Your Tragic Fate

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Daryk's P.O.V

I smiled as the cold air tried to pierce through my hoodie today. I was wearing two so I could defeat the cold. I pulled my hoodie over my head and looked over at Lexie. She was full blown covered. She was wearing a short red winter jacket and she had thick gloves on with a knitted hat. She couldn't afford to get sick.

“Ready?” I asked. She nodded smiling at me. “So where do you wanna go?”

“I looked up some shops last night, I still haven’t gotten a Birthday present for Owen,” She said. I nodded. Neither did I. We walked down the street and peered into shop windows. Lexie screamed excitedly when she saw the Disney Store. I was forced to enter. Plush toys were covering the store from head to toe. Color coordinated clothes were on the shelves. Hannah Montana played on a screen in the back of the store. Lexie immediately ran to the pink section of clothes. Her hands roamed through and she pulled out a Minnie dress for a baby. She ran to the other side of the store and grabbed a pink pair of shoes. “These are so cute!!!”

“You don’t even know what your having yet, shouldn’t you wait to color code?” I asked. She laughed.

“I’m having a girl, I know it!” She said. She looked at a few more shelves. She grabbed a Nightmare Before Christmas shirt for herself,
then looked back at me. “I’m done!”

“Okay,” I said. We cashed out and walked back out into the cold street. We stopped at the Levi’s Store, Victoria’s Secret (To my
embarrassment), Areopostale, Wet Seal, David’s Bridal (Because she wanted some more dresses and apparently they sell dresses that aren't for weddings), Best Buy, and Fisher Price before we stopped for lunch at Ridgeway Diner. We sat down at a cozy corner booth and waited to be served. Lexie’s ordered a salad and I ordered chicken sandwich.

“You miss Owen, don’t you?” She asked. I nodded.

“Yeah, but we have to get used to not seeing each other I guess,” I said looking down at my place setting.

“You guys were just brought back together, and then Owen went into the coma…” She said. “It’s not like you’ve had a lot of time to just
be with each other,”

I looked up at her. She smiled at me.

“Maybe we shouldn’t get too attached…” I left the sentence hanging not daring to finish it.

“Do you not love him?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowed and a frown on her face. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before…you haven’t
got him a birthday present yet. Sure you’ve been sad but maybe it’s because your just realizing you don’t love him…”

“What?!” I said. “I love Owen, Lexie, I love him so much it hurts, I love him more than anyone could love anybody! I love him like the moon loves the fricken stars! I don’t understand how you could come to that conclusion! Because Lexie believe me, I LOVE him,” I said in a wave of words.

“Then why…” She asked.

“Because love isn't enough sometimes…” I said.

“Love is enough Daryk! You just need to have the courage to make sure that love is enough,”

“But what if something happens to him again? What if something happens to us again? I don’t think I can handle it,” I said. She took my hand then.

“I know you Daryk, and I know Owen. You two are too precious to each other for this just to be let go because of problems. Or a period in your life that seems never ending of their problems. Those problems may never end but you know that you will always have Owen and Owen will always have you, that’s how relationships work,” She said. “Damien and I love each other; I know he’s there for me. Sure I’m not always positive about it, but I know,”

“Look at me…I’m complaining about my life. My problems. And they all pale in comparison to what you're going through,” I said shaking my head at myself. “You’re pregnant for god’s sake! You’re having a baby at 16 and I’m complaining about my fears that my boyfriend and I won’t work out!”

“It’s fine, I actually like not being the center of attention every once and a while,” She said.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Well, for starters, Damien is worried about me all of the time. He doesn’t let me breathe anymore! But I think its sweet he cares that much. And our parent’s are semi freaking out. Your mother especially. I know she’s worried about your grandmother’s reaction but she’s going to have to accept it eventually. I mean it’s not like this problem is going to disappear,” she said pointing out her belly. Our waitress came over with our food then. I thought about her response as I ate my meal.

“Just think about how you felt when you told us that you were pregnant, you were nervous, right? My mother is telling her mother that her son is having at baby at 17. After my mom was already pregnant at 16. I pretty sure my grandmother is going to think it’s genetic,” I said. The waitress came over and gave us the bill. I pulled a wad of money out of my pocket and set it on the table. I stood up and the waitress came back as I was helping Lexie out of her booth.

“Awww, how far along are you?” She asked. I guess the way Lexie got out of the booth made her belly show.

“Almost four months now,” Lexie said shyly. The waitress smiled. She couldn’t be much older than us. Probably early 20’s. Then she moved her apron and we saw she too had a baby bump, though it was smaller than Lexie’s.

“I’m three months, Shhhh, I haven’t told my boss yet,” She said laughing. “Are you an excited father? My boyfriend is pumped for the
baby. But he’s older than me,” She said curiously.

“Oh! I’m not the dad! My brother is,” I said shocked. Lexie was laughing.

“And there’s the fact that you’re gay!” Lexie said.

“Oh,” She giggled. I smiled.

“It’s fine, common mistake,” I said. “Have a good afternoon,”

“Thanks for coming to Ridgeway, I hope the rest of your day is eventful!” She said and Lexie and I walked back on to the breezy street. Lexie stuck her hand in her pockets and began walking down the street. I could tell that she was still thinking about what I had said to her.

By the time we reached Fiction which was wear I was secretly taking her our arms were full of bags and we had spent a ridiculous amount of money. She had bought a black hoodie with drums on it that said ‘Save a Drum, Bang a Drummer’ as Owen's birthday present. I still didn't have a physical present for him, but I was hoping the store would be enough.

“Where are we?” She asked as we stopped outside the store.

“I wanted to show you something,” I said. I opened the door to the store and let her walk in first. She looked around the store and burst out laughing.

“Hello?” I heard Callie call. Lexie shut up quickly and looked at me.

“Hi Callie!” I said. Callie then popped up from behind the shelves. Lexie gasped as she jumped placing her hand over her heart.

“I’m sorry!” Callie said beaming, but she meant it.

“She does that a lot,” I said to Lexie. Lexie laughed.

“Hi, I’m Callie! You must be Lexie,” She put her hand out to shake Lexie’s. Lexie took it with a bright smile. Then looked at me expectantly.

“I didn’t tell her,” I said.

“I figured you were Lexie, Synyster Gates/Brian Haner and Alex Owens daughter, you have a little brother named Brian the third,” Callie said.

“That’s a little weird,” Lexie said.

“I know it is, but I’m a big fan, and this is a great honor,” Callie said. “Normally I’m not like this, all obsessive compulsive but I had a little too much caffeine this morning,” She laughed.

“We can tell,” Lexie and I said at the same time. A customer came in behind us.

“Hello, Welcome to Fiction, Is there anything I can help you find today?” Callie asked.

“I’m just going to show her the back,” I said. Callie nodded as the customer asked her about guitar strings.

“The back?” Lexie asked.

“The reason I brought you here,” I said walking through the rooms. The couches and chairs appeared. I turned around to Lexie.

“Close your eyes,” I said.

“What? Why?” Lexie asked. I looked at her pointedly. “Fine,” She sighed before promptly closing her eyes. I grabbed her arm and led her over to one of the couches and let her sit down.

“You can open them now,” I said. As soon as she did a gasp escaped her lips.

“Daryk,” She said softly. Tears were traveling down her cheeks. Her hands fell together in her lap and she stared at the banner. I sat down next to her and looked at it to. Along the outer edges were notes that were written to Jimmy, saying various things about Jimmy. Lexie sighed as her head leaned on my shoulder. “This is amazing, how did you find it?”

“Yesterday when I was walking, I originally walked in to find out how to get back to Times Square, and then Callie showed me this,” I said motioning to the banner. “I’m going to show it to Owen for his birthday,”
Lexie perked up.

“That’d be perfect!” She said. “To show him this! He’d absolutely love it!”

“That’s what I thought to,” I said. Callie came over and sat in the chair next to us.

“Do you like it?” She asked Lexie.

“I do, it’s absolutely wonderful,” She said smiling.

“That’s good, a lot of the kids were worried when we did it that the family would take offense to it,”

“Kids? How old are you?” I asked her.

“I’m 20,” She said smiling. “I know I don’t look it, but it’s true, I’ve been working here since I was 15 when I got my working papers, so far
five years,”

“You never wanted to get into a different profession?” Lexie asked.

“Nah, this is the perfect job, I love it, I’m manager now, the owners live in California, they were close to Jimmy and wanted to do something in his honor so the dedicated the name to him,” Callie said. Lexie and I looked at each other.

“Who are the owners?” I asked.

“Actually, a company owns it, I’ve never actually met the owners but an assistant stops by every couple of months, Scott Owens Records, that record company Avenged signed after the Warner Brothers contract was up,” Callie said. Lexie and I stared wide eyed at her.

“Scott Owens Records? You’re sure?” Lexie asked.

“Yeah, why?” Callie said with a confused expression on her face.
“Because that’s our mother’s company,” I said. Since our birth, my mother, Stephanie, and Val, had all started working for Scott Owen’s Records.

“No way! And I didn’t know that! How is that possible?” Callie screeched excitedly. “So technically I’ve been working for Avenged Sevenfold this entire time?! This is amazing!” She began to dance up in down in a sort of ‘happy’ dance. We laughed until she sat back down and was calm.

“You know, it’s rumored that this house belonged to the original owners of Scott Owen’s Records. It’s said that those owner’s died in a tragic accident and two best friends inherited the company. I read in an old magazine in my school library that there were two couples that were best friends with each other. Each couple had a daughter. When the girls were sixteen the two couples both died in a car accident together. The girls inherited the entire company and they graduated high school early. The company turned into the best recording company in the country. Anyway, it’s said the girls had to move out of the city if they wanted to stay together and not be put into the system,” Callie said finishing the story.

“Then how did this house turn in the Fiction?” Lexie asked.

“The house was never sold; it couldn’t be without their consent so until about seven years ago it remained empty. It was remodeled and
made into a music store,” Callie informed us.

“I can’t believe they never told us,” I said.

“I know!” Lexie said. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“Who knows,” I muttered. I looked out the window and saw a tint of darkness. “We should be getting home, Damien’s going to worry,” Lexie nodded.

“Yeah,” She stood up.

“It was nice to meet you Callie, I hope to see you again soon,” Lexie gave her a hug.

“I’ll be back in a couple of days,” I said. We called a cab so we didn’t have to walk back and looked around the store until it showed up.

“Bye Callie,” We both called. Today had been nice and fun. Shopping was more entertaining than I had thought.