Take Me There

Quickies and Unresponsive Brothers

Chapter Twenty Two

 "She's so fucking wasted," Kiptyn groaned as we walked up to the hotel about four hours later. He was supporting practically all of Lincoln's weight as she continued to talk out of her ass.
 The band had literally done almost an hour worth of encores, and while that's an amazing thing, I was exhausted. I'd been out since eight and now it was almost two in the morning. I'd taken my shoes off two hours ago and I'd been dying to get out of this outfit since the band first started playing.
 But of course, after the encore, Lincoln and the guys decided they wanted to dance and drink for a little bit. Two hours later and Lincoln was drunk off her ass, Lyle and Cealy were both wasted, and Jase couldn't keep his drunken hands off of Sadie.
 There was never a dull moment with this group of people, honestly.
 Lyle and Cealy were still sitting in the car, doing God knows what in the backseat. Jase and Sadie had already made it to their room, not surprisingly. I honestly didn't understand how they had enough energy to perform any type of sexual activity right now.
 All I wanted was to sleep.
 I followed Kiptyn and Lincoln up to the hotel room and quickly unlocked it, trying not to laugh as Kiptyn practically threw her into her bed. I slowly shut the door and walked further into the hotel room. Lincoln was already curled up into a ball under the covers, extremely loud snores coming out of her mouth.
 Kiptyn walked passed the bed that we were sharing and out onto the porch to smoke the cigarette that was already in his hands. I decided that I was going to skip out on the whole shower thing and just wash my face, so I quickly grabbed all of my stuff out of my bag and walked into the bathroom.
 I stripped out of my clothes and pulled an extremely large Kenny Chesney shirt on over my head, sighing whenever it hit the middle of my thigh. I'd had this shirt since as long as I could remember and it felt good to have something so close to home. Something that smelt like home.
 I ran a brush through my hair before washing my face and brushing my teeth. I wiped my face off one last time before walking out of the bathroom and flipping off the light, surprised that Kiptyn was already back inside and under the covers of the bed that we were sharing.
 His back was facing me, which made me feel better since he wouldn't be able to see my pajamas of choice. I climbed into the bed beside him and rolled onto my side so that I was facing away from his back. His body heat was radiating against mine and my heart was beginning to race at his proximity, like it usually did.
 I took a few deep breaths, embarrassed at how much he affected me.
 I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on something other than Kiptyn. So of course my mind automatically wandered to my mom, which wasn't really much better. My stomach instantly knotted at the thought of her and Austin.
 As angry as I was with him, I hoped that he would still be there just so I could see him.
 I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was going to actually meet her, her husband (who could actually be my father), and my little sister in less than forty eight hours. I squeezed my eyes shut as I thought about the cute little girl that I'd seen the picture of.
 I had a little sister.
 I swallowed the lump in my throat and could feel myself starting to shake as I thought about everything that was going to happen. So much was going to change whenever I met her and I wasn't sure how well I could cope with anymore changes.
 "Dallis," Kiptyn suddenly whispered, his lips brushing against the back of my neck. I'd been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized that he'd shifted around.
 I opened my eyes, the lump still in my throat. "What?"
 "You're shaking the bed," He said, beginning to run his hand up and down my arm. I wanted to smile at his attempt at soothing me, but it didn't reach my lips.
 "I'm sorry," I whispered after a few seconds of silence.
 He pressed a kiss against the back of my neck. "Calm down."
 I turned over so that I was laying on my back and stared at him. Tears were stinging my eyes and it made me feel so weak. Especially in front of Kiptyn.
 "Hey," He said, his eyebrows furrowing whenever he saw tears glistening in my eyes, "Stop that."
 I sniffed, looking up at the ceiling and wishing that someone would just understand. As much as he'd been trying to the past few days, Kiptyn didn't understand. Nobody really did.
 A tear leaked out of the corner of my eye and spilled down the side of my face. My heart swelled a little whenever Kiptyn brushed it away with his fingers.
 "Talk to me."
 I shrugged, still staring at the ceiling. "I'm just scared."
 "It's going to be fine, Dallis," He ran a hand through his hair, "If Hollie liked Austin, she's going to love you."
 "I'm just tired of everything changing. I can't handle all of this," I whispered, my voice cracking as more tears filled my eyes.   
 Kiptyn grabbed me then, pulling me against him as I buried my face in his chest. The tears started to fall from my eyes then, the smell of smoke filling my nostrils as I tried to catch my breath. Kiptyn was running his fingers through my hair and placing small kisses on my head every now and then, trying his best to soothe me.
 "You have to stop worrying about all of this. Stop trying to control it all. Let it just happen."
 "It's scary for me," I cried into his chest.
 "If Austin can do it, you can do it."
 I knew he was right. I had to stop trying to control every little thing and just embrace all of the changes that were being thrown my way. Sure, I'd been through a hell of a lot in the passed two weeks, but I was growing. I could feel myself growing.
 And even though I'd been crying and a hotel room in Nashville wasn't an ideal place to have a break down, I was happy. I was happy that Kiptyn was trying to soothe me. I was happy that he was here with me. And I was happy that I fell asleep wrapped in his arms with his lips pressed against my temple.