Tess

Throughout the course of the dinner, Tess carefully placed a couple pieces of food into her napkin palming them at the end of the meal. The other girls were all being directed outside to the area near the stage on the back lawn.

Picking up her purse from where she had placed it, she walked to the bathroom, saying, “I’ve got some eats for you.” The bathroom on the lower floor was vacant, going in she closed and locked the door behind her. “You’ve been awfully quiet,” she quipped, smile on her face. No response. “Tom?” she said, setting the purse on the counter. Again getting no response from the purse, she frowned. Opening the flap on the purse, she peered inside. No Tom, he was gone. Quickly she pulled everything out of the purse and spread it out on the bathroom counter. Tom was absent. A panic gripped her in the stomach as she looked from her purse to the door of the bathroom and then back into the purse, mind desperately racing trying to figure out where she might have lost him. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the last time she saw or heard from him, was it at the couch? The upstairs bathroom? She cursed softly under her breath. Removing one of her earrings, she dropped it into her purse along with the rest of the contents strewn on the counter top. She slowly made her back, scanning the floor and along the edges of the wall as she walked. Descending the stairs, she moved to where she had been sitting on the couch. Pressing down on the edges of the plush cushion and looking at the space created, she whispered, “Tom!” but found nothing.

“May I help you miss?” asked the maid from behind, hands folded neatly in front of her.

Startled, Tess jumped before turning, “Um, no thanks,” she said, smiling politely to cover the terror gnawing her insides.

“Did you lose something?” asked the maid, looking from Tess to the couch.

“One of my earrings,” she replied with an eye roll, touching the ear without jewelry.

Mrs. Lindholm appeared up above, near the top of the stairs. “Is everything okay?” she asked, concern on her face.

“The young lady has lost one of her earrings, ma’am,” replied the maid.

“Oh dear,” replied Karolina, coming down the stairs, looking at Tess. “Is it the twin to that one?” she asked, pointing the earring still in Tess’s other ear.

Tess nodded.

“I’ll have some people see if they can find it right away. You shouldn’t worry, you should go outside with others, I think they’re about to start the show,” Mrs. Lindholm advised, smiling and pointing toward the stage beyond the windows.

Tess smiled. “Just one more quick trip to the bathroom,” she said, almost apologetically.

“Alright, you go while we look,” Karolina said, moving beside the maid and pulling at the big couch cushion.

Tess cursed mentally as she walked away, what the hell Tom? Climbing the stairs, she returned to the bathroom upstairs, checking everywhere and again finding no trace of her tiny wayward brother. Returning downstairs, she pulled the earring from her purse and held it up as she came down the stairs. “Found it, in the upstairs bathroom,” she said, manufactured smile on her face.

“Thank heavens,” said Karolina, “They look very expensive I’m glad you located it,” warm smile on her face.

Tess walked outside as the band completed their final warm up. She found it kind of odd to be in such a small audience for a group that usually commands sold out sports arenas all over the world. She wondered what it cost to have them provide a private show for a birthday party but her mind kept drifting back to Tom. She had been so super careful to make sure not to drop him, she shook her head, almost imperceptibly, then the thought struck her, he must have snuck out, deliberately. She fumed.

The group hit the stage and rocked hard and loud, playing for just under an hour, set list featured several of the older songs as well as their current mega hit Black Panties and an Angel’s Face.

After the show, Injustice’s shirtless, sweaty, lead singer Aedin Stray came down and mingled with the gaggle excited girls. Both arms completely sleeved with tattoos crawling up onto his shoulders and neck, the word ‘Blissful” arched over his belly button, he was tall and slender with defined muscularity, long dark damp hair flung back as the girls crowded around. The only two partygoers aloof of the mob scene were Tess and the birthday girl herself, Janine.

Janine walked over, “You’re not a fan?” she asked, throwing a glance at the crowd surrounding the rock star.

Tess smiled. “Oh no, they’re very cool,” she said, nodding. “Tom is a huge fan, I think he has a man crush on the lead singer Aedin,” she chuckled outwardly, while inside she wanted to squeeze his little body in her hand.

“That’s funny,” Janine replied, tone devoid of conviction.

Tess frowned, “You’re not impressed, hottest rock band on earth in your backyard, playing for your birthday?”

Janine smiled weakly a small upward turn at the corners of her pretty mouth. “I don’t know, I think I was expecting something more,” she said, slight frown.

“Oh?” said Tess.

“How old do you think he is?” she asked, looking at Aedin as he scrawled another autograph.

Tess shook her head, “Thirty, thirty-five maybe, I don’t know, why?”

“Yet here he is, the current rock god shilling for a group of teenage girls,” she replied, the sardonic smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Scrounging for coppers.”

Tess frowned. “What were you expecting?”

Janine smiled, a practiced expression devoid of any real emotion, “I’m not sure. More, I guess.”

“I don’t understand,” Tess said.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” she replied, laughing softly.

Tess smiled, uncomfortable with the conversation, thoughts of Tom still preeminent in her mind. “That’s the cost of growing older, each year the magic dwindles until there’s nothing left,” she offered, getting philosophical.

Janine chuckled. “Sounds very esoteric. You should go over, at least to say you met him,” she suggested, turning and pulling Tess into a surprise hug.

Tess nodded and smiled hugging Janine back, before weaving in through the throng to see Aedin Stray up close in the flesh. Never one to become addle witted around people of fame, she smiled, shook his hand then disengaged, other matters pressing.

She had no idea how Tom was going to try and make contact, or even if he could make contact. The very real possibility of him getting found by someone other than her concerned her, but nearly as much as the thought that someone might accidentally step on him and he get hurt or even killed. Again Tom made her feel a great deal of inner conflict, this time fear for his well-being and anger for putting her in this position. If he had just stayed in the purse, none of this would matter at the moment.

Too soon, the party was wrapping up, and Tess had made all possible efforts to try and find Tom. Several scenarios crossed her mind, none reassuring. Was he lost and unconscious? Did somebody else find him and wasn’t saying? Or was the little bugger hiding out? Remaining as long as she possibly could, taking the last van back to the school, she wondered if she should have just told everybody about him. That night was a sleepless one, unable to shut off her mind for worry.