You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away

Tour had been over for about two weeks now, and to say Kyraleigh was acting strange was an understatement. Alex was really starting to worry about his girlfriend. She was getting very health conscious, yet she seemed to have gained some weight. He didn‘t care, he was happy with Kyraleigh as long as she was happy with herself, but he was still worried about her. He felt some relief when she told him that she had a doctor’s appointment. Alex figured she was probably just coming down with a cold, so he let it go until she returned.

She raked her fingers through her blonde tresses and pulled an elastic from her wrist so she could pull her hair into a sloppy ponytail before turning the knob of her apartment door.

“How did it go?” Alex asked, shocking Kyra. She forgot her boyfriend had stayed around to make sure everything was okay.

“I don’t know,” Kyra sighed as she walked past him into the kitchen to get something to drink.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Alex half laughed. “Kyra you went to the doctors…”

“I’m healthy if that’s what you mean,” she cut him off as she poured herself a glass of milk.

“Then what is wrong?” Alex asked as he stepped into the kitchen and watched her put the milk carton back into the fridge.

“Nothing is wrong,” she stated, picking up her blue glass and swirling the milk around it. “I am fine.”

“You sure, Kyra?”

“Yes, Alex, I’m sure,” she stated as she glanced at the clock: it was five thirty-four. She set the blue glass down on the counter before walking away.
“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to take a nap,” she responded while continuing towards her room. She crawled into the bed and buried herself in the covers a tears made her way to her eyes. Kyraleigh clamped her eyes shut and held them in. She knew Alex needed to know what was bugging her, but she didn’t think it was the right time to tell him. Maybe after a nap…-X-

Kyraleigh rolled out of bed and scratched her head as she trudged to the kitchen and grabbed an ice cream sandwich from the freezer.

“Lex, did you eat my Oreos?” she called to the singer who was watching television in the living room. “And what about the Doritos? ‘Cause I really want some.”

“Kyraleigh, you hate those cookies with a burning passion,” Alex teased as he walked through the door way towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face into her messy hair. “Why are you craving things like a pregnant chick?”

She gulped as Alex’s hand brushed against the skin exposed between the band of her yoga pants and her tank top as her hoodie slipped from her shoulder.
“Kyraleigh, you aren’t pregnant, are you?”

Her heart started racing as she frantically tried to get our of Alex’s grip. She clawed at his wrists but he didn’t budge.

“Alex, let go of me. Alex…”

“Don’t worry, Kyraleigh,” Alex whispered, pulling her with him as he moved towards the living room. “No one is going to hurt you or your baby.”

“Alex, let go of me, please,” she managed to get out, and this time he obliged, letting go enough so Kyra could turn around to face him, but when she looked at the singer, she didn’t see him. In his place was the tall, lanky, black haired guitarist wearing a pair of green basketball shorts. “J-Jack?”

“Don’t Worry, Kyraleigh. No one is going to hurt you or your baby,” Jack repeated Alex’s words before embracing the blonde who started to sob into his chest.

“Jack, I’m so scared,” her voice cracked as another sob rose from her chest. “But I want you to…” She drug out the ‘o’ as she felt herself being shoved away from the guitarist so she fell onto the loveseat that they were standing near. “Jack, w-what the hell was…”

“Oh, quit your whining,” a different voice said. This time it was a raspy voice and as soon as she recognized it, the man was over her pushing her hoodie off of her shoulders. “Those damn boys aren’t going to save you this time. They are gone. Dead and gone…”

“You are lying!” Kyra shouted, trying to fight her father off of her. “You are dead! That FBI agent shot you dead. I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Then why am I here, sweetheart?” he taunted as a twisted, evil grin spread across his face. His weight pinned Kyra’s hips to the couch as she tried to wriggle free. She didn’t know what else to do, so she clamped her eyes shut and tried to keep from crying.

“Kyra! Kyra!” Alex shouted, shaking her shoulder as she frantically shouted things out in her sleep. “C’mon, Kyra! Wake up!”

She rolled over, but didn’t wake up and yelled some incomprehensible phrase towards her father, which Alex was the only part Alex understood. The singer sighed and pushed the covers off of the bed before sitting down and lifting her so he could hold her. She seemed to calm down quite a bit, though she was still shaking. Alex thought about putting her down when Kyra shouted out “They are going to find you and kill you, you sick fuck! They are going to kill you…”

Alex tried to shake Kyra again, and this time she started to stir, although she was still in her dream. Things just started to face and soon she saw Alex looking down at her.

“Kyraleigh,” he whispered, placing a kiss on her temple. “Kyraleigh, baby, c’mon, wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him with wide eyes before reaching up and rubbing her hand against the scruff on his chin and eventually up into his hair.

“Are you real, Alex?”

“That’s a silly question, Kyra,” Alex responded with a smile, causing Kyra to hit his cheek.

“Just answer it.”

“Yes, Kyra, I’m a real, living, breathing, human being.”

“Thank God,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his shoulder. “I-I had the worst nightmare.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex offered. Kyra nodded into his shoulder.
“You were in the kitchen, telling me I hate Oreos and told me I was acting like a pregnant chick, then asked if I was pregnant. But then you disappeared and Jack replaced you, telling me it’d be okay and he hugged me, but then shoved me onto the couch. But he didn’t shove me, my dad did. He, he told me you and the guys were dead and no one would care if I was next to die. He, he was back Alex and he tried to…”

“Jack said you stopped having these dreams a while ago, Kyra,” Alex interrupted. “When did they start back up?”

“This was the first one,” Kyra whispered. “T-They stopped before… no, they stopped the day of the wedding Jack took me to…”

“So it’s been like a year?” Alex asked. Kyra nodded before pushing herself away from Alex and asking what time it was. “It’s like seven. Why?”

She didn’t respond, she picked her phone up from the nightstand and scrolled through the contacts before pressing the call button.

“Kyra…” Alex started but stopped when she showed him the screen and pressed the speaker button. It showed a name Kyra hadn’t had the heart to remove from her phone, let alone text for about 2 months. Jack Barakat.-X-

“Okay, you’re right, veggie burgers are not that bad,” Jack admitted as he took a second bite from the burgers Steff had made.

“See, I told you to be open to new food, but did you listen?” she laughed.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Listen to your girlfriend, Jack,” he said, mocking Steff as she stuck her tongue out at him. He grabbed a few chips off of his plate and threw them at her, causing her to try and throw part of her salad at him. They laughed and continued to throw food at each other until Jack’s phone went off.

“Who is it?” Steff asked, removing her glasses and cleaning the lenses as Jack fished the iPhone out of his pocket.

“It… It’s Kyraleigh,” Jack said, slightly shocked that she was calling him.

“Well you can let it go to voicemail,” Steff shrugged. “I mean, if it’s important she can leave a message and you can call her back.”

“Steff, it has to be important if she’s calling me. She hasn’t bothered to talk to me in well over a month,” Jack stated, his thumb hovering over the answer button.

“But you…”

“It’s going on speaker, just don’t say anything, okay?”

“Whatever,” Steff muttered, crossing her arms and slouching in her chair as Jack accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Jack, it’s Kyra,” the girl on the other end of the call said.

“Hey, Kyra, what’s up?” Jack asked, trying to ignore the death glare Steff was sending the phone.

“Umm. I kind of need to tell you something. Is Steff around?”

“No, why?” Jack lied, causing Steff to throw the rest of her burger at him. He mouthed, “Just trust me with this,” as Kyra started to talk again.

“Umm, well I don’t honestly know the best way to say this…”

“Take your time,” Jack replied, and he could hear the girl shift back and forth on whatever she sat on.

“Jack, I went to the doctor’s today. I’m pregnant…”

“What? Congratulations, Kyraleigh…”

“Jack, I didn’t finish,” she said. “I’m pregnant. And it’s with your child. The doctor told me I’m about months…”

“And you didn’t know this earlier?” Jack practically shouted. “Kyra, how the hell did you not know this? I mean you wouldn’t have had your…”

“Jack, shut the hell up!” she shouted back as her voice cracked and he could hear the tears starting. “I knew I was, but I didn’t want to say anything until I could get to the doctors and know the baby was going to be okay for sure. It’s half the reason why I didn’t do anything on tour, not because I was lazy. I was afraid of loosing another baby…”

Jack looked up at Steff who was at a loss for words. She got up and walked out of the room, leaving Jack to finish his conversation with his pregnant ex-girlfriend.