Never giving up on you - Completed.

20.

[This is just a bit of a filler chapter, sorry. Next chapter will be dramaaa. Please vote and comment. I need your love, like a boy needs his mother's side... Ok sorry, cheesy :') ]

Austin

It was still early when my alarm went off at seven. Caity and I had to drag ourselves out of bed that morning, tired of our broken night but both not regretting anything. She woke up Hailey and we all got dressed and had a quick breakfast, Hailey more than content about the fact it was Lucky Charms. After cleaning up quickly, Caity drove us to our meeting point of that morning, which was Rise Records' head office down town Los Angeles. It was a good thing we had left home early, since traffic was a nightmare. When we arrived, almost everyone was already there, packing the bus and the trailer behind it. We would meet up with Linkin Park later today at the venue in Las Vegas where we would be playing.

We greeted the rest of the band and their girls, and I only realized Alan was missing until he pulled up in the parking lot.

I thought that Caity and me looked tired because we hardly slept last night, but as soon as I saw Alan and Lillian, I came to the conclusion that we both looked pretty okay compared to them. They were the last to arrive, twenty minutes after call time. Our manager Patrick was far from amused since he was a bit stressed. He always was when we went on tour.

'Ashby, I know it's your favourite habit to be late at everything but I thought I was very clear when I –'

'Yeah, I know, I'm sorry,' Alan waved him away, crankily sipping from his Starbucks cup.

'Glad to know you had enough time to buy yourself a coffee, though,' Patrick threw back at him. I held in a chuckle and Alan threw me an annoyed eye roll. He would never change.

'Way to go Alan. I swear, you'd even be late at your own funeral,' Phil stated. Alan just shrugged.

'Probably,' he muttered, emptying his coffee and throwing it in a bin nearby. Lillian was staring at him from a little distance, being interrogated quietly by Caity. By the look of her I knew something had happened between her and Alan last night, and I shook my head before picking Hailey up.

'Daddy?,' her little voice asked. I would never grow tired of listening to her.

'Yes, sweety?' Hailey threw her little arms around my neck and placed her head on my shoulder.

'Why are you leaving?' I huffed a little and looked down on my daughter, who looked back with big bright eyes.

'Because I have to work.'

'But can't you just work here?'

'No, baby. See, I make music and I have to travel to sing for people.' Hailey frowned and looked at the rest of the guys.

'What about uncle Alan? And Aarwon and Phil and Tino?' I laughed at her pronounciation of Aaron's name and then shook my head.

'They come with me.'

'Hmm.' She fidgeted on my shirt a bit and pulled Squidgy tighter in her arms. 'When are you back?'

'In six weeks.'

'That  long?!' Her eyes went big and I nodded sadly. 'How many nights sleep is that?'

'Eh...' As I tried to calculate in how many days I would be back, Caity walked up to us and smiled.

'Hailey, stop bothering your father with questions,' she laughed at my troubled face.

'Why?'

'Because not everything needs an answer.'