Bully

Chapter 40: Understanding

**ABRIELLE'S POV**

Someone shaking my shoulder woke me from the deep sleep I was in. Groaning made him laugh before telling me lunch was ready. My stomach making noises made me decide to hobble up front and get some grub. Barry had made grilled cheeses for everyone. The group were scattered around the front lounge with Bill and Jake. I sat down at the kitchen table and rested my head on my arms. Barry chuckled before setting a paper plate with two sandwiches down for me.

"How was your nap?" The dreadlocked man asked me.

"Not long enough." I retorted making several of them laugh.

"Eat up. You must be starving since you missed breakfast." Eric told me with a soft smile.

I slowly ate my sandwiches as I sat there trying to wake up. Brent quickly cleaned everything up once we were all done eating. The band had interviews to get to so I went to get my laptop. Apparently, I had a few DM's and wondered who they were from. One was from Eric asking me if I was ok since I missed breakfast. Two were from, apparently, prospective clients! They had checked out my work from Eric's tweet the other day and loved what they saw.

I took all the information I needed and said I'dget to work right away. It wasn't hard what they wanted from me. In a few DM'swe negotiated price and they promised to send me a check within the week. Itstill floored me that I was actually getting work already. I checked my emailsand saw that my photography professor had emailed me. He loved what I had donewith the band with the winter photo shoot. It made me very proud to see his praisefor my work!

**ERIC'S POV**

Making it to the front after I woke up, I found Barry making breakfast and Brent sipping coffee on the couch. Bill was sitting across from him We'd made it to the venue already. Jake boarded as I was making myself a cup of coffee. Everyone greeted one another as our head of security sat down across from Brent. I sat down at the kitchen table hoping Abrielle would wake up soon. She was usually up by now.

Barry explained that she'd stayed up all night working on a website and had gone to take a nap before Barry had started breakfast. It made me frown. Why would she stay up all night to work? Did she think she had a deadline to meet? It worried me but Barry assured me she had been fine before she went to take a nap. We ate breakfast while Bill gave us a run-down of our day. We all had interviews to do which was nothing new. The VIP was all sold out. Again, nothing new there.

Zach eventually made it up front as we were just lounging around. Our first set of interviews had come up so we all left the bus. They were quick, thankfully, and we convened back on the bus where Barry asked what we wanted for lunch. Zach voted for grilled cheese making Barry laugh. Brent and I just shrugged not really caring as long as we ate. Abrielle still wasn't up and it was really concerning me. As Barry finished with lunch, he asked one of us to go wake her up. Brent said he would before standing up and walking to the bunk area.

Brent walked up first followed by our student. I watched as she sat down at the kitchen table and rested her head on her arms. Barry chuckled before setting a paper plate with two sandwiches down for her. He handed me a plate next and then sat down next to me.

"How was your nap?" The dreadlocked man asked her.

"Not long enough." She retorted making several of us laugh.

"Eat up. You must be starving since you missed breakfast." I told her with a soft smile.

She slowly ate her sandwiches as shesat there trying to wake up. Brent quickly cleaned everything up once we wereall done eating. We all had more interviews to get to so she went to get herlaptop as we were leaving. All I could think about was why she had slept solong. Was she getting sick? Had she been trying to avoid us like she had doneon previous occasions? Was she mad at us? Had we somehow offended her? It wasdriving me mad!