It Stays As It Was Left

2015.1993

April 2015

The girls were in Becca's house, flipping through a few notebooks when Stevie looked up at the girls, chewing on her lip.

"Can you turn off the camera for a little bit?" She asked and Becca obliged, sending her friends a worried glance.

"What's up?" Camila asked softly, noticing the notch in the woman's brow.

"I have to tell you guys something," She said. "And I need no judgment from it because I was unsupervised and a little tipsy."

Stevie was still reeling from the conversation she had with Dave a couple of weeks ago but had kept it to herself. She wasn't sure at the time if she wanted her friend's advice, but she was still panicking, especially as their scheduled meetup grew closer.

"I mean," Becca laughed out. "I don't think any of us have any grounds to judge you, so I wouldn't worry."

"You don't know what I'm gonna tell you yet," Stevie said weakly before burying her face in her hands. Becca reached over, rubbing her back with a look of concern.

"What's up?" She asked softly and Stevie shuddered.

"I really messed up," She muttered. "I got a little drunk and called Dave."

"That's it?" Becca laughed. "Hell, I've done worse this week."

"That's not the bad part," Stevie groaned out, looking up at the ceiling. "I lied and told him I wanted to put a song we wrote together on the album."

The girls went quiet until Camila let out a little laugh.

"Well," She said. "At least we have another song to add."

"It's Song for Isabelle," Stevie cut in and Camila's face turned to one of horror.

"Why would you pick that one?" She asked gently and Stevie shook her head.

"It was the first one I could think of," She said, licking away the blood she had chewed from her lip.

"Well," Becca cleared her throat. "That's unfortunate. What did he say?"

"That's the worst part," Stevie groaned out. "He wants to meet up and talk about it."

"Yikes," Jeong-Hui said. "Sounds like a firm no."

"Or a hard yes," Becca said, sending Stevie a wink. Stevie rolled her eyes at her friend's innuendo and fought against the heat building in her cheeks.

"So, when is this meet-up?" Camila asked, standing to grab one of the Cokes from the drink fridge Ashley had personally installed when she moved in.

"Next week," Stevie said meekly. "I wanted to wait until Bubbie went home because if I met up with him while she was still here, she'd know. I don't wanna open up that can of worms."

"How is Ida?" Becca changed the subject, knowing that Stevie didn't wanna talk about it.

"Slowing down," Stevie cringed. "After Marvin died, she's been strugglin' with the little stuff. I'm gonna start flying her out more often."

"Sounds like a good idea," Becca rasped out. "How's her mind?"

"Sharp as ever," Stevie laughed. "Won't stop bothering me about dating."

Becca snorted. "Maybe you should've told her about your little date with Grohl, then."

"It's not a date!" Stevie protested. "In fact, I'm sure that once I get there, he'll just yell at me for even thinking about using that song."

"Oh, please," Becca scoffed out. "In the five years that you two dated I can only think of three times he yelled at you, and half of those were because of me. You had that man wrapped around your pinky. Shit, you probably still do."