Little Girl Don't Grow Up Too Fast

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"What do you mean she ran away?!" Carrie practically screamed into the phone as she was alone on her bus getting ready to head onto the next city.

"She ran off with some friends from school during the game. I found her after my game on Broadway," he explained.

"Why would she do something like that?"

Mike was thankful that Carrie was across the country in that moment, knowing that if he lied to her face she would be able to read right through him. It was easier to lie to her over the phone, even though he didn't want to at all. "I think she just gave into some peer pressure from her friends is all."

"Maybe we should sit down and talk with her," she suggested, becoming overly worried like Mike knew she would. "After the show tomorrow I can probably get on a jet and be home late that night so we can talk to her that morning-"

"Carrie, no," he stopped her. "It's just a phase or something. She'll come out of it."

"Are you sure?"

"I've got this, Care," he spoke confidently, hoping to put her at ease. "You probably need your rest. I can tell from your voice."

"Sorry, my voice is just sore."

"Don't be sorry about it," Mike chuckled. "I think it's sexy."

"Oh, my gosh," she laughed back as her cheeks turned a bright shade of red. "I'm actually not that tired though. I usually have trouble going to bed after shows. I'd rather stay up and talk to you."

The couple stayed up practically all through the night talking to one another, keeping each other company, Mike doing whatever he can to distract Carrie from the subject of their daughter. He felt terrible for hiding the truth from his girlfriend, but he was so scared to hurt her. He was scared of what she would do or how she would react.

The days following Charlotte's outburst had been similar to when Charlotte first found out about her mother. She went straight to school, straight home, and stayed in her room the rest of the night, not bothering to talk to a single person. The only difference was that the first few weeks of school when she was going through everything with her mom, all of the kids were super nice and welcoming to her at school. Now ever since her fight with Paige and Alissa, she had been cast as a total outsider. At that point, she had no one to talk to and she was in so much pain because of it.

It didn't take Carrie long to catch on that something wasn't right at home. After a week of getting sent straight to voicemail when calling Charlotte, receiving no replies through text, she could tell things were off.

"Mike, what's going on with Charlotte?" the blonde asked as she sat on her bed that was in the back of the tour bus on the phone with her husband early that morning.

"Not much, she just headed off to school," he answered casually.

"Something is off and I know it. All week I have had absolutely no contact from her and anytime I ask about her, you answer with something short and find something else to talk about. She's my daughter too, Mike, and just because I'm not there doesn't mean I don't get to know what's going on."

Mike knew that he couldn't hide the truth from her anymore, but he also didn't want Carrie to go through this alone. "I think it would be best if you came home to talk about this."

"Why? What's wrong? What's going on?" Carrie started to worry.

"Charlotte is mad at you, I guess you could say, over stuff that's not true. I don't want to go into full detail over the phone. Is there any way you could be home sometime in the next couple of days?" Mike wondered.