Why Wait?

37

I shove the pills into my mouth, not bothering to drink water with them. Today is one of those days. The one where I can't even stand someone giving me as much as a smile.

My head throbs as I make my way out of the bed. Austin made me go back on tour with him - not that we're back on speaking terms. He pretends to be civil and I ignore him.

"Where do you want to go?" Alex asks.

I shrug, leaning my head against the couch. "Just pick something."

He sighs. "Kelli, we've been talking about this for almost two hours. What do you want to do today?"

I look over at him with a wary expression. "I want to sleep. I want to go to bed. I want for Austin to stop treating me like dirt. I want for Sidney to stop acting so weird around me. I would love to not be sick. I want a lot of things. Most of which I can't have."

He pulls his eyes shut before pulling me into a sideways hug. "Please don't talk like that."

The door opens and Austin walks in the tour bus. He doesn't even look at me. In fact, he walks right past me without so much as a glance. I want to cry every time I see him. It doesn't help that he's famous and his pictures are every where.

Austin grabs a water bottle and was about to leave when Alex called him. "Wait."

He stops right as he was reaching the door. "What?"

Alex gestures to me on the couch. "Aren't you going to try to fix things?"

He shrugs. "She knows what she has to do," he mutters before leaving the tour bus.

I shut my eyes before jumping to my feet and follow him out the door, Alex on my tail. "Austin."

Austin turns to look at me before sighing. "What do you want, Kelli?"

I try to gather my thoughts, trying to find something to say to say to him. "You didn't ask for permission before you went to the recording studio." I can practically cut through the tension. "And you decided to let everyone figure it out for themselves that you're the great Austin Ross."

He stares at me, his jaw tense. "That was six years ago. I'm not the one who needs to take medicine or go to therapy. If you want to throw your life away, then I guess that's up to you."

My anger towards him just keeps increasing by the second. "Why are being such a jerk?"

My brother doesn't answer me. He just turns around and starts walking back to the building.

"I'm sorry," Alex says from behind me.

I turn to face him. "Can we just go?"

"Go?" he asks doubtfully and I nod.

"Go somewhere. Like the park or something. I need to get out of here."

He nods after a while. "Sure. I'll go get Chance's car."

"Don't you have to ask him first?"

Alex shakes his head. "He gave us all a spare key. We can just take his car."

I smile gratefully before following him. "Thanks."

Once we're in his car, he just starts driving. He doesn't even ask me if I want to go anywhere. I know I should probably stay in the tour bus and try to make it through this day but I have Alex with me. We'll be fine.

About an hour later, we were hungry and decided to stop for something to eat.

"Panera or Chick-fil-A? he asks me.

I think for a moment. "Chick-fil-A."

We go through the drive thru and Alex orders our food.

I smile. "How do you know my order?"

He shrugs. "I have my ways."

He pulls up to the window and hands the girl, who still hasn't noticed us, his credit card. She swipes the card and then she freezes. "Why does it say Alex Flemmings?" she asks us. Then she turns to face up and a scream escapes through her lips. "Holy freakin crap, it's actually you!"

I let out a chuckle and Alex just flashes his signature smile. "Hi."

She lets out another scream and this time, a few employees come by the window. "I can't believe you're actually here! Out of all the Chick-fil-As in the world, you came to this one."

He nods. "Yeah, we were getting hungry."

Her eyes suddenly widen. "Oh, right."

The employees stand there, shoving napkins and phones into our car in hopes of getting an autograph or picture. Seconds later, the paparazzi were involved. They, too, were shoving cameras in our faces. I squint my eyes at the flash of cameras. Alex lets out a groan before honking the horn a couple times. I lean back in my seat as the employees get out of their kitchen to meet us outside.

"Sorry," the manager says, handing us our food. "If you want, we can refund all–"

Alex shakes his head. "Don't worry about it," he says before moving his car an inch forward, that at least got people to move out of the way a little. Alex takes that as permission to move forward.

But not before we hear screaming.

And a girl runs straight into our car.

I scream, hanging on to Alex's arm as he slams on the breaks.

"Oh my god," he says, looking out the window.

Everyone rushes to the girl in the front of the car. She looks paralyzed.

"You," a girl somewhere near our age yells through the window. "You killed her!"

I realize I didn't update last week. I honestly tried so hard. I will TRY to have another update tonight. If not, expect for tomorrow.

What do you think? Did you like it? Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. If you have any questions, I'll be sure to answer as best as I can.

Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!