Patience

10

As soon as Stevie had composed herself she made her way upstairs and she did it. She clicked the follow button and composed a message toTori_Paige_16. It was then that she shot a text to Lindsey saying that she had messaged her. He quickly told her to let him know how it goes and then she crawled under the covers, and clutching the onesie to her chest she fell asleep. 

***

December 15, 2019

Sunday's and Tuesday's were her days off. That's just how it was, it also happened to be three days since she woke up to two follow requests and a message request. The first follow request she had, had since the 11th from Jessie but the new one was from Stevie and she did double check to make sure it was the blue check marked account because she did follow a lot of Fleetwood Mac fan accounts to an embarrassing extent. She also had a message request from Stevie. 

But, after she had finished her breakfast, a cup of Blueberry Yogurt, her phone pinged with a follow request and a message request from Lindsey Buckingham. That one she opened quickly.

LindseyBuckingham

I know this is probably really weird and not what you expected but I think you're my First-but fourth-child. Stevie told me about you. She's really upset that you aren't answering her message. I don't necessarily like Karen either. She told me about everything that's happened so far. I know that I still might not be your father, we'd have to get some DNA tests done, but even so, I'd still like to meet you. Would you be willing to meet me for Coffee?

She read it, and re-read it before she responded back.

Tori_Paige_16

The Target Starbucks on 5th in Los Angeles meet you there in say an hour and a half?

LindseyBuckingham

Thanks, I'll be there

***

Lindsey looked around as he walked into Starbucks and as soon as he saw her standing at the pick-up line wearing her ripped jeans, he could see that there was a giant hole on her right knee, one on her right upper thigh, and three on the left leg all around the knee. She was wearing an army green shirt with lace detailing on her chest. It was paired with a taupe sweater and a pair of taupe high heel booties. Her brown waves laid down her back with a few strands pulled back. It was evident that she didn't have bangs, probably because of the curly nature of her hair as it wouldn't go over well. She had a giant black leather fringy purse thrown over her left shoulder. He could tell that she was nervous simply because she does what Stevie does. Twists the rings on her finger and by the looks of it, she's wearing three. Two on her right hand, the pointer finger and the middle finger and one on her left hand on her middle finger, the one that she was twisting.

"Soy vanilla latte for Tori!" One of the baristas called out and that just cemented it in. 

Once he ordered his drink, just a plain black coffee, he looks around and he sees her staring down at her phone and bouncing her knee in a pretty much secluded booth. 

He took in a breath and walked over to the table where he slid in across from her and her head picked up. 

"Hi, I'm Lindsey Buckingham." He smiles.

"Yeah, I...I know, I'm a fan of Fleetwood Mac. My name is Tori Paige Cryderman." She digs in her suitcase-like purse and hands him the copy that she has of her birth certificate. When she was placed in foster care her birth certificate was filed as is so she could be qualified as a person. 

"Yeah, you're um...you're our daughter." Lindsey examines the certificate. "But I see what Stevie meant when she said she looked at you and she knew because when I saw you in the line I knew too." 

"So did she send you to try and sway me in any way?" Tori questions.

"What do you mean?" He responds cocking his head. 

"Well, I don't know how much she told you of the three days we spent together." She shrugs.

"I know that she's really upset because you aren't accepting her follow request and answering the messages she sent you. I know that something happened with Karen after the Psycopath incident but I don't know what happened." Lindsey informs her.

"Karen doesn't trust me and I have a hard time with people not trusting me. And it makes sense I mean in normal situations it does take a while to trust someone and I understand that I do. But there are two types of people. The people that flaunt the fact that they don't trust you and the people that keep it to themselves. I can tolerate the people that keep their distrust to themselves but I shut down when dealing with people that flaunt it." She shrugs. 

"Why is that?" Lindsey presses.

"I was married for about three years. One year in he had a friend die on the job they built skyscrapers and there was a malfunction and this guy fell off the scaffolding. Pancaked himself. My husband started drinking heavily and he'd hit me and push me around if I didn't do what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted. But then he got very untrusting. He accused me of cheating every time I left the house even if I was going to the doctor. If my friends came over I was hiding something from him. So I was essentially put on lockdown. I could only go to work if he drove me and picked me up. It's obvious that Karen doesn't trust me. So her calling me a psychopath because I had this stupid dream that Stevie Nicks was my mother hurt yes, but on the twelfth, they ambushed me at work and Stevie kept pressing and pressing for me to go out to dinner with them. I kept saying no because twenty-four hours prior, I was being labeled as a Psychopath. They eventually stayed at my job until it was quitting time and then she ambushed me with dinner. She asked me to drive her home and asked for her address to punch into my phone GPS Karen asked if it was a good idea and I started shutting down because it was bringing back flashbacks of my husband. So at that point, I was getting slightly angry. Stevie ended up typing it into my phone and even though she didn't outright show me mistrust, I got that vibe off of her at that moment and like my heart broke a little bit. When we got to her house she told me her gate code and Karen gave her a warning under her breath. That just set me off and I told them both that I never wanted to see them again." Tori shrugs. 

"That explains why your mother is so upset." Lindsey sips his drink. 

"It was kind of harsh but it was just a knee jerk reaction." Tori states.

"But it makes sense. You were abused honey and I don't think that Stevie or Karen fully understand that. Why don't you open your mother's messages? I'll sit here with you." Lindsey places his hand over hers.