Nobody, Not Even the Rain Has Such Small Hands

Tony's POV
"Who's manning the fucking merch table?"
The bus door slams shut and Vic comes storming up the steps. I mentally slap myself for not thinking of it sooner. Maddy left before the day ended, meaning that the table was unoccupied.
"Everything's gone!" Vic throws his hands up into the air. "Everything!"
The three of us remain silent and watch him. It's the most I've heard him say since the night he showed up trashed right before bus call. Although I can smell hints of alcohol, he's relatively sober.
"Obliviously something happened that made her need to leave." Jaime ignores the way Vic's fuming.
Vic scoffs and then walks back to his bunk, throwing the curtain closed behind him.
"Well she wouldn't just leave all the money, the tips and merch," Mike looks to me and nods. "We put her on because we knew we could trust her."
"Well obviously we can't!" Vic yells from his bunk.
"Something happened," I tell them. "She wouldn't just pick and leave like that unless something happened."
I wrack my brain for some sort of clue. Recently her nightmares had switched from a jumbled mess of memories to specific events usually featuring her father. I think back to how weird she acted at the casino. She went off to the bathroom for at least ten minutes that night. I've come to know the face she puts on each time something's wrong, and something was wrong that night. Obviously that guy had something to do with it because she was fine beforehand.... My mind flashes to the back lounge and what happened, how she trusted me enough and how she pushed through what happened to her.
"I bet her dad has something to do with this."
Jaime and Mike perk up with questioning looks. "Her dad?" Jaime asks. "She's never mentioned anything about him before."
I turn to Mike, who's looking at me like he understands. "I don't know much about her dad since he left when we were all still pretty young and she lived so far away. I know her mom's a real treat though. What makes you think this has to do with him?"
Ignoring him, I say, "someone needs to go tell Kevin that we're taking the day off tomorrow and staying here."
"What?!" Vic flies out of his bunk and into the kitchen. "There is no way in hell that I'm staying behind so you guys can look for her."
"Vic, just chill out," Jaime tells him. "You can take someone else's bus if you want. Go with Kellin, do King For A Day with his band."
Vic shoots me a dirty look before disappearing back down the hall. We hear him moving around and seconds later he reappears with one of his bags, the blanket off his bunk and his pillow. "Fuck all three of you," is the last thing he says before dumping his things down the steps and slamming the door shut behind him.
"Well isn't he just a bucket of joy," Mike says sarcastically. "We'll help you, Tony, don't worry."
"Thanks, guys." I give them a small smile. Without another word, they watch as I make another drink and then walk to the center of the bunk area directly beneath the sun roof. I climb up, clumsily with only one hand and my feet, spilling bits of my drink on the left top bunk. I push the roof open and slid myself through on my stomach, crawling to the edge with my feet dangling off the side of the bus. The sun's setting and I know that I won't be able to make my way back into that bunk without having a couple drinks to take the edge off first.

"Tony, wake up."
Someone shakes me roughly and I'm forced to roll over. Jaime's looking down at me, still in his pajamas with his hair messy.
"This better be good, Preciado."
"Christine and Hannah are here."
I toss back the blankets and Jaime steps back as I practically roll out of my bunk. I'm not surprised to see that I'm still in yesterday's clothes. We walk to the front of the bus where Hannah, Christine and Mike are all talking quietly with each other. They look up, the conversation stopping, as I enter the room.
"Hey, Tony," Hannah greets me with a smile. "How're you doing?"
I give her a look like that's the most ridiculous question anyone could ever ask me. Instead of waiting for a proper answer from me, she goes on. "Mike and I are going to head over to the hotel Maddy's staying at to at least try and figure out what's going on."
"Where's Christine?"
Someone comes out of the bathroom and places a hand on my back. Turning to my left, I see Christine smiling up at me. "I'm right here."
"What did she say on the phone yesterday?" is all I ask.
"Umm...." she hesitates for a moment. "She said that she just needs some space right now, but I'm going to stay here with you while they go talk to her."
That doesn't make any sense, not with the way the merch table was left. I shake my head and push the thought away. "Do you think that's a good idea? She called you and if Mike and Hannah show up at her hotel she's not going to be very happy. Let me go."
"We decided to go because she knows us best. Jaime's coming too." Mike nods towards the back lounge and I look behind me just in time to see Jaime coming towards me fully dressed but still sporting his messy sleep hair.
"Take me with you." I say again as I give Mike my best I'm-not-fucking-around look but he simply shakes his head. "And why the fuck not?"
"She said she wants space." The corner of his mouth frowns and he snakes an arm around Hannah's shoulders. Her face falls and she looks down towards her bright orange painted toes. There's a silver toe-ring around her big toe that she fixes her eyes on, wiggling it around a little as if it was the most interesting thing she's ever seen. After a moment, Mike sighs and his hand falls away from around her. "We're just going to see what's up, bring some breakfast or a coffee maybe, talk for a while and see what she wants to do."
The last bit seems to echo in my head along with the chance that they might come back without her. "Where's Vic?"
"He slept on the Sleeping with Sirens bus last night. He's in Denver," Jaime reminds me. "I think it's better if he spends some time away from all of us right now, anyway."
I nod again, ease my clenched teeth and look down at Christine, whose still got one of her slender hands on my back. "I brought coffees and movies."
"Alright, we'll see you guys in a little while." Mike slips on a pair of flip-flops he's got sitting near the stairs. Hannah and Jaime follow him out, leaving Christine and I alone.

Maddy's POV
There's a knock on my hotel room door. I'm forced to roll out of bed and cross the carpeted floor when the source knocks even louder this time. I don't bother looking in the mirror as I pass it because I know I'm not going to like the way my hair is probably sticking up in strange places and how I look frumpy in this t-shirt.
I pull the handle down and open the door to reveal Mike, Jaime and Hannah standing by his side.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Missed you, too, Maddy." Mike comes in without being invited, leaving the rest only the option to follow. Jaime ruffles my hair as he passes me and smiles.
I shut the door a bit too loudly and watch as they make themselves at home around my room. Mike sits on the bed I just got out of, Jaime takes up residence on the second, untouched bed. Hannah places the bag and coffee cup she was previously carrying on the desk and lingers there.
"You can't just leave like that and expect us not to follow you," Jaime says when I shoot him a dirty look.
"Christine told you?"
Hannah looks up from the ground and nods her hand, giving me a sympathetic look. "She told me that you ran off and she wasn't sure what to do. Why didn't you call me?" She comes over to me and places her hand in mine.
"Because I knew the first thing you would do is call Mike." There's resentment in my voice that she picks up on, her eyebrows come together and the corners of her lip-glossed mouth turn downward.
"I'm sorry," she says, dragging me into a hug that lasts too long to be comfortable. "I brought you breakfast and a coffee. I know that's not going to make up for much, um, here." She grabs the brown paper bag and iced coffee off the desk she was leaning against just moments ago. I take them from her and turn back to the guys.
"Please tell me you didn't tell Tony." I grip the bag a bit too tightly in my hands, causing the paper to wrinkle and my fist to ache.
They both simultaneously tell me that they didn't and Mike lays back onto my sheets. "Why'd you do it?"
The room falls silent as I formulate an answer that won't require an explanation of everything that's happened in the past few days. I know that if I tell them anything about my dad then they're going to go back and tell Tony. They'll feel obligated to do something about my dad, when really it's no one's problem other than my own. The reason he's keeping tabs on them is because of me. I left and he'll stop following them around, that's the plan. I look around the room at the three pairs of eyes that are on me, waiting for an answer.
I shuffle back across the room to sit on the back beside Mike, resting my coffee cup on a pad of paper on the table in between the two beds. I didn't realized how hungry I am until now. Mike sits up beside me and takes a piece off of the large blueberry muffin sitting at the bottom of the bag.
"You still haven't told me why you left, Maddy," he points out as he chews. I swirl the contents of the coffee around before taking a sip of the caramel induced liquid through the thin straw.
I want to tell them so bad what happened, about the phone call I got from my mom just three days ago and how my dad showed up yesterday - how he was the guy in the casino and I didn't even realize it. It had been so long since I last saw him, my mind didn't want to believe it was really him "We're just trying to figure out what happened. Tony's really confused, especially because Vic showed up last night to tell us that everything from the merch table was gone," Jaime chimes in.
"Fuck," I swear under my breath and drop my muffin upside down into the bag. "I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. I'll pay you back for everything, I promise."
Jaime shrugs. His legs are stretched across the bed with his socked feet facing towards me. He leans back on his palms and gives me a sympathetic look. "It's not that big of a deal. It was only one day's worth of stuff."
"Jaime, no, it's not okay." I get up off the bed and go to my suitcase. My wallet is sitting in the front inside pocket. I bend down in front of it to shield their view and stick my hand inside, careful not to brush my fingers over the stash of razors I've given up on hiding now that I have no one to hide them from. Looking up, Hannah's eyes are fixed on my hands and the contents of my bag.
I quickly shut the top of my suitcase and go back to my bed with my wallet. "How much do I owe you?"
"Just come back with us," Jaime pleads from the other bed.
It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to give them the explanation I've been trying to avoid. Hannah's eyes stare at me blankly when I turn to her and I know that she knows my secret. I've only taken a few sips of my coffee and I'm begin to think that it was a bad idea with the way my stomach is turning sickeningly.
"Please, Madsters?" Mike pouts his pierced lips and forces me to smile with the use of the nickname he gave me when we were children. "Tony mentioned something about your dad. Does that have anything to do with this?"
I look down at my wallet and my vision goes blurry as my eyes fill with tears. I blink a few times to force them back and don't answer until I'm sure my voice won't shake. I look up to Mike and try to pretend that he's the only one in the room. "Just trust me, I wouldn't have left like that unless I knew that it was the best thing for everyone."
Mike gives me a confused look and I know that he's still wondering about the state I left the merch table in. I quietly begin counting out a day's worth of pay along with approximately one hundred dollars in tips. I hand them to Mike, who just pushes my hand away.
"You're not going to tell me what happened, are you?"
I shake my head slowly. "Just trust me on this one, okay? I've got it all under control."
He gets up off the bed, comes around to my side and opens up his lanky arms. I step into them and allow myself to be engulfed by my tall cousin. "Love you," I tell him.
"I love you, too, Maddy. What am I supposed to tell Tony?"
I close my eyes and allow my cheek to rest against my cousin's chest. "I have no idea," I honestly admit.
"Well, I've got to tell him something when we get back." He lets me go and I stand back as he looks down at me.
"Tell him that I'm sorry, I guess," because I'm not sure what else there is to say to Tony. He deserves much more of an explanation than that, but now's not the time to give it to him. "Tell him that I'm finally settling everything."
Mike agrees without asking questions and I walk them all to the door. Jaime hugs me before stepping out and I hold it open for them as they make their way out of my room, not much more informed than they were when they came here.
"Thank you for everything," I tell them, letting my eyes rest on Hannah. "And for breakfast and the coffee."
She smiles at me and we say good-bye one last time before I shut the door and get to work.
I can't call my mom and ask for his number because she'll give me a hard time and I don't want to deal with that today. It's going to be much easier to just google him or use white pages to find my dad's number. I type in his full name into the search bar and a few options come up, narrowing my search significantly. I ran from home and I ran from him, so I know that this is something that I need to do in order to maintain my sanity. My cellphone sits beside my abandoned breakfast and I call each of the numbers until I hear his voice come on over the other end.
"Hello?" There's noise in the background and I know that he's in Denver.
"If you want to talk to me, I'm right here. There's no reason for you to follow around Mike, Vic, Jaime and Tony just because of me. If you have anything to say to me then you can tell me now and leave them alone."
He laughs. "Maddy! I knew I'd hear from you again. Looks like you're not working today, hmm?"
"What is it that you want from me?"
"Meet me at the gate at nine." His voice is low and I can only imagine what he's planning. "If you want to keep your friends out of this then come alone."
I agree, hang up and begin to gather my things to head to Denver.