Where We Belong

Chapter 21

~~~

Evan's POV—

6 months later...

"Fuck, my head hurts," I groan as I rub my forehead.

"That's rough," Landon just says from next to me. Scrolling around on his phone while we continue to wait for our flight to leave. "Gonna sleep on the way there?"

"Yeah, probably," I tell him as I spot a flight attendant walking by. Grabbing her attention, I ask if I can get a pillow after we take off. She walks off after she promises to get me one.

Landon, Aiden, Daymon, and I are heading to Michigan today.

My dad called me about a week ago asking if I'd be willing to do a photoshoot for Eden Media, saying that Diane really wanted me to be in the next product release. And then saying that, since the photoshoot would be around Thanksgiving, I could do dinner with the family.

Since it's been a while since I last was in Michigan.

Over a year, actually.

Over a year ago, I left Michigan and moved back to California. Within that year, I've worked hard to release a new album, shoot a couple of music videos, had an album release event, and made a few special appearances at local concerts and music festivals, and even managed to sing on national tv.

And on top of all that, we've been working on getting me ready for touring. It'll start in early March on the west coast, ending in the east. There's a lot to prepare for that, especially as it gets closer.

So this'll probably be the only opportunity I can see my family before then.

And then I'll be non-stop busy for a few months.

So, I said yes to doing the photoshoot and Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

Yawning, I lean my head back in my seat, feeling the exhaustion kick in. I was out late last night and nearly slept through my alarm this morning.

But despite being exhausted, I'm restless.

My skin's crawling and I just need this flight to get going already so we can get to Michigan.

'Cause for some reason, the concept of being on an airplane right now is just not working for me. It's making me agitated.

Tired and agitated...a weird combination.

"You good?" Landon asks me as he notices my irritability.

"Yeah," I tell him, even though I'm not entirely sure why I'm irritable right now.

That's been happening on and off lately. Irritability and agitation. Probably side effects of using. Because my 'one-more-time' shit several months ago turned out to not be a one-more-time thing.

I don't like it.

But it's bad.

I relied on it to help me get through a couple more shows and then it just became a whenever-I-need-a-lift thing. Which turned out to be a thing a lot more than I had expected. Or at least that's what I always told—tell—myself.

The partying, getting wasted at said parties, and messing around with women also became a way to pass the time. But it's not nearly as big a habit as this one.

Today, though, I figured I probably shouldn't be as high as a kite while on an airplane, so I ditched it.

And maybe it's because I ditched it, after growing kind of reliant on it, that I'm so irritable.