Love's Requiem

After sleeping giant, Niko and I went off on our own for a while.

“So that’s your friend John, he’s a nice guy.” Niko told me while we headed to the bar.

“He’s happily in a relationship.” I told him, immediately catching on to what he was trying to do. “Fight if all you want, but the only person I want is you at this point.” I told him, as the guy gave me two beers.

As I handed the cup to Niko, I went on my toes and gave him a kiss, he didn’t pull away which surprised me instead he kissed me back, and deepened it a bit.

“Cheating on me?” I heard Ken shout from behind us.

“Oh brother,” I mumbled in to Niko’s lips, as I felt him smile. I gave him one more, soft kiss before I pulled away and looked at Ken. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Probably.” Ken answered. “You two having fun?”

“I was,” I mumbled.

“Watching Isabella make Frankie look for Jesus is always entertaining.” Niko laughed.

“How’d that work?”

“Frankie embracing Jesus? Not so good, Frankie embracing sleeping giant went pretty well.” I told him.

“Half way there isn’t bad, look I know the whole thing with Frankie and them with the-“ Ken began.

“Frankie’s under control.” I assured him, already know what he was talking about. “I made it very clear that if he fucks up my very first Acacia show he’ll be walking back to Queens tonight.”

“Well I was going to say, to play it even safer he could stay with Buz on our bus.” He explained as my phone began buzzing in my hoodie pocket.

“Bella boardwalk now.” I heard Jesse exclaim.

“Fuck my life, I’ll be back.” I said as I darted down the stairs and out the back entrance.

Sure enough, Frankie was in the middle of something with what looked like Vincent and the guitarist of Acacia strain.

“No, no, no.” I said running faster. “Frankie I fucking told you!” I shouted getting in between the three of them.

“Bella step aside.” Frankie told me.

“No, this is stupid! Whatever reason you hate each other is probably dumb seeing as none of you even know each other!” I exclaimed. “Now look, I’m really having a good time and I really would like to see your set because you’re one of my favorite bands so here’s what’s going to happen.” I began as I looked up at the two and continued pushing Frankie back as I saw Niko come walking out. “I’m going to take my asshole friend here inside and this is the last time you’ll see him tonight, and you well you can go wherever the heck you want to go as long as you play Whoa shut it down.” I went on as I saw Vincent chuckle.

“You’re lucky you have her around.” Vincent told Frankie, as I threw my hand over Frankie’s mouth to prevent anymore verbal diarrhea to come out of his mouth while I pulled him inside.

“One thing I asked you to do, one fucking thing Frankie come on!” I exclaimed as we walked inside.

“In his defense, they got in his face first.” Jesse added.

“Somehow when you say that I know that means they probably tried to talk to him and he was a douche.”

“Damn she’s good.” Mike mumbled to Jesse.

“Look, just have a good time okay?” I asked shaking my head as we all sat in the seats in the main hall.

We sat and watched about three bands until Unearth came on. Of course Ken, redid his tape message on his guitar to “Hi Bella” which had everyone cracking up.

Finally The Acacia strain came on, and I was stoked. They opened up with Whoa shut it down, which after that song I jumped over the railing and in to the crowd.

-Jesse’s Point of view-

“Where is she going?” Niko asked as he watched Bella jump over the railing as she tossed me her sidekick.

“Pit,” Mike, Frankie and I all said at once.

“Sup dudes, where’s Bella?” John asked showing up sitting behind us.

“Where do you think?” I asked him as I watched Niko try to spot her. “See the blur of blonde over there?” I asked him pointing to the pit.

“Yes,”

“That’s her.”

“On it.” John said getting up and heading to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

“Does she do this a lot?” Niko asked watching her.

“Yes and no, she def. doesn’t do it as much as she used to.” I explained, “But this band and song are a big deal for her. This is the song she pretty much used to get through the shit storm that was Alex on the rebound.” I explained as JFC played.

“She’s not going to get hurt is she?” He asked as he searched for her.

“With John there probably not, maybe a little bruise not anything major.”

“I don’t see her,” He said still searching.

“She probably decided to just watch from the crowd or something,” I assured him, damn Alex was never this worried about her he always just let her do whatever she wanted and if she got hurt he’d take care of her. This guy wants her not getting hurt all together.
Acacia strain finished, and there was no sign of Bella or John anywhere.

“Probably had to go to the bathroom or something.” I suggested.

Fifteen minutes later, Bella and John came walking back in through the main entrance of the hall. And Bella was holding something against her left cheek, while John was talking to her.

“What happened?” I asked as Niko quickly pulled Bella in to the seat between him and I.

“Someone smashed her cheekbone or something. It’s not broken but she has a bump.”
John explained while I heard Niko and Bella mumbling to one another in Croatian as she
showed him the bump.

“You okay Bella?” I asked her.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing really I’ve had worse.” She told me as Niko held the ice on her cheek and kissed her forehead.

For the remainder of the show, Bella surprisingly stayed put with us. She didn’t leave Niko’s side and if she did it wasn’t for that long, when she got cold she cuddled under his jacket, and by the end of the night her cheek didn’t look so swollen anymore. She drove back to Queens leaving us all off as well as picking up Zita before her and Niko left to go back to her apartment.