Finally Feel Good (Book 2)

Chapter 1 - Here Without You

" A hundred days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
But all the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreaming of your face. "

'Here Without You' - 3 Doors Down

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Emily and Shannon hadn't spoken much after Emily's revelation to him that confusing evening and she had left to fly back to Anchorage first thing the next morning. Shannon had left to go on tour with Thirty Seconds to Mars for a month at the end of that week. He had tried to get in touch with Emily numerous times since she had told him she was pregnant, but every time it would go to voicemail or ring a different number of times before she cut him off and texts to her went unanswered.

He had no idea what was going on. Was it his? Was she OK? Was the baby OK? Was she keeping the baby? And what the hell was he going to tell everyone? So far, he hadn't told a single person, not even Jared let alone his mother, Constance. The only other person who knew was Emma, but he hadn't had the guts to approach her and ask.

It was clear to the others that his mind was elsewhere during the tour. He and Jared had been arguing continuously, so much so that Tommo had threatened to leave the tour and re-join once they'd had a chance to hash out whatever problems they needed to sort out between the two of them. Jared thought Shannon was 'lovesick', which to an extent, he was. He missed Emily a hell of a lot, and it was made doubly hard by her going completely radio silent on him. He had lurked her Instagram but she hadn't updated since she had been staying with him. Hell, he'd even considered reaching out to James for what it was worth.

"Earth to Shannon?" Jared snipped, throwing an orange at him. It hit him on the side of the head and caused Shannon to whip his head around and glare at his brother. "Come on Shan, you're starting to scare the fans away with your dark moods. They've paid to see 30 Seconds to Mars, not 30 Seconds Until Death," he quipped, trying in vain to lighten the mood and make his brother laugh; something that had become very much a rarity in the past few weeks. Not to mention he was worried Shannon would resort back to his old ways again in taking Oxys again to numb the pain.

Shannon didn't reply to Jared, but uncrossed his legs and picked up his drumsticks from where they rested on the coffee table that was backstage in their dressing room for the show they would be playing tonight and muttered something about 'going to the bus to make a call', before walking out.

"I'm worried about him." Tommo finally confessed to Jared.

"You and me both bro. I have no idea what it is, but it's definitely something to do with Emily. I warned him about rushing into things. You saw what he was like after he split up with Cara, he was a mess! Not to mention how his addiction spiralled. I'm terrified of having to go through all that with him again."

"You need to try and talk to him. Maybe on neutral ground. And I mean actually talk to him Jared. Don't nag at him, you know he just clams up when you do that." Tommo told him, looking up briefly from replying to a text from his wife Vicki.

Jared ran a hand through his hair, frustrated and worried. Maybe he could phone Emily himself. Although he didn't have her number and if she wasn't answering Shannon's calls, there was no way she was going answer an unknown number. He looked at his watch. There was 5 hours before they were due to be on stage tonight and performing in front of tens of thousands of fans. He stood up and took out his phone from his back pocket.

"I'll be back in a second. Gonna go make a quick call."

"To your mum?" Tommo looked up at him and smiled.