Status: Completed, please continue on to sequel ----->

We Won't Back Down

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Athena

“Sheila, would you please tell me where the hell we’re going?” I asked as I turned over the engine and pulled out of the driveway.
“We’re going to that concert the boys were talking about earlier. I need some fun.” she answered and immediately I knew something was off.
“Okay, what happened?” I questioned, very well accustomed to reading her.
“It’s just…men!” she exclaimed and crossed her arms, gazing out the window.
“Sheila… what happened?” I egged her on some more. She sighed and turned her gaze back on me.
“Let’s just say, Jackie got his shit punched in and Max got an earful.” She answered.
“Okay, mind informing me as to why even though I have an idea.” I said, making a left turn down Sunset Blvd.
“Jackie tried to get in my pants and Max is still a dick who won’t leave me the fuck alone.” She told me as we pulled into the beach parking lot for the second time that day. Turning to car off, I stuffed the keys in front jean pocket and turned to my sister.
“Well… lets go forget about American and Brit boys for a while, shall we?” I asked her and she nodded, giving me a weak smile. We exited the vehicle and roamed around the pier for a while. There were tents and boutiques set up selling merchandise, carnival ride attractions, and elephant ears alike. At the end of the pier, next to the giant Ferris wheel, they were setting up the stage for the band.
“Do you see them anywhere?” Shelia called over the roar of probably hundreds of people.
“Uuuumm… There!” I exclaiming pointing to the right. I finally found them scanning on the left side amongst the other band merch boutiques. Sheila grabbed me by the wrist and bolted through the crowd and just about beefed it. Regaining my balance I tried to keep up to the best of my abilities. She was in such a hurry to forget about Green and Vincent that she hardly gave herself time to slow down at all. I guess I couldn’t blame her. I wanted to forget my troubles for a little while as well. But I wasn’t quite sure if hanging out with these guys was the way to do it.
“Mates! So glad you came!” Donny called out to us upon approaching their merch booth. Danny was staring intently at a laptop screen while Donny was setting up merchandise.
“Hey guys! Need any help setting up?” Sheila questioned, in high hopes that we wouldn’t just be in the way the entire time while trying to hang out with them.
“Uhh yeah ,sure why not. You girls can start unpacking t-shirts if you want to. Those boxes over there behind Danny.” Donny said pointing at a pyramid of boxes.
Sheila and I made our way over and started unloading boxes. I took one of the black shirts out and unfolded it, curios as to what it looked like. It was your standard band-tee but the detail and the design was so genius that even though I had never heard of the band, I would have paid just about any amount to own that shirt. Even though I am a big believer in that you should at least listen to the music if you’re going to wear the shirts.
“Who…who designed these shirts?” I asked them folding it back up and placing it on the table in a neat fashion.
“Guilty!” Danny threw his hand up, turning around and flashing a brilliant smile in my direction.
“Seriously? That’s…that’s amazing Danny! It’s beautiful.” I said while taking another t-shirt out of the box.
“Why thank you, I would really hope so since I went to college for Art and Graphic Design.” He smiled; his grin was like I had just given him a million dollar compliment. I was impressed that he had gone to school for those things and was actually accomplishing his career path. Shit like that was near to impossible in America unless you went into a medical pathway.
“Are you still going or have you graduated?” I asked, finishing the first box while Sheila was busy people watching and stacking shirts at the same time. I turned my attention back to Danny, who opened another box for me and I took it eagerly. The next one was filled to the brim with wristbands and they were adjustable to the point where a child could wear it. That was good news for me, since my wrists were so small to the point where I couldn’t wear normal sized bracelets.
“Donny and I are both going into our Bachelor’s degree this year, for the advancement of our pathways.” He explained and I looked at him shocked.
“You look like you would be going into your Masters!” I exclaim, “Aren’t you like…twenty eight?”
He started laughing and smiled at me, causing a blush to spread onto my cheeks.
“No, I’m only twenty two, but thank you for the compliment once again Athena.” He said, helping me put the wristbands in their display and looking at me. “What about you?”
“What about me?” I ask, looking at our closeness and blushing as I moved a few inches away discreetly.
“Are you in college?”
“This Fall will be my first year, I’m still a senior.” I said, biting my lip as his facial features went from happy to shock.
“You look like you’re my age! That is so crazy!” he exclaimed, causing me to jump in my seat and my eyes became as wide as saucers.
“Really? I always get told that I look like a twelve year old.” I said, amazed that I actually looked older for once.
“Seriously? Silly Americans, don’t listen to any of them. You definitely appear um… matured enough to be in your twenties. Actually, would you mind if I were to pursue drawing you in profile? ” Danny replied, clearing his throat and searching for the right words so as not to be so blunt.
“Drawing me? You want to draw me? I don’t know. I’d be a horrible model; I couldn’t stay still to save my life.” I chuckled a bit at the thought. Danny was definitely different from any other boy I had met in my life back in the states.
“Nonsense. I can draw from memory. No still-sitting needed.” Danny said, waving me off as though I was being silly.
“Oh, well… thank you I suppose. It’s nice to know I don’t look like that much of a child. If you really wanted to, I suppose I couldn’t stop you.” I told him while setting up the last band tee on the table. Before Danny could answer with another comment on my physical advancement, a flash caught our attention. It came from Donny’s direction and Sheila jumped.
“What… what was that?” Sheila questioned. “Was that a camera I just saw?” Donny just continued doing what he was before he took a sneaky snapshot of my sister. He hid that thing in an instant, and quite well might I add. It was almost as if it hadn’t been him who took the photo.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Donny replied, beginning to whistle a very familiar tune. Almost a too familiar tune indeed, one that no one except Sheila, Dahlia, Lex, and I should know. So how did Donny know it?
“Bound in chains
Darkness befalls this shell
The shell of a heart in which it remains
Take not prisoners, no remorseful soul,
For you were the shadow
Of this once filled hole.” Sheila sang the chorus as Donny whistled it. They were so in tune, but it sounded different from the original recording we had made a few weeks ago. The original was hard rock, a beat so out of control it gave you goose bumps. But their version was slow, a melody that opened the depths of one’s soul. So there was potential for an acoustic version after all.
“How… how did you know that song?” I asked after silence had befallen the four of us for an extended moment.
“We heard it on the internet, some new all-female band from the United States. I believe they called themselves the Iron Angels. They’re quite good. I assume you ladies are acquainted with their music are you?” Danny answered in Donny’s place. I slid a glance over at Sheila. How the hell did our music get on the internet?
“Max…” Sheila whispered to me under her breath so that only I could hear her. That little fucker. Not only had he found us out, but he had apparently recorded the song we were practicing in the shop after we kicked him and his boys out after hours that night. I cleared my throat.
“Did uh… did the internet say who this all-female band was? Like their names or anything?” I pressed, hoping that Max was generous enough to keep our identities concealed.
“No actually. The description said that the ladies in the band weren’t confident enough with their abilities to reveal their identities. The post was aiming to boost their confidence and show them that they made rather good music. Didn’t you read about it?” Donny answered me.
“So… where was this posted?” Sheila questioned, one eyebrow raised in suspicion.
“Well at first we saw the post on facebook, then people put it on youtube. The video never showed the girls faces, only their lower halves, to protect their identity I presume.” Donny added and I grabbed my purse to dig my cell phone out of it in order to look this video up to see for myself. Upon sifting through my bag, a few of its contents spilled out and landed on the ground. Among the contents were my lucky guitar pick, a dark purple shade of lipstick and whoa and behold, our demo cd that I had burned and kept in my purse for revision purposes.
“Oh, here let me help you with that.” Danny leaned down to pick up after my purse vomit. Mine and Sheila’s eyes widened with panic and I immediately leaned down after he had.
“Oh no, I can get it, thanks though!” I said quickly, but I was already too late. Danny had picked up the demo and was reading the front cover that had our band’s name written in large letters. I had numbered the tracks 1 through 4 in order to keep inventory of how many songs we had recorded for the current demo. We were required to do so for the judges of the battle of the bands competition. So we sent them in about a week ago.
“This… what is this? Iron Angels is so far a one hit wonder. Why do you have a cd with four songs on it? There’s only one song to the known public.” Danny turned a questioning eye on me.
“I… I-I uhhhh…. Sheila, how so I have cd with four songs from Iron Angels on it in my purse?” I asked, turning this one over to her. I had no fucking clue how I was to supposed to lie my way out of this one.
“Because uh… um… we’re super close to the band.” Sheila attempted to lie. It was such a bad one.
“You ladies…are hiding something. I don’t know what, but I know it’s something.” Donny narrowed his eyes on Sheila and glanced back and forth between to two of us a couple of times.
“Bingo, I got it! You ARE Iron Angels! Is that not right?” Danny exclaimed, pointing a finger at me and then waving it over to Sheila. I could feel my face heating up upon his realization. They were both silent for a moment, awaiting a response from either of us. We were both too dumbfounded to reply.
“OOOOHHH!! AWESOME! I feel like we’ve been hanging out with celebrities this entire time.” Donny exclaimed.
“Yes, what are the odds my mate? And your older sister, she’s in the band too?” Danny asked, referring to Dahlia, whom they had met earlier. I looked at Sheila and she stared back at me. I could read the message all over her face. ‘When I get my hands on Maxwell Scott Green, I swear to god he’ll be eating soup through his ass for a month!’ She just shrugged and looked away, a defeated expression on her face. I slid my eyes back over to Danny.
“Yes, actually. She’s our bassist.” I answered him in truth.
“Wow, really? Sweet, and what position do you ladies hold in the band?” Danny came back with another question. I felt like I had just been bombarded by the paparrazi.
“I know Sheila is the singer. I knew her voice matched the song way too well to be coincidental.” Donny answered the question for one of us. I focused my eyes back on Danny.
“I’m the guitarist.” I told him honestly. No point in trying to lie about it now.
“Really?! That’s amazing! Your quite talented. All of you ladies are. Wow. Well, why don’t we meet up with you after the concert? We can bond some more over frozen yogurt or something. For now, the concert should be starting soon. So why don’t you guys go over and find a comfortable place near the stage to settle in for the next few hours. We’ll meet up later.” Donny smiled at us, his eyes molded on Sheila.
We both nodded and made our way to the main stage. We spent the next couple of hours head banging, jumping up and down with the crowd, and passing the members of the band through the air while they surfed the crowd. A circle pit began to form in the middle of the audience and Sheila had to drag me out the backlash from it since I commonly had mad anxiety when I entered that type of environment.
After the concert, we met back up with Donny and Danny. They drug us to a nice frozen yogurt shop just down the way from the concert grounds. We took pictures while we were hanging out with the guys and suddenly my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked down to see who it was from and the name read Craig. I opened the text and there was photo attached to it: What the fuck is this shit? Who the hell is this guy?!
Attached to the message was a picture Sheila had taken of Danny and I talking and laughing at the frozen yogurt shop. Her phone must have instantly uploaded the pictures to facebook as soon as she took them. It appeared as though Craig had found them.
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Sorry this took a while. Hope the length makes up for lost time. :) Enjoy!