Page 26 of My Bully's Crush: Vol1
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*Ryder*
“Mom, I just got your message; what’s up?”I was still a bit out of breath from the last set on stage.I’d gotten into the habit of checking my messages to see if she’d found out anything more about what we’d talked about when I went to her place and also as a way to keep tabs on Elena.
Mom had contacted her the very next day, and the two of them had rekindled the friendship they’d shared when Elena and I were together.I’m still finding it hard to think of us in the past tense, and more so now that I am away from home and no longer getting as high as I used to.
I have to keep my senses about me somewhat in order to perform, except for those first few days at the beginning of the tour when it felt as if I would die if I didn’t take a hit of something I’ve been cutting way back.
The results were twofold because now I had more time to think, though some of my memories weren’t very clear and didn’t make a whole lot of sense.I still haven’t been as free as I’d like, so I couldn’t check up on her myself as I would like to, so these calls and texts from Mom were the highlights of my day.
“She’s in the hospital.”
“Who?”
“Elena.”I think my heart stopped, and the world started moving in slow motion while the ground beneath my feet felt unsteady.
“What do you mean?Is she hurt?How bad is she?”
“She’s in the psych ward; at least, that’s what the tabloids are saying.She had some sort of mental breakdown.”
“What?Why?”I had that feeling you get when you have to throw up and crap at the same time, but the body goes into lockdown.
“I don’t know, maybe because your wife and her friends have been terrorizing her for weeks.”This was not the time to address the venom in my mom’s voice when she said the word wife.I’d come to the conclusion pretty much that there was no love lost between those two.
I was still unsure what game Janie was playing by keeping my family away from my home because I figured I could fix that issue once I got back.“Which hospital?Do you know?”
“Some place in Alabama, I don’t remember the name of it, but I can look it up and get back to you.”
“Text it to me as soon as you find it; I’ll be in the air in less than an hour.”
I hung up and went to find my manager, who was probably already on his way to the hotel lining up groupies, which I had no interest in.“Scott!”I called out to him as soon as I saw him in the hallway outside my room door.There was already loud music and sounds of a party coming from inside the room when I brushed past him.
“Hey, what’re you doing?The party’s out there.”He’d followed me into the bedroom of the suite leaving the guests outside.I ignored the two women on the bed, who looked barely a minute over eighteen, as I grabbed my bags and started shoving what I needed into them.
“Where are you going?”
“I have an emergency; you have to cancel the rest of the tour.”
“What?What’re you talking about?Do you know how much money we’re gonna lose?”
“I can’t tell you how little of a fuck I give right now.”I brushed past him again and jogged down the hallway with my phone to my ear.
He tried keeping up with me, even tried to hold me back, but I pulled out of his hand and kept going.“Is this about that girl?Listen, Ryder, you’re married….”My look had him shutting the hell up, and he even took a step back.
The fact that he knew what this was about just put him on my shit list.I’d been spending my time here after my visit to Mom, trying to figure out what the hell was going on while trying to piece together the puzzling bits and pieces of memories that kept flashing through my mind.
I knew or had come to believe that I was surrounded by people with an ulterior motive; I just couldn’t figure out who.Of everyone in my crew, Scott, my manager for as long as I’ve had a career, knows what she means to me.He, of all people, should know that even though we weren’t together anymore, I still cared about her.Which means he should know that her being hurt was something I would want to know.
I had finished my call to the pilot by the time I slid into the backseat of the car after telling him I didn’t care what he had to do; I wanted in the air in half an hour or less.I was seven hours out, fuck.What was I supposed to do with that time other than obsess over what was going on with her?
I wasn’t looking forward to the next few hours, that feeling of helplessness was already setting in, and I’ve never been too good at the waiting game.I needed a hit in the worst way, but the fear of something happening to her before I reached her killed the need real quick.
I had never been so afraid before in my life, and for once, I had the power to stop the tears that came in a rush.I wanted to hit something or someone, but a good scream into the void helped take the edge off.Stay calm, Ryder.Getting upset isn’t going to change anything, and you won’t be of any help to her if you lose your shit.
I had a lot of questions, like why the hell was she so far away from home?What exactly had happened?Who was by her side?Was she alone?None of these things made me feel any better, so I thought it best to think about something else.
What did Mom mean that Janie and her friends had been tormenting her?What had they done exactly?And why the fuck was she still messing with her after all this time?I had to pull it back and rein it in.There was no point in being angry about that now, not before I learned all I needed about the situation, and then I could go from there.