Finding The Father

Chapter Seventeen "Hippie Lady"

After walking for a few hours, it was already sunset when we arrived. We could hear the music from a mile away and the strobe lights flashing in the sky. There was a big stage where a band played with lights and confetti sprayed throughout the crowd. A metal fence wrapped out the crowd to contain them and at the end of the parking lot was the entrance. There was a long line and a bouncer who admitted everyone with a ticket. We stopped about fifty feet from the bouncer.

"How are we going to get in? We don't have any tickets." I asked the three of them and Owen and Nick shrugged.

"I have an idea." Abby told us with a smirk. "Owen and Nick, give me your shirts."

"What?" Nick furrowed his eyebrows.

"No way." Owen stated and shook his head.

"Don't be pussies. Just give me our shirts and trust me." Abby raised her eyebrows expectantly and held out her hand to them.

Nick shrugged and grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it off over his head. I got a clear view of his abs, but I tried to avoid staring.

"Absolutely not." Owen continued to shake his head and Abby rolled her eyes.

"Owen, just do it. You want Dylan to find this guy, right? And we need to get in to do that." Abby told him.

Owen stared at her in thought for a moment before he sighed and took off his shirt. Abby smirked as he handed it to her. She rolled the shirts into a ball and stuffed it under her shirt. It created a bump on her stomach and she cradled it.

"Do I look nine months pregnant?" She asked us and I raised my eyebrow.

"No." We all said together and she frowned.

"Whatever. The bouncer is a dude. He'll believe it." She shook her head to get the hair out of her face and she took a deep breath in. "Okay so when I nod my head, you guys sneak in behind him. I'll be a few minutes behind you, okay?" The three of us looked at each other and shrugged before nodding. "All right, let's go."

We walked up to the front of the line, A few people behind us yelled to get in the back. Abby stood in front of the bouncer while Nick, Owen, and I stood to the side and pretended to be having a conversation.

"Please! You have to let me in! I'm going into labor and my boyfriend is in there!" Abby started screaming.

The bouncer looked down at her in confusion as she wailed. "Oh my- should I call an ambulance?" She asked her in a panic.

She shook her head. "No, no please don't. I just need to find my boyfriend. Please let me in!"

"I don't think that's such a good idea ma'am. It's kind of crazy in there, you could get hurt." The bouncer told her.

"If you don't let me in I'm going to have a baby right here!" Abby screamed and her eyes dashed to us.

She quickly nodded her head towards the gate behind the bouncer. Nick quickly dashed inside and I followed behind him and Owen behind me. We ran into the crowd before the bouncer got a chance to see us. People were screaming and dance all around us and the music only got louder. We stopped running once we got to the food stalls and Owen bent over to catch his breath.

"I need to work out more." He said as he gasped for air.

"What do we do now?" I yelled over the music to the boys and Nick's eyes surfed the crowd in question.

"I suppose people can go to more than one music festival so maybe someone here saw you or him in April." Nick said and I nodded.

"It's our last option."

I hoped and prayed someone here would recognize me and tell me exactly who I was with. Or even better, he himself will be here and recognize me.

"There you guys are." Abby yelled over the music as she came running up.

Owen and Nick's shirt was balled into her hand as she gasped for air. They took their shirts back and put them on.

"That bouncer is about five minutes away from calling an ambulance so let's try and hurry this up."

We started with the food stalls. We asked the vendors if they recognized me or Owen or Abby and they all shook their heads and said no. We moved on to asking people in the crowd. A few wouldn't talk to us and some didn't bother looking at us. The people that did said they've never seen us before in their lives. An hour rolled by and I was beginning to give up hope.

The four of us walked by a little tent set up around a table. People sat around it on foldable chairs and there was a hookah sitting on the table. They each took puffs and giggled.

"Oh my God." Abby stopped in her tracks. Her eyes were glued on someone at the table. "That's her. That's the hippie I hooked up with."

I followed her eyes and saw a beautiful brunette girl small round sunglasses and a white off the shoulder shirt with ripped shorts and a rainbow knitted blanket around her shoulders.

"Maybe she'll know who he is!" I told her excitedly and Abby nodded.

We walked up to her as she let out a cloud of smoke. She giggled with the guy sitting across from her, who looked just as much as a hippie as she did.

"Autumn, isn't it?" Abby inquired and the girl looked up at her.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" She asked in a sloppy tone.

"I'm Abby. I think we met in April at another music festival."

Autumn's face lit up and she smiled. "I remember you! What's up, my guy?"

"See, my friend here-" Abby glanced back at me and pulled me towards her. "She met a guy at the same festival and she can't remember who he is. We were wondering if maybe you saw him and got a name?"

Autumn sat with her mouth agape, thinking over the question. "Look, I was pretty wacked out on a lot of things that night. AL I remember is her walking off with some guy who was tall and had dark hair." She told us before she took another puff from the hookah.

My face fell. Our only and last lead has led us to another dead end. I felt hopeless. I was never going to be able to find him and I'll have to go the rest of my life with my kid resenting me because I don't know who their father is.

"I have to get some air." I mumbled before I excused myself from the situation. I walked away and disappeared into the crowd.