I asked.
“Being the only band member left in a bar full of women is not nearly as exciting as it sounds. I seriously almost got mauled. Jesus,” he said as he shook his head.
“Lucky bastard,” Adam grumbled as Jade exited the bathroom and took the seat next to me.
Eric grabbed a wad of money out of his pocket and divided it into four separate piles for each of us. There wasn’t much there, but it would pay for gas and food for a couple of days.
“You guys ready to head to our next stop? I talked to the manager earlier; he said it was cool to crash in his parking lot,” Eric said as he took the driver’s seat.
“Sound’s good to me, I’m going to call Chloe and then crash for the night,” I said as I made my way back to the bunks.
The bunks weren’t much, especially considering I’d just spent the last two nights sleeping on a King sized bed next to Chloe. It had been weeks since I’d had to sleep without her next to me and I missed her already. God, I sounded like a chick sometimes. I stripped down to my boxers and folded my body into the too small bunk. After several minutes of shifting to get comfortable, I gave up, knowing there was no position that could help me.
I dialed Chloe’s number and waited as it rang, but her voicemail picked up.
“Hey! You’ve reached Chloe, I can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave me your number I’ll call you back. Eventually. If I remember.”
I smiled at her stupid message as the phone beeped. “Hey baby, just got finished with my show. I guess you’re already asleep, so just call me in the morning. Love you.”
I was disappointed that I couldn’t talk to her before I went to sleep, but I knew she had probably stayed up as late as she could, waiting on me. She was worn out and needed to rest so she could deal with her mom.
I unlocked my phone and took one last look at the picture she sent me earlier before closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep with a smile on my face.
Chapter Eight
Chloe
The first week without Drake was the worst. I knew I had turned into one of those clingy girls I despised, but I missed him so much that it hurt. On top of that, my aunt was getting worse every day. I would visit her once or twice a day, depending on how she felt, and I could literally see her withering away right before my eyes. Each day, she would eat less, drink less, and sleep more. Her nurses told us to be prepared, that she could pass at any time.
I hated how helpless I felt as I watched it all play out before my eyes. Danny was trying to stay strong for her, but I knew it was eating him alive inside. On more than one occasion, I caught him sitting in the hallway outside her door with tears streaming silently down his face and it broke my heart.
Jordan and I tried to keep him busy as much as possible, but it was hard since he refused to leave the house. He was afraid the minute he left that she would pass and he wouldn’t be there with her. The overall feel of the entire house was dismal to say the least and Drake seemed to catch on to this when we would talk on the phone. He was worried about me, but I assured him that I was fine. I think he felt as helpless as I did, being so far away while all of this was happening around me.
The band was a huge success at every stop on their tour so far, and I was happy for all of them. They had worked really hard to pull all of this together and they deserved to reap the rewards.
Jordan had stuck to his word about watching out for me, and stayed with me almost constantly, especially when my mom was around. Thankfully, he had stopped trying to use his charms on me and we quickly fell back into our old friendship. My mother must have finally realized that she was about to lose her sister and started staying around the house more.
It made me miserable at times, but it also gave me hope that maybe she actually had a soul in there somewhere, that maybe she cared