Toxic Secrets

Chapter 13- Picket White Fence

I wake up the next day to MJs on her phone with her instagram reels on full blast. Sometimes I want to choke her out. Deanna texted me telling us we had the day to ourselves and be back to the hotel by 10 pm since our bus leaves at 10:45 pm.

After a quick shower, I put on a simple pair of leggings and a cute grey A-Vam hoodie. Lottie helped design the merch for the tour. I walk to Levi's room and knock on the door. He opens the door with a large smile. "Hi baby. How are you?"

I just give him a huge hug. "What the plan for today, Levi?" I ask him. "I just planned on staying at the hotel and maybe going out later with Mitch. Yes yes Lottie too." Levi says chuckling. He's so attractive.

The way his voice is so deep. The way his teeth are slightly crooked. The way he has callouses all over his hands. The way he's beyond gentle with me. He's perfect.

"Let's play a game. It's like 21 questions and you have to answer." Levi says.

"I go first. What's your favorite sport?"

"Hockey. I played in 8th grade until my senior year. What about you?"

I never knew he played hockey. "No way you played hockey! I did cheer, dance, basketball and tennis. My siblings and I all played tennis we were unstoppable. Our grandma played tennis in the Netherlands before coming to the US."

" What's your favorite memory with a band mate?" He asks me.

I know the perfect story. "My favorite story with MJ was when we were 15, we snuck out of her house. Her mom found us in the backyard with some boys and chewed us up. She found out that I had a blunt and she was even more mad. Needless to say, I wasn't allowed over at MJs house for a hot second. Now everything's good between us, obviously."

Levi was dying laughing. "You were a bad teenager holy moly. My favorite memory is with Mitch. Him and I decided to take his moms car without her permission when she was out of town. Let's just say, his mom found out and we got into so much trouble but man driving around in that sports car convertible."

This game went on for hours. I think I had rock hard abs after from laughing so hard. "Baby, tell me about your siblings." Levi says.
I think about the best way to explain each before speaking.

"Well, Carson, he's the oldest and he's dad favorite. He's super smart and he works for NASA. Daniel is second oldest and he's like my best friend. Until we had our fight but now we are okay and he works for a biomedical company. My little sister Beth, she's 16 and drama. She wants to be a teacher. Lastly Emma, she's 14 and boy crazy. I love her to pieces though . Now it's your turn, Leaves."

He nods and begins. "I'm the oldest. I have 3 sisters. I have a sister Melody, she's 20. She's a pain in my ass. Next is Nicole, she's 17 and so smart. My baby sister is Olivia and she's the light of my life. She saved us and she doesn't even know."

"My parents did drugs for as long as I can remember..." He pauses.

I grab his hand. "You can talk about it, if you want. I'm never one to judge." I say trying to offer him comfort. He ripped his hand away. " I'm fine, you wouldn't understand. Picket white fence."

My mouth flew open. "Picket white fence?? Like what does that even mean?" He gave me a dirty glance. "It means your life is perfect and you had everything growing up. Look at you and your siblings. Perfect." He rises up from the bed as he says this.

I'm holding back as much as I can. "Levi, that's so untrue. It might look like it, but we are far from it. We grew up with barely any money. My mom is a fricken checkout clerk for christ sake. I've been helping pay off their debt."

He rolls his eyes. "Oh, poor little Amelia, grew up soooo poor. Boo hoo, I'm crying for you. At least you had parents, mine cared more about drugs then about their kids. So,sorry Amelia for not having an ounce of sympathy for your pathetic sob story."

Ouch, that was right to the heart. The tears start to well up in my eyes. "Why would you say something like that? I didn't know we were one-uping each other about our fucking trauma! God Levi."

He gets right up into my face. "Get the fuck out of my room now." I scoff. "GLADLY." I grab my phone and leave as fast as I can. As soon as the door slams behind me, the tears start to fall. I go back to the hotel room. The girls and Stella are all still in there.

"Mil, What's going on?" Val asks , rushing over to me. " Levi is such a dick ugh." We all start to laugh. We decide to just have a girls night in. We did face masks and braid each others hair. Even if we are 21 years old, girls nights are still important.

We all talk about anything and everything. before we know it, 10 pm rolls around. I start to clean up the hotel room while the girls pack up the rest of their stuff. We make our way to the lobby and the boys are there waiting for us.

All of them are hugging and kissing each other, but I can't find Levi. "Mitch wheres LJ?" He takes a second before responding. " He's on the next flight to Florida. I'm sorry Millie."

Once we are all on our tour bus, I shoot LJ a text.

Levi❤️

Millie: Can we please talk? It's unfair we left it like that.

Levi: No use, Amelia . Just let it be. We can talk when you get home.❤️

That's it? Whatever he's allowed to feel how he wants. It just hurts.

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Authors note: Don't hate me for this chapter pleaseeee. Love you allllll

Don't forget to vote!!

As always,

Ari<3