Chasing Dreams

Chapter Twenty-Three - 'Jealousy Has No Friend's, Revenge Has No Lovers'

Chapter Twenty-Three – ‘Jealousy Has No Friend’s, Revenge Has No Lovers’

Chicago was even more inspiring than New York if that was even possible. For once Lacey was glad that they’d arrived via tour bus and not airplane, as Chicago’s airport was the second busiest in the world, and who knows how long they’d be trapped in there with thousands of screaming fans.

Chicago was a mess of high rise buildings, creating a beautiful skyline that lit up the sky at night. She realised it was quite pathetic but she couldn’t help humming tunes from the musical ‘Chicago’ as she walked down the streets. Though Chicago boasted a great many shopping malls, that wasn’t what bought the attention of Lacey, rather the diversity of music and theatre that the city had to offer.

On their first night there, the three girls enjoyed a night of lively jazz music at one of the local jazz houses, while the boys insisted on going to a casino. You can guess which group Steve decided to follow. There was such an effortless flow to life in Chicago, if she’d had time Lacey thought she would quite like to write a story set in the great city, but alas they were only here for five days.

Lacey had slowly been mending her friendships with three of the boys. They’d all been hurt by what had happened but Lacey was determined that they should try to move past it. The three boys were in agreement with this as they had all missed Lacey while she had been away. They agreed that should anything major happen again, they should all sit down together and talk about it instead of acting rashly. It was Jack that took the longest to convince that the friendship he had with Lacey was worth fighting for. He’d been the closest to her after all and had been devastated both when she’d left and when she’d returned a different person. He’d been hurt that she hadn’t contacted him the entire time she was away and worried that she didn’t cherish their friendship as much as he did. However, after a lengthy discussion and a trip to a Chicago movie theatre, Jack was convinced that him and Lacey were even better friend’s than before. However, in mock anger, he told her that if she ever ran off without saying anything again, he would never talk to her.

After a hearty breakfast of waffles and fruit, Lacey joined the others in a car ride to the concert hall where they had been summoned for a big meeting. The boys were a little apprehensive about the meeting, knowing that they were skating on thin ice with Ian; they were troubled by what the meeting would be about. Lacey was resigned for the meeting, knowing she hadn’t done anything wrong. It was still somewhat difficult to be in the same room as Ollie but the girls were doing a good job at distracting her.  It turned out that the meeting was to welcome someone new to the tour group.

The arrival of the replacement drummer for the boy’s band bought a lot of gossip to the front. Everyone had been gathered together for a big meeting when the announcement had been made. The boy’s had been chuffed with the replacement Steve assured everyone that the new drummer had met all the new security requirements. The man, named Tom Woodhouse was gorgeousness personified. Tall, muscled, short brown hair and white bright teeth and on top of that he was overly charming and friendly. He already seemed to have charmed the entire crew running behind the scenes and ensuring that everything to do with the tour ran smoothly. The boys all seemed to like him as did the girls and Steve had announced that he was a ‘solid’ man.

It seemed that this Tom Woodhouse was a good egg and exactly what was needed. Lacey found herself instantly becoming attracted to Tom; she couldn’t believe her feeble heart. She’d just learnt what could happen when you got involved with another man – of course this was a close minded view but one she couldn’t help – and she couldn’t believe that she was facing these feelings again.