Fluctuat nec Mergitur

Chapter 13

"Welcome to June." Lauren shook me awake.

"June? I thought it was still May." I turned over, avoiding her.

"It's a good sign that I have to wake you up." Lauren pulled the single sheet down. "You must be sleeping better."

"I guess." I sat up. The clock read 9:36.

"You're lucky that you didn't have to sleep with Dani last night. She kept hitting me, more then usual. I can't believe someone can flail around that much in their sleep." Lauren joked.

"Where are they?" I looked around.

"Amy and Dani are already up. I convinced Christina to let you sleep because you seemed like you needed it."

"Thanks, I guess." I think I did. My nightmares have been going away ever so slightly.

"Yep." She opened the door to the hall. "Everyone's downstairs, you can come down when you're ready."

I put on a new shirt and pants, washed my face, for a couple other little things, and joined everyone else downstairs. We were in Italy, and the small hotel we stayed in was quite Italian.

We walked around Florence for a couple hours afterward and then went to soundcheck, taking our time. The platinum VIP people milled about in the seating area as the girls warmed up. I wasn't paying attention in the slightest, sitting on the edge of the stage to the very right.

"Hey, Max," Lauren approached behind me. "Dani's gone and lost the only tuner we have and she's wondering if you can tune her guitar, if you don't mind."

"I don't have anything better to do." I stood. Lauren skipped back over to the other side of the stage. Dani handed me her guitar with a thank you.

I had to sit on the stage with it because her strap would've been far too long for someone of my height. I picked the low E string and grimaced.

"Sounds like E flat." I said to Dani. She raised her eyebrows. I played a B chord, and I've never heard it sound so discordant. Dani stuck her tongue out.

"That sounds terrible."

"Yes." I quickly tuned all of the strings as well as I could and played the chord again. "Much better." Dani nodded, taking her guitar back, and I tuned Amy's.

The next few hours were incredibly uneventful. I sat behind the stage during the concert, watching them perform for the umpteenth time in the last few months.

When we got back to the hotel, Dani, Lauren and Amy immediately started fighting about who would take a shower first, and Amy won out after a few minutes on the count that she was the oldest.

Dani turned on the TV to the news and I watched it blankly, understanding a very small amount of the words. I know a tiny bit of Italian, but I've lost most of it.

"Do you know what they're saying?" Lauren looked over at me in worry.

"They're talking about Trump, I know that." They had his picture on the screen, and he was more orange than ever.

"They're taking away citizenship." She picked up her phone. "And all non-citizen rights."

"What does that mean?" I don't know much about the rules my green card entails, much less full citizenship.

"I can't vote, I can't have a job, I can't own or rent a home, I don't have my license anymore, I'm unrecognized in the government system. I've pretty much never been born." She pinched the bridge of her nose in distress.