Gone Forever (Adam Gontier #2)

Chapter 11

Jason's POV

"What?" I ask, gripping onto the arm of the padded seating against the wall of the bus, a thick-panelled window above. The condensation steaming up the blurred glass sticks to my hair as I lean my head against it, dampening the strands. "What are you on about?"

"I want to try to give him another chance," Lara repeats. "I mean, yeah. He messed up. He put himself, me, Rhia, everyone, in danger. He nearly killed himself, for God's sake. But he's her dad. No matter how much he messes up, he is always going to be her father. It doesn't matter how well he does at that. I want to believe that he's going to do amazing. But either way, he is still her father, Jase, and he deserves to have a role in her life. I want to give him one last chance. If he messes up this time he's still gonna be able to see her but he won't be free at it. Supervised visits and all that shit."

"I get your reasoning, El," I reply to her, glancing up at her before turning and looking at her ex, holding Rhia above his head and singing some sort of stupid rhyming song. "But I just don't see how you can trust him."

"Because he's Adam," she says, smiling at Rhia's giggle. "He's the most trustworthy person I know. Other than you, obviously."

I grin and nod. "Okay, but if he so much as pulls one of her hairs out, I kill him. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Deal," she smiles, holding out her hand to shake. We both look up at the other guys, talking incoherently about some sort of wood they want to make guitar fret-boards out of. Normally, I'd go over and join in, but not right now. I cover it up and I never let anyone know but I get horrendous anxiety. This is a massive change. I'm going away, leaving Alyssa and Greg and everyone, I'm not quite sure how long for, and I'm only here to watch over Lara and her bloody ex swooning all over each other.

"Can you make sure Rhia's okay? I need to talk to Adam," she says, and I flinch at the mention of his name, but nod uncertainly, pushing myself up to a standing position and moving over to Rhia as Lara pulls Adam out of the room and closes the door behind her.

"Hey, Rhi!" I say to her, squatting down and holding my arms out to her as she runs into them, squealing as if I'd given her candy. "What are you doing with the guys?"

"On a normal one it's six and it goes E, A, D, G, B, and little E. And you can make it sound different if you twist them," she tells me, pointing at the guitar lying on the floor and touching each of the strings in turn as she names them. Then she runs over to the model drum-kit that is sat on a nearby coffee table, lifting it and carrying it over to me. "And on a normal one of this it's got five and the metal thingies. And it is," she says, placing the model on the ground between us and pointing to each other the paper barrels, one after the other. "A fish one cuz it sounds like a type of fish. Bass. Then it's a baby and a middle and the floor one. Then this one here is the one that sounds like the meanie teacher from Harry Potter. Snare. And then the metal things are called hi-hat, ride, and two crashes. These two pressy things are pedals and then this is the queen chair."

She looks up at Neil, who nods at her. "Perfect. Well done, Rhia, you're a natural academic," he says clearly, smiling at me. "We've been teaching her names of things since she can grasp names pretty easily. She's learnt the strings on a guitar and the parts of a drum-kit, and next we're learning the parts of a guitar. Like the tuning pegs and the fret-board. Those are the only ones I know, Barry's teaching her that bit."

"Well," I say, lifting the model kit and inspecting it. "I think a certain little fairy would look beautiful sat on this queen chair. What do you think?"

"I HID MY FAIRY DRESS IN MY BAG WITHOUT MOMMY KNOWING! I DRESSED IT UP IN MY OTHER DRESS SO SHE THINKS I ONLY BROUGHT ONE BUT ITS TWO FOLDED UP IN EACH OTHER!"