I Hate California

thirty seven

When I woke up, I was in Grandma and Grandpa's bed. I rubbed my eyes, tired from the loud noises coming from Mommy and Daddy's room next door to us. Grandma turned on the T.V. for me to watch some cartoons so she could get me some breakfast. I sat in Grandpa's lap as he detangled my very tangled hair. It hurt, but I could tell that he was trying his very best.

"Sage honey, do you want cheerios or rice krispies?" Grandma asked me as she walked back into the room.

"Cheerios please" I responded, my eyes not leaving the screen.

After a while, we heard more movement in the living room of the suite and that caught my attention. I climbed out of Grandpa's lap and was met with Grandma in the kitchen as she put my spoon into the bowl of cereal. I saw Mommy and Daddy walking out of their bedroom. Mommy looked really rough.

"Good morning, my baby" Mommy said pulling me into a hug as she kissed the side of my head. I wiggled out of her embrace and sat down at the table where my cereal was.

As I ate my cereal, Mommy and Daddy got themselves all breakfast along with Grandma and Grandpa. We were all seated around the table and I listened to their small conversations, not really understanding what they were talking about, not like I cared for it.

"How'd my princess sleep?" Daddy asks me, tucking my hair behind my ear. I glared at him, shoving his arm away. I was mad at both of them for not being able to have a quiet night time sleep. Night time is supposed to be quiet and what ever they were doing was not quiet.

"Bad" I grumbled on my cereal. Grandma laughed and shook her head, looking down at the table.

"What happened baby?" Mommy asked me, rubbing my arm. I glared at her as well, it was mostly Mommy that was noisy.

"You two are so loud at night and I did not have a good sleep!" I exclaimed. Mommy and Daddy's face turned red as they both went silent. Grandpa chuckled to himself quietly and I waited for Mommy to respond to me.

Mommy tightened her robe around her and Daddy stared at her, while his eyes never left his plate. I continued to eat my cereal in silence, staring into space. They told me that I wasn't going to be at tonight's show and I was fine with that, last night's show pooped me out!

"Baby, you gonna be good for your Grandma tonight?" Mommy asked as her, Daddy, and Grandpa were getting ready to leave. I nodded my head and went back to coloring. Grandma had bought me a brand new Bluey coloring book and new crayons.

Mommy and Daddy gave me one last kiss and before they headed out the door, I saw Mommy looking back at me and flashed me a smile.

-

"I hate leaving her" I told Joe as we got into the car, heading to the stadium. Tomorrow, she would have the choice if she wanted to come to that show and then we would have awhile to ourselves until the next time I perform a set of nights here again.

"She's going to be okay, she's getting older if you couldn't tell and didn't run after us" Joe tells me and it made me realize that this is probably the first time she didn't insist on coming along.

When we arrived at the stadium my phone started to ring in my pocket. When I looked at the number, it was my doctor. Shocked because it was late at night in America, but I did tell him to contact me as soon as they got the results. Everything froze and I stopped in my tracks as we were walking to the dressing room.

"What's wrong?" Joe asks and I shook my head and answered the phone as we entered the room.

"Hi, is this Ms. Swift?" He says as I answer the call.

"Yes, this is she" I replied, staring at Joe. We were the only two in the room for now as the others were wandering around the stadium and were also waiting on people to arrive.