Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

They were on the road now. Fall Out Boy had their own tour bus, while the other two bands had the standard vans with trailers. That worked out well for all the bands, except for Patrick. The tour manager was riding on the bus with them.

Patrick and Luci hadn’t spoken a word to each other since the night of the first show. They were heading to the third stop on their tour now, and the tension on the bus was thick. The only person who didn’t seem to notice was Katy, but most of the time, she was playing game boy with Joe or coloring with Pete.

Patrick spent most of his time in the back of the bus. Doing pretty much nothing. He just didn’t want to be around Luci at all. It didn’t help, though, that Katy had demanded that Patrick sing her to sleep the last couple nights. He didn’t want too, but knew if he didn’t, he’d just be seen as a bigger asshole.

So each night, Katy would be tucked into her bunk and Patrick would sing her whatever song she requested. Everyone else left them alone, thankfully, and Katy would fall asleep to the sound of his voice.

They were almost to their next location when Patrick came out from the back. He just wanted a bottle of water and hoped he’d somehow go unnoticed. No one acknowledged him until he got to the fridge.

“Trick, Trick, Trick!” He looked up, seeing Katy standing beside him, clutching a piece of paper and wearing one of his hats. She’d taken quite a liking to his collection, and always seemed to find another one to wear.

“What is it, sweetie?” He asked, getting his water. Katy was bouncing, clutching a piece of paper. She grinned and held it up for him. On it was what he thought to be a panda and a scribble wearing a hat. Patrick took the paper, studying it. “Oh, that’s a nice drawing, Katy…”

Katy grabbed his arm and tugged him along to the couch, where she climbed up and looked at him. “Sit!” Sighing, Patrick did. Katy crawled right into his lap and began pointing to random scribbles on the paper. “See, that’s my panda! And that’s you, with hat! And that’s Pete and Joe and Andy!” Patrick nodded, vaguely seeing any resemblances in any of them. The Joe had curly hair, but also a weird crown on his head. ‘Andy’ had colorful stripes on his arms and legs, while the Pete had some weird rendition of the bartskull drawn on him. Patrick just had a hat.

“Cute, Katy. Did you do this by yourself?” He asked, looking over the drawing. Katy shook her head and pointed to Pete, whose hands had colorful scribbles all over them. Patrick smirked a bit, wondering if Pete let her or she conned him into it.
“Yea, but no, Pete helped!” She told him, leaning back on his lap. “But I drew you guys! And my panda, ‘cause he would have been sad.” Patrick nodded, opening his bottle of water to take a sip. “I didn’t draw mamma yet.”

Patrick twitched when she mentioned Luci, but hoped Katy didn’t notice. “Really, huh, well, maybe you should go draw her?” He suggested, getting ready to lift her off his lap. Katy scrambled off his lap briefly, grabbing her panda from the other end of the couch then got back into his lap before he could even stand up.

“I will!” she promised, smiling as she held her panda. “But mamma’s busy and so I can’t draws her, or she might get mad.” Patrick nodded, leaning back on the couch. He was trapped now, figuring Katy was just going to sit with him and talk his ear off.

He actually wondered where Luci was. He just realized she wasn’t on the couch or at the table. Did she leave her daughter again and go to one of the vans? He didn’t recall that they stopped anywhere.

“Where is your mamma, Katy?” Patrick asked, frowning. Katy just shrugged, her head resting against his chest while she twisted her panda’s ears around. He sighed, glancing over at Pete, who shrugged. “Well, where is she?”

Andy glanced up from his magazine. “She’s up front with the driver, talking on the phone.” He said. “Something happened and so she has to make some arrangements.” Patrick frowned, wondering if this was just a continuation from the other night.

“What happened?” Patrick asked.

Andy shrugged, setting his magazine down. “It’s not my place to talk about it, so I’d suggest you ask her. It’s got her pretty upset.”

Patrick was about to respond when Luci walked in. “Andy, are you talking about me?” She asked, putting her phone in her pocket. Katy waved to her mom, grinning. “Hey, baby girl, what are you doing with Patrick?”

“I show him my drawing!” Katy said, holding the drawing up for her mom to see. She never left Patrick’s lap, which bothered Luci a bit.

“Well, come sit with me and show it off, baby girl.” Luci said, taking a seat next to Patrick. Katy shook her head, turning in Patrick’s lap to face her.

“No, I like it!” She whined, clutching Patrick’s shirt.

“C’mon, Katy, he has things to do.” Luci sighed. “And don’t whine, okay? Do you need a nap?” Katy shook her head, burying her face in Patrick’s shirt. Patrick looked at Luci, not sure what he should do. He finally got a good look at her, though. He could see bags under her eyes and how blotchy her cheeks were. She looked like she had been crying again, and he was starting to worry.

Wait, why should he worry?