Rose is a runaway. She ran away when she was 13, joing a group home in hopes to be taken anywhere but her parents house. It hasn't happened yet. No one wishes to take care of a 16 year old. At least, that's what she thought, until she saw Taylor Swi...
I woke up, tired from the night before. I had stayed in the dressing room after my... incident, so I didn't sing, but dancing the anxiety away with Ms. Andrea helped. But I hadn't opened my phone, even after I got the messages from him.
Okay, yeah, I was looking for him, but he... knew of me? How did he know about me, but I didn't know him? I picked up my phone to check the time and saw that his messages still hadn't left my notification center. I sighed. It was too early for this.
I went to the bathroom, did my morning routine, and then to the kitchen for breakfast. I was just putting the coffee pot down when Colin and Taylor walked in, sitting down. "Well, this is a nice awakening." They all nodded their heads in acknowledgement. Then Tree walked in, already business-dressed. Does she just sleep in that?
"Morning. Let's talk," Tree said, putting a seat right next to me and making me sit in it. She was always forward like this. I secretly loved it.
"Morning to you, too, Tree. Can I at least get coffee?" I asked, groaning as she patted my back and shook her head.
"Nope." A deep breath, as Taylor reassured Tree with a nod. "Okay. Taylor and I were talking. We're willing to bring your brother over. But only if you want." I nodded instantly. Funny, coming from the girl who couldn't even text him back.
"Are you completely sure you want to meet him?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah."
"I can start the paperwork, but I don't want you to act off of... whatever happened last night," Tree said. A beat. I hadn't told them I had found him already.
"Um, yeah. I wanna be with my brother," I told them. Tree sighed and nodded. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, not at all," Tree told me, patting my back. "I just have a very busy day ahead of me. Not your fault." I nodded, and Tree pointed at my boiling kettle. "Go drink your coffee."
~~~
After scrambling to find my phone, I realized I hadn't texted him. I left it at that, waiting until we were in the air for it. We were on the jet back to New York when I finally opened it. "Hey, sissy." I typed multiple responses, deleting one after another after they looked wrong every time. I settled on being forward.
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He was on within 30 seconds of me sending that. Saw it. Typing. I put my phone down, like a girl after texting her crush that she liked him. I focused on the card game in front of me. Rummy 500. Colin was pensive across from me. I looked at my hand. I needed one more card to finish my hand off, and I think Colin knew that, because after deliberating for a while, he threw a card that I couldn't use. I drew and discarded, then checked my phone. 5 more texts.
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He was already in the chat when I sent that, so I put my phone down, trying not to look anxious. Taylor moved from her seat and sat next to me, eyeing the game. I almost hid my phone, but it would come out to light sooner or later.
"You found him already?" Dang, that was fast. I nodded. I showed her what we had sent each other so far, including a text I hadn't seen yet. "That's good." I looked at the texts now.
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I sighed. We were very similar, thanks to our parents. I decided to leave that on read and try to text Harley. She still hadn't gotten back to me since last night. I was concerned, so I texted. All this was very weird. I decided it wasn't healthy to dwell on all this for too much, so I picked a playlist and put my phone down for the rest of the trip. We had a little less than an hour left. Colin was waiting for me to play, and Taylor was watching, trying to figure out the game. I drew, discarded, and the time finally came. Colin played my card.
"HA!" I said, a little too loudly, because everyone was looking at me now. "Sorry!" I said, giggling, embarrassedly. I counted my points, wrote them down. I decided to try and teach Taylor how to play, but she was looking at her phone now, a face of surprise? Hurt? I couldn't tell, but she walked away and back to where she was. I assumed it didn't have to do with me, so I just dealt the next hand.
