Finding Us

by Debra Presley

  “Abby! Abby!” an enthusiastic fan called. The girl had to be about fifteen and was jumping up and down. Abby smiled and walked over to her.

  “Hi. What’s your name?”

  “Tonya.”

  “Tonya? Does your dad work for this hotel?”

  “Yes!” She bounced with girlie excitement.

  “Did he show you our picture?”

  “I posted it on Facebook.”

  “Awesome. Would you like me to sign that?” Tonya was clutching a magazine.

  “Oh, my God. Absolutely!”

  Abby took the magazine, signed it quickly, and handed it back. It was last month’s Rolling Stone featuring her and Sean on the cover.

  “How about we take a picture of us together?”

  “That’d be so cool.” The girl smiled.

  “Do you have a phone or camera?” Abby asked.

  “Oh yes.” She pulled out her phone from her side pocket and handed it to Abby.

  “Say cheese.” Abby clicked the picture and handed the phone back to the girl. “Now make sure you tag me when you post that one, okay?”

  “Of course. Is Sean here?” Tonya asked, holding out the magazine. “I would love for him to sign this, too.” Her voice raised about two octaves.

  “I’m not sure,” Abby said.

  Danny stepped in. “He’s working on some new material with the guys. He’ll join Abby on the bus later.” He tucked his hand gently under Abby’s elbow and said, “Abby, I’m sorry, we have to get going.”

  “Okay, thanks. It was so nice to see you all.” She smiled and waved one last time. Danny turned his body to shield her from the growing crowd and guided her toward the bus. He didn’t relax until she was safely onboard with the door closed behind them. The only thing left to do now was deal with the aftermath of this morning’s meeting.

  Abby climbed onto the tour bus and was greeted by the welcoming smile of her driver, Anthony. He’d been with Abby for five years, and she wouldn’t let anyone else behind the wheel.

  “Morning, Abby. Ready to roll?”

  “Absolutely. How are you today?” She gave him a brief smile.

  “Good. Excited to get to California.”

  “A few more shows, and you get to spend some time with the family.” Abby patted him on the back and walked into the small living area. The smell of leather and stale air hit her nose.

  She loved touring because she got to perform, but she hated this bus. Except her bedroom; she loved that. Her mother had designed the bus to fit her style, but Abby had fought hard to decorate her bedroom to her liking. The living room sat right behind the driver’s seat and had two cream-colored leather couches that sat opposite each other and were encased in shiny, dark-brown lacquer. It reminded her of a doctor’s office. Everything was stale and cold. And, as if one sterile, rolling doctor’s office wasn’t enough, her mother had a second one made for herself. She was not the sort to share her space, not even with her daughter.

  She kept walking until she reached the small kitchen table. She sat down and waited for Sophie, Danny, and Ron.

  “Here you go.” Sophie’s voice startled her, and Abby jumped. She set the latte on the table and leaned against the counter opposite Abby.

  “You’re a lifesaver.” Abby took a sip and closed her eyes, enjoying the rich chocolate flavor.

  “Oh and before I forget…” Sophie dug through her bag, and Abby took another sip of her coffee. “Here ya go.” She handed Abby her phone.

  “Thanks.” She studied the phone, thinking about all the trouble it had caused.

  “Ladies, ready for a road trip?” Ron clapped and rubbed his hands together, giving them a mischievous grin.

  Danny’s large frame caught her gaze as he stopped to chat with the driver before the bus pulled away.

  “You’re way too excited about endless hours on a bus.” She shook her head then got up and went to the back of the bus. She passed the bathroom and bunk area until she arrived at the door to her private bedroom. It was the only area on the bus that felt like hers. She sat down on her full-sized bed, positioned in the middle of the space. A pretty red and cream-colored comforter with scattered throw pillows made it feel like home. She plugged her phone into a floor outlet.

  Abby relaxed back against the cushioned headboard and tried to figure out how she felt about everything that had happened. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. When she opened them, Danny was standing at the door with her coffee. She startled.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “You scared me.” She placed her hand on her heart.

  “I didn’t mean to. You opened your eyes when I was about to knock,” he explained. “Anyway, you left your coffee on the table. Did you still want it?”

  “Oh, yes. I forgot all about it. Thank you.” She grabbed the coffee, and he remained in the doorway.

  “You don’t have to stand over there. Here.” Abby moved the pillows to the side and shifted over. “Come sit.” She patted the bed and smiled at him.

  “Thanks. Feeling any better?” He settled next to her.

  “Not really. It’s been a horrible twelve hours. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around it all.” She took another sip of latte.

  “I don’t know what to tell ya about what your mother said back there.” He lightly patted Abby’s leg. “But I do know you don’t have to worry about Sean ever touching you again. I promise you that.”

  “I think that’s the one thing I’m not worried about. If he’s dumb enough to come close to me again, then he deserves whatever he gets. What my mother said, that was all about my father.” She shook her head but didn’t elaborate.

  “I’m sorry. Still, these are her hang-ups, not yours. Don’t let her project them onto you.” He looked into Abby’s eyes. “I’ll protect you from both of them.”

  “As sweet as that is, you can’t. Not from her, anyway.” Abby rested against the headboard. She needed time to absorb all that happened. Eventually, the lack of sleep and stress of the day caught up with her.

  * * *

  Abby woke, startled by the loud noise coming from her nightstand. She recognized the ringtone. Sean. She reached for the phone and pressed the ignore button and placed it back on the table. Abby sat up in her bed and looked around the room. What time is it? She glanced at her TV satellite box and checked the time. One o’clock in the afternoon. She stretched and cracked her neck, doing her best to work the kinks out. Her phone rang again. Should she talk to him? If she didn’t, he’d call her incessantly. Maybe she should give the phone to Danny, but she didn’t want him to have to deal with this, either.

  She disconnected the charger. “What?” She answered, trying to sound angry, even though she was mostly scared.

  “Abby, baby. I’m so sorry. Please, forgive me. I miss you, baby.” Sean rushed his words out, and his voice cracked at the end.

  “Go away, Sean. Lose my number,” she said firmly before she disconnected the call.

  Almost immediately her phone rang again. She hit the ignore button and then shut it off. Abby didn’t have the strength to deal with any more of his shit right now. Throwing off the cover, she planted her feet on the dark, wood-laminate floor. Napping during the day wasn’t something she was used to, and she had a bit of a headache because of it. Abby walked through the dimly lit hall that held four bunk beds, two on each side, and into the main area of the bus.

  “Morning, sunshine,” Danny greeted Abby with a smirk.

  “Hey.” Abby waved to everyone and sat down on the end of the sofa, pulled her legs up, and wrapped her arms around them. She leaned her head against the partition and stared at the TV hanging from the wall.

  “Did she just let you get away with calling her sunshine?” Sophie asked Danny in a shocked voice. “You must be half asleep,” she teased.

  “I feel like a truck hit me. Where are we?” Abby yawned.

  “Another couple of hours until we’re in Reno,” Sophie said as she looked out the
window.

  “Here.” Danny handed Abby two Excedrin and a glass of water.

  “Thanks.” Abby smiled and took the pills.

  “You passed out. We were talking one minute and the next you were snoring.”

  “I don’t snore.” She passed the glass of water back to Danny and folded her arms. She absolutely snored, and she knew it, but there was no way she’d ever admit it to him.

  Danny laughed but stopped when Abby glared at him. She turned to Sophie. “Okay, distract me. Let’s go over the schedule for the next few days. I’m thinking there’s some rearranging that needs to be done, and it’s good that the boys are here because they can add their two cents to the mix.”

  “Sure, let me pull it up.” Sophie picked up her tablet. “Okay, come on over and let’s check this out.”

  Abby scooted over and spent the next couple of hours reworking the schedule with Sophie and going over any logistical things with Danny. Before she knew it, they stopped in front of their hotel, and she was feeling a little better about surviving the rest of the tour with Sean still on it.

  * * *

  “We’ll be next door if you need us,” Danny said as he walked around Abby’s hotel room. She watched him search the room.

  “Okay, thanks. Um, what are you doing?”

  “Making sure you’re alone.”

  “Oh.” She started to nibble at one of her fingernails then stopped. It was a habit her mother despised. “You don’t think…”

  “I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt. I’ve seen too much in my career to take the chance now.” He continued to search the room. “Okay, all clear.”

  “Thanks.” Abby’s shoulders sagged a bit. She hadn’t even thought about Sean sneaking into her room.

  “If you need anything, call. And remember if you feel frightened use your panic button.”

  “Thanks, and I got it.” She pointed to the keychain hanging from her purse. “I appreciate all this.” She gestured around the room.

  “It’s my job,” he said, and Abby’s smile faded. She’d reminded herself about that several times recently, but it hit her harder when Danny pointed out that protecting her was his job.

  “Oh. Of course. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She followed him to the door, making sure to keep her distance. After all she was just a job. No need for him to get the wrong idea.

  “Night, Abby.” He turned and looked at her with a bright smile. That made her feel a little better after his brusque answer earlier.

  “Yep. Night.” She closed the door and leaned her head against it, trying to make sense of her feeling of disappointment. She thought back to last night and how safe and protected she felt with him. He had been so kind and gentle with her. It was as if he somehow understood what she felt, and he wanted to save her from the experience. Danny had never reacted so passionately, and it had Abby’s emotions in a spin. But apparently she read him wrong.

  The hotel phone startled her. “Who’s calling me on this phone?” she muttered as she picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Abby is your phone off?” asked Sophie, concerned.

  “Oh, crap. Um, the battery went dead.” She hoped her lie wasn’t completely transparent.

  “That’s weird. I thought you charged it on the bus.”

  “Well, I don’t know. But it’s dead.” She knew she sounded bitchy, and a knot formed in her stomach. She didn’t want to explain why she needed to turn the phone off. “Why were you calling?”

  “To remind you about the phone interview tomorrow morning.”

  “Right, I completely forgot.” That was a bit of a stretch since she did interviews with local radio stations in every city the tour stopped in.

  “Are you okay?” Abby heard the concern in her friend’s voice.

  “Yes, there’s a lot going on, but I promise I’ll be ready for the interview. So there’s no need to camp out on my sofa.”

  Sophie laughed. “Am I that predictable?”

  “Yes, but that’s one of the many reasons why I love you,” she said, trying to smooth things over.

  “You know it, sista. Oh, not to sound like a total nag, but charge your phone.”

  “Yes, Mom.” Abby laughed.

  “Okay. Get some sleep. Good night.”

  “’Night.” Abby hung up then took her cell phone out of her back pocket

  As soon as she turned the phone on, it began to beep and sing back at her. She had twenty-seven voicemails and thirty-five text messages.

  “What the fuck?” She knew most, if not all, were from Sean, and it scared her. She spent the next ten minutes staring at her phone, trying to decide if she should delete his messages.

  Even though she knew it wasn’t a wise decision, she eventually scrolled through the text messages and opened one at random. Baby, pick up. I’m sorry. Abby continued to scroll through, looking at the time stamps for each message. 9:45 a.m., 9:52 a.m., 10:17 a.m., 10:22 a.m. As the numbers on the time stamps grew higher, so did her anxiety level with each message she read. I’m sorry. Followed by, Take me back. Then, I love you. Please baby answer your phone.

  Abby skipped down to more recent messages; they definitely had a different tone. He stopped apologizing and started threatening. Abby opened the last message. He’d sent it only five minutes ago, and the words on the screen made her body go cold.

  You think you can ignore me? You think you hurt before? See what happens if you keep this shit up. You are Mine!!!

  She dropped the phone on the bed. She didn’t want it in her hands. She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed them up and down, hoping the friction would ward off the chills. What the fuck am I going to do? He’s over the edge.

  Sean was not sane. She stood there trying to figure out how this all started. The only thing that made sense was that she finally told him she wouldn’t take any more of his bullshit. Maybe he snapped when she broke things off. Ending their relationship meant ending his time on the road and in the spotlight. He was talented, and at this point he really didn’t need to be with her in order to get noticed. In fact, he hated being in her shadow. There were many times he was asked to step aside so a photographer could get a picture of Abby alone. During those times Sean stomped around like a child who didn’t get picked first for the team.

  Abby felt more alone than ever standing in her hotel room. Odd, since she spent more time in hotel rooms than she did in her own apartment. Sean’s behavior had stalker written all over it, and it affected her in a way she’d never expected. Sure, she had some aggressive fans. Everybody in her business did. But they didn’t make her feel unsafe. Sean, on the other hand, made her feel vulnerable, and she didn’t like it at all. She paced as she tried to figure out what to do. There was no way to predict Sean’s behavior, and that left her feeling unsettled.

  She needed to tell Danny, but she couldn’t knock on his door when she felt so scattered and lost. He’d think she’d gone mad right along with Sean. She went into the bathroom and washed her face. The cool water helped her to focus. She looked at herself in the mirror and took a deep, calming breath.

  Finally, she was ready to deal with the crazy her life had become in the last twenty-four hours. Abby grabbed her phone and headed toward the door. She needed to get to Danny’s room and let him know what Sean was doing. She knew he’d freak; she also knew she needed his help. All she had to do in the five steps between her door and his was figure out how to tell him in a non-hysterical way.

  She had taken two steps out of her bedroom when her phone began to ring, and she knew exactly who it was. Abby stared at it, and in a spur-of-the-moment decision, she answered the call.

  “What?” she growled.

  “That’s not a very nice way to say hello.”

  “Give it up, Sean. Stop fucking calling me. We. Are. Over.”

  “We are far from over, Abby.”

  “No, Sean. We’re over. Forget my number before I take this to the police,” Abby threatened. “I’m sure they’ll agree that w
hat you’re doing totally falls under the ‘crazy stalker’ category.”

  “I’d think twice if I were you.”

  “Fuck you. I’m so over this. I don’t care if the world knows just how fucked up my life is. It’s way better than living a big fucking lie.” Abby took the phone away from her ear and was about to press the “end call” button when she heard Sean.

  “You’ll want to know all about what your precious Danny is doing backstage.”

  “Go to hell.” She clicked off the phone and had a strong urge to throw her phone across the room.

  Her phone started to ring, “Ahhh!” She walked out into the living room. She needed to go talk to Danny, but first she needed to calm down. The way she felt at the moment, she wouldn’t make much sense. She was fuming mad.

  Abby plopped down onto the couch and looked at the ceiling. What an arrogant asshole! He thought he could harass her and get away with it. That she’d take him back because of it.

  Her phone dinged, indicating she had a new email. She unlocked the screen and clicked her email app. It was from Sean.

  The subject line read, Look what your bodyguard’s been up to.

  He’d gone too far now. Clearly, he wasn’t going to leave her alone, and she was sick of it.

  Abby started toward the door but realized she didn’t have her keycard. She turned to get it, Sean’s email taunting her the whole time. She should ignore it. She wanted to ignore it, but she couldn’t. Look what your bodyguard’s been up to. What was that supposed to mean? What did Danny have to do with any of this? Sean’s parting words rang in her ears. What did he mean by she’d “want to know what Danny’s been doing”? Probably just trying to get her riled up.

  She found the card on the nightstand and reversed her steps. She stopped abruptly when she saw the little attachment paperclip next to Sean’s name. What was he sending? Curiosity got the better of Abby, and she opened the email and scrolled down. She clicked the attachment and waited for the file to download. It took some time. What the hell did he send her? She was about to say to hell with it when a video began to play. The quality was really bad. Abby turned her phone so the video took up the entire screen. Who was that? Where were they? The faint sounds of her band played in the background. Was this at a concert? Abby tried to zoom in so she could make out who was in the video. She knew who it looked like, but she wasn’t convinced. Danny wouldn’t do that with a groupie while she was on stage. Would he?