A Trip in the Fall Pt. 06

*Authors Note* As promised, it wasn't 10 months until the latest installment. I originally thought this would be the last one, but it blossomed into almost 30k words and I still have more to tell, I don't want to rush the ending like a lot of series seem too. Here is Part 6, and you should expect one more. Thanks as always for reading, rating, and commenting.

Chapter 1-Late April

In the weeks after his return from Pennsylvania, Brandon's life was focused on work, baseball and getting things organized and packed in his apartment. One thing that never came up in conversations with Sarah was the interaction with Jess. He had tried to put it out of his mind, and with his schedule, it wasn't too difficult. Due to rain early in the season, his team was playing almost every night to get games made up. He and Sarah talked every night like normal, mainly talking about their daily lives and her prepping for the tour that was set to kick off in a few short weeks.

The last week of April arrived, and Brandon's stress level went through the roof due to the upcoming baseball trip. Every year since he had been an assistant, and now as the head coach, the team traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a tournament. This year, due to fundraising, the team had managed to raise enough money to fly, so getting 17 boys, plus equipment, and staff organized, along with his personal life was about all he could handle. When the Wednesday morning of the trip arrived, Brandon found himself at the school at 6:30am as the players began to trickle in, dropping their stuff in a line for bag inspection.

Matt finally arrived at 6:45, Brandon scoffed, "About time you got here."

Matt laughed, "Chill out, I brought you Red Bull."

Brandon took the drink and thanked him as the next car pulled up, this one held their bookkeeper, his student assistant, and the only girl on the tip, Mya. She dropped her stuff at his feet, he chuckled, "Good morning sunshine."

"Shut up, there's my bag, I'll be on the bus."

He laughed and called over one of the moms who were joining them to go through Mya's bag, while he and Matt started through the players' bags. As expected, there was no contraband, Brandon had threatened to leave the whole team at home if he found anything, so peer pressure had paid off.

Brandon had to laugh as he noticed Mya in the very front of the bus, already asleep; he looked at Matt, "She is going to get a big surprise come Friday."

"You didn't tell her about Sarah, did you?"

Brandon grinned, "Nope."

Matt laughed, "She's going to kill you after she's done freaking out."

"Oh I know, let's get all this loaded and get on the road."

After loading the bus and getting to the airport, Brandon gave everyone instructions to get checked in and get through security. Matt and a few of the parents that were flying with them were the first through and Brandon brought up the end, with everyone getting through no problem. They found their gate and just relaxed until it was time to board; once again Brandon brought up the rear and after doing one last check of the bathroom and texting Matt to make sure they were set, he boarded himself.

As he made his way down the aisle, he noticed the woman in front of him was reading an article on an iPad, he saw the headline, "Country crooner throws down: singer punches out the ex-girlfriend." He rolled his eyes because he knew how TMZ liked to exaggerate things, but as the woman scrolled, he saw a picture of Sarah and then one of Jess, aloud he said, "Oh Shit."

He began digging for his phone, but it wasn't in his pocket, which meant that it could only be in his backpack. By the time he reached his seat, the flight attendant had shut the door and they were starting their safety briefing. He sat down, fumbling through his backpack until he found the phone at the bottom. He tried to call Sarah, but it just rang and rang. He hung up and tried calling again with the same result.

As the flight attendant came back through the cabin, she saw him furiously typing on his phone, she stopped and said, "Sir, I need you to put that in airplane mode now."

"One second."

"Sir. Put the phone on airplane mode now."

He looked up and saw people looking at him, he apologized and hit send on the text, "We have a problem, getting ready to leave."

***

The two hours of flight time where some of the longest two hours of his life as he wracked his brain on how to deal with everything. He filled Matt in on what was going on, who sympathized, and told Brandon he would get the team corralled so he could class Sarah. As they began their descent, Brandon tried to think through what to say to Sarah, and where everything had come from.

It didn't take long for him to put two and two together, Jess. All the weird people that had been seen with her around town, her sudden influx of money to buy her house, and ultimately her comments from earlier in the month. Somehow Jess had gotten in contact with the paparazzi and was going to do what she could to ruin he and Sarah's relationship.

He could feel himself becoming angrier at what she had done and at the same time, worried about Sarah's reaction to everything. When they finally landed and they were told they could turn their phones back on, Brandon immediately found two missed texts and a missed call from her. He read the texts first, "I woke up to calls about everything." The second one was a half hour later, "Call me as soon as you get this."

As they taxied to the gate, he pulled his phone to his ear, listening to the voicemail she had left, and he could hear the frustration in her voice., "Brandon, I know you aren't on the ground yet, but I really need to talk to you when you land. This is a BIG problem that we have to deal with."

As they pulled up to the gate, Brandon gave Matt a solemn look, "She's pissed."

Matt frowned, "I can only imagine. What are you going to do?"

"I have no clue. I know where it came from, but I don't know what I can do to change it."

Matt nodded, "Did Sarah really punch her?"

"Oh yeah. Jess left the game we were at, got drunk, and then confronted us at my truck afterwards. Called Sarah a whore and Sarah decked her."

Matt couldn't help but laugh, trying to lighten the mood, "Well for your sake, I hope she doesn't give you the same treatment on Friday."

Brandon glared, "Yeah, just get the group together and I'll find you at the rental car counter." Matt nodded and then began to stand up, gather his stuff and make his way off the plane as Brandon did the same. As they made their way into the concourse, Matt rounded the group up and directed them towards the rental car counters and Brandon walked over towards the windows where it was quieter.

He pressed Sarah's contact, it rang once before she picked up, "Hi."

"Hey...we just landed, and I saw your messages."

"Yeah, so what are we going to do about this?"

He could sense the coolness in her voice, and responded, "I'm sorry Sarah, but I don't know what we can do."

"What do you mean? Talk to her and figure this out."

He sighed, "What do you mean talk to her? She is just being vindictive; shouldn't we just ignore it?"

Sarah scoffed, "We can't just ignore it, this is my career. I have a meeting with my record company in a little bit about this."

"Don't they have your back; don't you have people to deal with this sort of thing?"

"Yeah, when it is made up, but I did punch her and that's not a good look for them or me."

"It happened almost 6 months ago, it was just a scuffle, no charges were pressed, and she was drunk."

"Brandon, I punched someone and now the tabloids are all over it."

He was silent for a moment, "Giving this and her attention is exactly what they want. If we ignore them, it will go away."

"BRANDON! We can't just ignore this! What if the record company drops me? What if she files a civil suit against me? YOU HAVE TO FIX THIS."

A bit taken back to her yelling at him, he said loudly into the phone, "FINE! I'll call her, but it isn't going to do any good. Now, I have to get off here, I'm sure the vans are about ready." Before hearing her response, he hung up the phone as he noticed people looking at him as he shoved his phone into his pocket and walked towards the rental car counter.

Sarah on the other hand was left sitting in her, well, their living room looking at her phone. She was angry at the whole situation, that something that was a momentary lapse of judgement was coming back to bite her. She had been fielding calls from friends and family all morning, then the secretary at the record company called, telling her that the management wanted to meet with her at noon.

As she sighed in frustration, her mind shifted to the phone call, where she realized that for the first time ever, Brandon hadn't told her he loved her, nor did he say goodbye, he just hung up. The more she thought about it, the more that stung than anything else going on. She felt a tear slip down her cheek and thought to herself, "What if I have screwed up with him?" She tried to push the thought from her head as she moved from the couch and headed upstairs to dress for her meeting, a meeting that she hoped didn't end her career.

Chapter 2

When Brandon reached the rental counter, Matt was standing with their booster president Mike Cline, each holding keys and Brandon's bag beside them, "Everything okay?" Matt asked.

"Not really, I'm going to have to make a pain in the ass phone call in a little bit."

Matt frowned and nodded his head as Mike spoke, "Coach, the vans are ready, two Sprinter's like we reserved."

Brandon nodded, taking the key, "Thanks Mike. Are the guys out there?"

Matt nodded, "Yeah, we sent them out to get loaded after we got their locations."

"Good. Let's get going, the house is a digital check in, I already have the door code, so that will make things easier."

They made their way out to the parking lot where they found the team either sitting in the vans or milling around them with their bags stored. "Okay, load up." The players could sense the annoyance in Brandon's voice and hurriedly got in the vans.

Brandon got in the front van, finding Mya in the passenger seat, she looked up from her phone and over at him, Everything okay Baker?"

"No Mya, not really. You got the directions?"

She nodded, not pushing it, "Pulled up on my phone."

"Good, don't get us lost."

She laughed, "You're the one driving, you just have to listen." He looked over at her, clearly annoyed by her attempt at humor, "Sorry, I'll get us there."

"Thanks."

They pulled out of the airport, making their way towards Cherry Grove where they had booked a large ocean front home. In the past, they had booked hotel rooms, but Brandon had found that gave the boys opportunity to get into teenage hijinks, so this year they had reserved a house where supervision would be easier.

The drive to the house was about a half hour and when they finally pulled in, Brandon got out and told his players to get their stuff unloaded and wait for him and Matt to come back out. The booster president and his wife who was in charge of Mya, helped the players get everything unloaded while Brandon and Matt got the door unlocked and gave the house a walk through to make sure everything was as promised. Finding that it was, Brandon pulled out sticky notes and a notepad, and they spent the next five minutes putting room assignments on the doors. The players were on the main floor when you walked in while, he, Matt, Mike and his wife, and Mya were on the upper floor off the main living area.

They walked back outside to find the guys standing at the steps waiting to go in, Brandon spoke, "Okay, it is a little after 12:30, the parents will be by with food to eat around 1:30, then you all have an hour of study time, before we leave at 4 to get to the fields for practice at 5." The players nodded then he continued, "Mya, you're first, your room is on the top floor, pink sticky note.

She pushed her way past the players as they groaned, "Thank god, I'm hot and want to change."

After giving her a few minutes head start, Matt said, "Okay, the rest of you, your rooms are marked with sticky notes too. Freshmen, you all are in the room with bunk beds, so let's keep it down. Get unpacked, explore the house, go down to the beach, remember lunch is at 1:30."

They moved aside and let the players run past them into the house, for the first time in a few hours, Brandon allowed himself to smile seeing the joy on their faces and the noises he could hear coming from them as they found their rooms. Mike and his wife Lisa walked up next, Brandon smiled at them, "Thanks again for being willing to stay here, especially you Lisa."

Lisa smiled, "No problem, Mya is a great kid, Brayden talked about her a lot. I guess they have classes together."

Brandon nodded, "Good, she's pretty lowkey, but come Friday she's going to be on a whole other level."

"Oh really?"

"My girlfriend flies in that morning and Mya adores her but doesn't know she's coming."

"Oh really? That'll be great for you."

Brandon looked over and caught Matt looking at him concerned, he shook his head, "Yeah, should be a nice break for her before their tour starts."

"Good for you coach."

"Your room is on the front of the house, I figured you'd want quiet more than an Oceanview, if I was wrong, let me know and I'll swap rooms."

"Not at all, quiet is important."

As they moved past them into the house also, Matt looked at him, "She still going to come?"

"She didn't say otherwise."

"But that was before..."

Brandon glared, "I know, I'm still counting on her being here."

"Gotcha, let's go and get unpacked."

Brandon nodded and felt his watch vibrate, looking down saw another text from Sarah, "Anything yet?" He shook his head and didn't bother to respond because there wasn't anything to say.

****

For the third time, Sarah received no response from Brandon, but could see that he had read it. She was annoyed that he wasn't responding, but she did know that he was busy, but she couldn't help but say to herself as she made her way into the office of the record company, "It takes 10 seconds to respond to a text, why can't he respond?"

As she was shown into Kurt Pierce's office, she found him and one of the label's PR people waiting for her. She nodded and said, "Good afternoon Mr. Pierce."

"Sarah, I've told you to call me Kurt. Have a seat, this is Wendy McIntire, I think you have met."

Sarah took a seat, "Yes, she handled some of our early stuff before Morgan came onboard."

Kurt leaned against his desk, "I'm not going to beat around the bush, we both know why we are having this meeting." Sarah nodded and looked down at her feet, feeling about three inches tall as he continued, "I'm assuming what they wrote really happened; want to tell us your side of the story?"

Sarah spent the next couple minutes explaining what had happened, the lead up from going home with Brandon, until the incident in question. The entire time Wendy took notes and Kurt nodded until she was finished and said, "That is pretty much it."

Kurt nodded and looked over her towards the door, then replied, "You know this is a really bad look for you, especially with the tour coming up, and it doesn't look good for us, we don't make a habit of signing people that get into trouble with the law."

"The authorities were never involved. The other woman was drunk and it's a small town, we left, and she was taken home."

Wendy spoke up, "Why didn't you notify us when this event occurred?"

Sarah took a deep breath, "Honestly, I was a little embarrassed. I got so upset when she attacked Brandon and myself, I just reacted. Then afterwards, I felt so bad, and we just thought it was done."

"Well obviously it wasn't. So now we have to figure out what to do."

Silence fell over the room and a moment later Kurt spoke up, "Okay, we need to get ahead of this and put out a statement and you need to confirm that it happened, and that you reacted to her speaking poorly about you and your boyfriend. We need to make sure that it is included that she was drunk."

"Sir, I dunno about that, I don't want to make things hard for this woman."

"Sarah, being honest may hurt her, but it is just that, the truth and that is the best method here."

Wendy chimed in, "Exactly, we aren't going to spin this, or try to deflect, you're going to be honest and then we will go from there."

Kurt nodded, "One more question; do we know how TMZ, or anyone heard of this?"

Sarah thought for a moment, "No clue. The only people who were there was Brandon, his dad, sister, brother-in-law, the other woman, and a cop that Brandon knew who took her home after talking to us and others."

Wendy rubbed her forehead and sighed, "So it could be anyone. Has anyone spoken to this Jessica?"

"When I talked to Brandon this morning, he said he would talk to her and try to find out why she did it."

Kurt looked at Wendy, "Is that a good idea?"

Sarah responded first, "Sir, this is small town America, lawyers and PR people don't mean anything. She is only going to talk to him."

Wendy shrugged her shoulders, "She's probably right. Will you keep us updated as to what happens?"

"Of course, I already have an apology in my head."

As Kurt sat down, Wendy said, "Oh, Let's hear it."

"I was thinking something like this: "As the reports have said this morning, I was involved in an incident involving a former significant other of my boyfriend. During that incident, I reacted poorly and struck Ms. Kelly. I do not support violence as a way to solve issues and I want to apologize to Ms. Kelly, my friends, my family, and my fans. I hope that everyone involved either directly or indirectly can forgive me."

Kurt and Wendy both nodded and Wendy added, "We need to add in that she was intoxicated, and I think that will be good, we can get it released and hopefully move on within the next couple of days."

The trio spent the next 45 minutes talking about how to handle interview requests, questions and other things that could potentially pop up. Finally, at 3:15, Sarah walked out of the office, down to the parking garage, and sat in her Jeep, taking a deep breath before pulling out her phone, seeing a few texts from other people, but still, none from Brandon. She sighed and pulled up the schedule that he had sent her earlier in the week and saw that he was at practice now, so she knew there was no use in texting him now.

As she began to pull out of the garage, she couldn't help but question her own reaction to the events, wondering if maybe she had been too hard on him. As she pulled to a stoplight, she grabbed her phone and text him, "Hope all is going well so far."

She thought to herself as the light turned green, "Hopefully he will know that even with all of this, we are okay."

****

As Brandon climbed back into the driver's seat of the van, he looked at his phone for the first time in a few hours and saw Sarah's text, he smiled a bit and started to back out of Rios, the restaurant they had dinner at, when one of the players yelled up, "What else do we have tonight coach?"

"Well, we have one game tomorrow night, we are going to have BP tomorrow morning, but other than that, we can just relax a bit tonight and tomorrow. I figure we can find a movie or something to watch tonight. Mr. and Mrs. Cline went grocery shopping, so they have snacks for you guys tonight."

Another player piped up, "I dunno coach, we may all be stuffed from dinner."

The entire van laughed, even Mya said from her spot in the passenger seat, "Yeah, I don't think I've ever eaten that much."

Brandon laughed, "You can afford to eat a bit there string bean."

She glared at him, "I have a prom dress to fit in, if I can't I'll blame you."