Tour Bus Troublemaker// c.p.

•23•

"Thank you, Miami!" I screamed, earning thousands of joyful screams. I hurry off stage. My head was pounding again from the bass and the lights and the screaming...ugh.

I find Lili, who looks worried.
"Are you okay?" She asks.

I nod.
"Yeah, why?" I ask.

She gives me a look.
"Because you're about as pale as a ghost," she reaches for my forehead.

I shrug.
"It's probably just stress," I answer as Charlie begins to sing.

I knew a way to cope with stress like no other. I told Lili I'd be right back and walked out into the humid, warm air of the parking lot. I took out my phone and dialed the number.

"Kristen," was his somewhat cold response over the phone. I was a little taken aback by it.

"Shawn," I attempt to sound happy.
"Where are you? I couldn't find you backstage."

"Maybe because I wasn't there," he deadpans. I feel a stabbing pain in my chest.

"But-"

"Save it, Kristen," he cuts me off.
"I should've known."

"Know what? Shawn I'm confu-"

"Don't play dumb, Kris. I should've known I was a back-up plan all along," he spits and my eyes well up with tears as I realize what he's talking about.

"Shawn," I whisper.

"Look, I don't need an explanation or sappy apology because," he pauses and sighs.
"What's done is done, Kristen, just forget it, okay?"

My breath hitches in my throat.
"I can't forget you," I whisper.

I hear him sigh.
"Apparently it wasn't that hard for you to forget me last night," he responds.

"When I was drunk?" I ask rhetorically.

"Drunk or not, Kristen," his voice intensifies.
"Nobody deserves to find out they were cheated on by looking at their Instagram feed."

I go quiet for a few seconds, those tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.

"I'm not even that mad you cheated, to be honest," he responds.
"I am, however, pissed that you couldn't come tell me yourself."

"I was going to," I quickly blurt out.

"Yeah, well, I had a fun couple of weeks with you, Kristen," he wraps up the phone call.
"Bye."

It broke my heart to hear him say those words, though I knew a million times I deserved it.
"Bye," I whisper and hear the phone hang up.

I find a wall of the arena and lean against it, the concrete moist from humidity. The tears begin to flow as I remember: this was all my fault. I couldn't take anything back, because, it happened and it was all because of me.

I stayed that like until I hear the doors open and before I know it, Charlie is standing over me, looking down at me with sympathy as he takes a seat beside me.

"He found out, didn't he?" He whispers and I nod, head leaned against the wall.

"Yep," I respond with more tears forming.

"It's all my fault," I whisper. I notice him shake his head and look at me.

"Don't think that, Kristen, God, no. None of this is your fault," he replies and a tear falls down my cheek when I look down at my hands in my lap.