Page 49 of Next to Everything We Wanted
“I hope you feel better soon,” she said softly.
“Yeah.” I pulled away from her before I could start crying. “Me too.”
After my bandmates finished talking to the kids while I tried to take control of my emotions, Gail showed us the confirmation for the payment on Hayden’s account that we’d later split. We said goodbye to everyone and left the party room.
“See, I knew that’d be amazing,” Dallas said with a grin. “I haven’t seen kids that happy in a while.”
“You guys were grumpy for no reason,” Arielle said, facing Hayden, Oliver, and Raina.
“I’ll still die if Mollie posts those videos on the internet,” Hayden said, though he looked less annoyed than before. “Let’shope that the other birthday gigs don’t require us to look ridiculous.”
Arielle moaned. “Why are you so grumpy now?”
“Yeah, that’s my job,” Raina said.
Hayden laughed. “Okay, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. But still.”
“I just hope that Mollie and Bella won’t be at the next party,” Oliver said as he opened the door to outside for us. “They kept trying to distract me.”
I giggled. “They’re terrors.”
“I think they missed the entrance to hell and spawned on Earth instead.”
“They’re not that bad,” Arielle said as she skipped around the parking lot, her brown tail wagging. “Like I’ve said, Raina and I were the same way.”
“And I’m glad you’ve grown into something tolerable,” Oliver muttered.
“Who said they were tolerable?” Caleb asked.
Raina rolled her eyes before nudging me. “So, I saw that little girl ask for your autograph and hug you,” she said, her eyes shining. “Do you finally have your musical confidence back?”
I shrugged. “Some of it. There’s only so much inspiration I get from singing kids’ songs.”
“True.” She laughed and looked at my purse. “You still haven’t texted him, have you?”
I grunted. “I hate how you choose to see through me at the wrong times.”
“Every time must be the wrong time, then.” She unzipped my purse and put my phone in my hand. “If you don’t text him, I will.”
“Yeah, no.” I pulled Ivan up in my contacts before she could say another word.
“Dang it. I had so many dirty—I mean,colorfulideas.”
“You suck.”
She grinned. “Always been the best at it.”
I thought I could get away with not sending the message, but Raina followed me to my car after I said goodbye to my bandmates. Knowing she wouldn’t leave until I relieved my pain, I quickly typed four characters into the phone and hit send with shaking hands.
Sienna
Hey!
“Happy now?” I sighed. “You—” My phone buzzed with a reply from Gavin.
Ivan
So, you have cell signal after all? Impressive
