Chapter 2: Everyone knows but they won't tell

"I called you last night in the hotel
Everyone knows but they won't tell
But their half-hearted smiles tell me somethin' just ain't right"

I called and called and called but still no answer. You've been doing that a lot lately, ignoring phone calls. I don't know if it's just mine or if it's everyone's but I know you're ignoring me specifically.

Your brother and Amy hate me so I can't ask them. But whenever they see me in the halls backstage they both offer me this "I'm sorry" smile. Sorry for what? Maybe for the fact that you're losing interest or that you would rather I just disappear but it doesn't work like that. I want to know what, or rather who, you're doing when I'm not around. We used to talk for hours in person or on the phone, just to hear each other's voices and to get to know about each other but now we never speak, we barely look at each other.

And it sucks.

"I've been waitin' on you for a long time
Fuelin' up on heartaches and cheap wine
I ain't heard from you in three damn nights"

We arrived in this town three days ago. I know the first thing you did was go to the liquor store, which worries me. I tried calling you and left a voice mail, asking you to call me back ASAP and I haven't gotten a call. It's been very lonely these past three nights. I heard some of the guys talking about you leaving bars with a different girl each night. I was tempted to ask them what room you were in but knew that'd only draw attention to the rift between us so I didn't bother.

I saw a girl, a blonde, leaving last night. Her hair was pretty short, almost boyish, but she was busty and short, maybe a bit taller than me. She was in the lobby calling a friend for a ride, talking about the sex she just had and how they needed some serious girl talk time.

Hah, girl talk time. I traded girl talk with the Divas for conversations with you and now I have neither. I sat in my hotel room after the show, a bottle of champagne chilling in an ice bucket on the side table next to me on the couch while I flipped through the channels.

I landed on some tearjerker romance movie that I can't remember the name of and stayed on it. I kept watching it hoping I'd cry for a second and maybe that'd open the floodgates so I could get out everything I was feeling.

When that didn't work on its own I began taking more than just sips of the wine. I stopped short of getting drunk and looked at the table where my cell phone sat. I swiped it up and looked at the screen. No missed calls.

I sighed and flipped it open and tried calling your cell phone. It rang over and over but you didn't answer. I sighed and hung up and at the same time gave up. I wasn't going to mope around wishing you were there, I was going to call up someone else.

"I put your picture away
I wonder where you been
I can't look at you while I'm lyin' next to him
I put your picture away
I wonder where you been
I can't look at you while I'm lyin' next to him"

I flipped my phone open again and called an old friend of mine. Not for sex, but for comfort. He came right over and once he saw me he knew what I needed.

Without a word he kicked his shoes off and laid on the bed, his arms open to me, inviting me to lay with him. I did. Andrew, or Test as he was better known, was always good for this. He knew me better than myself, or at least I thought he did. He could tell what I needed and did it without question, without prying for answers, and that's why I called him.

Before I lay down though I saw my framed picture of us from maybe a month ago. I stared at it, looking at our smiles and I thought about how I haven't seen one of those from you in a long time. I sighed and turned the frame face down, so I couldn't see the sparkle in your eyes or the smile on your face.

Andrew didn't question, he just wrapped his arms around me when I lay down and we fell asleep like that. Fully clothed, on top of the covers, me crying into the pillow as he just held me.

Thank God I flipped the picture over. It would have killed me to lie in his arms and see your face.

AN: Please read and review. I live off of reviews and I tend to not post if people don't show they're reading.