(Don't) Leave Me Behind

Part 9

Raising an eyebrow at Stevie, Christine asked. "Is something wrong, love? You've been staring at me and it's starting to creep me out."

"I, uh..." Stevie swallowed uneasily. "I'm not staring at you. I'm staring at that." She bit her lip, pointing at the tiny bottle in Chris' hand. "I want to try it."

"That's not a very good idea." The older blonde shook her head. Despite saying that, she dipped her long nail into the bottle and brought the contents up to her nose. "Don't get hooked on it. It's not going to end well."

"Can it get any worse?" Stevie scoffed, folding her arms over her chest. 

"Are things really that bad with Lindsey?"

Sighing, Stevie nodded. "I'm staying with you, aren't I?"

The past couple of weeks Stevie was sleeping on the couch at Christine and John's apartment. It was uncomfortable and she had no privacy, but going home wasn't an option. Lindsey had been unbearable. He was accusing her of every single thing he could come up while getting high, calling her names, putting her down and she got tired of defending herself, of him. So she packed herself a suitcase and asked Christine for help. 

Stevie heated crying, especially in front of other people, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes filled with tears as she then leaned into Christine, once Chris wrapped an arm around her. A few minutes later, Christine whispered to Stevie. "Not here." Frowning, Stevie looked up at her tearfully, but then it clicked and she gave a nod of her head. 

The two women stood up and left the guys on their own, saying they were going out for a smoke, while actually, Christine took Stevie to the bathroom and locked the door. "Just a little bit." She warned. 

Mimicking what Christine did earlier, Stevie brought the white powder up to her nose and inhaled deeply, pinching her nose immediately. "Fuck!"

"I said, a little."

"Why'd you do it anyway?" Stevie asked, not really sure why she wanted to try the drug herself.

Christine just shrugged. "Sometimes the cigarettes, the wine, the weed just isn't enough."

"And how many times a day does that happen?" 

Instead of being offended, Christine laughed at it. "Too many. Come on, let's go back before someone starts looking."

"Do you know who I met outside yesterday?" Stevie asked as they were walking back. "Don Henley."

"Oh Lord! What did he want this time?"

"I guess, the same." Stevie shrugged her shoulders. "He was very charming, very persuasive..." 

"Stevie, don't tell me-"

"No. No." Stevie repeated, shaking her head. "That time at the club, sure. I was drunk and he's this famous musician... but when I saw him again, I wasn't interested at all." 

"What doesn't interest you, love?" Mick asked, once the women returned.

"You should stop listening to other people's conversations, Fleetwood." She told him, taking her previous seat. "And if you must know, Don Henley doesn't interest me."

"Oh, good! For a second I thought it was yours truly." He smirked, spinning a drumstick between his fingers in one hand.  

"In your dreams." Stevie gave Mick an overly sweet smile and he acted offended. They had this playful thing going on between them, she knew he wasn't actually serious. Most of the time anyway.

The band called it a day past 11. No recording was getting done, they weren't making progress whatsoever, so if they wanted to just have a party, they could do it somewhere else. 

"Are you coming, Stevie?" Christine asked her, tapping her foot impatiently. 

"You go ahead. Uh... Rick and I are going to work on a song together."

Christine raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "If you have a song, we could have checked it out already."

"No, it's... it's personal. I want to see what Rick could do with it, before I present it to the rest of you." 

And Stevie wasn't lying. She had written a song about Lindsey. Most of her songs were about him, but that one in particular was a recent one. Stevie was comfortable with letting Rick hear it, because they had been spending quite some time together and he knew what was going on in Stevie and Lindsey's relationship more than Stevie let Christine in on.

"Well, alright. See you tomorrow then." Chris pecked Stevie's cheek and said goodbye. 

"Are you ready to go?" Rick asked, once it was just the two of them left.

"Yeah." Stevie nodded, reaching for her purse. 

They left the building and made their way to Rick's car. Before getting in himself, Rick held the door open to Stevie and she smiled at him briefly, climbing in. Walking around the front of the car, he got into the driver's seat, started the engine and they were off.

Unbeknownst to Stevie and Rick, they weren't the only people in that parking lot just a minute ago.