14 Days

Evie hadn’t spoken to anyone in three days.

Since Phil had left her house after dropping the world’s biggest bombshell on her, she had stayed holed up in her apartment, a million thoughts running through her head simultaneously.

The first evening after the proposition she had managed to down a bottle and a half of wine to still her mind and let her sleep.

Day two had been the day of the pros and cons list, ultimately an exercise that was fruitless as the pros were as full as the cons, and every reason she had written down had its own counterpoint on the opposite side.

Day three had started with a break through, leading her to pack her suitcase after deciding that she would accept the offer. Unfortunately, her mind relaxed after having made the decision and in it’s calm state, come up with a brand new reason for her not to leave.She dumped out the cases contents on her bed, packed it all away in her cupboard before a reason to take the job floated through her consciousness and started the process again.

This happened four times before midday.

Face down on the couch, she had resigned herself that it was an impossible decision, and there was no way that there was a ‘correct’ answer, and therefore she shouldn’t try anymore.

“Why the fuck has your phone been off for the last 3 days?!” The familiar alto of Lzzy Hale exploded through the small apartment. Evie didn’t even bother lifting her head to acknowledge the woman as she let herself in and wandered around the place.

Evie mumbled nonsense into the couch cushion beneath her face. Even if her words had been audible, they were nothing substantial so Lzzy’s question would have remained unanswered.

“Sit up,” Lzzy ordered, smacking Evie’s bare leg as she breezed past the couch and towards the bed.

Evie promptly ignored her, remaining uncomfortably stationary as Lzzy fumbled around. She ignored the sounds of fabric ruffling and the screech of the hinge of her wardrobe. She was used to Lzzy coming over and ‘borrowing’ some clothes, raiding her possessions until she had found everything she was looking for. It was the downside of being so close with her (both emotionally and in location), the singer seemed to mentally catalog every item Evie ever owned, purchased, or was given, and knew her friend so well she could guess where it was homed in her apartment.

She let Lzzy search through her place a little while longer, glad that silence had fallen over them and that she wasn’t being harassed as to her actions over the last few days. She really didn’t even know where to start explaining the proposal from Phil, and didn’t have the available headspace to even try.

“I said 3pm,” Lzzy said, momentarily confusing Evie. Had she not heard the first part of that sentence? When the sound of a second set of boots was heard against the wooden floors, her confusion was both lifted and heightened.

With a huff, Evie scrambled to sit properly on the couch, rubbing at the side of her face that had been smooshed against the seam of the cushion. For a second she was blinded by the sudden sunlight streaming in through the windows and the now-open front door. It took a second for her eyes to adjust, but when they finally caught up with their surroundings, she saw her brother closing the door after his arrival.

“I am 5 minutes late, give me a break,” Josh replied to Lzzy, rolling his eyes at the punctual frontwoman. Josh had never been the most time conscious man, so Evie was impressed he was only 5 minutes late, even if she was utterly clueless as to what was happening.

“You’re lucky it’s only five mintues and not fifty,” Lzzy replied, turning her back on the siblings as she continued her quest.

Josh went over and joined Lzzy in the bedroom portion of Evie’s apartment, tapping the woman on the shoulder and taking over from her in the wardrobe. Lzzy moved to the set of drawers against the wall of the room, starting to rifle through them and picking out mountains of clothes to add to the stack she had pulled on the bed.

“Are you leaving me with anything?” Evie asked, finally starting to survey the damage. At this rate, Lzzy was going to leave her with just the clothes on her back.

“Do you have another suitcase? I swear you did. It was green, with a yellow tag?” Lzzy asked Evie, completely ignoring the question and asking her own.

“It’s under the bed,” Evie replied, her interest well and truly piqued. She looked to her brother who was removing articles of clothing hanger by hanger and dumping them on the bed. She adjusted her questioning technique, this time aiming at her brother. “What is going on?”

“We are packing,” he replied, taking another look at the shirt in his hands. After sticking his finger through a hole that had ripped in the armpit of the button up, he took it off the hanger and and threw it on the floor.

“Why are you helping Lzzy steal my clothes?” Evie questioned, rescuing a pair of her favourite jeans from floor. She folded them neatly as she awaited an answer, placing them lightly on the corner of the bed when she had finished.

“I’m not stealing your clothes,” Lzzy chimed in. “I swear, you borrow one dress and you’re labeled for life.”

“One dress? Try at least three dresses, five pairs of pants and countless shirts, including my favourite David Bowie tour shirt,” Evie countered, not letting Lzzy claim thief to just one article of clothing. “And the shoes! Don’t even get me started on the amount of shoes that have disappeared from my life and ended up in yours.”

“You stole that shirt from dad, anyway,” Josh reminded her, raising his eyebrow to challenge Evie. Evie waved him off, ignoring the truth. Their dad had barely worn the shirt anyway, and didn’t even realise it had been missing until Evie wore it around to their house one day by mistake.

“Not the point, Josh,” she replied, rolling her eyes at her tattling brother. “You haven’t answered me, what is actually happening right now?”

“We are packing,” Lzzy replied, taking the draw out of the unit and upending it into the newly opened green suitcase. All of Evie’s clean underwear fell out in an unceremonious heap, everything from the more sexy, lacey numbers to her monthly period granny panties.

“Okay, this is getting insane. Stop,” Evie said, flipping the lid of the suitcase shut before anything else could get thrown in. Josh ignored her, continuing to fill up the side of the bed with hangers. “Seriously, stop! Stop!”

Lzzy and Josh both paused, looking to the confused woman. They shared a quick glance before returning to work, their action making Evie nearly lose her mind.

“I swear to God that if either of you put another item of MY clothing on to that bed or in that suitcase, I am going to stab you both, cut you into pieces and throw you off the fucking Smithstreet bridge!” Evie shouted, well and truly over this game the pair had concocted. The tone of voice made both Lzzy and Josh actually holt their work, knowing that if Evie was actually raising her voice and threatening murder, she had reached her wits end.

“Okay, okay,” Lzzy said, raising her hands in defense to try and sooth the technician. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s… what’s wrong?” Evie asked, astounded that she even had to clarify her confusion. “What’s wrong is that you guys have barged into my home without any form of notice, and are rummaging through here like you own the place, and won’t even tell me what you are doing! That’s what’s wrong!”

“Well, if your phone hadn’t been off,” Josh started, his words halting as soon as Evie’s firey gaze flickered to him. The look shut up him immediately, he too raising his hands in defence against the temper they had brought to life.

“Evie, just sit down,” Lzzy said, gesturing to the couch Evie had only just abandoned. With a furrowed brow, Evie did as she was told, taking a seat on the crimson cushions as Josh and Lzzy moved to join her. She took solace in their movement, knowing that if both were in eyeline, neither could be ‘packing’.

“Please tell me what the fuck is happening?” Evie pleaded, the anger phase of her confusion now over and being replaced with need.

“We know,” Lzzy replied, taking a seat on the armchair of the left of Evie, resting her arms on her thighs as she lent forward.

“Know what?” Evie asked, feeling like there were more questions yet still no answers.

“About the move,” Josh answered, chiming in.

“Can you please stop talking in code? What move? What packing?”

“The move to Cali. The packing for tour,” Josh said, though the answers were still no clearer than before.

“We knew we had to give you some time to get a head start, but you still hadn’t called us. After three days, we assumed you would have been much further along than this,” Lzzy pointed out, looking around the place and raising an eyebrow at the amount still to be done. She had assumed that Evie, the Queen of the Organised, would be all but done now, about to catch a flight.

It took a second for Evie to put 2 and 2 together. Moving to Cali? Tour? What were they on about.

The penny dropped as she realised that of course Phil would have mentioned the proposal to the band. They would have had to sign off on the idea before he would even approach Evie. She was far from the highest rung in the Halestorm ladder, so he would have had to head to the top and go down from there.

She had to lean back in the couch, her mind swimming as she tried to wrap her head around the idea that not only had she been the last to know (yet again), but that the band had so willingly let her go. Once again, the positive and negative arguments overran her thoughts.

“We could use some help,” Lzzy called out, interrupting Evie’s silent meltdown. She hadn’t even noticed the pair return to their packing duties. “I know that your brother isn’t going to want to be the one to pack your sex toys, and if he goes any further in that wardrobe he sure as shit is going to find them.”

Josh immediately recoiled from his position, dropping the jacket he had in his hands and fake retching at Lzzy’s words. He moved away from the cupboard and joined his sister on the couch, wrapping his arm around her and staring at Lzzy.

“My sister would never have such things. She is a good girl and has never had sex,” he said, sending a pointed look at the lead singer. Just as she was opening her mouth to counter, he continued. “Don’t say a word!”

“I was just going to say-” she started, getting silenced by Josh yelping loudly to interrupt her. She let the conversation fall with one last laugh, rolling her eyes at the naive man before her and returning to folding all of Evie’s sweatpants.

“You are also not allowed to say anything,” Josh told his sister, trying to lift her mood from the serious crash it had just taken. He knew the moment that she finally understood their mission that she was going to take it personally, and that her mind would always fall into the dark place where she could see nothing by her failures and everything she lacked. She would see this as an opportunity for the band to get rid of her and get someone more experienced, instead of the life changing, career starting chance this actually was.

“Why?” She asked him quietly, her voice as subdued as her mind.

“You needed the push,” he answered her honestly. He saw the confusion in her eyes, the pain and the hurt of what she perceived as betrayal. “You’re too good for us, Ev. You have put every ounce of energy, effort, money and time into supporting us, into helping me live my dream, you haven't even begun to explore your own. It’s time for us to stop being selfish at to let you live your own life.”

“But I want to stay with you guys,” she countered, trying not to let her emotions take over. The minute she let them get the best of her, the minute all rationality would fly out the window and she would beg Josh and Lzzy to let her ride their coattails forever. “Do you want to get rid of me.”

“You know it isn’t like that, Ev. We would keep you forever, but it isn’t fair. I saw you when you were with the crew at Rock on the Range, when you were with the band. You lit up in a way that has been missing for a while, and as much as I want to be selfish and keep you locked up with us and keep you as only our tech, I can’t,” he told her, his eyes started to glisten as he spoke. “And most importantly, you are my baby sister. I can’t stand in the way of you and the guy you have fallen for. As much as I never wanted to see you fall in love with a musician, I am not going to let you give up that chance of happiness just to keep you here with us.”

“I haven’t ‘fallen for him’. Why do you guys keep saying that?! We only JUST started dating,” Evie argued, sighing loudly.

“Of course you only take that bit of the conversation on board,” Josh said, slightly exasperated. He had laid his heart on the table, and typically the only bit she picked up was the bit she could argue.

“If I try to fight the other stuff, I am going to lose my cool,” she told him honestly, biting her lip to keep her mind focused.

“It’s okay to be emotional,” Lzzy told her, stopping her duties once more to join the pair on the couch. She crouched in front of her best friend, taking Evie’s hands in her own and making sure she kept eye contact so there was no way Evie could misconstrue the next few words. “This is a huge life change, and it is normal to be emotional about it. But please don't let your overthinking side talk you out of this. This opportunity won’t come again, and you deserve to take it without having to worry about what everyone else thinks of you. You have earned this, it hasn’t come out of pity or out of desperation, it was offered to you because you have proven yourself.”

“What if I don’t want it,” Evie countered.

“Then you don’t take it,” Lzzy replied easily, shrugging.

“But you better have a damned good reason why,” Josh said. “We won’t accept any bullshit, and you know that between us, we will sniff any sort of lie.”

Evie paused for a moment, looking between two of the people in the world that meant the most to her. They are both giving her their approval to go, and not only that, they are all-but pushing her out of the door. They had also had a lot of time to sit with this decision, and they had both come to the same conclusion, the same outcome that she was starting to admit to herself that she wanted.

“I will need time,” she said, sighing heavily.

“You’re running out of time to decide,” Josh reminded her, gently rubbing her back to try and comfort her. “I think the offer has an expiration date.”

“No, I need time to pack,” she clarified, a small smile breaking through. It took a second for Josh and Lzzy to realise what she was really saying, but once the had, Lzzy had tackled her in a hug that threw them both back into the cushions of the couch and Josh cheered loudly in celebration.

Once breathing became an issue, Evie pushed Lzzy off, the singer sliding to sit in Josh’s lap as he was rudely taking up the other seat on the two-seater couch.

“So, what now?” She asked Evie, her smile still radiating the joy and excitement she held for her best friend’s next adventure.

“I guess I need to call Phil and accept the offer,” she replied, finding it surreal the words were coming from her mouth.

“And make a list, no doubt,” Josh added, smiling cheekily at Evie while making fun of her Type-A streak.

“There will be way more than one list,” Evie agreed, laughing along with the others. She was so happy she had finally made a decision that she wouldn’t even let Josh’s digs derail her.

This was it.

This was the start of her new life.