I Want It All

Carlyle had known what she wanted out of her life since the moment she left Baltimore for California, since the moment Interscope hired her before she had even graduated. But as she stood in the bathroom of her new (and, okay, pretty nice) apartment, she pretty much saw all of her hopes and dreams crashing down in front of her.

Or, well, maybe that was more than a little melodramatic.

Her phone rang against the marble countertop (oh, yeah, she splurged), shaking her out of her reverie. Her eyes flickered down to the phone, her stomach twisting when she saw Alex’s name and picture pop up onto the screen. Not sparing a second thought, she hit ignore before turning her phone off entirely.

Carlyle’s eyes landed on the strip of plastic resting in her hand. Yup. There was that trembling feeling in her hands again, the unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. She forced her eyes to meet her reflection; she wasn’t exactly shocked when she saw her eyes watering.

“Fuck.”

With a curse, she tossed the plastic into the garbage before walking out of the bathroom. Even as she laid down on her bed, she couldn’t shake the word “pregnant” out of her mind.

+

Alex rolled his eyes when Lyle sent him straight to voicemail. That was, what? The tenth time in a row in the past week? Something to that effect. He tossed his phone onto the couch in the hotel room before pulling a bottle of water out of the small refrigerator.

“What’s wrong?” Rian asked, glancing up from his book. He knew his best friend, he knew his moods—he knew when Alex wanted someone to listen without expressing that out loud.

“Lyle won’t answer any of my calls,” Alex mused.

“Well, what did you do?”

Alex paused. “Why—“

Rian scoffed. “Really, Alex?”

He sighed, sitting down across the table from the drummer. “Things have been really awkward between us lately. Ever since we finished recording.”

“Two months is a long time for things to be awkward between you and Lyle,” Rian agreed softly.

Alex nodded.

“Well, what happened two months ago? Lyle wouldn’t get weird for no reason.”

Alex shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“No, no. You brought it up. Let’s discuss. No judgment,” he promised.

Alex ran his hands over his face. “I fucked up. Big time. We were doing so well during recording for five months, you know? Like old times? And now…” he sighed. “She won’t fucking talk to me.”

“How did you fuck up? She wouldn’t ignore you over nothing,” Rian explained logically.

With a groan, Alex rested his head on the table, muttering something under his breath.

Rian frowned. “Wait, what?”

Alex groaned again, lifting his head back up. “We had sex.”

Rian’s jaw dropped. “You fucked Lyle?!” he screamed.

“Shut up!” Alex hissed, leaning across the table quickly to cover his best friend’s mouth.

But it was too late. Zack, Vinny, Flyzik, and Jack had already walked out of the back bedroom, shocked looks on all of their faces.

Jack was the first to speak. “You did what?”