I called and called. The plan was that Alan was going to call me as soon as he had broken the news to Jane. He was supposed to call and then we would set up a date that I would be moving back to Long Beach. He was going to call and then we were going to start our lives together - as a real couple, finally. But he never called.

He had been gone for a week now, and he still hadn't called, and he hadn't answered my calls, either. In fact, I coudln't get a hold of anybody except for Adam, but that was on rare occassion since he was on tour with A Day to Remember. He didn't know anything about what was happening back in Long Beach, and he didn't really care to know. I didn't blame him, though. If I could, I would forget about it all, too. But now I couldn't forget about it, not after Alan had finally agreed that we could be together.
Jelina had urged me to stop calling him, to give him some time to break it to Jane. She told me to see it from his perspective, and how difficult of a conversation that would be to have with your pregnant girlfriend. I understood what she was saying, but I felt that if he truly loved me, he wouldn't be able to wait to tell her. Especially when he wanted to break up with her to begin with.
I got a call from work, finally, and I wasn't sure about how I felt about the news.
"No matter what, you're stuck in Long Beach for a year. You have to go through the year at the Los Angeles publishing company, or else you can't return to this location at all. I'm sorry, Addie, I tried all that I could. But I don't have as much power as I'd like."

I knew the Hubert had done all that he could, and I wished that I could be excited about this information, but I didn't know how to feel now that Alan hadn't followed through with our plan. I was going to have to find a place of my own, eventually, but until then I would most likely be living in my father's basement again. I was supposed to be finished with Grad. School and making a lot of money, but yet I was still struggling to find a place to live.

"So when do you leave again?" Jelina asked as she stood in the doorway to my bedroom. I had just started packing my clothes.
"Two days," I said with a sigh. "I am going to miss you."
"Same," Jelina mumbled. "But hey, once I finish my last quarter of school, I'll have enough field hours to finally become an official vet tech and will be able to afford a visit!"

"Good," I said with a laugh. "Because this flight is costing me all the money I have left in my savings. I'm going to be broke for a long time."
"I know," Jelina chuckled, "don't worry, I'll spoil you like the good boyfriend that I am."
"But for real, if you had a dick, I'd be all over you," I said, standing up straight and pointing over at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Please, you'd be all over me right now if it weren't for the fact that we're best friends."

"You're right, I don't want to ruin the beautiful friendship that we have," I replied, sighing as if I wished that I could be with her. We both erupted into a fit of laughter at how ridiculous we were, and then suddenly grew silent when my phone started to ring.
I looked at the caller ID, expecting it to be Alan - hoping it would be Alan - but instead it was Adam. A part of me wished that Adam and I could have worked out. He would always call when he promised, and even fit in a few extra calls to make me happy.

"Hey Elmakias," I greeted into the phone. "How's it hanging?"
"It's not hanging, it's sticking straight up, bitch! I'm loving Florida right now! I think I'm gonna get laid tonight!"
I shook my head at Adam's response and smiled to Jelina as she shut my door to leave me to speak with Adam in peace. The background of Adam's call was loud and I could hear a lot of chatter and a thumping bass in the background. "Are you in a club?"
"Nope, we're on the bus! Seriously, I don't think I've gone to sleep sober on this tour yet. This is awesome!" Adam paused for a moment to yell at somebody and then snap a quick picture. "No calls from Loverboy yet?"
I sighed audibly, and Adam laughed on the other line. "Nope, and I've given up on calling him."
"He's stupid to leave a perfect girl like you waiting. He's stupid to leave a perfect girl like you in general."
I chuckled a bit. "Shut up, Adam. You're drunk."

"No, I mean it, Addie. You're perfect. If the circumstances were different, I would be with you in a heartbeat."

I couldn't help but blush at Adam's confession. "Oh, and what about me is so perfect?" I teased.
"You're so hilarious, like, the funniest person I've ever met. And you're real, you know? You're not a fake person, and you embrace who you are. And you fuck like a champion."
I let out a loud laugh at his words. "A champion? Really? I fuck like a champion?"

Adam laughed at his own words. "Yeah, I guess I am drunk." There was some laughter in the background and Adam pulled the phone away from a moment to tell the person who had called out his name who he was talking to. "Oh, I showed everybody your instagram, by the way. They all say that if things don't work out with Alan, they'd gladly take you out."
I sighed, feeling a bit nervous about the fact that Adam had told people about my situation with Alan. People who probably knew Alan and the rest of the guys. The last thing I wanted was for any fans to find out about my love affair, because they already knew about Jane and Alan, and I didn't want them to know any details that would make me seem like the bad guy. "Okay, Adam, I'm gonna let you go get laid now."
"Oh yeah!" Adam exclaimed, happiness evident in his hollering. "Hey, they all followed you on instagram by the way and Jeremy has requested more selfies to be posted."

"Make it stop," I groaned as I rubbed my free hand over my face. "Goodbye, Adam."
After my phone call with Adam, I had gained a bit more motivation to pack my things. One upside about moving back to Long Beach would be being able to see Adam more, well, whenever he wasn't touring. I had to start looking at the positive part of moving back to Long Beach because I had no choice but to embrace it. If I wanted to be involved in the company I was currently employed with - which was a given - then I had to move back. I went to school for six years to be qualified to become and editor in chief someday, and I would be stupid to give up my current job just because of some stupid romance issues.
I only spent another two hours packing. I packed most of my miscellanious belongings - pictures, decorations, and the like. The rest of my things could wait for a bit later when I wasn't still using everything. After I packed, I exited my bedroom. A knock on the door disrupted the silence of our apartment. I left the hallway just in time to meet Jelina's side as she pulled open the front door to see who it was. She gave me a nervous look, each of us expecting it to be Alan, but when she pulled the door open, both of our faces fell.

"Hey Ms. Kelly," Jelina greeted as we were met with our elder neighbor. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

I could sense the snarky attitude in Jelina's words. Ms. Kelly had been giving Jelina a lot of trouble about her cat being pregnant - she blamed Scotty, Jelina's cat, for getting her pregnant. However, Jelina had gotten Scotty fixed right around the same time that Ms. Kelly found out her cat was pregnant again, and so it was still unclear on who the father cat was.

"Bell had her kittens," Ms. Kelly announced. Each of us leaned in a bit, interested in what was to follow the news. "Looks like Scotty is in the clear; the kittens came out with stripes, so there's no way they would belong to Scotty. Looks like that stupid stray got ahold of my poor Bell."
Jelina let out a sigh of relief. If Scotty was the father again, Ms. Kelly was trying to request some sort of money to care for the kittens until she could give them away or sell them. Although Jelina had some money, it would really suck to spend that extra money on something that hardly even concerned her.
"Oh, I see," Jelina finally replied. "Well, have a good evening." She shut the door without saying anything else, leaving Ms. Kelly with her mouth gaping open in shock at how abruptly we had ended the conversation
"Thank the heavens!" Jelina said, waving her arms up in the air. "Damn that woman. I hate her."
"Seriously, that saved a lot of drama to be had."

-

That night I couldn't sleep. Long Beach and everything that was connected to it was on my mind. I thought about my father and my relationship with him. I thought about Natalie and how she had suddenly established some sort of friendship with my sister and the rest of the girlfriend's of the band members. I thought about Adam, and how he was still in love with my sister. And then I thought about my sister, and how she was pregnant with Alan's baby.
For some reason, I also couldn't get the incident with Ms. Kelly out of my head, either. I laughed at how Bell must get around - going between the stray and Scotty and then getting pregnant.

My laughter ceased when small conversations began to flood mind. I thought back to my conversation with Natalie about Adam and Jane's relationship about a month ago.

"Jane showed up one night like three months ago…so a month before you moved back…and she was all crying and begging Adam to take her back and all this shit."

That means that four months ago, Adam and Jane could have potentionaly slept together, especially since Jane spent the night.

Four months ago, Alan had just barely returned from touring, and Jane and Alan had just barely gone public at all after Jane had to sneak around behind Adam's back to be with Alan.
I then thought to my night with Alan just a week ago.

"I must have been drunk when I had sex with Jane last, because I don’t remember it happening."

I sat up in my bed, my eyes wide open as things slowly started to piece themselves together.
The morning that I slept with Adam, he was so worried about using protection, even after I told him that I was on the pill...almost as if he had failed to use protection once before and...
"Oh, God." I clapsed my hand over my mouth in shock.

And then I thought about Ms. Kelly and the cats. And it all made sense.

But I didn't know if this would make things easier or more fucked up. No matter what, I had to set things straight, and this just meant that I needed to investigate things more thoroughly before I went accusing anybody of anything. I thought about calling Adam to ask him what really happened on that night that Jane had showed up on his doorstep, but that wasn’t an option because I wasn’t even supposed to know, and because he was probably passed out drunk or fucking some random chick from Florida.

I thought about calling Natalie to ask her what else she knew, or if she had gotten any information out of Jane, but I was afraid of calling her after how “buddy-buddy” she looked with our ‘enemies’ in the group. And there was no way that I could call Alan about it because, well, I’m sure he already had a couple hundred missed calls from me and even if he did answer, it’s not like he would know anything about Jane cheating on him. Plus, going to him straight away wouldn’t be best because he was so excited to have this child, and I was afraid of putting these doubts in his mind with the possibility of them still not being true.

I lie back down in my bed and let out a loud groan as my head got swallowed up by my mound of feathered pillows. I felt suddenly relaxed at the comfort of my pillows and my mind cleared for just a moment, just enough for me to let out a satisfying yawn. My mind cleared at the slightest and I knew that plotting things on a tired mind wouldn’t conjure up the best results in the end.

I closed my eyes and allowed the sleep to overcome me, making a quick mental note to plot my plan of action first thing in the morning.

My dreams weren’t the kindest to me, though. The memories seemed to poke and pry at my sanity, only adding to the tension and the stress, even in my sleep.

“Addie! Addie! Wake up, it’s Christmas!” Jane bounced up and down on my bed, her braided pigtails flying around, whipping the sides of her neck as she struggled to contain her excitement.

“Go back to sleep Janey,” I yawned. “We’re too old to be waking up like this. We can wait like grown ups.”

Jane let out a huff and then a whimper. “I’m only nine, Addie! I am not a grown up and neither are you! Now get up!”

I gave in all too quickly – I pushed the blankets off of my body and sprinted after Jane, straight down the stairs and toward the Christmas tree, making sure to bang on our parents’ door as we passed. We dug into our stockings first, making sure to dump it completely upside down to get the candies that were put in the bottom.

We finished with our stockings and then waited. Jane was able to be occupied with the small stuffed Reindeer that was put in her stocking, but I was bored and wondering what was taking Mom and Dad so long to get downstairs and start cooking breakfast. Dad would come down in his Christmas pajamas and reindeer hat, singing loudly while Mom would laugh as she tied her rub tightly as she descended the stairs behind him. But they weren’t coming. There was no laughing, no singing, no signs of a Santa Hat…

I heard their bedroom door slam shut and I whipped my head around, eager to see Dad’s smiling face, but instead I only saw my mother’s sunken face walking down the stairs. She was fully dressed – in jeans and a buttoned-up blouse. Her hair was curled to perfection and her make-up was covering her face. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

“Go get ready, girls,” she said as she walked into the room, already picking up the small mess we had made from the stockings. “We’re going to Gran’s house for presents.”

“Where’s daddy?” Jane asked while she hugged her Reindeer close. “I want Daddy to sing the reindeer song to my new stuffed nanny-mal.”

My mom crouched down beside us, taking each of our hands in hers, rubbing her slender fingers over our knuckles. “Daddy’s got to go sing for someone else, today, sweetie. But I get your Grandpa would love to sing to-“

“NO!” Jane urged. “Only Daddy can do it and I want Daddy to do it!”

My mother bowed her head and stood up at the same time. She let out a few loud coughs, meaning that her breathing was getting far too worked up and she was going to suffer from a coughing attack if she continued to get too anxious or angry.

“Jane!” my mother snapped suddenly. “Your father is not spending Christmas with us this year! Now get your bottoms up the stairs and in the bath so we can get you ready. Don’t make me count to three!”

Jane was the first one to scurry up the stairs. The last time Daddy had to count for three, she got a spanking because she didn’t listen. But I, on the other hand, was old enough to know that something wasn’t right.

“Mom,” I asked in the most mature tone that I could. “Where is Dad? Don’t lie to me. I’m twelve and I can take it.”

My mother shook her head. “He’s just busy, okay? And just because you’re twelve doesn’t mean that you’re immune to my hand hitting your behind. Now, go.”

I walked up the stairs, making sure to go extra slow. I knew that there was no way she could run after me to give me a spanking, I was much faster than her, and even if she started to take off in a sprint, she would start one of her coughing fits and I would be able to get away. Then she would have to go lock herself away in her bedroom until her medication would kick in.

I knew that my Daddy didn’t like taking care of my mommy, but I was still his daughter, after all, and he had to be there on Christmas for his daughter. But he wasn’t.

Notes

Shorter chapter...sorry, guys! But the next one is going to be longer and a bit more eventful.

What do you think about Addie's memory? How does this make you feel about her Dad? What's wrong with her mom? I want to let you guys in on her family life a bit more so you can see a little bit of what's going on in her head.

Also, ALAN WTF?! Right, am I right? Why is he ignoring her? It even pisses me off! lol

let me know what you think! Love you all!