Just Breathe

Chapter 7.

Dannii signaled to Steve to end the recording. She took off her headphones and took a deep breath. She walked into the mixing room, "What do you think?" she said with a bit of nervousness in her voice. "It's beautiful." Sadie said. "You come up with a name yet?" Jim asked, lighting up a cigarette. "Break in." Dannii simply said. Jim nodded his head with a smile. "Sounds simple enough.

Hours went by and some songs had been recorded. To unwind the girls went to their local bar, drinks were ordered and conversations started. "So how's things going with Courtney?" Suzie asked concerned. "To be honest, when I go home I'm going to try and talk sense into her. And make things works between us, but most of all... not be scared this time."

"It's the right thing to do babe." Sadie said rubbing Lizzy's shoulder. Lizzy was dreading going home. She knew that as soon as she stepped foot into the house that the arguments would start. All the allegations and accusing. And so...that time came. Time went by and the girls had finished their drinks, they all went home. On her way home Lizzy had to sit down on a nearby bench. Her mind was going a mile ahead of her, she knew she had to confront Courtney. Lizzy couldn't go on with the pain. She stood up and continued on her way home. Before she knew it she was in front of her house door, she took a deep breath, took out her key and put it in the lock.

She turned the lock and the door became unlocked. Lizzy opened the door slowly peering into the hall way. She dropped off her bag in the hallway and walked through to the living room hoping to find Courtney. But what she did find were two half empty glasses of red wine of the side table. Lizzy became suspicious but didn't want to jump to conclusion. She wasn't like Courtney, who would judge everything and everyone without an explanation. Why were there two wine glasses unattended? Lizzy thought......then it finally clicked. Her eyes darted upward towards the ceiling. Her mind was telling her to go upstairs. She was cautious. She came out of the living room and back into the hall again, she was now in front of the stairs.

She grabbed a hold of the banister and made her way up the stairs. When she came to her and Courtney's room she didn't want to face the fact of what she thought what was lying behind that door. She took one deep breath and opened the door without hesitation, what she saw made her stomach feel so sick inside.

She gazed with shock at Courtney and some blond woman in bed with each other. They were sleeping, the nameless woman had her arm wrapped around Courtney. "HEY!" Lizzy shouted, getting both of their attention. They awoke, the woman jumped from her position, and wrapped the duvet around her chest covering her breasts. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lizzy stated with a mixture of emotions. "I'm outta here." The woman put on her bra and trousers, grabbed the remainder of her clothes and walked downstairs. "I didn't expect you back so early." Courtney said. "You didn't expect me back so early?" Lizzy questioned. "What difference does it make? You know when I came home tonight I was going to try and make things work between us." Courtney's eyes darted down. The look of guilt totally overcame her. "I would never have done anything like this to you Court." Lizzy stated, her voice becoming weak and tears starting to form under her eyes.

"I loved you. But how the hell can I love you after this?" There was pure silence in the room. "Who is she?" Lizzy asked. "She's no one." Courtney responded, with pure lies lying behind her eyes. "Don't give me that bullshit! Who is she?" Lizzy repeated, the anger was building up inside of her. Courtney had no choice but to tell her the truth. "When you were off touring, I went to a bar one night and met her there. We began talking and by the end of it we exchanged numbers. And so from there we began seeing each other."

"And you didn't even bother to tell her you were in a relationship!?" Lizzy exclaimed. Courtney said nothing. "I want you gone by tomorrow morning, and I never want to see you again." Lizzy said. She made her way downstairs, the woman was gone. Lizzy slumped on the sofa and cried herself to sleep.

The next morning Lizzy awoke to a phone call. She rejected the call and laid her head back down on the couch pillow. She stared at the ceiling, her arms folded and her eye make-up smudged from the night before. She stood from the sofa, last night seemed like a blur she thought. She went into the hallway and waked upstairs, she wanted to make sure that Courtney had left the house. Sure enough she had. She closed the bedroom door behind her and made her way back downstairs, she went straight into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. A few hours passed and there was a knock at the door. Lizzy was a little hesitant at first as she didn't want to see anybody because she felt so humiliated. There was a voice calling through the letterbox "Lizzy, babe you in there?" She decided to answer the door and when she did, Suzie was at the door step. "Hey, what's wrong? Why haven't you been answering your phone?" she asked with concern. Lizzy just turned her back and made her way into the living room. Suzie walked in and closed the door behind her. "What's going on?" she asked as they walked into the kitchen. "Last night I came home and I was going to make things right with Courtney...." Lizzy voice became tight, "yeah..." Suzie replied concerned. "Well...when I came home, she was nowhere to be seen. So I went upstairs and found her in bed with another woman."

There was silence, Suzie let out a sigh...."I'm sorry Hun." Suzie approached Lizzy and hugged her. Lizzy began to break down, tears streamed down her cheeks and her voice was frail and fractured. "I've never felt so betrayed. I feel like such a fool."

"Hey." Suzie said as she took Lizzy by the shoulders "You are so much stronger than this. You're a better person than she'll ever be." Lizzy smiled slightly. "And you're so much better without her." Suzie wiped Lizzy's tears and hugged her once more. Later that night Dannii was talking to Eddie over the phone. They were explaining how much they missed each other and how they couldn't wait to be in each other's arms again. "I wrote a song for you today." Dannii proclaimed smiling on the phone, "Oh, thank you so much. I really didn't expect that. You've defiantly made my night." Eddie replied doing exactly the same thing....smiling on the other end of the phone. "What's it's called?"

"Break in." Dannii replied. "And when do I get to hear it?" Eddie asked, "I'm sure we'll be coming back to Seattle. So then I guess." Eddie thought carefully about the conversation he had with the rest of Pearl Jam, he wasn't sure if he was ready to ask Dannii what was on his mind. But he knew the longer he left it the more difficult it would be to tell her.

Eddie went silent.

"You okay babe?" Dannii asked. Eddie had to tell her.

"I uh...I gotta tell you something." He stated, Dannii was a little concerned she thought maybe he was going to end the relationship or something, but that certainly wasn't the case. That was not in Eddie's nature.

"When I went back home myself and the rest of the guys got to talking. Talking about us."

"Us?" Dannii said, still thinking that the next few words to come out of Eddie's mouth were not the right ones she wanted to hear. "Yeah, we were talking about our relationship, specifically the long distance side of it."

"What about the long distance?" She responded, "I thought we had it all figured out."

"Yeah, we did." Eddie responded. "But...." At this point Dannii's heart began to beat slightly faster than usual. Eddie couldn't contain his words any longer, "Basically what I'm trying to say is I want you to come over to Seattle and live with me."

Dannii's face dropped, but she had mixed feelings. "You want me to live with you?"

"Yes, Dannii I love you so much and I hate the fact that I can't wake up next to you every morning. I get so lonely here in my apartment, it would be nice to have someone around." Dannii did not see this offer coming. She thought her whole life would now have to change. "Eddie I love you too, but I'm just going to have to seriously think about this. I hope you understand."

"Yeah, of course I understand. Take as much time as you need".