Dani was packing for a quick trip home for one of her friend’s who was getting married that weekend.
“I’ll be back in two days.” Dani said to JC as she packed up her room.
“Man, who am I going to bug?”
“Try Justin, he could probably use the distraction.”
“Yeah probably….I still can’t believe…”
“I know, with Wade of all people! God she makes me so mad! I hope I don’t run into her or I’ll just, just…”
“Rip her heart out?” He answered for her and she sighed,
“Something to that affect, yeah.” She said and threw a shirt in her bag. JC chuckled a little as he leaned back in his chair,
“A little protective are we?”
“No one deserves to go through that. God, I can’t believe I was friends with her!”
“That was six years ago.” JC pointed out,
“Not really, for some reason I always ran into her and kept in touch.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I mean we weren’t best friends and I haven’t talked to her lately and I’m sure not going to anytime soon, but yeah.”
“That’s a bit harsh.” JC said and she turned to him placing her hands on her hips,
“I think I would do the girl bodily damage if I ran into her. Cheating is just one thing I can’t forgive; I don’t know how Justin’s doing it. I would have walked out the second I knew.”
“Sometimes love is enough to pull through something like that.” JC shrugged,
“Love is nothing without trust and I couldn’t trust anyone who cheated on me.” JC leaned forward in his chair,
“You mean if the love of your life, cheated on you once and never did it again you would leave them?”
“There’s no guarantee that he’ll never cheat on me again.”
“There are circumstances where cheating happens, like if you’re drunk.”
“Nope, cheating is cheating. In my book if you can’t be committed to one person than you don’t belong in that relationship. If you’re drunk then it’s your subconscious working and that right there shows you that you DON’T want to be in that relationship. It’s a way out.”
“But people do it all the time.”
“Does that make it right?”
“No, but I’m saying that couples go through infidelity and come out stronger sometimes.”
“Not this girl, if he cheats on me obviously I wasn’t enough for him and I don’t want to be with anyone who thinks that.”
“But what if through the cheating he realizes that you are all he wants?”
“Why didn’t he know that in the first place? Why did he feel that he couldn’t come to me with these feelings? I would much rather have a guy break up with me, then go out with other girls and then come back to me if he realizes that.”
“But what-”
“WHY DO YOU FEEL THE NEED TO DEFEND PEOPLE WHO CHEAT!!” She yelled exasperatedly at him, “I mean come on JC! Cheating is wrong no matter how you look at it or justify it! IT’S WRONG AND IT HURTS!” She yelled almost on the verge on tears and JC knew that this hit a little close to her heart than just being upset for Justin. Dani immediately retracted, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, I guess I’m more upset over Justin than I thought.”
“It’s okay, are you sure that it’s just Justin that you’re upset over?” Dani turned her back on JC,
“Yeah, I hate it when people who are close to me get hurt and I can’t do anything about it.” She shrugged and zipped up her bag. Dani stretched her arms over her head and then flopped down on her bed. “I think that’s everything I’ll need. You okay with taking the rest of my bags and taking care of them?” She lifted her head to look at him and he smiled,
“Yeah, I think can handle two extra bags.”
“Well thanks, knowing Tony he’ll probably throw them out the windows.”
“You two still fighting?”
“We never quite ended the last fight and I haven’t really been around him because I’ve been hanging out with you guys.” She shrugged, “Got me if he’s still pissed at me.”
“I don’t think he is.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he was asking yesterday if you had had been at his part of the concert.”
“I was, I haven’t missed one yet.”
“I know I told him that and he seemed really relieved.”
“Oh.” She replied.
“When does your flight leave?”
“In like three hours and it’s like an hour ride to the airport, so I better get going soon.” There was a knock on her door and she sprung up to get it. Tony was on the other side,
“Hey you ready to go?”
“To the airport?”
“Yeah, it’s like an hour ride and-”
“My flight leaves in three hours, yeah I know I was just telling Chip about that.” She said opening her door and walking into her room, letting her brother in. “I’m all packed, I just finished.”
“Well then I’ll just take your other bags to my room.” He said picking them up and walking out of the room.
“Guess you guys aren’t fighting anymore.” Dani shrugged,
“Guess not.”
“You’re not going to talk about it?”
“And cause another fight? Nah, it’s in the past and it’ll stay there unless it’s pertinent to another fight.” She smiled and waved him up, “Come on I’ve got to get going.”
“Am I going too?”
“If you want. I don’t care, it’ll give Tony someone to ride back with.”
“Okay, sounds good.” He shrugged and followed her out the door.
JC was just finishing up with rehearsals when his cell phone rang.
“It’s me, talk.”
“Jace?” A worried Dani came over the line,
“Yeah, Dani, it’s me. What’s wrong?”
“I’m at the airport. Tony was supposed to pick me up an hour ago and I can’t find him.” Sobs threatened her voice, “He won’t answer his cell phone or his hotel room, I don’t know where he is.”
“Dani, just calm down. I’m sure Tony’s just fine. Do you want me to come and get you?”
“Find Tony first, then come get me, please.”
“I’m on my way, it might be a few minutes.”
“Don’t worry about me. Find Tony. Check his room and make sure he didn’t hurt himself. Oh God.” She began crying.
“Take some deep breaths, everything’s going to be okay. Breathe Dani, breathe.”
“What if he’s hurt? What if he’s kidnapped? What if somebody’s hurting him? He never turns off his cell phone; he’s always on time to get me. Please find him JC.”
“I will, I will, you concentrate on staying calm.”
JC checked with a few people and had people start looking for Tony. When he didn’t find him he took Lonnie and went to get Dani, who had been calling every five minutes.
“Dani, I’m on my way to pick you up now.”
“Jace, you can’t just walk into the airport and get me.”
“I have Lonnie with me. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“We can’t find Tony!”
“I have a hoard of people looking for him, I’m sure he’s fine and his watch broke or something.”
“He just got a new watch yesterday.”
“He’s fine, Tony’s a big boy.”
“But-”
“Dani, everything’s fine, okay?”
“Okay, I just want to know if he’s okay.”
“I know you do.” He paused a minute, “I’m at the airport. Where are you?”
“Baggage claim 2. You don’t have to come in, I’ll come to you.”
“No, I don’t want to lose two Lucca’s in one day.” He joked,
“Not funny Chip.” She said but JC knew she was smiling because she called him Chip. He pulled down his baseball cap and tried to make his hair less noticeable. Then with Lonnie following at a non-noticeable distance he headed into the airport. He looked around and then heard,
“Chip!” JC quickly turned and ran over to Dani, giving her a hug.
“Any word yet?” She asked,
“I just talked to you two seconds ago.”
“I know, but I just thought.” She looked down and JC picked up her chin with his hand and smiled down at her,
“Let’s get you out of here.”
“Okay.” She agreed and they began to walk out of the airport. JC put a reassuring arm around her shoulders,
“We’ll find him, he’s going to be fine.”
“DANI!” They heard Tony yell and they both turned to see him running towards them.
“Tony!” She yelled, running over to him and hugging him, “Are you okay? Where the hell have you been? My God I was so worried!”
“Dani, I’m fine but you’re shaking. I’m sorry I was so late picking you up. We moved into a new time zone and forgot to set my watch.” JC came up to them, “Hey Jace, thanks for coming to get her.”
“It’s okay, you had us worried though.”
“He forgot to set his watch for the time difference.” Dani explained, “Why didn’t you leave your cell phone on?”
“What?” Tony pulled out his phone, “Oh Jeez, I turned off the ringer last night and forgot to turn it back on. I was wondering why it had been so quiet this morning. I’m so sorry.”
“You’re okay, that’s all that matters.” She said and then whacked him in the arm, “I swear Anthony if you ever do that to me again, I will kill you.” Tony rubbed his arm,
“Okay, okay, if I buy you dinner will you forgive me?”
“Me AND Chip, then I’ll think about it.”
“You AND Jace? I’ll go broke feeding him!”
“Hey man.” JC said and they all laughed,
“Uh, kids?” Lonnie said interrupting them, “I hate to break up this happy reunion but we should get going before someone recognizes your pretty mugs.”
“Kay, how’d you get here Tony?” JC asked as they walked towards their ride,
“Taxi.” He replied,
“Cool, you can ride back with us.”
“He should ride on the roof.” Dani muttered,
“I said I was sorry.” Dani picked up her bag and shoved it at him, “Oof, Jesus, are you carrying bricks?”
“I was at my wits ends worried about your ass not to mention that you left me stranded at the airport for an hour and half. I am milking this for all it’s worth and trust me, that’s a lot.” She poked him in the side and hopped into the car.
“Oh man.” Tony muttered and hopped in after her as JC laughed at the two.
As they drove back to the hotel Dani spoke up,
“Chip, we need to call off the search party and let everyone know Tony’s okay.”
“You had a search party looking for me?”
“I thought some crazy fan had you or that you, God forbid, had a heart attack and dropped dead somewhere. So, yes, we had a search party looking for you.” She crossed her arms, “I was two seconds away from calling your mother.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I was worried shitless!”
“Man, mom would never have let me live that down. Thank God you didn’t.”
“Looks like you owe me more than just a dinner.” She smiled smugly,
“Here comes the blackmail.” Tony said and everyone laughed. JC looked at Dani with a smile and she raised an eyebrow at him,
“What?”
“Nothing, just you flipped out over Tony disappearing.” His smile turned smug, “Guess you’re more like me than you think.”
“Maybe I’ve just been hanging out with you two too much.” She retorted, “Plus this was completely different than your neurotic episodes over me.” She said crossing her arms,
“How was this different?”
“Tony was supposed to pick me up and he was an hour and half late. I didn’t know what happened to him.”
“And when you ran out of rehearsal I didn’t know what happened to you either. So you have neurotic episodes just like me.”
“Whatever helps you sleep better at night.” She said teasingly, “Whatever helps you sleep better at night.”