You Rock Like Escape The Fate

$$**Daisy’s POV**$$

So, it actually turns out that Mr. Ronnie Radke is a really, really good baker. That cake he made was, well… amazing. It’s been a week since we had it, and I’m still in wonder at how he accomplished such a feat! Oh the buttery goodness…

Bad thoughts, Daisy, bad thoughts. We must stay as fit as we are!

WHOA. Okay so I totally just made it sound like I’m like, possessed or something…

Distractions. Sorry, that happens a lot. Anyways, after Max played me that amazing song on the guitar Leisl had given the boys to use, and Ronnie made the cake, I had gone home and called up Jason’s bitter ex-girlfriend, Michelle, to confirm our lunch. Well, she proposed then, that since she was going to be a little ‘held up’, that the next Thursday would work better for her. So, here I am, in a Starbucks seven days later, jotting down the information she was giving me.

“So, wait… were the two of you still going out when he witnessed the crime?”

“Well, actually, no, I had broken up with him two weeks ‘fore that,” she said, smacking her lips as she chewed her gum, a lifelong pet peeve of mine.

“So, would you happen to know a Mr. Trace Miller?” I asked, wondering if maybe she knew the victim.

“Yeah… he was my fiancée… he’s gone now, though…” Michelle said, her voice laced with sadness. Well, there’s our motive.

“So, you knew about the accident?”

“Darlin’, I can promise you that aint no accident. When Jason’s class ring is the only thing within a thousand miles that could put a punch like that in a guy’s face, and it’s his jeep they find in the lake, and it’s his girlfriend that the guy stole, there aint a way in all halibut that Jason wasn’t the man that murdered Trace!!!” she cried. She was angry, but sadness seemed to have been completely replaced by a need for vengeance. It was all connecting. HA! There are officially TWO Detective Girls! =]

“And isn’t it just convenient that four of the guys, the ones from that etf band or whatever, Jason hated the most just got kidnapped. I can bet you it was him,”

“Yeah, I know, ri—Wait. Did you just say ‘kidnapped’?!”

$$**Normal/Leisl’s POV**$$

“I STILL can’t believe the Ronnie Radke that I knew would actually just sit quietly and ‘watch squirrels play’ like that… how cute is that!!” I squealed, remembering what Hayley had described to me last week. It’s hard to get over that kinda thing, you know. It was me and Max sitting in the living room, chatting it up, and everyone else was upstairs watching The Lion King (as I’ve said before, don’t ask).

Max began laughing at my comment, having a knowing look on his face as he did so. I quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Ronnie would never do something like that! I hope you know what that means!” he laughed. Then it struck me. Was my new best friend Max proposing that my best friend-since-kindergarten was being… used? Oh. Heck. No. The anger was surely showing on my face as I let these thoughts run through my head.

“Max, what are you saying!? Max! Max, I’m serious, if you don’t explain yourself right now, I will handcuff you to a chair in a dark room and force lunchable cheese down your throat!” I yelled, looking very unhappy to say the least. His face dropped, his eyes bulged, and he stopped laughing all together.

“Okay, okay! Geez! Look, if a guy like Ronnie, and trust me, I know Ronnie better than anyone, will sit quietly and hold his girl, and use the excuse of ‘watching squirrels play’, he obviously isn’t thinking it’s a waste of his time. With any other girl, he would’ve laughed at the mention of squirrels even existing,” he said. I looked at him confusedly. “Don’t you get it? Oh my god, Jessi, you are so slow! Okay, I’ll say it slowly so you can understand… He. Loves. Her. Capiche?” he said. My mouth hung open and I squealed, jumping up and down in my seat.

“OH my goshness, Max, you serious!? Awww!! Wait, stop making me get all girly!” I said, thinking of being a firsthand witness to Hayley finding her one true love, as well as Daisy. How lucky can a girl get? Watching my two best friends find their guys… not like I need one, though. Ha! What a concept… ha… okay no depressing thoughts, Leisl. Maybe you should have had some of Ronnie’s cake last week, it was Butter Pound Cake… who cares about being a health freak?

Stop! Okay no more distractions! I blame Daisy and Hayley for teaching me how to get distracted…

“Wow, Max, I didn’t know you were so wise!”

“Why thank you, ever so much,”

“Mhm. You know, I haven’t played any guitar since I was like ten, can you help me get started again?”

“Sure,” he said, getting up off the couch and picking up the electric guitar that’d been leaning against the living room wall. He handed it to me and I slipped the strap over my shoulder. It felt nice to be holding this thing again. “Alright, what do you want to play? What songs do you know?”

“Well, I wanna start with a hard one first, to kick off a little!”

“You sure?”

“Yeah! Teach me one of yours! Actually, I have been extremely obsessed with Br—I mean the lead solo in My Apocalypse. Teach me that one!” I asked, saving myself from saying “Bryan’s lead solo”. Max smiled and nodded, and started pointing at random frets to get me started. We worked on it for about a half hour, and at one pointthe idiot Bryan walked in and sat on the couch, writing something in Craig’s lyric book. I rolled my eyes and ignored him, trying to pick up speed on the chords I had now memorized. I kept screwing up on one of them, my finger kept slipping. Bryan grunted and heaved himself off the sofa, stomping over and grabbing the finger that kept on messing up.

“You’re frikin doing it wrong! If you start with your hand up here, it won’t slip. Push that string and lean forward, it gives it a smoother sound,” he ordered, pointing, gesturing, and mimicking the steps as he said them so I could get it right. Max had that half smile back on and it was starting to get to me. What is going on in that screwed up mind of his? As soon as Bryan had taught me the new way of playing it, my finger didn’t slip once… Maybe he really does have a brain in there.

“Stupid idiot,” he mumbled as he walked back to his seat on the couch. Oops, nope, he doesn’t. Brain’s been missing since birth for that one.

Ronnie came downstairs, Hayley, Craig, and Leila trailing behind. Wow, so Craig and Ronnie are getting along? I mean, if they could watch a movie in the same room together, that must be saying something. I took the guitar off, suddenly getting stage fright, and leaned it back against the wall. Max hugged me, grinning.

“Good job, how long did you play again?”

“My uncle taught me from about age eight to ten,” he said. We were all sitting down, chatting, when I heard screeching tires land outside of the house. I raised an eyebrow and Hayley stood up with me. We were about to walk to the door, when Daisy burst through it, looking completely out of her mind.

“LEISL AND HAYLEY, UPSTAIRS NOW!!!” she commanded. I was immediately freaked out, and I ran for the stairs in a rush, following Hayley. Once we got in, Daisy slammed the door shut and stared at us. “Are you guys absolutely insane!? You kidnapped them!? You friking kidnapped four grown men!? What the flip is wrong with you!?” she cried. She must think we are complete psychos… not that I blame her, but hey.

“Shhhh! They’ll hear you!” I whisper-yelled. She closed her mouth but questioned us with her eyes. “Look, someone wants to freaking kill them, okay!? We figured it would be safer for them and everyone they know if they were as far from this guy as possible, so we took them here. They think this is a vacation, and it has to stay that way, got it!?” I explained. Daisy took a deep breath and her eyes flitted between the two of us.

“You do realize that this is a prison-worthy crime, right?”

“Yeah… but we love them already…” Hayley defended. “I mean, f-friendly love, of course…!”

“So you really don’t think they’ll press charges?”

“I hope not… but if they do, well it was worth saving their lives, right?”

“Fine. But I swear, if this is anything crazy, I’ll lose my mind for real,” she warned, her lips pulling into an apologetic smile and her arms enveloping us in a hug. Thank god Daisy wasn’t one to stay mad for very long. See why I love this girl? And Hayley, too… gosh what would I do without her?! Ah, best friends…

We started going down the stairs and heard angry yelling between two voices that had quickly become very familiar to me; Max and Ronnie. Why is it that every time I’m upstairs, something has to go wrong?!

We got down there and Max’s and Ronnie’s incoherent screams worsened. I blood began to boil, because as I know I’ve told you, best-friend-fights are one of the things I hate the most. They continued yelling, and Bryan’s voice was added to the mix as he tried to tell them to keep it down. Hayley was screaming at Ronnie to stop, as Daisy was for Max. I would’ve been doing the same, but my head began to spin and tears began to fall. Not again, not all this again… All of a sudden, Ronnie’s fist connected with Max’s nose and he stumbled backwards, immediately clasping his hand over it in pain.

“STOP!!!” I heard Hayley’s voice scream. Ronnie’s fist stopped in midair the moment her voice hit his ears, and everyone was silent for a moment as Bryan’s voice become dominant.

“Has anyone noticed where Leila went!? God, you guys are so effing oblivious!!” he screamed, before running around to the kitchen and looking for her. Craig was already up with him, looking in corners and calling out her name. The panic started to rise as I ran up the stairs to look for her, and a wall of memories hit me in the face.

--$$$--

“Darnit, Nate, where are you!? I really need you, someone told… someone found out and now the whole school knows! Please, Nate, I need to talk to you!” I called out, looking for my best friend, who had disappeared. Everyone knew my deep, dark secret now, and I needed his shoulder to cry on. All the kids were having those stupid looks of sympathy on their faces, and all because of the secret. “NATE! Seriously!!” I cried. I leaned against a row of lockers, catching my breath. Out of nowhere, Alecza and her ‘possie’ turned the corner and walked in my direction, gum smacking and heels (and/or designer flip-flops) clacking the floors. Oh joy…

“Hey, uhh, Leetle, is it?” Alecza said.

“Leisl,” I growled.

“Look, smarty, I’m trying to help you out here. You know I really hate to do this to you, but I have to be honest… You’re little boyfriend is the one that told everyone that thing about you’re dad. I saw him passing a note. I swear I just wanted to beat that boy up for what he’s done to you! I hope you’ll forgive him one day,” she told me, before stalking off with her group to the front doors of the now-empty school. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as it all began to sink in.Today was the world’s worst Friday. Ever…

Do I believe the school’s most popular girl? I guess there was only one way to find out…

--$$$--

I ran past Craig’s room and into mine and Hayley’s, following a nearly silent sound I recognized as crying.

“GUYS, UP HERE!” I yelled. Within a minute, the sounds of stampeding feet were at the door, and I saw little Leila hiding under our bed. She looked so scared, and the tears I had been holding in came out as I put my hand out and she took it. I held her close to me.

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby, don’t cry,” I cooed. Bryan grabbed her from me and kissed her forehead.

“Don’t you ever run away from us like that again, okay?” he scolded. She nodded sadly and Craig took her, cradling her and running to their room to calm her down. I looked resentfully at Max and Ronnie, whose heads hung in shame for scaring the little girl half to death.

“Guys… w-what was all that about?”

“Frikin a-hole over here made fun of the room I was assigned…” Ronnie explained. Hayley was hanging onto his arm, and Daisy was rubbing Max’s back for support. Hayley looked at me and I nodded, and she turned around and pulled Ronnie to another room to talk to him separately. Daisy gave Max a look like, ‘what the crap were you thinking?”

“Well, come on, his room is like all pink and blue and schiz…” Max justified. I shook my head.

“No more fighting, Max… please…” I said. Daisy nodded. I left so they could talk, I knew Daisy had something she needed to say, I knew her facial expressions well. Bryan shut the door behind us. He pushed past me as rudely as he possibly could and went to his room. I rolled my eyes and sat down on the hardwood floor.

I seriously need to find out why Bryan is so attached to Leila.