Listen and Learn

If there was anyone in the world that managed to keep Cadence sane it was Lance. And he was a freaking God send for it.

Confession time, Cadence had a temper and a really bad one. She blamed her mother for it, but even she wasn’t sure if that was entirely the truth as no one wanted to combat her on that theory. And that temper managed to show up more often than she had thought was possible. Of course most of it had to do with the fact she was around five rambunctious boys—and she would use that word to describe them on purpose—whose main priority seemed to drive her up the way for some reason. Well, JC and Lance never seemed to have that in mind, it was the other three that were on her hit list.

But not Lance, definitely not him. No, he was the one that usually kept her from trying to leap over the table or weight lifting machine, or whatever was an obstacle in her way to keep from strangling the boys. Everyone needed a Lance and whoever didn’t have one was surely missing out.

There was one moment in particular, that she surely did not ever want to think about ever again that day that caused her to go into a near catatonic state. Numbly, Cadence flopped down onto the couch of the band’s house flop down on the couch, moving a pillow over her face. She tried deep breathing, she tried meditating, but the sounds of the boys upstairs yelling over some sort of video game—she didn’t care to know which—made her heart continue to race.

All of a sudden she felt a tap on top of her pillow and she lifted it to find Lance standing over her with a sheepish look on his face. “What?” She snapped.

At the hostility in her tone, Lance took a step back, bumping into the coffee table behind him. “Ow,” he muttered before turning back to her. “Are you okay? I wanted to apologize for what the guys did today. I know it can be really hard to deal with—“

Cadence held up her hand, cutting him off. “Nope. No. I don’t want to think about it. After today I don’t want to deal with it anymore. I’d rather pretend it doesn’t exist.” She paused for a moment, think about it once more, and then shuddered in disgust. “You all remember that I’m a girl, right?”

“Yeah…” Lance moved to sit on the end of the couch, bumping his knee into the coffee table now. “Ow.” Cadence started to smile.

She realized quickly after meeting the boys that Lance was nothing short of a klutz. Even within the first dinner she had been a part of with them, Johnny, and Lou so they could get to know each other before she officially came on to work with them she had witnessed it. Lance, somehow, had managed to spill an entire glass of water on her, drop another one on the floor, and knock into their waiter causing him to drop an entire pitcher to the ground that shattered.

And that was only that night. The others were random bumps and bruises that seemed to show up out of nowhere and with a confused glance before it was forgotten in time for Lance to walk into a doorframe or get shoved by the other guys.

“Can I sit?” Lance tapped her feet and moved them aside before Cadence could respond. She lowered the pillow from her face and sat up, allowing it to drop to her chest. “Okay, again, I want to apologize for what happened earlier. If we had known you were there…” he trailed off as Cadence held p a hand. “Right. But it seems like there was something bothering you more than that. You look really upset about something.”

Cadence’s eyebrows rose in surprise. She studied Lance for a long moment; using the practices she had learned from her psychology classes to determine that he was being sincere. Still, she thought she had hidden it well that there was something that was certainly going on. “How do you know that?” She wrapped her arms around her knees.  “I didn’t even say anything.”

“Yes, well, my mother has always told me that it’s a good idea to listen as much as you hear people when they’re speaking to you,” Lance explained. “And you look like you really need someone to listen to you at the moment.”

“Your mother is a very smart woman,” Cadence commented. She smiled a little, using both of her hands to brush her hair back from her face. “I’m just feeling a little homesick I guess,” she finally admitted. “I mean, I love my job and everything. I like hanging out with you guys. But Florida and this industry are much different than my life back home. I miss my Dad and…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I miss everything back there. I miss cheerleading.” She made a face. “I even miss going to school and you know it’s bad when I willingly admit that I miss school.”

Lance laughed and patted her feet, which he had stretched out and rested in his lap. “But having to completely leave everything behind to work on the diets of five boy band members can’t be that easy. I understand things are really hard for you right now. That you’re questioning the choice you made to work with us, I did the same thing when I first joined; I questioned it a lot. And you should be allowed to feel that sometimes. You’re working as hard as we are and you deserve to have some time to rest and catch up with people back home and everything. If you’re ever feeling homesick you can always talk to me about it. I’m always here to listen.” he said. “Even if it’s me that you need to complain about. I know we can be really difficult to work with at times.”

“Not you,” Cadence reassured him. “Not until Justin and Chris gets you all riled up. Then you’re just as bad. Especially when you’re on a sugar rush. That’s terrible. Last time we were in the airport you couldn’t stop giggling just because I said the word ‘funny’.” She smiled as Lance started to laugh again. “It wasn’t that funny.”

“I was only laughing because of the way you said it, not what you said,” Lance defended himself. “But I’ll admit I did have too many powdered sugar donuts before the flight. I think everyone started to hate us after the first ten minutes, honestly.” He paused. “The flight attendants were really nice, though.”

“That’s because you kept saying,” Cadence cleared her throat then lowered her voice, adding in a southern twang. “Ma’am, I’m sorry for the disturbance all of us are bringing. Y’all are doing a great job.”

“I don’t talk like that.”

“But you did, Lance. I have it on tape as proof.”

“Okay, okay, I believe you.” Lance smiled warmly at her. “But you should know that we’re all really grateful for what you’ve been doing for us. And I know we don’t appreciate it all the time or tell you how much you’re helping us, but you are. I’ve even seen Joey make better decisions with foods he wants to eat.”

“That’s because he’s afraid I’m going to pop up out of nowhere and kill him if he chooses something completely wrong,” Cadence said.

“That’s true,” Lance admitted. Cadence playfully swatted him on the arm and he rubbed her knee. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah? Are you feeling better?”  Lance and Cadence looked over to find Justin, JC, Joey and Chris all huddled on the stairs, listening to their conversation. It was Chris that had spoken, holding onto part of the railing and looking at her through the bars, as if he had been thrown into a jail cell. “We’re really sorry about what happened.”

“Yeah, if we knew you were there we wouldn’t have done it,” Justin agreed.

“Or said it,” Joey added.

“Yeah, we’re really sorry,” JC agreed.

Cadence sighed heavily, tilting her head back and stared at the ceiling. She shook her head, bringing up a hand and pinching her nose. “I thought I was supposed to be the one to look after your guys’ general well-being not the other way around,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s what friends are for, right?” Chris hurried down the stairs and leapt onto the couch before Cadence or Lance could move out of the way. Next thing Cadence knew, the two of them were crushed underneath the dog pile that Justin, JC, Joey, and Chris put them under. “We annoy each other, we apologize, we move on, and we talk about how funny it was. Right?” He leaned up; pressing his hands onto Justin’s back and pressed down so he could push himself up. The movement pressed Justin’s face into the couch cushion, his arms and legs flailed as he tried to push Chris off him.

“Yeah, I guess,” Cadence grudgingly agreed. She couldn’t stay mad at them for too long.

Lance then asked, to be sure, “Does this mean we’re not dead to you anymore?” He pointed at her. “Because you did say that. You said we were dead to you.”

A giggle escaped Cadence’s lips and she threw her arms out declaring, “Congratulations on your resurrection!”