Page 62 of Composed
Hendrix • Now
Hold On Till May – Pierce The Veil
Myfeetsinkintothe carpet as I pace the length of mine and Riley’s hotel room. Steam wafts through the cracked en-suite door, the pitter patter of the shower blending with Riley’s quiet humming as she showers.
“It’s just so fucking awkward.” I drop into the chair at the vanity with a groan. “Why the hell did I think I could do this?”
Talia’s face crackles on my phone screen. “It was always gonna be awkward, babe. You can’t just walk in after ten years of silence and expect everything to go back to normal.”
“I know, I just—” I scrub a hand down my face and sigh. “Carter won’t even look at me. Axel is acting as if everything is fine and a day hasn’t passed. Saint is just Saint. And Cole…”
“Cole…” she echoes. “Cole, what?”
I shake my head.
There are no words I can think of to explain Cole. The way I feel him watching only for him to tear his gaze away as if burned every time I dare look at him.
“Nothing,” I say. “Everything’s just so tense. I don’t know how we get past it enough to actually work together.”
“You said things with Saint went okay, right?” Talia asks.
I bite down on my thumb. “Yeah, I guess. As okay as they can do.”
“And Axel is fine?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe Carter just has his own shit going on,” she muses, but her hopeful tone tells me she knows that is not true. “And you and Cole have so much history. It wouldn’t make sense if everything was hunky dory on day one. But, he reached out. He wants to work with you. That means something, Hendrix.”
I tip my head back and zero in on a crack in the magnolia ceiling. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“I always am.” She winks when I glance at her. “Though, I’m still miffed you went without me.”
I laugh. “Trust me, you did not want to be in that room today.”
She hums thoughtfully. “How did Riley get on with them?”
“Really good,” I tell her. “Pretty sure they fell a little in love with her the second she opened her mouth. Especially when she asked if Saint and Axel’s parents hated them too because their names are as strange as mine.”
Laughter sprinkles down the speaker. “God, I love that woman.”
“Me too. Couldn’t do it without her,” I say.
“Home tomorrow?”
I sigh, tapping my fingers against the wooden desk.
“No. Cole wants to try and get some ideas down before I leave. So, another day in the stilted studio.” I force my lips into a half grin. Pretty sure it’s closer to a grimace.
“Oh, babe. Have you thought about just saying sorry? Look I’m always the first person to say you don’t owe anybody your excuses. But a simple apology can go a really long way.”
A tear spills over my lashes.
“How do you apologise for ghosting the people you called your family, Talia? It doesn’t matter how good I thought my reasons were. There’s not an apology in the world that makes any of it okay.”
Talia’s face falls, her lips twisting in sorrow as she watches me through the camera. “I don’t know. But you can't go back and change anything. Allyou can do is move forward. And whatever happens, you are still Hendrix Moore. So go and show them that.”
I push my elbows onto the wood, and prop my head in my hands.
