I was done with this bullshit. Contract or no contract, I was catching a flight home as soon as I could get to an airport. I’d already spoken to my lawyer about it and he’d said he potentially had enough proof to show they were breaking multiple stipulations of our contract, so I could get out of finishing the tour. At this point, I didn’t care about the money or my reputation. I just needed to get the hell away from them. There was no doubt in my mind why the last Kay had turned to heroin and suicide; these bitches were enough to drive anyone insane.
“Come on, you sweet blond pussy.” Tayla and Pam joined Marj and the two guys they’d picked up, who were now stark naked, sneering down at me. She snatched the headphones off of my head and I shot to my feet. I wasn’t suicidal like Kay, but I was on the verge of being homicidal, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.
“Give me the fucking headphones,” I snapped.
“What are you gonna do? Take them?” Tayla tossed them on the ground and stomped on them, laughing.
I arched my brows. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”
“You’re not better than us, you know,” Tayla responded, her bloodshot eyes cloudy from alcohol and who knows what else.
“Never said I was.”
“But you sit in there like the queen of fucking England, always working. You’re the only one who writes songs… Why can’t you use the ones they write for us like Kay did?”
“Because I like to write songs.”
“You wanna fuck my boyfriend?” Tayla changed tactics, pulling her flavor of the month forward and beginning to stroke his dick.
“No thanks.” I tried to sit down again but Tayla yanked me back up by the hair.
I let out a yelp of pain and surprise, pulling myself free of the other woman’s grasp as I stumbled back into my seat. “What. The. Fuck.” I stood up again, scowling. “You want to go, Tayla? Huh? You and your drunk ass think you can take me?” I’d never been in a fistfight in my twenty-two years on earth, but I was ready tonight.
“Fuck you!” Tayla started laughing, which turned into a deep, guttural cough that led her to her own bunk.
“What did you do to her?” Pam growled at me.
I raised my hands. “I never touched her. Maybe if she’d stop smoking and shooting up, she wouldn’t sound like that all the time.”
“Maybe if you weren’t so holier-than-thou, we’d be a group again instead of Lexi’s backup singers.”
“Again, if you spent more time on the music instead of the drugs and dickless wonders, it wouldn’t be that way.”
“We don’t want you here,” Tayla rasped. “We fucking hate you.”
“Good. I hate you too and I’ll be out of here the next time we stop.”
“You can’t leave the group. There’s another year on your contract.” Tayla tried to keep talking but succumbed to another coughing fit.
“I’d rather go broke than spend another year on tour with you bitches.” I pulled the curtain closed and sat down. Though I’d learned quickly not to back down with them, the fighting and insults still bothered me. My hands were shaking and I was a little nauseated, but I’d be okay. Opening up my phone to distract myself, a notification caught my eye.
Las Vegas loses to Florida, 5-4.
The Sidewinders had played Florida? In Fort Lauderdale? Tonight? I quickly looked up the team’s schedule and, sure enough, the game against Florida had ended only a few minutes ago. Holy shit. This might be my lucky night.
I hauled my ass out of my bunk and rushed to the front of the bus. Lula Mae Hammond had been our bus driver for two years and she was a sweet, smart lady; we’d gotten close over the last couple of years. Lula Mae was one of the only people keeping me sane on this tour.
“Lula, where are we?” I whispered.
Lula glanced at me in surprise. “Passing through a western suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Lex. What’s up?”
“Are we anywhere near Sawgrass Mills? The Sawgrass Expressway?”
“Sugar, what’s going on?”
“Tell me, Lula. It’s important.”
“We’re on the Sawgrass, sugar, but—”
“Don’t pass the exit for the mall!” I ran back to my bunk and threw my laptop, external hard drive and chargers into my backpack. Grabbing my Keds, I slid my feet into them, put my phone in my pocket and slipped on my denim jacket. I took one last look around and then hurried back