Escaping Our Fate

“Ronnie? As in Radke? THE Ronnie Radke?” I asked, staring at the screen harder. You could barely make sense of who it was, he was either partially covered by other people or out of focus. My camera was pretty good so you could see him clearer than what you normally would. It was Ronnie, defiantly. When I agreed to take this job I had to research the band, particularly the exile of their singer. I had spent hours huddled over my laptop looking up all the gossip that revolved around him and picking the truth from that.
What I had found out was that Ronnie, as well as a few of the other members in the band, was addicted to drugs; heavily. Ronnie, in attempt to defend Max, was involved in a fight that a young boy died in. But Ronnie was not at fault for it; he never touched the gun. According to his file with Nevada Department of Correction (Don’t ask how I had access to the file. Can’t tell) he was arrested June 15, 2008 for ‘Battery Causing Substantial Harm’ and would be serving a minimum of 18 months to a max of 48 months. Thanks to Nevada laws he would automatically have 40% of that time taken off though. Since being arrested he had stayed off of drugs and cleaned himself up. Fans said that he sounds more mature now, and I’d like to believe that also. He has a new band, Falling in Reverse, that from what I heard from their song ‘The Worst Time’ (which was recorded over the phone!) they had a lot of potential.
From living with the current members of Escape the Fate on this bus I can tell Ronnie was a sore subject with them. Hurt, anger, sadness, guilt, and resentment would suffocate you whenever Ronnie’s name was brought up. An idiot could tell a part of them missed their old friend and felt bad about how things happened between them. But another darker part of them also hated him. They hated that fans still wanted Ronnie back. They hated that when they played songs from their first album some of the fans would boo, or chant Ronnie’s name. I felt bad for Craig, always being compared to someone else, but he did willingly go into this band knowing things like this would happen.
You probably think that because I am friends with Craig I am a Team Craig. But that’s not true. I support Craig with all my heart, but I don’t hate Ronnie. How could I hate someone I have never met? He’s never done any wrong to me and I personally do like his voice. But I like Craig’s also, so I refuse to choose a side. I’m a fan of music, and both are musically talented.

“What are you two staring at?” Max asked, slurping down his can full of soda.
Monte pointed at the picture in front of us one more and Max bent down to get a better view.
He sputtered as he choked on his drink. Monte pounded on his back, trying to help his friend. Max had turned pale(r) in the face as he coughed and stared at pixilated image of his former best friend. I watched his face closely as a million emotions flickered through him. Monte wasn’t nearly this conflicted, but I expected as much. Monte was never as close with Ronnie as Max was. I wished to myself that Skylarr was here, she’d know how to help her boyfriend more than I could guess at. I stayed silent instead, waiting for him to be ready to talk. I gave Monte a worried look and he just shook his head, confirming that I shouldn’t say anything yet.
“I thought he wasn’t going to be released yet?” Max’s voice was carefully void of any emotion.
“Evidently he was.” Monte spoke up. “It’s defiantly him, see” he pointed to Ronnie’s neck. “There’s the tattoo for his dad.”
Max looked closer and nodded in confirmation.

A heavy silence sat in the room like a giant purple elephant. Ronnie Radke was out of jail and that changed a lot for these four men.