The wait was over. Finally Avi and Rayne could be together, hang out and get to know each other. They can share their time with the band, sneak away to find quiet time alone together and enjoy the music and life on the road, or so they thought. As t...
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The wind raged and howled outside as they joined the girls for breakfast. A huge storm had rolled in overnight and laid waste to the positive energy of the city. It brought heavy winds, dropped dark and cold rain from its black clouds and left a ghostly melancholy over everyone. The atmosphere in the hotel was cold and heavy against their skin and hearts as they walked, weighing each of them uncharacteristically down. It reached its dowdy fingers into their hearts as they drug their feet wearily across the floor and trudged to the breakfast table. Perhaps it was the storm that continued to rage and roar outside that left them feeling so down. More likely it was the events of the night before that left each of them with their bones worn to the marrow and their hearts empty and cheerless full of dejected thoughts and useless reasoning.
The boldness of the attack last night coupled with the brutality they had heard about on the news, made it very difficult for either of them to focus on anything but the fear they felt and the images that were burned into their minds. Each was too full of emotion to be anything but numb, yet they had to go on. There was no time to process the residual emotions from last night. They would have to power through it. It was proving to be a difficult task. If either of them stopped to think about what might have happened and what could have happened in that room, their eyes would fill with tears and their throats would close with fear.
They purposefully neglected to inform either Kate or Ester of the events of the previous night. It would not have been pointless to do so, but it was not their story to tell. There was nothing that anyone could do or could have done to prevent or change what had happened. Moreover, neither of them knew exactly what had happened in the seven minutes it took Avi to realize that they needed to get to Rayne. Well one of them knew, but he was not there.
Avi was sleeping soundly with Rayne snuggled closer than close up in the room that Kevin and Avi were to share while they were in the city. His night had been eventful, awful, wrought with fear and frustration, worry and doubt and finally love and exhaustion. Kevin Mitch and Scott agreed to allow Avi and Rayne the opportunity to tell the tale as it pertained primarily to Rayne. They agreed that it was best to keep their eyes on her when Avi couldn't. They also agreed to let them sleep in. They both had earned it. So, the boys gathered upstairs in Mitch and Scott's room before heading down to breakfast together.
No one wanted to talk about either attack, the one on the news that happened on the train or the one they heard that happened in Rayne's hotel room. But, all of them wanted to know exactly what had happened in that room and that Rayne was okay or going to be. They wanted to know if she and Avi would have the strength to move beyond whatever did or didn't happen the night before.
***
"Where's Avi and Rayne?" Ester asked as they all gathered for breakfast. She had expected them to come down with Kevin and the boys. They hadn't. They must still be sleeping. She had tried calling Avi, but his phone went straight to voicemail. He didn't answer either phone. She got a little worried that he would be late again. Was Rayne that much of a bad influence on her little brother? She wondered if anyone knew where her room was. That was where she expected to find him. She tried not to be concerned about what he might be doing with her or had done, but that was heavy on her mind. She had Rayne's all access pass as she had promised and wanted to give it to her as soon as possible, but neither Rayne nor Avi had shown up for breakfast. The other boys had arrived only moments ago, dragging themselves across the floor to the breakfast tables. They were late. They ALL looked horrible and exhausted. She knew touring was hard on them, but they looked more frayed than usual. Her worry and concern mounted then slowly shifted towards anger.
