Copyright 2012 

All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal. 

Sebastian was at the apartment early with Robbie at his side. He shoved past Sawyer. "Dude, you need to tell them."  

Sawyer knew better than to ask about what? "Lane knows."  

"I've known Sadie since we were fourteen."  

"Who is Sadie?" Robbie asked. "More importantly, is she hot?"  

Sawyer's hand instinctively made a fist. "You touch my sister and I'll kill you, yeah?"  

Robbie blinked. "Whoa. What? Your sister?"  

"His sister," Sebastian said. "Met her yesterday, she's a real sweetheart."  

Robbie's eyes shot to Sawyer. "So he can call her sweetheart but I can't ask if she's hot? That doesn't seem entirely even handed."  

"I'll give you even handed," Sawyer said. "She's fourteen."  

"What?" Robbie's expression turned. "She's a kid. Was she like your long lost sister, did you just find her?"  

"No," Sawyer said. "I always knew where to find her."  

Lane had some sort of sixth sense about when Sawyer's fuse was running extra short. "Sadie is a schizophrenic," he said. "She lives at an assisted living facility."  

"She's crazy?" Robbie asked.  

"Don't you fuckin' call her that."  

Robbie shook his head. "Sorry I didn't mean it that way. She has problems."  

"You're about to have a problem," Sawyer said.  

"Dude, I'm just trying to understand. This is a lot to take in," Robbie said.  

"It is," Sebastian said.  

They were right. He was emotionally charged following everything that'd happened with Lane and was being unreasonable.  

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you all about Sadie. I was just trying to protect her, you know."  

"From us?" Robbie arched a single eyebrow.  

"From you, yeah, Mister-is-she-hot, but more importantly from all this craziness going on in our lives. I was gonna tell you about her, but I was working up to it, then we got the record deal and it didn't seem like a good idea."  

"We were a band for almost four years before we got the deal," Seb said.  

Sawyer linked his hands through his hair. This was another reason he'd never mentioned Sadie. The questions. Always questions. "Look to tell you about Sadie involves talking to you about my past. I didn't have a good childhood. I had a horrible one and somehow talking about her means bringing up shit I'm not ready or willing to deal with."  

Robbie shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Fair enough. When do I get to meet her?"  

What? That was it? That was the only thing he had to say? "You want to meet her?" he asked.  

"Yeah dude, any sister of any one here or out there, like Devin, is a sister of mine."  

"She can be a little hard to take."  

"Obvious if you're related."  

Sebastian held up his hands. "Stop. That's kind of why we came here."  

"To meet Sadie?"  

"No," Sebastian said. "To help Sadie and people like her."  

"What, you have a cure for mental health."  

"No," Sebastian said, "but I do have an idea." He looked at his phone, his fingers flying across the keys. "Look your best boys," he said. "We have a date with some fans."  

Their signing wasn't until the following week. "What date?" Sawyer asked.  

"A date that is going to break everything out in the open. Including Sadie's existence and her problem."  

Sawyer was sick of hiding behind things. He was sick of not telling people how he felt, of not being real. Maybe Sebastian's idea held some merit.  

"Bennett is going to freak," Lane said.  

"Bennett can kiss my ass," Sebastian answered. "We write his paycheck. I'm tired of him running our lives. Lane, if we're getting everything out the open you should consider-"  

"No," Lane said. "Absolutely not."  

Sebastian was up to something. He wanted to help Sadie and make Lane come out to the public all in the same day. That was a record for trouble causing, and to Sawyer's surprise, he was all for the idea. He wrapped an arm causally across Lane's shoulder. "Don't let chances pass you by. We can do it together."  

Lane turned. "I'm going to get dressed, but I'm not making any promises."  

"Promise just to think about it," Sawyer hollered after him.  

"Yeah," Lane said. "Maybe."

Alexa had never felt so claustrophobic in her life. She was practically piggy-backing Devin who stood in front of her but they were so squished, it was impossible to breath evenly. Rachel was thrilled to be there-she lived for things like these-and to be in the center of it made it even better. Charlie pushed through the crowd with the help of Steve and it was all Alexa could do to keep up.  

It only took a few seconds after they entered for someone to notice Charlie. She began to scream and soon the noise spread as if it were catching. Alexa couldn't hear anything over the screaming.  

A man stood on the stage. "Welcome everyone to our kickoff party for Summer Solstice!"  

"Who is that guy?" Alexa yelled. She was sure Charlie didn't hear her. 

"A disc jockey from shockwave radio!" Charlie yelled. "They're the sponsors of the Summer Solstice concert series."  

"Oh," Alexa nodded.  

The man continued. "Who has tickets?"  

More cheers carried through the open air, and Alexa was no longer sure if it was because of Charlie or because of the mention of the show.  

"Who wants better tickets? VIP?"  

The screaming increased in intensity.  

"What would you do to meet Bach's Revenge?"  

The crowd went mental. Alexa could hardly see over Steve but she was pretty sure a girl took her bikini top off and waved it around like a flag.  

Oh. My. God. Rachel mouthed.  

Charlie surged forward, either oblivious to or ignoring people grabbing at her. The security team was exceptional at keeping them at arms length. Where exactly were they going? Devin's smile was telling that she knew what Charlie was up to, but she wasn't giving anything away.  

The crowd parted for the large men, not that they had a choice, and Charlie continued to lead the charge toward the stage. Once there, the security team moved aside, allowing her to climb the stairs, while Steve himself stalked across the front of the stage where there was no water. He had no more than a couple feet of ground before the pool started, but he stood directly in front of Charlie.  

How could she be so casual about the whole thing? She was standing in front of too many people to count. She walked up to the man with the mircophone while the rest of them waited at the side stage. Devin checked her cell phone and gave Charlie a thumbs up.  

The crowd pushed forward, and Alexa was so grateful for the massive men surrounding them. "Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!" Her name carried through the air much like the screaming.  

The host had to bend down to hear her, then smiled and brought the mic up to his mouth. "I don't think this young lady needs any introduction," he said.  

"You lucky bitch!" Someone from the audience yelled.  

Charlie just smiled and held her hand out for the mic. "Hey guys!" she said waving.  

The crowd screamed...again.  

"So," she said, "I take it you're pumped for Summer Solstice!"  

More cheering.  

"I was talking to Sebastian--"  

She had to stop talking, their response was so outrageous.  

Charlie laughed. "I was talking to Sebastian this morning."  

More hollering.  

It was as though she had no choice but to speak in sentence fragments. Alexa guessed this wasn't her first time pumping up a crowd. Charlie continued. "And he said to me, bella, there's this real important thing I need your help with."  

The crowd became almost silent. After all the excitement, it was eerie and Alexa rubbed her arms which were filled with goosebumps.  

"So I asked him what it was."  

Everyone, Alexa included, waited patiently for the next part.  

"And he told me about this event today, thanks by the way to shockwave for hosting such a killer party. Anyway, Seb and the boys, they like themselves a good party and I think, maybe, just maybe if you're loud enough, they might hear you."  

Wait? What? They were loud enough! Oh, God! She did not just tell them to be louder.  

But she did.  

Alexa had to cover her ears for the next part but that didn't last long because when Sawyer, Sebastian, Robbie and Lane came bursting from behind the stage, Alexa felt as excited as the rest of them and her hands covered her mouth.

It never got old. Not once. Even when they did twenty shows in twenty days in twenty cities last year, it didn't get old. The sound of a screaming crowd was equivalent to a drug addiction. Not that he'd had experience in drugs, but he assumed feeling of pure, undiluted euphoria had to be similar. Only this way was a lot safer and a hell of a lot more fulfilling.  

Sebastian marched up to Charlie and divested her of the mic. "Thank you, baby," he said.  

The audience made the same noise that chicks did when they saw a puppy.  

Would they do that if he called Alexa baby in front of them?  

Not bloody likely. Charlie earned the world's respect when she took a bullet for Sebastian. It'd been all over the news for months and for the most part, the reaction of the public was a warm one. Several girls had thanked her, showering her with gifts and hugs.  

Alexa was amazing but only Sawyer knew that for sure and there was part of him that wanted to keep it that way. Selfish maybe. A bigger part of him knew she was too amazing not to share.

He spotted her red hair out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know if it was Sebastian's pep talk or if it was the fact that Bennett pretty much told them when and what they could eat and the opportunity to piss him off was too alluring but something had him so psyched. While Sebastian was working the crowd, telling them how damn sexy they were, Sawyer walked right over to the stairs where she was. He grabbed her face in his hands and gave her a hard kiss.  

Alexa blinked, shocked at first then rewarded him with a smile.  

He got close to her ear. "You are the sexiest person here," he told her.  

As he walked back to center stage, to take his place in Sebastian's shadow, he noticed several people looking in her direction. Perfect.  

"So," Seb was saying. "We didn't just come to hang out, we've got something to say. Some news before tomorrow's even bigger party."  

Sawyer could taste the anticipation.  

"Who here loves Sawyer?"  

They surged forward, pushing against each other, screaming.  

"Come here, man," Sebastian said.  

Sawyer stepped forward and flashed his teeth.  

"How many of you know someone who is affected by a mental health condition?"  

A few people clapped.  

"Sawyer has a secret."  

Way to go Seb. He was making it sound as if Sawyer had a mental health condition. Sawyer ripped the microphone away from Seb before he could do further damage. "I have a secret," he admitted. His chest felt lighter than it had in years. It felt so good. "Her name is Sadie."  

A hush fell over the crowd as he swing his head to where Alexa stood. "That firey redhead right there is Alexa and I've been spendin' a lot of time with her lately and she's taught me a few things including how important it is to be forthcoming."  

Alexa's mouth dropped and Rachel put her hand under Alexa's chin to help it up. He laughed and continued. "Sadie is my baby sister and she's got schizophrenia." How could a few simple words feel so damned incredible?

The crowd went quiet before someone shouted. "My mom does too."  

Another one added, "so does my auntie."  

"My brother has OCD."  

Sawyer couldn't wipe the smile from his face. "So y'all understand how important it is that we help. Luckily," he swept his hand to his bandmates, "We are in a position to get noticed. We're asking for your help to raise awareness to a problem that people sweep under the rug. Help us move the concert tomorrow to the park right outside Paper Planes assisted living facility. Help us show the world that none of us should be ashamed of those that we love."  

The silence remained for a second before thunderous applause took it's place.  

Sawyer moved to hand the microphone to Lane but Lane took a step back, his lips pursed together and shook his head, no.  

That was alright. Maybe another day.