Chapter 16 #2
“And I’ll be here if you need me,” Monty said.
Chicot nodded, her lips pressing into a line, and she leaned into Monty again, her arms going around her middle.
They were usually not like this in the dog park, more careful about starting gossip, but Chicot didn’t really care that someone might see them.
When Monty’s arms were around Chicot, she instantly started to feel better.
“You give good hugs,” Chicot mumbled against the soft fabric of her sundress. Monty chuckled, squeezing Chicot harder.
“Only to people I care about,” she said. Chicot’s lips curved, crooking up into a smile as she buried herself in Monty’s smell for a moment.
Monty kissed her on the lips before they parted, waving as she walked away. Chicot only then noticed that she had the bunny charm sticking out of the pocket of her dress, a smile growing on Chicot’s face. She waved at Monty and then turned back into the RV.
When she walked back inside, Duchess was sitting on the bed inside the suitcase they were packing their costumes into. Chicot just walked by and set their lint roller in alongside her. They would need it if this was the form of protest she was choosing.
“Ken is going to stay with her,” Elijah reminded Chicot, trying to assuage Chicot’s worry about Duchess. She felt bad leaving her all alone. Even if it was just for a few days.
“I know.” Chicot took a deep breath. “To be honest, I’m still rattled.”
Elijah crossed his arms. “I had a feeling. Considering the audition and your dad …”
Chicot shrugged. “I’m feeling better though.”
“Monty helped?” Elijah asked. Chicot’s face warmed, but she nodded.
“Good.” Elijah set a hand on Chicot’s shoulder, squeezing. “We’re going to be amazing. If you could perform that well while you were worried about your dad being around, then we will be fine.”
Chicot hadn’t considered it that way. She let a smile creep onto her face, rocking back and forth on her feet.
“You’re right.” She stood straighter and offered Elijah her hand. He clasped it in both his, the two of them grinning as they shook rapidly.
Their excitement didn’t abate as they got back to it, playing music while they finished making sure they had everything they needed.
All the props, the mask, the costumes. Once they had it all, they forced themselves to get into bed.
It was hard to sleep, the two of them talking on and off about their plans, where they would eat, the god-awful early hour Ken was picking them up at the morning, and what time their flight was at.
Chicot didn’t even remember falling asleep, but when her alarm woke her up, she remembered the awful dream she’d had about her father yelling for her.
She had been lost in the corn fields beyond their pasture and had been hiding from him.
Chicot did her best to shake it off as she carefully nudged Duchess out of the hammock.
Duchess was decidedly annoyed, but she hopped onto the bed, sniffing at where Elijah had been lying.
Ken turned up about fifteen minutes after that, early because he seemed nervous to be late.
Chicot couldn’t complain about that. He got their single suitcase into his car while they finished eating the breakfast Elijah had made.
It was just peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but they tasted amazing when the sun was barely up and Chicot was in need of coffee.
“Uh, before we leave.” Ken had popped back into the trailer after getting the luggage put away. “I have something for you, Chicot.”
“Oh?” Chicot finished her glass of water, setting it in the sink.
Ken produced a phone from his pocket, a little older, but it was still in good condition.
It was a Pixel, different from what she’d had before, but he held it out to her.
There was a pink case on it, well-worn but still intact, with a pit of a checkered pattern on the back.
It looked like a dress Monty would wear.
“Are you serious?” Chicot touched the phone, turning it over in her hands. It had been so long, but this was a big gift. She felt bad taking it. She looked at Elijah, who seemed equally surprised.
“It was my mom’s,” Ken explained. “She got a new one a few months ago, and we already have an extra emergency phone, so I asked her if I could give it away since we weren’t going to use it.”
“Thank you.” Chicot held the phone to her chest for a moment and then stepped to give Ken a side hug. A grin grew on his face.
“Honestly, the thought of you being on a plane with no music kind of made my skin crawl, so I wanted to help,” Ken joked.
Chicot knew it was more than that. Ken cared about Elijah, and by extension, he cared about Chicot.
Her mind drifted to something Sunnie had said to her when he’d first offered to help her work on her pantomime.
So you’ve got the most important part of being a performer down already then. Community.
Tears started to form at the corners of her eyes, burning slightly as a laugh came out of her. “Thank you, Ken. This means a lot.”
Ken and Elijah looked startled, both of them panicking, and then Elijah turned to get Chicot a tissue.
Elijah took time to make her laugh, to get her to stop crying even if they were happy tears because he was worried about her getting dehydrated.
Meanwhile, Ken switched out the sim cards, getting the new cell turned on and downloading all her old apps for her.
When he handed it to her again, Chicot smiled at the photo of her, Juni, and Charlie that was still on the lock screen.
She didn’t really look at much else, logging back into her Spotify account as she sat in the back of Ken’s chic sedan, relaxing as she thought about what she might say to Juni once she was done with the audition.