URGENT (Book 2 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 19: Nice Guys Save The Show

Okay, I'm beginning to feel like URGENT is Yungblood/Halsey Fanfiction, but I really love this DCFC song, and when I saw that Yungblood and Halsey had covered it...it just  inspired the performance part of this chapter, much like their 11 Minutes...I love "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" for Adam and Mac, because of the spiritual tension and the symbolism of "an impeding dark"--which will make more sense in the upcoming chapters as Mac shares some difficult things and she and Adam struggle with the maybe-baby question...

Adam

The Kat-Parental-Copfrontation could have gone worse. Much worse.

But Mac, Leed and I are walking out with three outcomes I'm unhappy with, in ascending order:

First: our touring manager has been revealed to be a lying, manipulating asshole that has been fucking with Trace's head, and toying with the Ballards. I never liked Dawes, but now I don't want him booking me a haircut, much less a goddamn international tour. I don't give a shit who his contacts are or what the consequences, he's got to go. I can't work with somebody who doesn't have some kind of code. Apparently, Dawes will do anything to justify his desired outcome.

Second: We left Kat with the boyfriend. I know Trace doesn't trust him. We all gave Kat our best shot at an apology, but she wasn't having it. I realized it was a lost cause, trying to convince her to stay with us on tour while Trace is away. If Riley, whom she is probably most comfortable with, can't convince her to stay, then the rest of us don't stand a chance. I don't like her leaving with that Colin guy, but it's not my call, nor anyone else's here. Trace has a fucking deep hole to climb out of there, and he's the one that has to do the work.

But third and worst: Mac is crying again. I really hate it when she cries.

We're back in my suite now, and Leed is pouring Mac tequila to calm her down.

"Mac,take a sip, get a grip," he's pushing a tumbler with three mini-bottles in her hand. Mac a takes a sip automatically, and I can't help it, I feel a tightening in my chest. I wonder if this is going to be an issue. I've seen her drink several times in the last few days. To be fair, hell, I even offered it to her once... but if she's pregnant, surely she's going to stop drinking, right? And if so, why doesn't she just stop now?

Then I realize, drinking is so much a part of our lifestyle, that it would look very strange to the guys if Mac appeared to be refusing drinks. I watch her barely wet her lips with the tequila. She gives me a bleary teary, side-eye, and nudges my leg, sitting the glass on my thigh.

I take the tumbler from Mac's hand, take a large swallow,trying not to wince. It's ten am and my tank is still three-quarters full from last night's clubbing. I do not need a triple tequila, but in this case I'll definitely take one for Team Maybe-Baby.

Mac wets her lips with the liquor again and passes it back to me. After I take another swallow, I rise to get Mac a tissue, and accidentally on purpose leave the tequila at the other end of the coffee table. It's kind of fun, playing Operation Save-The-Maybe-Baby-From-Drowning-In-Tequila with Mac.

Or it would be, if my girl could figure out how to stop drowning in tears. I have never seen her cry so much as the last few days. I know it can't really be pregnancy hormones—not yet. It's just the stress from all of it—the maybe-baby, the Little Sister drama, Ashlynn being hurt, and Trace being MIA.

I try to soothe her, rubbing her back as I offer her the tissue.

"Shorty, we didn't create this situation with Kat. It's not your fault."

She dabs her eyes and blinks hard, trying to stop. "I know. But we all knew she was going to end up so hurt, and we did nothing."

"What could we do? Betray Trace? It was a lose-lose from the beginning, Sweetheart. All we can do is ask hope she and Trace will work it out, and that she'll see, we were all stuck in the middle."