My Reality (Fourth in the "Baby Brother series)

4

Andy heard noise in the morning, cursing and stuff being tossed everywhere. He opened his eyes and saw Bill was not still lying beside him. He sat up and saw Bill going through his bag and tossing shit behind him as he searched.

"Bill, is everything okay?"

"No, I can't find my lucky pic anywhere," Bill exasperated.

"What time is rehearsal today?" Andy yawned.

"We're doing it early because they have schedules to keep," Bill sighed. "Fuck where is it?!"

"Check your guitar case," Andy replied, slipping out of bed. "Are you good today? I just want to make sure that you won't exhaust yourself with rehearsal."

"We took two days off because I got sick," Bill groaned. "That is not happening again. I got plenty of rest, I've been eating and I wasn't even going anywhere except the bathroom."

Bill reached into the front pocket of his guitar case and smiled happily. Once he extracted the pic, he shoved it into his pocket. He looked over at Ariel, watching him with trained eyes. Bill noticed that she watched his every move. Ariel hadn't been like that before, Bill thought. Maybe I should consider what everyone's been saying. Bill grabbed Ariel's harness and leash, waiting for Andy to get ready. Once prepared, they met Damon downstairs in the hotel restaurant.

Damon had been on the phone with Tom, who wasn't pleased that Bill didn't at least rest before he went to his first rehearsal but at least his baby brother got 2 days off. He had been trying wrestle clothing onto Billy, who was adamant about running around in nothing but his pull up and socks. Miley somehow kept Maddie distracted from her baby brother's shenanigans by rocking her in the rocking chair and reading her favorite book.

"Give me an update when you can," Tom replied, switching his phone speaker and picking up Billy.

Damon could hear the toddler whine and shout no, laughing to himself at the first time parents experiencing the toddler phase. Tom hung up by accident, Billy's little foot hitting the end call button. Damon looked at the phone and immediately started laughing. Bill and Andy had no clue what was making him laugh, but they enjoyed seeing him happy.

"Hey what's so funny?" Bill asked.

"Oh, Tom and Miley are going through the struggles of being parents and I just had to laugh," Damon smiled.

"The chaos twins at it again," Bill chuckled. "To think Tom thought they would have a rivalry and instead, they joined forces to torment him."

"I saw that coming," Andy stated. "Maddie is older and she knows it, Billy just follows behind her."

"Just like I did with Tom," Bill snorted. "That's definitely his kid."

Andy looked up and a snarl crossed his lips, oh you have got to fucking kidding me!

"Bill! Hey!"

Bill turned to look up at who called him, "Noah, hi!" He chirped back.

"How are you feeling? I wanted to make sure you were okay," Noah asked, taking it upon himself to sit at their table.

"Yeah, no, I'm okay. I just pushed it too much a few days ago. I had the meeting about getting this gig and then I had a zoom call with all those managers, then I went to dinner with Andy and after that we had rehearsal, so I didn't really sleep much," Bill sighed.

Andy looked over at Bill, he didn't mention that their fight definitely triggered it. But he chose not to include that, almost like he was trying to protect Andy. Bill was already embarrassed to know he collapsed in front of Noah, and he didn't want to tell him that his twitches were a sign that something was wrong and they didn't start until Andy left. After their fight. Ariel had been nudging him, but Bill ignored her because he believed after he could talk to Andy he'd be okay, and he saw how that turned out.