A Love Like Ours Is Terrible News

After helping Fiolet get dressed, I led her out the shower room and in the right time, we bumped onto Dakota, who was on her way back to the dressing room. Her eyes widened to see me, going out from the women shower room with Fiolet. She could’ve got the wrong idea.

“Andy, what the hell are you doing with my cousin in the shower room?!”, she demanded as she yanked Fiolet’s arm harshly from mine. Fiolet flinched a bit but she stayed quiet and had her head down all the time. Dakota glared at me as she waited for my answer. “Well?!”

“Look, it’s not like you think.”, I quickly answered and had my hands in front of my chest, like I was surrendering. “I’ll explain everything, but not here. Just… bring Fiolet to an empty dressing room and meet me there. She got into a pretty bad shock.”

Dakota kept her eyes wide and glanced back and forth to her cousin and then to me before pulling Fiolet somewhere. I sighed and decided to get Jimmy, just because he wanted to see Dakota. If he caught me seeing her alone without him, I bet I’d get the silent treatment from him for the rest of the night. When I got back to the dressing room, David was there, talking to Devin.

“Oh, hey man.”, David greeted me when I got in. He was just sitting there like nothing was wrong, like he didn’t just rape a girl in the shower room. I just wanted to jump on him and beat the shit out of him, but it would be like blabbering everything that happened.

I just told Jimmy to come with me and got the hell out from there. “What was that about?”, Jimmy asked when we were walking. I didn’t answer him and went on. My hands were itching to punch David in the face, but I held it back by curling them into fists.

When we got to where the girls were, I locked the door behind us and sat right next to Fiolet. She quickly leaned her head over my shoulder and I could feel her body trembled as she cried. Jimmy and Dakota just stood across us, not knowing what happened or what to do.

“Are you going to explain to us what happened?”, Dakota demanded again. She had her arms wrapped across her chest as her eagle eyes stared down to me.

Fiolet’s body shook harder, probably recalling what happened earlier. “Dakota… Please. I didn’t do anything to Fiolet, I swear.”

“Well, then why were you there, in the shower room, with her?”, she retorted.

“What were you doing with Fiolet in the shower?!”, Jimmy asked, surprised. I rolled my eyes at both of them and sighed before taking a deep breath and explained everything that I knew.

“I was looking for Fiolet when we were just done with the sound check and Wayne said she was taking a shower a while ago. I was about to go outside to see if she was out there with Dakota, but when I passed the shower room, I heard the shower was still running, so I tried to check the inside and found her, crying on the shower floor, telling me that… David raped her.”

Dakota gasped loudly and a minute later, she was rushing to the door, but I told Jimmy to hold her because we both knew what she was going to do. “Let me go!”, she struggled out of Jimmy’s arms. “That guys needs to die!”

“I know you’re upset.”, I said to her. “But killing David won’t solve anything.”

She looked at me in disbelief. “Andrew, that prick raped my cousin!”, Dakota screeched. “He raped her!”

“I know I know.”, I tightened my held on Fiolet. She stopped crying, but she was still keeping her mouth shut and her head down.

“I should’ve tried harder…”, the first sentence came out from Fiolet’s mouth. It was hardly a whisper, but since the room was quiet, we could all hear it. “I should’ve tried harder to stop him… But I didn’t…”, she trailed off before wiping her eyes off with her hands and for the first time, she looked up.

Her eyes were puffy and red. Both of her brilliant blue pupils stood out because her eyes were bloodshot red. Fiolet shook her head until the hood of her top fell off her head and revealed her tangled red hair. “I gotta go get ready for the show.”

“You’re still gonna do the show?”, Dakota asked as she made her way next to her cousin. “Fi, if you’re not feeling okay, I could talk to Penny about it. We can say… you just have your period and you can’t stand the cramps.”

Fiolet shook her head again and smiled a bit to Dakota. “No, no. I’m not gonna let down the fans.”, she said as she stood up but almost fell back down. I stood up and caught her right in time. “Thank you, Andy.”

“Are you sure, Fi…?”, I asked again with both of my hands still on her shoulders, supporting her.

“Yeah. Just a 45 minutes show won’t hurt, right?”, she smiled again to me and asked to be lead to the dressing room by Dakota. She waved to me before leaving the room and asked me to see her set.
***********
When Midnight was performing, I stayed around side stage as I promised Fiolet. She did an amazing job, like always, but she didn’t talk much on stage and her magnetizing smile was such a rare sight tonight. The circles under her eyes were gone, probably got covered by some make up otherwise people would start making rumors about it.

Her screams were more powerful than ever, though, like you’ve never seen before. It was a bit obvious that they were supported by her anger, but it didn’t sound so genuine. When the set was over, Fiolet quickly got off the stage and I greeted her with a friendly hug that she accepted. “You were great, as always.”

“Thanks.”, she muttered and we pulled away. “Not that I don’t want to see your set, but can I just hang outside with Dakota?”, she asked me.

It must be uncomfortable to know that she was in the same building as David, so I nodded and told her that I would meet her outside when I was done. Devin clapped my shoulder, telling me to go on stage because it was our turn now. When I ran out, the crowd screamed and I settled behind my drums. Through out the show, I kept on glancing to the side of the stage, hoping that I could see Fiolet dancing and jumping there, but turned out, there was David there.

Would it freak everyone if I just jumped off and beat the living shit out of him during the set? He looked like he didn’t do anything, at all, which made me pissed a million times more. When the set was done, I ran off the stage and ignored David, who was actually wanted to give me a high five and went straight outside, not bothering to change my clothes.

There weren’t that much fans outside because Breathe Carolina would be on in a few minutes. Fiolet was with Dakota at their merch tent, just talking calmly, which was a strange thing for me to see. I walked towards them and realized Dakota was trying to persuade Fiolet into eating a Subway she just bought across the street.

“Oh come on, Fi, you need to eat.”, Dakota whined as she waved the sandwich in front of her cousin’s nose. Fiolet rolled her eyes and pushed Dakota’s hand lightly. “You’re a skin and bones!”

“Well, look at your upper arms!”, Fiolet replied and pinched Dakota’s upper arm, which wasn’t that tight. They got into an argument a bit when I reached them and Dakota noticed me.

“Here comes the miracle worker.”, she stood up and handed me the sandwich hastily. “Just make sure she eats it.”, by that, Dakota left while grumbling about how her cousin was such a pain in the ass sometime. I sat down on Dakota’s beach chair and stayed quiet a bit.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”, Fiolet started out and looked over to me, which made me looked over to her. “We got into stupid fights about stupid things, but… we’ll get over it.”

I nodded and leaned back onto my seat. “That’s okay. Relatives are there for that, just like Devin and I. we butt heads a lot, but then, we’ll laugh and get over it.”

She smiled and sighed. “I hate it when someone forced me to eat when I don’t want to. Reminds me of my mom.”

“What’s wrong with your mom?”, I asked bluntly. Fiolet looked over to me with a cocked brow, then I realized I said something wrong. “…If you don’t want to tell me, it’s okay.”

“Nah, it’s okay.”, she giggled. “She’s a conservative woman, really strict. Three home meals a day and stuff. She even flipped when I told her I have a band and we got signed and going on tour, but, well, I managed to get her to say yes.”

I smiled at her story. It felt amazing to know that she was comfortable telling her stories to me. “Then, will you eat for me?”

We got into a staring contest for a bit then she sighed, reaching for the sandwich in my hand. I looked at her when she took a bite and chewed. “Dakota still remembered my favorite.”, she said while chewing. “Turkey, parmesan and salad.”

“I bet you’re glad to be on tour.”, I laughed and watched her finished her sandwich.