"How the hell did you break it this bad?" My dad's mouth was hanging open as he looked down at the cracked phone screen.

"I killed a spider with it." I looked down at decimated thing lying on the glass case.

He raised his eyebrow up at me like he didn't believe me.

"It was a big spider. I panicked." I shrugged at him.

Cam had pressured me this morning to spend some quality time with my parents since I had been avoiding them lately. I think he was secretly afraid my dad was going to beat him up if I kept dodging them.  Cameron was still stuck in bed and in a lot of pain from his accident a few days ago. My dad would have had the upper hand right now if he decided to start throwing punches at him.

I needed their help right now anyway. I had to get a new phone and I was scared to leave the house alone.  With the threat of Nathan circling around me, I couldn't risk going another day without one. There was no way in hell I was going to take the risk of letting Nathan try to corner me again without being able to call for help.

I used Cam's cell phone this morning to call my mom. I asked her if she and my dad would go with me today to get a new one. Of course, I knew she would agree for the both of them and force my dad to chauffeur us around town.

He would do it too. There was no way he was going to let her go out of the house without him. Someone might stare at her a little too long if he wasn't around to give them dirty looks. 

"I like the blue one." My mom said, pointing to some weird off-brand phone under the glass. The phone looked like a video game character that was wearing spiked shoulder pads.

"You would." I gave her a look questioning her sanity.

"I don't think you could manage to break that one. It looks durable." Dad offered his unsolicited advice.

"I can hit you over the head with it just to make sure." I sassed back.

"You know I can still ground you, right?" He added.

We both raised our eyebrows at the same time as we stared each other down.

"You two are just alike." Mom was holding her hand over her mouth and snickering to herself.

"We are not." Dad and I turned our heads towards her and growled in unison.

"Nope, not at all." She cackled.

Five minutes into our family shopping trip and I was already ready to run for the exit. Shopping with your parents when you are an adult is a horrible idea. It should be outlawed.

After spending too long walking around and trying to figure out what I wanted, I finally decided to get the updated version of my old phone. I went with the mint green version. I was feeling slightly rebellious today with my color choice. Plus, my only other option in stock was a black one which Cam already had. I didn't want to get them confused.

It took us almost an hour to get my new phone set up and the data transferred over. I decided to get my number changed as well while we were there. My parents looked confused at the request, but I didn't add in any sort of explanation. There was no way I was going to keep the old one and give Nathan easier access to me.

I began fidgeting restlessly at the counter while the guy was finishing the new contract paperwork up.  I was nervous about leaving Cameron at home by himself while he was still not feeling well. 

"Sweet pea." My mom placed her hand on my back to try to stop me from moving.

"I'm sorry. It's just taking forever and Cameron isn't feeling well. I really want to get home to check on him." I whispered to her. 

"What's wrong with Cameron?" My dad asked, sneaking up behind us. He grabbed my mom from behind and snuggled into her like he hadn't seen her every day for the last twenty-two years.

"He wiped out on his motorcycle," I told him as I tapped the glass impatiently.

"Is the bike ok?" Dad asked.

"I...uh... I don't know." I wasn't really concerned about the bike. It didn't even cross my mind to ask Cam how badly it was damaged.  I was so worried about him that I didn't have the capacity to think straight.

"I can take a look at it after we finish up here.  One of our sound engineers has a brother who owns a shop that does bodywork.  He might be able to repair it if it's not too bad." He offered.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe it will make Cami feel better." I nodded. 

When we got done with the frustratingly slow clerk at the phone store, we hopped back in my mom's SUV to head back to their house to drop my mom off.  Dad turned up some old rock music and drove like a grandma. He stopped at every yellow light and waved at random cars at stop signs to let them go ahead of us.

He was irritating me on purpose.

When we got back to my parent's house, I asked my mom if she could bring out Puddles so I could take him back to Cameron's with me.  Dad frowned at her when she placed the chubby boy in my arms. Dad had grown to love my little goofball and I felt slightly guilty about taking Puddles away from him.  I was seriously considering letting my dad take care of Puddles when I went back out on tour.  It would be a win-win situation for me. Puddles would be taken good care of and I wouldn't have to constantly stop while we were on the road to let him pick out snacks at the gas station.

Puddles' stub was wagging intensely as he gave me slobbery kisses the whole ride back to Cameron's house. Of course, I kissed his little fat head too.  I missed the little guy as much as he missed me.

When we got back to Cam's, I was surprised when I realized his bike wasn't on the driveway.  He always kept it out. He liked to take it to work most days when it wasn't raining. 

I got out of the car and let Puddles off my lap to run free around the front yard. He was too big of a chicken to run more than a few feet away from me. I hardly ever had to put him on a leash anymore.

"His bike must be in the garage," I told my dad. 

I went over to the garage opener and punched the code on the keypad to get in. When the door was fully raised, I saw Cam's motorcycle in the corner under a bright blue tarp.

Dad walked over and pulled the cover off of Cam's bike to take a look at it. 

He walked around it, bent down, and furrowed his brow. He fiddled with the bike a little and shook his head.

"Jess, I thought you said he wiped out on it?"

"He did. He wiped out on some ice on the road. He is pretty banged up." I said.

"There's not even a scratch on the paint." Dad hummed with a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?" Cam asked, leaning against the doorway from the house to the garage.   I hadn't even realized he was there.  He must have heard us trouncing around the garage and came to check it out.

He limped down the step into the garage and came over to stand behind me.

"Jessa was telling me you bit it on some ice. It looks like your bike was a lot luckier than you." Dad's eyes narrowed in Cameron's direction.

"Yeah, it hit the grass and I stayed on the pavement." Cameron placed his hands on my shoulders and began rubbing them a little too roughly like he was upset.

"Huh, well, I guess you don't need my help then. You must have been really lucky. I've seen some guys really torn up from road rash." Dad responded. He and Cam had their eyes locked on one another like they were doing some weird boy mind-melding thing.

It was clear that whatever they were discussing telepathically was something they didn't want to loop me in on.

What the hell was going on?