I Swear I Love You

Brian’s POV

“Alright that was good, but we’re going to do it once more, just to get it perfect,” Marc, our director, said, calling for various adjustments to the lighting before continuing. “We want Bat Country to be fucking epic, so we’ll do it over until everything works.”

“Whatever you say boss,” I replied, exchanging grins with Zack next to me. Bat Country was pretty much our first big video, and we were all having a blast. We were shooting inside the hotel room for our group shot playing as a band, surrounded by some fucking sexy girls we had brought in.

This was the life.

“Everyone ready?” We all gave him the thumbs up as we got into our positions, ready to start. “Music playback…” He pointed to us as an indication to start playing, watching us through the camera as we rocked out.

About halfway through though something screamed off to the side, causing all of us to turn as we saw someone running towards us in some kind of frenzy followed a few steps behind by a bunch of security. They were clearly faster though as they sprinted into the room, leapt over one of the sound crew, and then pounced… at me.

--

Jess’ POV

“Hey do you think she’s alright?”

“I dunno, she hit her head pretty hard…”

“I wonder how she managed to get past security?”

My eyes slowly flickered open until I was looking up at an assortment of faces, all looking curiously down at me. As soon as they realised I was awake they all seemed relieved, with the one crouched closest to me seeming the most concerned of all.

“Are you alright?” he asked, adjusting his guitar so that it hung behind him so he could look closer. “You hit your head pretty hard when you fell.”

Behind him one of the security guards that had been chasing me was looking very unimpressed, not sharing even an ounce of his concern. “Mr. Haner, would you like me to escort her off the premises?”

He shook his head. “She’s alright. I think we better get her checked out first.” He looked back at me. “So what’s your name?”

“You mean you don’t recognise me?” Planting my palms on either side of me I pushed myself to a sitting position, grimacing as a throbbing pain flooded just above my left temple. I guessed that it was there where I had hit my head considering the blood that stained my fingers when I touched the area. Meanwhile Brian looked completely, and utterly confused at my question, causing me to laugh. “Just because I have an Australian accent now doesn’t give you the right to not recognise me.”

At the mention of Australia his expression flickered slightly with a hint of recognition, staring at me intently until he cautiously proposed a guess at my identity. “Jess?”

I grinned. “Bingo.”

“Jess! It’s been ages!” He grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing hug, the pain rising from my head being enough to make me hit him to push him away. He quickly noticed the grimace as I gently pressed my hand against the cut, looking guilty as he backed away. “Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” I replied, dismissing his guilt. “What the hell did I hit my head on anyway?”

“The Rev’s drums,” he answered, pointing up at the rim of the bass drum. “Knocked you out for a good few minutes too.”

“Not quite the entrance I was going for,” I murmured, beginning to push myself onto my feet when Brian stopped me, resting a hand on my shoulder.

“I think you should wait until you get checked out first.”

“I don’t want a fuss Brian,” I replied, shifting out from under his hand and standing up. My legs stumbled slightly as I was getting balanced, something he instantly picked up on, but I quickly cut him off before he could say anything. “Stop your worrying, I’m fine! I’ve had worse than just a bump on the head before and I’m still living.”

“Well five minutes back and you’ve already managed to make me feel like your mom again,” he chuckled, straightening up beside me. “She must have been tearing her hair out at the thought of you going to Australia on your own.”

When we both graduated from high school Brian stayed in California to be a Studio Musician while I moved to Australia to study. It took me a long time to convince my mom to let me go considering the amount of trouble I can get into, and when I finally managed it, Brian started up the conversation again and pointed out my ability to get myself into trouble no matter what. “Well you didn’t help; I almost didn’t get to go because of you!”

“It’s not my fault I was worried too!”

“Says you, Mr. Living Dangerously Rock Star,” I mocked, finally noticing that basically the rest of the room’s inhabitants were looking at us both oddly. So I decided to introduce myself. “Hey, I’m Jess.” The sudden greeting must have caught them off-guard since none of them replied. “I’m not a monster or something.” When I still didn’t get a reply I turned back to Brian, slightly irritated at the lack of conversation. “Your friends aren’t very talkative.”

“I think you just intimidate them a bit, that’s all.”

“I’m 5’2 Brian, how the hell am I intimidating?”

He chuckled. “Your personality is a lot bigger than you are Jess.” He turned to the others, who all still seemed a bit shell-shocked. “Guys this is Jess, we basically grew up together. She won’t bite; not unless you give her reason to of course.”

Someone coughed behind us to get our attention. “Well… erm, Jess, is it? I‘m happy to meet you, but we are trying to shoot a video here so…”

“Oh right, sorry,” I replied quickly, my cheeks flushing slightly from embarrassment. Instantly I moved off-set, standing meekly beside the man who had spoke who I guessed was their director. “You can carry on now.”

He glanced briefly at me with a raised eyebrow before turning to address the guys. “Well I think we may need to redo that last take, so everyone take position.”

As everyone was moving around Brian caught my eye and grinned, mouthing to me. “Want to go out later?”

That was the last thing I remember.