Be Alright: Somebody To Love #6

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Be Alright #1

Justin’s POV

            “How does it feel to be home, my darling?” I fell onto the couch next to Madelyn. It was our first night at home in over two months due to my summer tour. After three weeks in Europe, we jetted off to South and Central America for two weeks before returning to the states and Canada to finish off the tour.

            “It feels so good.” She smiled. “I didn’t realize how much I had missed it.”

            “You know what I missed?” I winked at her.

            “Our bed?” She laughed, giving me a knowing look.

            “You know me too well.” I sighed. I was exhausted. I could’ve fallen asleep right there on the couch. It was only eight, but it was safe to say the last two months had exhausted us all. The kids had fallen asleep on the ride home, and still hadn’t woken up. Now all I wanted to do was spend some alone time with Madelyn, something we had gotten very little of on the tour, and go to bed.

            “Mom! My blood sugar is low!” Stella’s yell from upstairs interrupted our peaceful silence.

            “Well, that was fun while it lasted.” She smiled and got up off the couch. “Since she’s up, do you want to tell her the news?”

Madelyn’s POV

            “Here, Stel.” I walked into her room and handed her a juice box. Aniston was still sound asleep in her bed, so I sat down next to Stella.

            “Thanks for letting us go on tour with Daddy.” She smiled at me.

            “You loved it, didn’t you?”

            “It was the best summer ever. I want to do that someday.”

            “If you work as hard as Daddy does, I’m sure you’ll get there someday.”

            That someday might have been sooner than we all thought. Scooter had gotten an email while we were in Canada, just a few days ago. It was our day off and we were at Jeremy’s, eating dinner with all of Justin’s family. Justin hadn’t been pleased when Scooter barged in, wanting to talk to us in private. But the news had been great and he was immediately over it.

            “Did you tell her?” Justin walked in, sitting on the other side of the bed. I shook my head and Stella’s eyes got really big.

            “Tell me what?!” She squealed.

            “There’s a new show on Disney Channel, and they need an eight to nine-year-old girl. Scooter didn’t really have any more information, but he thinks it would be a good starting job if you want to do it.” Justin smiled as he told her, watching her eyes growing bigger by the second.

            “You’re going to let me do it?” She screamed, her mouth moving a mile a minute. “You have to let me do it! Please Mommy! Please! Daddy I have to! I need this!”

            “Well, we trust Scooter, so we decided that if you want to, you can audition.”

            “Yes! I want to! Thank you so much!” She jumped onto me and gave me a huge hug before jumping onto Justin.

            “Alright, I’ll tell Scooter.” Justin looked just as excited as Stella, if not more.

            “But for right now, it’s time for bed. We can talk about it more in the morning.”

            “Will you read me a story, Daddy?” She requested as I tucked her in again. He nodded, picking up a book on her nightstand. Justin couldn’t ever say no to a bedtime story.

Justin’s POV

            By the time I read Stella a story and then sang her to sleep, it was an hour and a half later. My mind wandered back to the priorities of the night, like spending time with Madelyn. I walked into our bedroom, expecting her to be in bed, but she wasn’t. I walked through the bathroom and our closet, not finding her in there either. I checked each of the kids’ rooms before going downstairs.

            She wasn’t anywhere to be found. I was getting ready to call her cellphone when I heard the door open downstairs.

            “Where have you been?!” I tried not to overreact when I saw she was perfectly fine. I had been scarred to death, imagining the worst possible scenarios. I was seconds away from calling the police.

            “I went on a run. I left you a note on the bed.”

            “It’s dark outside! What were you thinking?”

            “I was thinking that I have a marathon in less than a month and I haven’t gotten in very much training because I’ve been on tour with you. Now, I’m really sweaty and in need of a shower or a bath. Care to join me?”

            She knew just how to calm me down. I nodded and happily followed her up the stairs.

Madelyn’s POV

            “Do you think we are making the right decision?” Justin asked as we laid in our bathtub, another thing I had missed. I had missed almost everything from our house, but I had especially missed having so much privacy. Being able to lay completely naked on top of Justin, hot water whirling around us, felt like a novelty.

            “About what?” I propped my chin on his chest so I could look at him.

            “Stella. What if we are getting her into the business too early? Should we really be putting her possible career before her education?”

            I knew what he was thinking. I had the same doubts. Because the show was taped during the day, three to four times a week, Stella wasn’t going to be able to attend Oxford Academy anymore. We had talked about her options. Disney would provide a tutor for the set. Or we could enroll her in an online academy. But nothing was going to give her the same education as Oxford.

            “I trust Scooter. If he thinks it is worth the risk, I am willing to do it.”

            “You’re right. And hey, if Stella isn’t there, I think the chances of our kids getting kicked out just went down a hundred percent.” He joked. We’d had our fair share of visits to the Headmaster’s office in the last year, but Stella wasn’t the only offender.

            Taking her out of school did make me nervous, but I knew we were doing it for a good reason. And I was kind of excited to get to spend more time with her. Since she only would be on set three or four times a week, that meant she could come to work with me or stay home with Justin if he wasn’t working.

            “We are going to have an exciting year.” I said, laying my head back down on Justin’s chest, thinking about just how good our life was right now. Little did I know, that was all about to change.