Adeline|New Hope Club|Blake Richardson|

17: Catastrophe

The problem, it turned out, was more of a catastrophe. Blake was fuming, absolutely livid as he haphazardly threw stuff into a rucksack and continued to call the one person he needed to speak to. It was like there was steam coming out from his ears as he looked around the room and made sure he had all of his essentials before slamming his door closed behind him. Blake's phone had been dead all night after he'd spoken to Adeline and now he was regretting the idiocy of not remembering to charge his phone before he fell asleep. Reece had been pacing around the flat, trying to think of something to say to the younger boy that would make him calm down. He came up blank; this situation wasn't one he could've ever been prepared for.

"Blake, you can't leave," George urged, stepping in front of Blake's path and blocking him, "We've got schedules today and Managment will be livid if you don't show up. They already know."

"I can't just sit around and let the world believe all of this shit," the brunette yelled, frustration bubbling up to his throat, threatening to spill out, "I can't sit around and let Adeline believe this shit!"

"What are you even going to do?" Reece stood next to George now, giving Blake a hard face, hoping he was going to be intimidating enough for Blake to step down, "You can't go MIA on us and you can't miss the two performances we have today. We'll be blacklisted for sure!"

"What am I supposed to do?" Blake slumped then, knowing everything Reece was saying was completely right; he'd ruin the boy's chances of ever booking another big gig, "I can't just leave it alone."

"Just try to talk to Adeline, like call or text her," George came over and patted Blake on the shoulder when he was sure the other boy wouldn't storm out of the flat, "I'm sure it'll be alright."

Blake was hoping it'd be alright. Seeing as he'd already gotten ready for the day, he had to sit while the other boys finished their preparations to head to BBC Radio One for their interview. This was a big shot for them and Blake felt bad that he had been so selfish as to thinking of storming out without another word. He was thankful the boys had stopped him or he never could have made it up to them. He was just worried that he'd never be able to make it up to Adeline if he couldn't talk to her soon. His phone had just started charging and it wouldn't turn on so Blake was left to stare absentmindedly at the telly while a million different "what-if's" crowded his head.

Blake didn't know what to do. Well, he knew what he wanted to do but he wasn't sure what he should do. He also knew what he had to do and that was stick with the boys and not ruin their career while he possibly had his relationship with Adeline ruined. He knew being irrational wasn't going to get him any points with Adeline and it'd certainly get him out of the good graces of management and that would have been hell. After another ten minutes, Blake's phone had charged long enough to turn on and the first thing he did was send a text to Adeline asking her to let him explain. The second text he sent was full of malice and anger; his blood started to boil just thinking about what had happened. He couldn't remember a time in his life where he was angrier than he was when he saw what had been on Reece's phone an hour ago. His rucksack was still packed and sitting next to his feet on the floor and he had another thought about bolting but he didn't want to do that to his friends.

The two blondes came out of their respective rooms and gave Blake a pitying glance as they saw the defeated look on his face. It was really a predicament Blake was in and not only does he have to deal with it in his personal life, it was bleeding into his professional life too. Management had called Reece early in the morning and blew up at him over them not being able to reach Blake. They were mad and told Reece and George to not let the brunette out of their sights or do anything irrational until after the scheduled appearances today. They'd agreed halfheartedly, knowing fully well that Blake would rush away the moment he got the opportunity to. Reece and George were just hoping he'd have enough will to stick around until the end of the day.