Second Chance at Love...chapter 48
This chapter is very emotional....very sad....and also gives some of Abbi's backstory and tells us why she doesn't have any family...
The next few days were a blur. The Athens concert was so full of emotion, so full of a different feel up on that stage. David used his A.C guitar that night, he kept looking up to the sky as if he were looking into his brother's face, and he same with more passion, more emotion than Abbi had ever seen in him before.
At one point during the show, right before the encore, David walked backstage and just slumped to the floor. She and the guys surrounded him, showing him they were all there, and David just sat there for a few minutes crying. "D, we don't have to go back out there." Neal said. "No...no I want to. I NEED to...just....give me a minute." David said, without looking up from his place on the floor.
"Honey, Neal's right, you don't have to go finish." Abbi said. "I want to Abs. I have to...I won't let my fans down." David said, standing up and looking into her eyes. Abbi could see all the pain, all the loss there in his eyes. She nodded and said "Okay babe." He kissed her and then turned to head back onstage. Kyle and Joey went onstage first, then David walked back out to finish the show, with Neal and Andy at his side the whole way.
It broke Abbi's heart to see how much he was hurting, and how he was holding back all that grief, holding it all in, until it wouldn't be healthy for him to anymore.....
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The flight to Indiana touched down and Abbi woke David. He had finally drifted off to sleep a few minutes after the plane took off and Abbi had let him sleep the whole way to Indiana. He hadn't slept since the Race for Hope, he was running on pure emotion and Abbi was surprised he hadn't completely fallen before now.
As she sat there on the flight to Indiana, with Neal at her other side, she kept thinking about all the times David had taken her with him to Indiana to see Adam, especially that first time she'd went home with him.
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It was the Friday before spring break and Abbi and David had just left class and were headed to the caf for lunch. They hadn't really thought about spring break plans yet, so Abbi decided to ask David what his were. "So any big plans for spring break? Any rockstar gigs I should be roadtripping to?" Abbi said, poking David in the side. "Actually I'm going to Indiana for spring break." David said,
picking up two trays and handing one to Abbi. "Oh Indiana huh? Who lives there? Your secret girlfriend?" Abbi asked, with a laugh.
"My dad and brother. I haven't seen either of them in a while so I called my dad and he bought me a plane ticket home for the week." David said and Abbi could hear the love and respect for them in his voice. They’d known each other for about 7 months and David had mentioned his dad and older brother constantly, especially Adam, but had never said where they lived. "Ah, cool. When do you leave?" Abbi asked. "Tomorrow at 1...." David said, letting his voice trail off. They were supposed to go to the mall tomorrow for the local festival of arts there and now David was cancelling those plans on her. "Oh I see." "Abs, I'm sorry, that's the only flight my dad could get. And I really wanna go see him and Adam." David said. "No, it's fine. I understand. I'll ask someone else to go." Abbi said, not wanting David to see how hurt she was by his cancellation.
"Abs, look at me." David said. They were outside on the quad now, eating lunch among the rest of the college students anxiously awaiting spring break. "Dave, it's fine." Abbi said, turning to look at David. When she did she saw him holding out two airline tickets. Shocked and confused she said "What's this?" "I want you to come with me.....I know you don't have any other plans and no one to go home to, so what do you say? Come back to Indiana with me, meet my dad, meet Adam. Please?" Abbi didn't know what to say, no one had ever done anything like this before for her. "Dave, I....I don't know..." "Come on Abs. Please, it'd mean a lot to me." Well when he said it like that, she couldn't -and wouldn't - tell him no.
"Oh fine, I'll come." Abbi said, taking one of the tickets from David. "Good, cause I would've come and kidnapped you if you'd said no. Adam and Dad are gonna love you. Especially Adam." David said. David talked about Adam constantly. Even though they didn't grow up together, they were still close. They had gotten even closer after Adam had been diagnosed with cancer. He was in remission now but that didn't stop David from calling his dad 25 times a day to check on Adam.
They had flown in that Saturday and been picked up at the airport by David's dad and stepmom. They both greeted her with open arms and told her that David had spoken so highly of her and what a great friend she had been to him, making both of them blush. When Abbi had met Adam later that afternoon, just getting to be around him for a few hours, she could tell how much love he had for David
and how proud he was of everything he was doing in his life. They were inseparable that entire week, catching up on old times and just hanging out. Abbi knew that this time with Adam meant the world to David and that he cherished it immensely.
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Abbi reached up and wiped away the tears she hadn't realized had fallen during her flashback to a time when things were okay in the world, a time when Adam was alive. "You okay?" Neal asked and Abbi jumped. She had thought he was asleep too. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. You okay?" Neal asked again. "Yeah, I'm....I'm okay...I was just..." "Remembering Adam?" Neal asked. "Yeah..." "Me too....Dave really loves him...I remember all the times I rode up to Indiana with him on random weekends just so he could see Adam..." "Yeah....he always kicked himself for being so far away...." "Especially after Adam relapsed." Neal said. "Yeah....but Adam wouldn't let him drop everything and come home....he didn't want David to put his life on hold just cause he had to." Abbi said and Neal nodded. "This week is gonna be hell on him." Neal said, looking over at David. Abbi nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah....and I just hope we can get him through it." Abbi said. "We will.....somehow." Neal said.
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The funeral was on a Thursday. It was a beautiful service and showed everyone just how much love Adam had for his children, Kendra, and his family. It also showed how much everyone else loved Adam and how much he had touched their lives. David got up in front of the church during the service to read a poem titled "The Dash". Abbi had started to go up with him, started to be there in case he needed her, but he told her he'd be okay, that he'd get through it....it broke Abbi's heart when David broke down halfway through the poem and struggled to finish, but he did. For Adam.
After the burial and service at home, Abbi went upstairs to David's old bedroom at his dad's to find David sitting in the middle of the bed, curled in a ball with an old stuffed animal. She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed,outstretching her arms towards him. David crawled over to her and laid his head down in her lap, still crying. Abbi wrapped her arms around him and rocked him until he fell asleep. A few minutes after he'd fallen asleep Andrew walked in. "How is he?" he asked. "A mess.....he's asleep now, but I'm not sure how long he'll sleep." Abbi said, looking up to see tears in Andrew's own eyes.
"How are you?" she asked. "I'm okay.....I miss him." Andrew said, tears spilling over. "We all do.....it breaks my heart to see everyone in so much pain." She said, looking down at David again. "He loved him so much. We both did. And we'd both give anything to change this...bring Adam back...for Kendra, for Gage and Gracie." Andrew said, voicing breaking with every word. "Oh Andrew, come here." Abbi said, outstretching her arms toward Andrew. Andrew walked over and sat down on the other side of Abbi, being careful not to wake David. Abbi enveloped him in a hug and began rocking him as well. Before long Andrew was asleep too.
As Abbi sat there on the bed watching David and Andrew sleep she prayed that they'd somehow be able to get through this. Losing a brother, losing a family member was one of the hardest things in the world. Abbi knew that firsthand, she'd lost her entire family in the blink of an eye. It happened one rainy day in the middle of April. Abbi had been away at a cheerleading competition one weekend. And her parents and little sister were on their way to the airport to pick her up when it happened. It had been raining for 24 hours and the roads were flooded. Her dad couldn't see through the windshield and they never saw the driver run the red light. In a matter of 15 seconds, her entire family had been taken from her. The driver hit their car on her mom and sister's side, and the force of the impact caused the car to flip 6 times and hit a tree. Her mom and sister died instantly, and her father held on for two days before he died.
Just like that Abbi had lost everything. Her best friend's family took her in so she could finish up senior year, and then in August she packed her things and headed down to school, leaving all the memories, all the tragedy behind her. She hadn't relived that memory in so long. In fact she'd only relived it once, to David, on the night of the 1 year anniversary of the accident. She had known what it was like to feel like her whole world was shattering, and she wished she could take that pain away from David.
She managed to get up without waking David and Andrew. She saw Neal outside talking to Andy so she walked past all the remaining members of David's family and walked outside to join them on the front porch. "How is he?" Andy asked as she shut the door behind her. "Sleeping....he's still a wreck. I found him in a ball on the bed in his old room." Abbi said. Andy enveloped her in a hug. "This....this shouldn't be happening. He shouldn't have to go through this...and there's nothing I can do to fix it. Nothing I can say." Abbi said, crying now. "Hey hey, shhh...it's okay....just being here, just being by his side is enough Abbi. He knows how much you love him, having you by his side, that's keeping him together." Andy said. "It's just not fair...." Abbi said. "Life is never fair." Neal said.
"Life's brutal, and severe, and unfair. Nothing ever makes sense and the people we care about most either leave us, betray us, or go through hell because of a damn disease no one can find a cure for. It's not fair what happened to Adam....it's not fair those kids in there don't have a father....it's not fair that Dave doesn't have an older brother....none of it's fair." Neal said, and Abbi walked over to give him a hug. Neal was a man of few words, unless he was writing a song or unless he was passionate about what he was saying. Adam was like a brother to him as much as he was David's brother. And Neal loved David as if he was a brother, to him he was family. Abbi knew that this was painful for all of them to go through.
"I don't know that we'd have gotten through this, that I had gotten thru this, without you two here. Thank you for everything this past week." Abbi said."Anytime baby doll....we're always here." Neal said. "Absolutely." Andy seconded. Abbi knew that know they could all began to pick up the pieces, but she knew that David still had a long road ahead of him and that he'd need her so much in the coming weeks.....