Now It's My Time to Strike Back

By the time I reached the stairs, I stopped, hearing Mel and Joe talking.

“I’m going to miss you, too, Mel. But you know I have to go”, Joe said.

“I know”, she began in a sad tone, but it had a hint of cheerfulness in it, too.

“I’ll call you everyday. I promise I won’t make the same mistake I did before. I-I-See you later, beautiful”, he said, kissing her forehead.

“See you”, she said in a low tone.

The door soon opened, and then closed. I waited until it closed before entering the room.

“It’s OK, Mel. At least you can trust Joe”, I said in a kind tone.

“Yeah, but he’s in college and we’re still in our final year of high school”, she said with a sad smile.

“Cheer up, kiddo. You’ll join him next year in the summer, right?” I asked, getting a smile out of her.

Mel and Joe agreed that she would attend UCLA with him in the summer after we graduate. I was still undecided about whether or not I wanted to go to a community college in Florida or somewhere else.

I was happy for her, in some ways, but in others, I slightly envied her. I washed the thoughts away, plastering a smile on my lips.

“So, what did you and Jake talk about?” she asked in a knowing tone.

My heart skipped a beat. How did she know?

“N-nothing. What would make you say that?” I asked.

“Because you looked flushed as though you got embarrassed somehow”, Mel answered coolly.

“Ugh”, I groaned. She still hasn’t lost her touch. I smiled a little.

“Soooo, what happened?” she asked, bumping her hip against mine a little.

“It’s just… Jake tried to kiss me and Nick walked in on it”, I rambled.

“Whoa! Wait, what?!” Mel asked in shock.

“I know! It’s crazy! I didn’t expect Jake to try to kiss me, but-”, I began, but Mel cut across me.

“Uh, I meant more so about Nick’s timing. Don’t you think it’s a bit coincidental for him to have had barged in at the moment you and Jake were about to kiss? And what about that? I thought you didn’t like Jake like that”, she said, folding her arms across her chest as we stopped when we walked into the kitchen instead of going up the stairs.

“I don’t, really. It’s just Jake’s been there for me ever since Nick and I broke up and even before that. You know he warned me about Vic before she ended up breaking us up in the first place”, I reminded her.

“I know, but is that really the issue? I don’t think Jake is your type. I think you should just stay single this year. Maybe you need time off of relationships before getting into another labeled one and getting hurt again. I don’t want to see you broken like that again. You know I almost killed Nick on the plane ride here”, she said, mumbling the last statement.

I laughed a little.

“Of course you did, Mel. You didn’t know he was coming and neither did I. Did you enjoy your summer there?” I asked, diverting the subject.

A bright smile plastered her lips as she went into detail about how nice Denise and Paul were about she and Joe finally getting together. She even told me about how they thought about having sex, but decided to wait until they were both ready. Everyone mature enough knew that Joe wasn’t a virgin, but that didn’t bother her. I soon thought about Vic and Nick and if they had sex yet. The question almost escaped me, but I kept silent and listened to Mel, deciding that it was best if I didn’t know the answer to that question.

Once she finished, she got back to me.

“So, anyways, how have you been?” she asked as though we were on the phone.

“I’ve been better. I wrote another song, actually”, I admitted, twiddling my thumbs as I kept my face down, blushing slightly.

“Really? How does it go?” she asked. I shrugged my shoulders in response.

“It’s in bits and pieces right now, but I have the chords down. I’m going to perform it when we get back to school after the tour with the Freshman and everything”, I explained.

Mel nodded in comprehension.

“So, why did you write it?” she asked. I laughed lightly.

“I don’t know. It’s not finished yet”, I admitted.

“You wrote a new song?” Vic asked, causing the both of us to jump.

“Yeah”, I replied in a monotone.

The tension was obvious in the air as I felt pure anger towards Vic. She stared at me with her arms to their side, a small smirk forming on her lips.

“Is it because I’m with Nick?” she asked in a normal tone, but I saw slight sadness in her eyes which were their usual hazel.

A sigh escaped me before I answered.

“I don’t know yet. I don’t know how I feel about that anymore. I know you stole him from me and all, but I don’t really care about what you do to me anymore. I’m done with everything and you. You can be happy and cheerful with him, but I know that it wasn’t meant to be. So enjoy him while you have him”, I said in a cold tone, marching out of the room as I headed to the bathroom.

I leaned over the sink, heaving a few breaths after I closed the door behind me as I felt the tears brimming in my eyes, taking in my appearance.

I looked exactly the same besides the obvious few changes, but I still felt ugly compared to Vic.

She had stolen the one person that I considered to be my heart, but then again, if he was my heart, then he obviously didn’t care about it if he hurt me in return, right?

A line came to me for the song and I opened my mouth to sing it.

“Let me break, let me crawl, ‘cause I’ll get back up again if you let me fall”, I sung in a low tone.

A tear slid down my face as I thought about all of the pain I’d experienced over the past few months. I felt like I needed it to go away.

A knock sounded at the door, bringing me out of my thoughts. I sniffed, opening it, once again expecting it to be Jake or even Mel, but once again, I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Nick stood in the doorway and I took in his appearance once again. His hair was shorter than it was in April. His features were the same except they weren’t. The beauty marks on his face were still there, but his face in and of itself was colder with less expression than it was earlier but it softened a little at the sight of me.

“What?” I asked, wiping the tears away quickly as I straightened my composure.

“You were crying. Obviously something is wrong”, he said, ignoring my question.

“What does it matter to you, Nicholas? You’re with Victoria now. Why should my tears matter to you anymore?” I asked with an attitude.

“Because believe it or not, I still care about you, Rose. I do”, he added when I gave him a skeptical look, masking the shocked one that wanted to show on my face.

“I don’t believe you”, I responded in a low tone. I didn’t know what else to say to him.

His arms gripped my shoulders gently to gain my attention. It worked, needless to say.

“Well, believe it”, he said gently. It looked like he wanted to say more, but he never did.

Instead, he removed his arms and headed back to Vic’s room, closing the door behind him. I stood, stunned in the hallway, my attention getting diverted by Vic as she rushed up the steps, her eyes landing on me before she approached me again.

“Rose, you know I didn’t mean to fall for Nick and everything, right?” she asked in a serious tone.

“Really? And why should I believe that? You have him now. Shouldn’t that be all that matters to you?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

She shook her head before gripping my shoulders, the same way Nick did a few minutes previously.

“No, it’s not OK!” she exclaimed, startling me at her now blue eyes. She was actually sad.

“I wanted to be friends with you, especially after mom died. I will admit that at first, I was only thinking of manipulating you and Nick so I could get Nick to be mine, but after I did fall for him, I realized that he’s not like any other guy I’ve ever been with. He’s-”, she continued, but I cut across her.

“I don’t want to hear this shit, Vic. Why the hell would you tell me all of this? Is it supposed to make me feel better because it sure as hell doesn’t. Have you even told Nick any of this?” I asked.

I didn’t know, but I realized that I had struck a nerve with her. She bit her lip hard before answering me.

“No, he doesn’t know. I don’t plan on telling him”, she said, turning her face away from me as her arms fell from my shoulders.

A laugh escaped me but it held no humor.

“You’re so stupid, Victoria. Do you honestly think Nick hasn’t figured out what you did by now? He’s pretty smart, last time I checked”, I said with a smile, raising a brow.

“Well, he hasn’t left me yet, then, if he has figured it out, has he?” she asked with a smirk of her own, the blow hurting me more than I felt earlier.

I was the one to bite my lip this time but I responded quicker than she did.

“You may be right about that, but like I said, Nick isn’t stupid. There’s only a matter of time before he finds someone better, someone that’s not you”, I said, turning on my heel, leaving Vic in shock.

I didn’t care if my words hurt Vic. She hurt me more than anyone (besides Nick) has ever done and I damn sure wasn’t going to let her continue to run over me. Not anymore.

My mind clicked and the words I thought of earlier for my song came back to me as did some new ones. Once I entered my room, I saw Jake not there anymore. That’s weird. I shrugged it off, heading to my closet as I pulled out my guitar, a pen, and paper.

I started playing a few chords, the words coming out after a few seconds.

“Let me rise, let me fall! Let me breathe! I wanna lose control, I’m not afraid to lose it all! Let me break! Let me crawl! ‘Cause I’ll get back up again if you let me fall!”

I smiled, satisfied with what I’d thought of, writing it down. I had a feeling this was going to be a great performance at school.