| Megan woke up with a sigh. She rolled over in bed, hoping the morning light escaping through her window was just a dream. Silently praying, she squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, only to frown as she realized that the morning had snuck up on her once again. She grumbled to herself as she groggily sat up in bed, stretching slowly. “Why can’t we just have more hours in the night?” she mumbled to herself, scratching her belly. She made her way down the dark hall to the bathroom. Picking up her brush, she glanced in the mirror. “God, Megan,” she whined at her reflection. “You look awful today.” She pulled the brush through her long auburn hair and made a face at herself. She shook her head and flicked off the light. Once again, she hobbled down the hall, sore from the previous day at the gym. After pulling on her sweats and a tank top, she pulled her hair into a loose ponytail and tied her worn running shoes. She grabbed her keys and headed out the door, stopping on the lawn to stretch before her daily morning run. As she jogged down the country road, she noticed a large moving van coming towards her. She prayed that it wasn’t some cute guy that would see her at her worst – sweaty and tired, and to avoid embarrassment she tried to keep her eyes on the path in front of her. At the last minute, she glanced up at the truck and into a pair of stunning blue eyes. The blond man smiled at her, just as the van whizzed past. She shook her head and cursed the day before returning her concentration to the road. *** “Hey, Scottie!” Scott Phillips’ head shot up and his eyes focused on the shadow looming in the doorway. “Oh, hey Mark.” Mark nodded and stepped in the doorway, pausing to dump a box into the floor. He slowly stood, rubbing his sore back. “You okay, man?” Scottie frowned, concerned. “Yeah,” Mark nodded. “Just a little sore from carrying all your stuff in here.” He smiled and shook his head. “Yeah, well, I did my fair share too, ya know.” Mark laughed. “No need to get all defensive.” Scottie smiled and he returned to his trance. “You okay?” Scottie nodded slowly, never breaking the trance. Mark sighed and sat down in the floor beside him. “What’s the deal?” “Well…” Scottie sighed. “I don’t know… I’ve lived in Tallahassee for so long that I kinda got used to it, ya know? I mean, it’ll be more convenient here in Orlando, being closer to you guys, but I don’t know. I guess it’ll just take a while to get used to, huh?” Mark smiled down at Scottie and nodded. “I was the same way when I moved from Detroit, especially since everyone in Tallahassee was into Milli Vanilli,” he finished, chuckling. Scottie smiled up at him, but the smile faded quickly. Mark sighed and went back out to the van to grab another trip’s worth of Scottie’s stuff. *** “Hey Meg, what’s new?” Megan looked up from the microscope at Kelli. She smiled, her green eyes twinkling. “Eh, you know. The usual.” Kelli nodded. “Another strep test?” Megan laughed and nodded, trying to focus on the sample she was looking at. She sighed. “What’s with these people anyway? I mean, here it is Tuesday morning, when all the doctors’ offices are open and people still bring their kids to the damn hospital for every simple sneeze or cough.” She rolled her eyes and looked up at Kelli with puppy dog eyes, pleading with her to change the world. Kelli just laughed. “At least these people care enough about their kids to check something out, unlike some other parents who really don’t give a shit about what happens to their kids, ya know?” Megan nodded, defeated. “These kids’ll probably turn out to be hypochondriacs anyway.” Kelli laughed and pushed Megan away from the microscope, bending over to see for herself. “It’s a positive, as big as you please, Meg. What was taking you so long to figure that out?” Megan snickered. “I really don’t want to go back out there. I thought maybe if I stayed back here and pretended to not know what I was doing I wouldn’t have to work.” Kelli laughed and rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room, lab coat trailing behind her. Megan laughed and shook her head. *** “Good God, Flip!” Mark cried, rubbing his sore back. “How much more stuff do you need? God!” Scottie laughed and shook his head. “Like you have any room to talk, Mr. I-Have-Fifty-Million-Guitars.” Mark laughed despite his pains and shook his head, heading back out the door for another load. Scott Stapp raised his eyebrow as he entered the doorway, Jagger in his arms. “God, Scottie. How much stuff do you have? Geez…” he trailed off, smirking slightly. Scottie shook his head. “Enough to get me through, man.” He looked up at Jagger, in his daddy’s arms. “How you doin’, little guy?” Jagger smiled, brown eyes wide and sparkling. “Do you have your drums set up yet, Scottie?” Stapp glanced around the room searching for Scottie’s drumset. Scottie shook his head, pulling a box away from the wall to search through it. Stapp nodded and put Jagger down before heading out the door to help Mark carry the rest of the stuff in. Mark appeared seconds later, hands full of boxes piled so high he couldn’t see over the top of them. Unaware of the danger in front of him, he tripped over the box Scottie was looking through, falling to the ground with a crash and several colorful words. Stapp heard the crash and ran down the sidewalk to see what had happened. He entered the doorway to see Scottie crouched over Mark, who was holding his left arm, face scrunched up in pain. “Oh God…” He couldn’t help but laugh. Mark sent him an evil look over Scottie’s shoulder. “Dude, I’m in pain here, man,” he managed between gritted teeth. “Sorry,” Stapp said between giggles. “What happened, man?” He bent down to help Mark out of the floor. “I was carrying all of Scottie’s shit in and tripped over that box he was looking through right in the middle of the walkway. That box that’s marked ‘books’ landed on my arm.” Another snicker escaped Stapp’s lips, rewarded with another dirty look from the injured guitarist. “That looks bad, man,” Scottie said, a frown on his face. Mark looked down at his arm, now swollen and purple. Stapp’s smile fell and he bent down to inspect the injured arm. He carefully pressed against the bruised flesh. Mark pulled away with a cry and more colorful words. “Watch it, Mark. Jagger’s listening,” Stapp said, nodding towards the little boy. Mark forced an apology and reached out his good arm to tousle Jagger’s messy brown hair. “Dude, this looks really bad. We should get you to the doctor,” Stapp said, frowning. Mark shook his head vigorously, a pained expression on his face. “I’m sure it’s okay. Just bruised.” He picked himself up out of the floor, suppressing a wince in the process. “You sure?” Scottie looked concerned. “We should get it checked out just to be sure. We have a concert in a few days, you know?” “No,” Mark said firmly. “I’m fine. No doctors.” “Tremonti, we all know you’re terrified of hospitals, but that arm looks really bad, man,” Stapp said. “You’re going to the doctor.” “No!” Mark surprised himself at the force of his words. “I’m fine.” Stapp shrugged as Scottie sent him a concerned glance. “Whatever.” |