AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where are we going?” I ask as the warm summer night air wraps around my arms.
“Just be patient, little star,” he says, the familiar words wrapping around me the way they always do, chasing out the last of the cold, watery chill that my bones had been soaking in all day. We walk around the building to a grass field, a tall man standing near some dim lights.
“Who’s that?” I ask.
“Reed.” We slowly approach him, my belly churning and not even bothering to ask where Beck is, knowing somewhere in my belly that he gave Riggins that painful-looking black eye. Wes is probably off hiding somewhere as is his way.
As we approach, it’s pushed from my mind as I watch Reed start to struggle more with something in his arms.
A…
A wiggling ball of fur.
“What is that?” I whisper.
“Yours,” Riggins says as we get slower and the ball of fur turns into a dog before my eyes. A puppy.
“Mine?”
“Yeah,” he says, and I reach out to touch the puppy, but before I even can, she’s jumping into my arms. I catch her, but just barely.
“Oh my god!” I squeal as she starts licking my face excitedly. “Oh my god!”
Riggins knows I’ve wanted a puppy since I was a kid, putting it on my Christmas list every single year even though my mother adamantly refused because dogs are disgusting.
“She’s a German Shepherd. She’ll be pretty big, eventually,” Riggins says from behind me, his hand on my waist.
“She’s precious,” I murmur, burying my face in her fur for a moment before moving to look at Riggins and smiling. I also note Reed has at some point disappeared.
It’s then I notice the rest of the area, a big blanket on the ground with candles lit all around, a guitar, a bag.
“What is this?” I ask, giggling as the dog nips at my ear.
“You can let her down,” Riggs says. “There’s a leash and a post in the ground.”
“What?” Nothing makes sense right now, and for a moment, I wonder if I’m still asleep.
“Put her down, Stell,” Riggins says, voice serious.
Suddenly, I’m anxious.
Suddenly, I’m remembering everything that happened this afternoon, remembering the look in Riggins’ eyes, the anger on Wes and Reeds’ faces.
“Put her down,” he repeats in a lower whisper.
“Riggins,” I say, but do as he asks, bending a bit, hooking the leash to the stake in the ground as I put down the dog.
“Stella,” he whispers, hooking an arm around my waist and pulling me into him. My arms go around his neck on instinct, my body trained to move to him like a sunflower, tipping my head up as I do. “I fucked up,” he says.
My instinct is to tell him it’s fine, that it wasn’t a big deal. He’s under a lot of pressure, and he’s right; I am underage, and maybe it’s my fault, but I fight that urge.
“I’ve been overwhelmed. It’s a lot, being on tour. The pressure to be this….” He sighs and then looks up at the stars as if the answers will be written there. “Great musician, and I’m just… I’m just me. I don't know what I’m doing. You’re right—the guys are right. I’m going too far. I’m drinking too much, I’m having too much fun?—”
I open my mouth to argue, but he shakes his head and corrects himself. “No, that’s not fair. I can have fun without drinking as soon as I wake up. I can have fun without getting blackout drunk every night.”
Relief washes through me. I move a hand, brushing his hair back. “That’s all I was trying to say, Riggins. And in my defense, not that I think I need it‚—”
“You don’t, Stell, you don’t need to defend yourself. You did nothing wrong.”
