch." I shake my head quickly.

"Please don't leave me." I hear Dad again. "I'm going to keep her on suicide watch pretty much for the rest of the tour at the very least. She's not allowed to be alone, I think she understands that though." I nod.

I hear Gerard. "What happened?" "She almost just attempted, she probably would've succeeded as well." My eyes are beginning to get heavy before, soon enough, I fall asleep.