Don’t Start Now Part 1
Angela and Aria were pacing the hallway while Joey and Caitlin were inside with the doctors. All they knew was that Craig had been in an accident with Ellie and their three kids.
Dan sat quietly in the waiting room trying not to think about the last time he was sitting in this chair, the day that he lost his father. He nervously started to bounce his leg up and down.
Everyone turned when they heard someone approaching, hopeful that it would be their parents with good news. Jack, Olivia, and Ava were walking down the hallway with coffee and snacks in their hands as Archie, Christine, Emma, and Sean followed behind them.
Aria quit her pacing once she saw Jack walking towards her. She wiped the tear from her face and ran into Jack’s arms, “We don’t know how bad the accident was yet. My parents are in there with the doctors now.” She said as she pulled away and looked up at him. Their height difference was noticeable especially since she was still wearing her sandals from the party earlier.
In that moment Joey and Caitlin walked out of the hospital room with a look of relief on their faces, “Everyone is fine.” Caitlin began as she noticed all of their family’s eyes on her. “They want to keep them overnight to run some tests, but the doctors said it could’ve been much worse.”
“Everyone was wearing their seatbelts luckily. Craig has a minor concussion and he broke his leg but they don’t expect any long term complications.” Joey finished as he watched his family hugging each other in celebration. When the hospital called him saying there had been an accident he truly thought of the worst scenario. His gut kept questioning why Craig was running that late to the shower and now he knew why.
—————————————————-
“Mom, I’m going over to Liam’s!” Arianna shouted on her way towards the front door.
“Not so fast,” Alexa said as she walked into the hallway where Arianna was standing. “Will Stephanie be home?” She asked with a raise of her eyebrow. Stephanie Kaye was Liam’s mother, and an old friend of Simon and Alexa.
“Yeah.” Arianna said with a sigh. Honestly she had no idea if Liam’s mother would be home, but she’d never tell her mom that. “Can I go now?”
“Sweetheart, Stephanie is going through a very difficult time right now with the divorce so remember not to give her too much trouble when you’re over there.” Alexa said to her daughter in a very serious tone. Everyone knew that Stephanie was getting divorced because of her husband’s infidelity and Erica said that she wasn’t handling it well.
“Yes mom.” She said with a smile as she kissed Alexa on the cheek and ran out of the house. Liam only lives a few blocks away so she was just going to walk there.
—————————————————-
“Tristan, how do you feel about your two friends working together on the new West Drive reboot?” The paparazzi asked as he shoved the microphone towards Tristan.
Tristan stood there next to his celebrity boyfriend and plastered a fake smile on his face, “I couldn’t be happier for my two oldest friends.” He then walked away from the paparazzi.
“You handled that well,” His boyfriend, Lawson, said to him with a genuine smile.
“Are you kidding me? How dare they ask about Tori and Zoe? What about me? I’m so sick of everyone else in my life getting everything that I want. It’s just like high school all over again. My boyfriend couldn’t even decide if he liked boys or girls and was always with Maya or Lola when he was supposed to be strictly on boys.” He continued to rant on and on.
“Tristan, your ex was bisexual.” Lawson said with a disappointing tone. He had not seen Tristan behave like this before and he didn’t like it.
“Whatever.” He said as he looked over Lawson's shoulder to see a man with a camera. “What are you doing?”
“Selling this video to TMZ.” The paparazzi said with a smirk as he walked away leaving Tristan shocked.
“What am I going to do?” He said with a sigh.
—————————————————-
Angie was the first person to go in to see Craig. She had always been the closest to Craig because she grew up with him. Even when he was on tour he always made a point to come visit her and her parents. “Hey,” She said with a smile as she walked in. She wasn’t sure how he was going to look but was pleasantly surprised when she saw him laying down while Ellie watched the kids play games on her phone.
“Hey kid.” He said happily as he saw his sister walk through the door. “Why do you look like somebody died?”
“Craig!” Ellie yelled as she slapped him gently. “I told you no jokes like that in front of the kids.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He said as he put his hands up with a laugh. He then turned back to Angela. “We’re fine they’re only keeping us because they want to be extra careful after dad and Caitlin came running in here screaming about how they need to make sure we’re okay.
“The accident really wasn’t that bad. Some guy ran a red light and crashed into us, but look…” Ellie motioned to everyone around her, “We’re all here and that’s all that matters.”
“I was so scared.” Angie finally said out loud as she looked from Craig to her beautiful nieces and nephew who were laughing and playing. “I thought we might've lost you guys.” She said as she looked down and started twirling a piece of her hair, a nervous habit she had picked up over the years.
“Angie, we’re not going anywhere. Dad said we can stay at his place for a while so you’ll be seeing a lot of us.” He said with a smile as he reached out to comfort his sister.
“Good because they’re doing renovations on my apartment this month so I’m staying with dad too. It’ll be all of us Jeremiah’s under one roof.” Angie said with a relieved smile. She didn’t want to have to say goodbye to Craig again. Not right away.
“We’re actually Manning’s, Aunt Angie!” Sadie, Craig and Ellie’s four year old daughter, said back to her aunt. She looked up from the phone briefly to correct her before going back to her game.
Angie, Craig, and Ellie all burst into laughter as Craig joked, “Yeah, Aunt Angie.”
—————————————————-
“Hey beautiful,” Liam whispered before he greeted Arianna with a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly for a moment just enjoying being with her.
“Well hello to you too,” She grinned at him as she enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped up in his arms.
“My dad moved the rest of his stuff out today.” Liam said with a sigh as he looked down at the floor. His parents divorce was completely unexpected and he was not handling it well.
“Liam,” She reached for his hand and squeezed it gently. “I’m so sorry. I know that this is really hard for you.” She brushed his face with her free hand and smiled, “I have an idea!”
“And what’s that?” Liam asked with a flirtatious smirk.
“A pool party!!!!” She exclaimed with excitement as she rushed over to the couch and pulled out her phone. “Your mom is out tonight, right?” She questioned with a raised eyebrow and a devilish grin on her face.
Liam laughed as he walked over to join her on the couch, “She’s going out tonight with Erica and Heather because they’re old friend Voula is back in town for a couple of days.” He said with a shrug as he looked towards the backyard where their pool was glistening in the sun. “It could work. Dan has baby Derek for the night.” He said thinking about how his sister shared custody of her son with his father.
“Well then let’s throw a party. It’s exactly what you need.” She smiled as she started sending out texts inviting their friends.
—————————————————-
Within an hour the video of Tristan’s biphobic rant had been shared over a million times. “#TristanMilliganisoverparty” is trending worldwide, while fans continue to search for the ex-boyfriend Tristan mentioned in his rant.
Tristan looked down at his notifications on Twitter to see people tagging Zoe Rivas, Tori Santamaria, and Maya Matlin in the video of him. He was horrified. He didn’t understand why people were getting so upset about what he said. Everyone is always trying to tear him down and he was sick of it.
His phone rang and it was his agent. He answered the phone to hear screaming on the other end. His agent was furious with him. How could he be so stupid as to get caught saying horrible things about the people he was supposed to be friends with.
As his agent yelled at him Tristan scrolled through his trending hashtag. He stopped when he saw people tagging Miles Hollingsworth III. Looks like they found his ex-boyfriend.
—————————————————-
Angie left Craig’s hospital room to find that Charlotte, Dan’s on-again off-again girlfriend, had joined them with little Derek, their son.
Derek hopped off Dan’s lap and rushed over to Angie with a big smile on his face, “Auntie Angie!!!” He jumped towards her forcing Angie to react fast. She caught him with a smile as she hugged him.
As Aria and Dan went in to see Craig, Ellie, and the kids the rest of the family stood in the hallway. Angie, Joey, Caitlin, Archie, and Christine were playing with Derek as Jack, Ava, Olivia, and Charlotte discuss the party they were just invited to.
“I cannot believe I’ve been out of the house for an hour and my brother is already throwing a party and inviting the entire school.” Charlotte said with a sigh as she rolled her eyes.
“I think it’s gonna be fun. People are already posting pictures from it. Looks they’re all having a great time,” Ava said as she held up her phone so that her friends could scroll through the pictures from the party posted to Instagram.
“We have to go! There hasn’t been a party in months.” Olivia added as she looked towards Ava.
“We can go but someone is going to have to watch Derek for the night.” Jack said as he looked over to the little boy playing on the other end of the hallway.
“We can’t let the adults know because they might tell my mom, which would ruin the entire party.” Charlotte said. She was worried because she was left in charge of Liam.
“I’ll watch him,” Angie said with a smile as she walked over to the group of teens. “Go have fun.”
—————————————————-
When Arianna mentioned a party she envisioned a few of their friends coming over, going in the pool, and drinking some beers. She did not expect the amount of people that showed up to Liam’s house. She rushed over to Liam who was drinking beers with some of the football team in the corner of the backyard, “Did you invite more people?”
“Yeah! Isn’t it great?” He asked with a laugh as he threw the beer can into the recycling bin, something that Arianna had drilled into him at the start of their relationship.
“It’s getting a little out of control, babe.” She said as she looked around to see massive amounts of people drinking and dancing in the backyard.
“Relax, it’s fun!” He said as he kissed her gently and then went back to drinking with his friends.
Arianna was getting worried because this was unlike Liam. He didn’t even really like most of the people that are here. It’s like he’s trying to avoid his feelings by getting drunk and hanging out with strangers.
“This party is so fun!!!” Jade, Yick Yu’s daughter, said excitedly as she rushed over to Arianna. “I can’t believe you two had it in you.” She laughed as she jokingly teased her friend. Arianna was not the kind of person who would throw a wild party, and Liam is definitely not a people person. The only person he actually likes all of the time is Arianna.
Violet, BLT and Michelle’s daughter, approached the girls with a smile, “Hey.” She had grown up with Arianna and the two were always close, but Violet and Jade were more like acquaintances.
“Is that the guy you’ve been seeing?” Arianna asked casually motioning to the stranger at the bar on the other side of the backyard.
“Yeah, I’m not sure about him though.” Violet said with a sigh. “He seemed nice at first, but I’m noticing some red flags now.” Her parents were always teaching her and her sisters about how they should be treated in a relationship and the signs to look for if things might turn dangerous. She was so lucky to have such a close relationship with her parents.
“Always trust your gut.” Jade said with a smile before walking away. “I’m gonna go grab another drink.”
—————————————————-
“Did you see what’s trending on Twitter right now?” Lola looked up from the couch at Miles who was standing by the bar in their apartment. She held the phone out to him so that he could look.
“Is that Tristan?” He questioned as he walked towards her and took the phone from her hand. He scrolled down as he watched people talking about his old relationship and his friends, Zoe, Maya, and Tori.
Before he could say anything else there was a knock at the door, “I’ll get it!” Lola said as she jumped off the couch and rushed over to their front door. Esme and Frankie were standing there surrounded by paparazzi questioning them on Tristan. “Oh my god, come in!” She said as she ushered the girls through the door.
“Can you believe Tristan would say such horrible things? And everyone thought I was the worst person we went to high school with.” Esme said as she took a seat on the couch.
Frankie couldn’t help but laugh at the comment Esme made. Even when she was stressing over her brother and the crowd of people outside their door Esme always knew how to make Frankie smile. “Babe, this is serious.” She smiled as she saw Esme give her a grin. “We came as soon as we heard people talking about you and Lola. Stans all over Twitter are finding our old tweets and posts and someone even found an old video of the play you wrote about Lola. It’s getting crazy, Miles.”
Lola walked over to Miles and grabbed his hand. They had moved on from the drama with Tristan years ago and now these random people on the internet are bringing it back up. This is why Miles decided to release his first book under a pseudonym because he didn’t want everyone judging it because of who his family and their history is.
“Zoe and Tori just released a statement. They said that although they don’t wish any bad will on Tristan they have not continued their friendship with Tristan after high school ended.” She finished reading the comment then noted, “Harsh.”
“I don’t think we have to make a statement,” Miles said as he looked towards Lola for confirmation. He couldn’t believe that Tristan was still harboring such anger towards him after all these years.
“I think you both should post a picture of the two of you together and that will show everyone that you have moved on. You don’t need to have a long discussion about your ex-boyfriend. Especially when it is so clear that he’s still bitter after all these years,” Frankie said in support of her brother and her best friend. “We just wanted to make sure you were okay.
“We’re fine, it’s Tristan that seems like he’s in trouble.” Miles said as he squeezed Lola‘s hand.
“I can’t wait to see Tristan’s ridiculous notes app apology.” Esme said with a laugh and a shrug.