You Rock Like Escape The Fate

I stood inside the front doorway willing myself to go out to Liesl. I had finally decided to tell her about Jared but I couldn’t get my body to work for me. She was sitting alone on the porch swing, gently rocking herself, and it was the perfect time to tell her. None of the other guys were around yet and she seemed calm. Finally I took a deep breath and stepped onto the porch.

“Jessi?” I called hesitantly.

“Yeah?” she replied.

When she looked back I could see that she looked somewhat depressed and I second guessed my decision to tell her now.

“Um…. Never mind. I’ll just tell you later.”

“No. It’s fine, you can tell me now. Sit.”

She patted the seat next to her so with a sigh, I sat next to her.

“You know the summer that you went off to camp?” I started off.

She nodded as she stared at me.

“Well…. I umm… I met a guy and we were together for a little over a year.”

“What?!” she practically shrieked.

“Please don’t freak out just yet! Let me tell you everything first.”

She looked at me suspiciously. “Okay. Everything.”

“Okay, well I met this guy. He was wonderful and we loved each other. We loved each other a lot,” I said wistfully as I grimaced.

“He didn’t hurt you did he? I swear if he did I’m going to kill him.”

“He didn’t hurt me purposely. He would never do that. The only reason he had to…. leave…. was because I didn’t want to have to come up with an excuse to drag you over to his house. It was my fault….”

“What do you mean? He left you because you wanted him to come to me?”

“In a way I guess…. I guess I should start from the beginning.”

We met the summer before my 18th birthday. Liesl was at a summer camp that her mom forced her to go to. Bored out of my mind without my best friend, I decided to go to the local water park.

I changed into my swimsuit before throwing a cover-up over it and grabbing my favorite towel. As I walked out the front door I grabbed my flip flops and then I ran out to my car barefoot.

Within minutes I was at the water park. While I was waiting in line to pay the entrance fee I got bored so I started bouncing around. Suddenly I fell. In a flash he was by my side.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

I smiled at him reassuringly. “Yeah. I fall all the time so I’m used to it.”

He laughed. “Okay then. I’m Jared.”

“Hayley.”

I put my hand out for him to shake but instead he pulled me into a hug causing me to laugh.

“You’re my new best friend,” he announced.

I agreed. You can never have too many best friends and when one of your best friends wouldn’t be around for months at a time, it was perfect to make more friends.

We grew close over the summer and by mid-July we were dating. I would have told Liesl but the camp she was at was all weird about only letting them talk to family.

One day when Jared and I were in his car he turned to look at me.

“Can you promise me something?” he asked.

“Sure. What is it?”

“Can you promise me that you won’t tell anybody about our relationship?”

I looked at him shocked. What? Was he ashamed of me or something?

“No, it’s not you don’t worry. It’s just that I’m…. somewhat famous I guess?” The way he said it seemed like a question.

“Famous? How do I not know about this?”

He shrugged. “You never asked. But can you promise?”

“Well I guess…. What about my mom? She knows about us.”

“Don’t worry, I trust your mom. I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t sell out her daughter’s boyfriend to the press.”

“Okay…. I guess I can promise you that…. But only if you explain everything to me.”

So he did. He told me everything. And so, I agreed to keep our relationship a secret at least for a little while.

Summer came and went and by the time Liesl came back, we were closer than ever. We were together as much as we could be without drawing attention to ourselves and normally we would go over to my house or his house to avoid the press.

He proposed to me in January, about a month after my 18th birthday. He said that he was going to do it earlier but he wanted to wait until I was legal since he was already almost 20. I guess the biggest reason, other than him not wanting the press to harass me, for him not wanting our relationship to get out was because I was underage which was understandable.

People would think that our relationship was illegal just because he was 19 and I had been 17 at the time but it really wasn’t because in order for it to be illegal you have to actually be doing something…. But anyway, in autumn we finally decided to let our relationship be known.

We were growing restless and we wanted to have our wedding. Everything was planned from the guest list to the silverware that would be used. All we had to do was let people know that there was going to be a wedding coming.

My mother was the first person I told. She was so happy for me and she squealed in delight as soon as she heard the news. Her first words, though, were, “When are you going to tell Jessi?”

Once she said that I immediately knew what I needed to do. Jess and I had just started renting our apartment around that time so I was in my room unpacking when I called Jared.

“Hey, Jared?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think you could drive down to my new apartment tonight so that we can tell Liesl together?”

“Sure, I’m just finishing up down at the studio but I can be there in about 3 hours. How come you can’t just have her come down to my place?”

“I would. But then I would have to make up some excuse about why we were going over to your house and I would probably end up blowing everything.”

“Okay. Well I’ll see you tonight then. Love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Those were the last words that I had ever said to him. I’m just glad that our last conversation was a happy one and that he died knowing that I really did love him.

“Later that night I got the call. He had been in a head on collision with a semi. The semi driver was drunk, of course. He died on impact.” I sighed and closed my eyes for a second before looking over at Liesl’s shocked face.

“So that’s why you were crying so much that night,” she muttered to herself.

“Yeah. But after that night I stopped because I knew that he wouldn’t want me to be crying over him. He wouldn’t want me to forget him but at the same time he wouldn’t want me to stop living my life just because he wasn’t around.”

“You’re right. I didn’t know him, but I don’t think that he would want you to hurt yourself over him or anything. Have you told Ronnie yet?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. I wanted you to be the first one that I told.”

“Well thank you. You know, for finally telling me,” she said as she gave me a hug. “One more thing though.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you wearing a dress that looks like it was made for a 5 year old?”

I laughed. “Last night I promised Leila that I would let her pick what I wore today and this is what she chose. As long as it keeps her happy, I guess.”

Liesl laughed along with me.

“Well, I’m going to go upstairs and wait for Ronnie to wake up so that I can tell him,” I said.

“Okay. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I walked inside and sat in the kitchen eating as I waited for Ronnie to wake up.

Finally he did and we walked into his room.

“You know how I told you that I would tell you about the ring?”

“Yeah. Did you tell her yet?”

“Yeah I did. So now it’s your turn.”

He smiled at me softly.

“It was a few months before I turned 18. I had just met this guy…..”

He sat quietly through my story, looking at me sympathetically a few times. At the end I added something that I hadn’t told Jess.

“I guess there’s one good thing that came out of it,” I began.

“Really? What’s that?”

“Well, if the accident hadn’t happened then I never would have met you,” I said with a small smile.

“Aww,” Ronnie cooed as he pulled me into a hug.

I pulled off the ring that I had worn for the past 3 and a half years and placed it into the center of Ronnie’s hand, closing his fingers around it.

“Keep it for me.”

“Of course. But why?”

“Because as long as you have that ring, I’m yours.”