This Is Our War, Our Beautiful Lie

Three Months Later

“Okay, next, please” I said.

I had followed... my crush's advice. I joined Bianca's band, since they needed a vocalist, and now I’d give the world my voice for them to hang on. The name of our band was The Fire Warriors, and we were looking for a boy-front-headed band that could make a duet with us; we posted the song online, and a lot of bands were showing up, which surprised us.

“This is going well” said Hayden, the other girl from our band; she was the bassist, while Bianca was the guitarist. She was one of my best friends as well, and I had told her about… him.

“I haven't heard any voice I liked” I said; I was being very selective, maybe because I knew about one voice that matched mine perfectly, but I also knew I could never have him singing with me, or I’d give in to him.

“I keep thinking we should try to contact Thirty Seconds To Mars; Jared's voice would complement your voice very well” Bianca said; I side-looked at her.

“Don't ever say that name again; that will never happen” I said, angry. She knew very well I didn't like to talk about him; still, she kept saying his name and making me angry.

“No. You gotta stop with that. It was just a dream, Danniele. He has never been with you” she answered back. I tore my head down, closing my eyes so I could fight back the tears that threatened to fall.

“Maybe he really was” Hayden said, surprising me; only for a few seconds, though. “If he was, call him, and tell him to come here, now.”

“I don’t have his number” I said, getting sad; didn’t they understand we didn’t even have time for that? Besides, I wouldn’t call him if I was trying to get him out of my live.

“Pretty convenient” they both said. I kept my head down, while another band got in. My band mates shut up, surprising me, but I still had my head down, since I was crying, so I didn’t even asked them why.

“Hi. Can you wait just a bit?” I asked, looking at the paper below me, and reminiscing. Maybe it had been a dream; maybe it was just a too real-like dream, and I was hurting for nothing. Maybe he had been just a dream.

“I would wait for you always; even it would take me a lifetime.” His voice echoed through the room, that sentence alone getting me out of my thoughts; I looked up, slowly, and I was speechless.

“Ja... Ja... Jared” I said, just like when we had met, after that concert.

“Yeah, it's my name” he replied; apparently, he remembered it as well. That couldn’t be happening to me.

I ran away from there, and I still heard the girls calling me; “Dannie, come back! You're making a fool of yourself!” I couldn’t stop, though; I couldn’t see him there, when I was trying to get rid of him in my life, when I was trying to get rid of that aching pain inside my chest every time I heard his name or thought of him. That pain hurt too much; my heart always started beating like crazy, trying to fly out of my chest, breaking my ribs in the way and bringing all of my insides with it.

When I left the building, I slowed my pace and started walking in the rain, while crying. It was on that stadium I had met Jared; it was on that stage he sang to me. And now he was back, haunting me like a ghost. I cried again.

While I was walking and crying, though, someone pulled me to the side of the street; a hidden alley I started to recognize, making me hyperventilate.

“You know, you're pretty. I think you'll satisfy me” the man said, lust and anger filling his eyes as he looked me up and down, examining my body through my clothes.

I was breathing hardly, and was scared; a lot. It was him; he was the guy who had… done that to my sister; and now he was back for me.

“You'll be easy to kill, too. You seem pretty weak” he continued, grabbing my wrists with such strength I gasped.

I heard a song in the distance; Hurricane. The girls must've asked the guys to play that song, since they were in love with it; oh, they were so unaware of what was happening to me! At least, I’d die with a good soundtrack.

No matter how many times that you told me you wanted to leave...
No matter how many breaths that you took, but still couldn't breathe...
No matter how many nights did you lied wide awake to the sound of the poison rain...
Where did you go? Where did you go? Where did you go?
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn!
This hurricane's chasing us all underground!

“JARED!” I screamed, praying that he could hear me; I wasn’t ready to die, yet. The man put his hand on my mouth, stopping me from breathing, talking or even screaming, while he looked at me in the eyes angrily, after he had been admiring my body slowly.

“No one will hear you, sweety. You can stop screaming” he said to me; his voice was raspy and anger filled it, despite of the somewhat sweet words he had just said to me.

I cried, knowing this was my fate. This had happened before; now it was my turn. Nothing could save me. No one could help me.

I closed my eyes, while he started to give me neck kisses; when he did that, nothing else mattered. Raindrops were now falling from the sky, not reaching me or that disgusting man, because of the little roof there was above us on the alley, but making such noise it was impossible for me to hear them playing anymore. I opened my eyes, though, when I heard a noise coming from a close place; then, the man fell on the ground, lifeless.

“She is mine, you piece of shit!” Jared said, towards the guy lying on the ground, although he couldn’t hear him. Apparently, Jared had hit him with a rather large stick of wood on the head; stick which he threw away after that. “Are you okay, Dannie?” He asked, looking at me worried, and kindly reaching his hands a bit out to me.

“Oh, Jared... Thank you!” I said, crying and hugging him; oh, how I missed his unique scent! His blonde hair was brushing on my face as I lent my head on his shoulder, tickling me a little bit, and his hands were moving up and down my spine, in an attempt to calm me down.

“You're okay now, my love. Easy... Shuuu…” He said, tranquilizing me with his melodic sweet voice.

The girls were looking at us, admired by our intimacy; I couldn’t care less about what they were thinking, then.

“But... it was true?” Bianca asked, surprise filling her voice

“What are you talking about?” Jared asked.

“You... both of you... the story of that day, three months ago; the way you loved each other... all that” Hayden said; she was septic.

“You told them?” Jared asked me; I couldn’t figure out if he was mad at me, or only confused, but I decided to go with the chance he was mad.

“I was so... lost; so hurt, so broken. I'm sorry” I answered, afraid of his reaction; when he did nothing, I continued. “But, don't worry, no one else knows about it. And you’re free to go, now. Goodbye, Jared” I said, crying again. I left his arms, and leant on the wall with my back, hurting a little bit.

“No; don't do that again. I'm not going away, again. I'm staying right here, with you. It is where I belong, Danniele. I'm not leaving. And you're not leaving me, too” Jared stated, only letting me look at his blues eyes.

“But, Jared…” I started, not even knowing why I was still fighting him, if I knew it hurt so badly.

“Shuuu...” he shushed me; then, he kissed me slowly and deeply. I couldn't resist him; I kissed back, missing his lips brushing into mine in a sweet caress.

I don’t know for how long we kept kissing, but, after a while, someone called us like "psssst". We looked at each other, exchanging a sweet stare for a second, and then looked away. It was Shannon, Jared's older brother and drummer for their band.

“We're going home... You better go talk. Bye Jared, bye Dannie... I think we'll meet tomorrow” he said, trying to hide a smile; we both waved at them, smiling softly, and let go of each other. They went away, and then me and Jared went to my house.

“So, talk me about the music and the video you wanna made” he said, when we were in the kitchen; we were sat around my simple wooden table there, in front of each other, just talking.

“Well, I needed a boys’ band because I want the video to be all with the two bands. So, my idea is to film the "couples", so, it would be nice if the band had only three members... Hum, the screen would be divided in three, and in each piece was one of the couples. Me and you... hum, my "couple" from the other band would be in the center, like, the song started with both of us in bed. Then we would get up and I would start singing. It would be like a normal morning. The difference was that, when we walked through the room's door, it would be hell, literally, on the other side. It would all be flames, and we would perform on that, like... it's hard to explain. You... I mean, the boy who would make it with me would have to feel it... like, really feel the song.” I tried to explain, making some mistakes in the meanwhile, since I took for granted his band would do the video and the song, and I wasn’t even sure if they were willing to do it.

“You can stop correcting yourself. My band will do the video, and the song. Don't worry” Jared said to me, smiling. “And, by the way, I wouldn't let any other boy be in the same bed as you.”

“Jared... We can't continue with this. You may bet all on my love for you... For me, it's like I know you since I was thirteen, but you're a lot older than me... and the press will say things about us. They won't have any pity for us, you know? We won't be in peace. And it will be hard. I don't know if I can take it” I told him, putting all the cards in the table; he had to know that I surely wanted to be with him; I just didn’t know if I was capable of handling all of the press and such.

“Don't worry about it” Jared said, coming to hug me by my back, after we both got up from the table, without an apparent reason.

“But I have to, Jared. I have to” I said, letting my head down.

“Dannie, I gotta tell you something.”