You Rock Like Escape The Fate

“I found the piece, Miss Leisl!” Leila squealed, picking up a piece with a jaguar’s eye on it and placing it into the jungle puzzle we were working on, on the living room floor. Ronnie and Bryan were playing Halo on the house’s lone TV while Craig and Max were discussing lyrics. Craig held a sleek black notebook in his hand, and a purple pen wrote his thoughts onto its pages with ease. Max had his serious face on; it was obvious how important his music really was to him. My eyes kept going over to Bryan’s fast-moving fingers in awe, wondering how on earth he could accomplish such speed without, like… exploding or something.

Well that sounded intelligent, Leisl…

All I can say is, the muscles in his fingers had to be insanely strong to withstand it so easily. Hayley had just gone into the kitchen, probably to get herself more junk food. I am not one to eat junk food. In fact, I can’t stand the chemical-filled, nasty ‘stuff’ that the average American consumes on a daily basis. The only junk I eat is when I’m very, VERY upset and I require comfort food. As unfortunate as it is, my comfort food is pretty much anything with excessive butter. Lucky for me, I’m a fairly bright person, and don’t fall to these moods often.

Leila finished the puzzle and hugged my neck, then took it and got up to waddle over to her father and showed it to him. Craig smiled down at her and gasped at her lovely puzzle.

“Oh my gosh, Leila Bear, it’s so awesome! Did you thank Miss Leisl?” he asked with a grin.

“Thank you, Miss Leisl,” she said, looking back at me.

“You are so very welcome, young lady,” I assured her. Craig smiled at me and handed Max the lyric book, then pulled Leila onto his lap and started talking to her. I turned and sat next to Ronnie, who was currently playing a better game than Bryan was.

All of a sudden, a shrill scream I knew to be Hayley’s sounded from the kitchen, and we all sprinted there with Ronnie in the lead. My best friend was seated on top of the round kitchen table, eyes wide as golf balls and finger pointing shakily at a massive spider crawling along the floor. Normally, killing the monster was duty of the best friend, but before I could do anything, Ronnie was at her side and smushing the insect to a messy blob. I sighed and left with the others back to the room, sitting in my place on the floor and waiting for him to return so I could watch the rest of the game of Halo in peace.

After Ronnie sat back down and the game continued, I thought about all of the last three or four weeks.

1. I discovered a new band.
2. I liked the music.
3. Bought a bunch of their merch.
4. Became a fan.
5. Learned they were pretty much being hunted.
6. Became a diehard follower of the band.
7. Lost my job.
8. Kidnapped four of the guys from the band, leaving one behind. =[
9. Became good friends with Max and Craig, okay friends with Ronnie.
10. Became enemies with Bryan for no good reason.
11. Saw a couple of my old high school friends.

Wow, that’s one very lonnggg and life-changing month, wouldn’t you say? I mean, god, what if….we went to…prison… Scratch that thought. These guys wouldn’t press charges against us, right? I mean we’ve been pretty cool with them so far. Why would they wanna do that to us? Bryan probably would, but other than that…ugh god my brain hurts.

I heard Hayley’s footsteps trudging up the stairs, indicating that she was exhausted. A few minutes later, she called down to me to ask if the girls had brought anything to wear. I smiled at the bags filled with clothing that Daisy, the psychic best friend that she always had been, had brought us. I answered her ‘yes’ and went back to watching Halo. She came down and grabbed some adorable penguin pajamas.

“Night guys, Night little miss Leila, Night bestie,” Hayley said, giving a fair goodnight to all the occupants of the large cabin. There was a chorus of ‘night’s in reply as she bent down to hug me really tight.

“Ni-night, Willy,” I said. She smiled. Max gave me a look and Craig raised an eyebrow at me, so I laughed. “Like Hayley Williams from Paramore…” I explained, and they both went “Ooohhh…” in understanding. Hayley burst out laughing, and soon calmed herself down to give me another goodnight.

“Night, Jessi,” she said, before quickly realizing her mistake and clasping her hand to her mouth. She muttered a quiet ‘oops’ as Bryan scoffed rudely.

“Jessi?” he asked, looking at me incredulously. I raked my fingers down my face and groaned in frustration.

“It’s my middle name, okay? You happy?” I asked, glaring at the boy who no doubt was enjoying my misery. Total Jerkface. “Only Leila and Hayley are allowed to call me by my middle name,” I said, soon realizing that he had said almost the exact same thing just that morning. that’s just weird… I thought. His grin widened.

“Sure thing, Jessi,” he said, sarcasm coating his every word. I glared at him and rolled my eyes.

“Whatever, Bryan,” I retorted, getting up and hugging Hayley before she retreated upstairs. I went and sat in between a tired Max and an exhausted Craig. I was intrigued by the black book that rested under Max’s fingers.

“Can I?” I asked, pointing to it. He smiled and shook his head stubbornly. I chuckled and grabbed the book from him, laughing when he gave me this retarded pout. I turned to the book and began reading from the random page I had opened it to. My laughter and smiles quickly faded as I realized just how much I could relate to the words scribbled onto the paper.

You left before I had the chance,
the chance to ask you for a dance,
it would have been your last,
and now you’re just someone in my past,
what am I supposed to do,
you went to heaven ‘fore I could say…
’I love you’.

We weren’t just the best of friends,
you promised we’d be together until the end.
Well guess what? It came faster than I expected…
So why don’t I regret this?
Why don’t I regret staying down here?
When you’re…up…there…

A tear spilled from my eyes, as memories returned and feelings renewed. I swallowed it down, and gasped a little.

“Those lyrics are beautiful, Max,” I whispered.

“You okay, Leisl?” he asked. I nodded. “Well, they’re Craig’s anyways, he wrote most of it,” he said. I quickly wiped the tears away and looked to my side to find that Craig was fighting to keep his eyes open.

“Craig, I can take the little one. You go get some rest,” I offered, my voice magically jumping back to normal. He smiled gratefully and handed over the tired toddler, a yawn escaping his lips as he did so. He went to one of the bags and grabbed something to wear, then disappeared up the staircase. Not three minutes later, Leila was sound asleep in my arms. I chuckled quietly and carefully got up.

“I’ll be right back, you guys,” I whispered. Bryan ignored me, Max quietly nodded his head, and Ronnie simply waved his hand in the air for a moment, before returning to his game. I carried the sleeping child up the stairs and laid her next to her father, who was already fast asleep, on the bed. I smiled and pushed her hair out of her face, then tucked her in. Craig instinctively wrapped his arms around her in his sleep, and it gave me this odd sense of a word I hadn’t been a part of in awhile; family. As I left the room, I decided to go say goodnight to Hayley. On my way to her, I heard heavy footsteps on the wood floor of our room. Out of my ungodly curiosity, I stepped up to the doorway and looked in.

Hayley changed three years ago. She got these moods and I know something horrible happened. I’m waiting for her to tell me, and I figure she will. It must have something to do with someone she loved, because she hasn’t been with a guy ever since. So, when I saw a male figure sitting on the edge of the bed and stroking her cheek, I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face. He was leaning down and kissing her forehead, still not knowing I was there.

Then, it hit me like a very heavy and very large brick wall. Who the crap was kissing my best friend goodnight?

Ronnie. My jaw dropped open, and I quickly got away from the door and stood at the top of the stairs, thinking. That boy had himself a reputation. I wasn’t about to let Hayley get hurt again, especially not by a guy like him…I mean, at least not by the kind of guy he claimed to be. I didn’t think I knew him well enough to pass that kind of judgement on him…I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He came out and softly shut the door, then proceeded down the hall until he saw me waiting there. He gave a nervous smile and I went up to him.

“Look, Ronald. You seem like a nice enough guy, and I’m very thankful that you so easily agreed to be friends with us. I accept that you and Max hate each other, and it’s good that you both seem to understand the concept of ‘just walk away’. But here’s the deal,” I said, stopping to get his reaction. He nodded and beckoned for me to continue. “That girl in there is like a sister to me, she always has been. I need to be sure that she’s safe with you. I need to know you won’t break her heart,” I told him.

“I won’t. We’re just friends, Leisl, it’s not like I’m marrying her, okay?” He replied, but without a single hint of rudeness and it was surprising the way he said, ‘I won’t’, with complete sincerity in every way. For some reason, I trusted him and his words, and patted his shoulder in approval.

“Great, I’m glad. Thank you for that…Oh and thanks for agreeing to be friends, Ronnie. It means a lot,”

“No problem, You girls have been pretty cool. As long as Max stays away from me, we’ll all be very happy,”

“Alright, sounds like a deal,” I finished, reaching up to pat him on his much taller head, then turning to go down the steps. Ronnie bid me goodnight and headed for whichever room he was in. I went down to find that Max had already gone off to his room, and Bryan lay sleeping on the living room, his xbox controller resting on his stomach as it moved up and down with his breathing. I sighed and went to him, kneeling down to reach his level. Lightly shaking his shoulder, I tried to wake him. It was actually sort of hard to do, he looked so… peaceful. I took a moment to look at his now dark brown hair that spread out from his head on the ground, remembering how much cuter…or, erm…hotter he was with the bleached blonde version of it. I also took time to notice how much nicer he was to me when asleep.

“Brryyaannn, wakey wakey!” I cooed, shaking him gently again. His eyes slowly opened and he looked so tired. I actually felt sorry for him. That is, until his eyes widened and he jumped up, screaming at me about all the things I probably tried to do to him in his sleep.

“YOU’RE INSANE! GET AWAY FROM ME!!” he continued. I shushed him furiously.

“Would you just SHUT UP?! There are five innocent people upstairs trying to rest!” I hissed. He finally shut up, but gave me a death glare. I rolled my eyes at the idiot standing before me.

“I didn’t do anything to you, retard, I was just waking you up so you could sleep safely upstairs,” I informed him, going to the windows and locking them shut one by one. He began putting away the xbox as I worked on making sure all possible entryways were securely locked.

“What, are you afraif we’ll get away in the night from our wonderful vacation?” Bryan said after a minute, putting an annoying emphasis, oh and with sarcasm, on the word ‘wonderful’.

“First of all, no, I don’t think you could escape even if you wanted to; Second of all, yes, this is a vacation and I suggest you take advantage of that; and third, I am locking these doors and windows because of one thing… WOLVES,” I retorted.

“Wolves?”

“Yes, wolves. You know, the vicious creatures that kill you so they can eat a proper dinner? I have to lock this so they can’t get in. Get it?” I finished, saying it slowly so he might understand. He rolled his eyes and sent me a mean look, then went back to squeezing the last controller into the bin we had it in. I turned off the lights and we both got to the stairs at the same time.

“Ladies first,” he said, giving me a poisonous look yet again.

“No thanks. After you! I know better than to turn my back on someone that might stab me,” I said. He scoffed and shook his head, then proceeded up the stairs. “You know you said you would be friends with me…” I mentioned resentfully.

“Yeah well, she was screaming at me, what’d you expect?”

“Ugh god you’re a jerk,”

“You’re the one that flipping kidnapped me!!”

“I did NOT!”

“DID TOO!”

“DID NOT!!!”

“Would both of you just shut the frick up!? Some people are trying to get some sleep!” Ronnie yelled at us from his room. I growled at Bryan and turned down the hall to my room. The last thing I heard from him before closing my door was,

“I still hope you drown, Jessi!!!!”

I snuggled under the covers in the pink and black rocker pajamas (I know they sound lame but they’re actually really cute) I had grabbed from the bag; wondering why Bryan, the supposedly shy, quiet, and sweet member of the band, hated me so much.

--------&&&&--------

“How could you!?” I screamed at him, tears welling up in my eyes.

“I SWEAR, Lee-lee, it wasn’t me!” he promised me. My face was hot and the tears burned as they rolled down my face.

“You promised me you wouldn’t tell! You promised me, Nate, and you said you never break promises!” I cried. He came straight up to me and grasped my shoulders, shaking me lightly.

“I didn’t break any promise, Leisl, you have to believe me! You’re my best friend, I would never do that to you!” he yelled, his eyes watering. I just looked down and shook my head, pulling away against my better judgement. He just sighed and let his hands fall to his sides in disappointment.

“I hate you, Nathaniel Brookes,”

------&&&&--------

I shot up in bed, gasping for breath and feeling a cold sweat. I wiped the stray tears that were streaming down my face.

“Stupid nightmares…” I choked out, moving off the bed and putting on my puppy slippers. Hey, don’t laugh, puppies are cute. I went to the bathroom and washed my tear-stained face, then did my morning routine. After my shower and brushing of my teeth and hair, I pulled on my jeans and this random blue shirt, then headed down the stairs. It was still a little dark out, the sun giving the sky a pinkish tint. I heaved a sigh and went to our kitchen to get some coffee. I turned on the light to find that I was not alone, and that Bryan was sitting at the table, looking out of the window and holding a cup of coffee in his hand. I silently cursed my early-morning wake-up habits and headed for the coffee machine.

“Morning,” I said, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Hi,” he muttered, placing the cup softly to his lips and keeping his stare focused on the slowly rising sun.

“Can’t sleep?” I asked, sitting across from him.

“No, I’m just an early riser,”

“Oh…but I thought you guys weren’t ‘morning people’ or whatever Max said in that one interview…”

“No, that’s mostly just Max and Ronnie. I always wake up around five or six. Now can you stop talking to me?” he said, finally looking at me but in frustration.

“Fine, fine…God, I was just curious…” I huffed. I got up to go out to the living room but stopped when he cleared his throat.

“Talk to Craig about the dreams or whatever. He’s good with that stuff,” he suggested. I turned to look at him, but his gaze was already fixed back on whatever was outside the kitchen window. I left and sat down on the couch. How did he know about the stupid nightmares? Oh well… I thought. I decided I would not take his advice. Nobody knows about the dreams. Nobody knows what happened to me when I was 14. Not even Hayley knows the whole story of what really happened back then. And ever since that girl told me about Max and Ronnie’s best-friend-fight, and how they got to hate each other, the nightmares had come back.

And I knew this would be my chance to redeem myself for what I did; to fix things once and for all.