Amelia

Jenna’s POV

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I took a shower and went straight over to Amelia’s. I was excited to start out the day, considering Matt texted me this morning, telling me to come over so we could jam out.

I walked up the cobblestone path to Amelia’s front door and knocked on it slowly. Her father was gone, luckily, or else she wouldn’t be able to leave the house. There were two places he could be. 1) With some random stranger hooking up, or 2) at work, where he hardly does anything sober.

Amelia opened the door, having just woke up. She rubbed at her eyes and yawned, waving at me with the other hand. “Morning, Jen.”

“What the hell happened?” I asked her, staring at her face. She stopped and looked at me. Then her eyes got huge. She ran across the room to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, her face dropping.

“How the fuck am I supposed to hide this, Jenna!” She looked on the brink of tears, freaking out and pacing the bathroom. “My dad is going to be so mad.” She sat violently on the toilet and held her head in her hands.

I dropped my bag on the floor and rushed to her side, picking her face up. “Hey. It’s okay.” I told her, trying to make her calm down. “I really don’t see why you don’t tell anybody about this, Amelia. You could get help. You’d never have to deal with him again.”

She shook her head. “No. I only have to last 4 more months and then I’ll never have to come back.”

I, also, shook my head. “You’ve put up with this for way too long. I keep telling you you can come live with me.”

She tried to put a smile on and wiped at her face. “No, it’s okay. It doesn’t hurt that bad. If I’d have just picked up my shoes, it wouldn’t have happened.”

I laughed. “Why don’t you listen?” I joked.

Amelia laughed too and shrugged. “Nobody does what they’re told anymore.” She stood up and walked out of the bathroom, me following behind, and clambered up the stairs and into her room.

I was always insanely jealous of Amelia’s taste in music. It was perfect. Her mom taught her the ways of rock goddesses from the 70s and 80s, while my mom would have me beheaded for listening to music about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and wanting to be in a band. I’ve never learned how to play an instrument, while Amy was good at almost anything. Drums, guitars, piano. She could even play a mean Requiem for a Dream on the violin. But she stuck to bass, it was simple and what she was best at. When we met, she told me my voice sounded like honey and taught me how to sing, and I learned I was pretty damned good at it. Ever since then, we’ve been inseparable, and our own band has always been in our minds.

I jumped back onto Amy’s bed and stared up at the posters all over her ceiling. We were just so different. I wanted to be everything like Amelia, but my parents hung over me like vultures, waiting for any reason to send me off to boarding school and away from Amelia. They hated my best friend, but I didn’t care. I was protective of her, ever since her mom died and she was stuck with her drunk of a father. I wasn’t going to leave her here all by herself. You wouldn’t either if you saw the bruises on her body.

Amy got dressed into some black ripped skinnies and an oversized Led Zeppelin shirt. She huffed and stared at me. “Help me?” she pleaded. I gave her a half smiled and sat up. I patted the space next to me and she sat down, handing her make up.

“So what’s on the agenda today?” she asked as I started covering the black and purple bruise on her eye.

“I don’t know. Whatever you want to do.” Inside, I was secretly hoping she’d bring up Matt and Cameron, but I knew she wouldn’t. She was going to be pissed.

“We could always just hang out at the mall or something. I really want to get my eyebrow pierced.”

“Actually. Matt texted me.”

Amelia’s eyes shot open and she sent me a glare. “Yay? And what about him?”

I groaned. “Don’t give me that look, okay? You may have hated it last night, but if we just stopped by…just to see if they’re good or not, and if they aren’t, we can leave. How are we going to kick off our career if we never even try. I really feel like this could work and I want my best friend with me.” I was out of breath, pleading to her, hoping she’d say yes.

She rolled her eyes and blew her bangs out of her face. “Fine. I can’t really stop you anyways. I’m not your mother.”

“If only you were, though,” I joked.

She laughed and sat back as I turned the black into a less noticeable grey. After she finished the rest of her make-up, I texted Matt back and told him we were on our way. My giant smile faded when he responded.

Matt Best: What do you mean ‘we’?

I chewed on my lip and decided to not text him back, seeing as we were already on our way.

One hour later, we were standing in Matt’s basement with Cam, Whakaio, the lead guitarist, and Jake, the rhythm guitarist. Cam was the bassist and it made me wonder where Amelia was going to fit into all this.

“Okay, Jenna. Just sing a few chords from Wonderwall and we’ll follow up,” Whakaio told me.
I looked at Amelia and she gave me a forced smile. Then she mouthed, ‘I’m fine’ and nodded for me to go on.

I hummed a few notes, getting used to my surroundings before closing my eyes. “And all the roads we have to walk are winding. And all the lights that lead us there are blinding. There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how.”

Amelia had the biggest smile on her face as the band followed up behind me, making the song sound personal. It was literally like magic and I knew that I was supposed to be here. And there was no way I was leaving.

“I said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me. And after all, you're my wonderwall.” I finished there, with Matt slamming on the cymbals.

After the song ended, there was complete silence for 5 minutes.

Cam was the first one to speak. “D-Did anyone else feel that?” Everyone shook their heads. “I swore it just felt like my heart was breaking.”

“Oh. No I did feel that. That was really weird,” Jake said.

“I thing we found our new lead singer, boys.” Matt stood up from behind the drums and started a huge group hug, with all the boys.

And all the while, Amelia sat in the corner, chin in hand, kicking an empty cardboard box in front of her.