We Won't Back Down

Chapter Nine.
Two Months Later.

Sheila Elwell.

I sat in the library, like any other Wednesday afternoon after lunch and contemplated the meaning of the world around me. In other words, I was just browsing around on the internet, just passing time before my next class started. It was nice to get away from it all, seeing as though, one can only take so much of people and their instrument talk before it becomes so utterly irritating that you can’t handle it. Sure, sure, I was in a band and all, but it doesn’t mean I know how to play a damned instrument.
I finally logged onto [i[Tumblr and started blogging away about how the day had been going, with finding a rose in my locker from Jacky and all, when I overheard two familiar voices coming from one of the study rooms.
“Are you excited to go on tour with us baby?” Ronnie’s voice could be heard through the very paper thin wall and I knew who he was with.
“Are you kidding?! Getting the fuck out of this school and going on tour with my boyfriend’s signed band!? Hell to the yeah I am!” Dahlia’s voice chimed and my mouth dropped open. She was leaving us? They were going on tour? What the hell was going on?!
So many questions went flying through my mind that I didn’t feel someone come up behind me, then sit next to me until a hand placed itself onto my shoulder. I jumped, startled at the arrival of none other than my boyfriend Jacky. He drew back and threw his hands up in surrender.
“Whoa now! Where’s the fire?” He asked confused.
“Fire? WHERE?!” My head whipped around in every direction, being the smartass that I am.
“Har har har, cute Sheila.” His voice just dripped with sarcasm. That was one of the reasons why I liked him. “Seriously though, what’s up?” He asked me. I just stared at him for a moment as anger welled up inside of me as I thought about the whole situation. Why the fuck hasn’t he told me?!
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that your band got signed?” I growled.
“Uhhh, well your sister knows. I figured she would have told you.” He answered, avoiding my gaze all the while.
“Dahlia knows. Yeah, she’s fucking going to leave us to go on tour with Ronnie. Of course she didn’t tell me.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed at the stupidity of it all.
“Hey Jacky, good luck on your tour, bro!” My sister Athena exclaimed as she passed us in the library. I narrowed my eyes at him with blazes of fury igniting in my veins.
“Does everyone up in fucking Ying Yang town know but me?! What the hell Jacky? WHAT. THE. HELL?!” Oh. The fuse just ignited. Well, would you look at that?
“You need to calm down ok? I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to break your heart.” He stated.
Did. He. Just. Tell. Me. To. Calm. Down?
Ohhhhhh Hellll Nah!
I said nothing to him as I turned back to my computer and logged off of everything and stood up, not going to deal with any of this bullshit for the time being. He didn’t try to stop me as I pushed away from him and stormed out of the library, heading for the back doors of the school. I needed some fresh air and to not blow up at the next person I was near. As soon as I had opened the back door, the strong smell of cigarette smoke hit me like a tidal wave. I had grown accustomed to the smell, due to Dahlia having an addiction to it when we were younger and I could smell it from a mile away.
Someone exhaled around the corner as I saw a puff of smoke escape from the mystery person’s cancer stick. I peeked around the corner to see none other than Maxwell Scott Green smoking and I managed to build up enough humor in my system to scare the ever loving shit out of him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, young man!?” I yelled, changing my voice slightly and I could see him jump out of his skin and nearly piss himself as he did so. He whipped around to see who had caught him, to find me standing there with a hand on my hip and a smirk on my face.
“What the fuck Sheila!” he exclaimed, as he stood up and glared at me. I just started laughing and he lightened up a bit and chuckled with me. “God I could fucking kill you for that, you know that right?”
“Oh, trust me, I am aware that you could do that and I would still probably do it again with that warning.” I smirked and sat down, “Come on, sit down and let me bum a smoke off of you.”
He looked at me, one eyebrow cocked in a questioning manor.
“Sheila, you’ve never smoked before though.”
“And you are so concerned about this why?” I looked at him, slightly shocked by his manner of speaking to me.
“It is a nasty habit and you don’t need to get started on it, because it is hell to stop.” He goes on a rant and I just sat there staring at him, bored about him of all people lecturing me about this.
“So are you giving me one or not or are you just going to be a spoil sport about this whole ordeal?” I cocked an eyebrow at him. He just sat there and stared at me for a long moment. Finally he pulled a cigarette out of his cig case and thrust one at me. I took with triumph and stuck it between my lips. “Got a light Green?”
“Sure thing.” He stated, taking out his zippo lighter and lighting the end of my cigarette stick. I winked at him and thanked him for his service. He just chuckled at me as he watched me inhale and begin to sputter a cough attack, smoke clouds puffing out of my mouth and around me everywhere. I punched him in his thigh as I hacked up a lung.
“Fuck Sheila!” He complained and I looked at him for a moment. I decided to mess with him a little bit.
“Is that an offer Max?” I raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a look that said, Oh yeah baby, I want your dick! but he knew I was totally just shitting him. He laughed wholesomely just as he used to when we used to hang out all the time.
“You’re such a shithead, you know that?” he laughed and put an arm around my shoulders, causing me to feel a rushing of heat go to my face.
“At least I’m not a dumbfuck like you!” I laughed with him and leaned my head against his shoulder. “Now will you show me the proper way to actually smoke this damned thing?” I pouted and I felt his shoulders going up and down with laughter.
“God, you’re such a noob!” He said and I hit him in the exact same spot on his thigh as before, causing him to wince. “And I still hate it when you do that.”
“Well, don’t be a jerk and show me.” I stated, watching as the momentarily forgotten cigarette in my hand began to burn slowly. It was slightly fascinating and Max coughed to bring me back to reality. He showed me and I tried a few more times, before it stopped causing me to nearly die. It actually wasn’t that bad, once I actually started getting used to it.
“I remember how you reacted when you first found me smoking that one day back in the seventh grade.” He said more to himself than to me and I smiled to myself.
“Yeah, not only did I chew you a new one, but you also went to school the next day with a shiner the size of my fist.” I smiled and took a drag, before looking up at him.
“My mom told me I deserved it, which in hindsight, yeah I probably more than likely did.” He sighed and looked away from me.
“Do you remember building forts in your living room over the summer and hoarding all the milk and cookies in the house to ourselves, as we watched Pokémon on your big screen?” I asked, sitting up so he didn’t seem so uncomfortable with me laying on him.
“How the hell could I forget that? Them were the good ol’ days man!” he exclaimed, making me laugh and start coughing again.
“You are trying to drive me to my grave aren’t you kid?” I smirked at him and he smiled at me, leaning in closer.
“What is going on out here!?” a shrill female’s voice growled from behind us, that caused us both to freeze. We turned around and to find the dragon lady of the school, Madam Bethany who was the French teacher at our school. No one really liked her, but we were forced to take a foreign language and everything.
“Um, nothing what’s so ever?” Max stated and I rolled my eyes, so much for the bad boy act.
“It’s the youth of today like the two of you that take it upon yourselves to engage in adult activities!” she exclaimed and I scoffed.
“At least you didn’t come out here to find us butt ass naked and fucking right?” I smirked at her and she looked as though she were going to have a heart attack. I heard Max snicker and mutter something that sounded like he wouldn’t mind and I shot him a look that said he was not helping the situation.
“Young lady, your mouth is going to get you in a heap of trouble if you keep it up. Now, stay right there and I will be right back with the Dean of Students and you’ll get into some real trouble.” She says, turning on her heel as she went back into the building and I looked at Max as we both took another hit off our cigarettes before we both threw them down and stomped them out. We took off running around the school, through the trees and came out in the parking lot right by his car, because he liked to smoke a cigarette before he went through eight hours of hell.
“That was too damned close.” I panted, my lungs feeling like they were bursting from the running and he unlocked his car, getting in and I followed close. “Sorry I ruined your day.” I muttered, leaning my head against the window.
“Why ever would you say that you ruined my day?” he asked, touching his hand to my arm and I felt callouses and roughness of his hands and I looked at him.
“You know me; I have a problem with apologizing…” I muttered and he touched the side of my face, causing my whole face to heat up.
“Oh trust me, I remember.”
“You…do?” I asked almost shocked and I watched his face light up.
“Of course I do Shei.” He stated. "I remember that your favorite colors are red and black and your favorite food is popcorn and it used to be steak. Don't know if it is now or not. I remember that you used to wait on my doorstep every day waiting for me to get home from school back when I went to a different one. I remember that you used to be emotional and sensitive, and yet your confidence stood out among it. You were obsessed with Fall out Boy and Panic! at the Disco. You got your black belt in karate at the age of 12 and you used to whoop my ass in my living room every night when you came to visit." It seemed like the list was never ending. He remembered just about everything and it shocked the hell out of me. Tears were welling up in my eyes and five words caused all of my self-control to go out the window.

”You were my best friend.”