Do You Still Care?

Joel's POV

I woke up groggy, with a head ache and couldn't remember anything from last night. I shuffled in the bed I was laying in and felt the cold sheet against my bare body. The second it all registered, I shot up from my position, looking to the spot next me and finding an unknown woman laying half naked then looked to the other side to see it was 2 pm. I slowly slid out of the bed and got dressed as quickly as possible, slipping on my black skinnies, boots, t-shirt and leather jacket. I left my hair messy and began to walk towards the door.

"going somewhere, lovely?" her voice sang through the room. I turned to face her "I- I'm sorry I have to go uh..." I stuttered, struggling to remember her name. "its Ashley" she smiled. "right, Ashley I'm sorry, I should be going"...

"its fine, you go" she winked, getting up and shutting the door behind me as I walked out of her hotel room.

A usual thing that's been going on for the past 5 months since my fiance, Raven, left me. We had such a wonderful relationship. We never fought, we were the happiest. That is, until I joined the band Get Scared. I went on tour a lot and I barely had time with her. I always tried to bring her on tour but Dan or Johnny's girlfriends always came along before I had the chance to ask about bringing Raven. She got sick of me always being away and left, she gave back the ring. It was a solid silver band with a black diamond that almost out-shined her eyes.

The break up really hit me. I developed depression and a drinking problem that lead up to me sleeping with a different girl every week. The only reason for sleeping with different women is trying to get Raven off my mind. This caused my career as Get Scared frontman to spiral downwards. My performing was horrible and I started showing up very late to shows, drunk...

I was soon kicked out of Get Scared and even then, when I would've had time for her, she was already in a relationship. Coincidentally it was with the former frontman of Get Scared. It tore me to pieces. But Nicholas made her happy, as long as shes happy, I'm happy. But it still hurts. I have nothing against the guy though.

I snapped out of my thoughts as my phone rang. I pulled it out of my jacket pocket and answered it, not bothering to look at who was calling. "Joel! Dude, where the fuck are you man?! We were supposed to work on a song together today!"

Shit.

"ahh goddamnit! I'm sorry Stephen. I'll be there as soon as possible man." He sighed "alright man. Hey, are you okay?" "uh yeah I'm fine thanks..."

"alright Joel, see you later".

I hung up the phone, finding myself nearing my car. I unlocked it with the button on my keys and quickly slid in, driving out of the lot and towards Stephen's house.

...

I sighed in relief as I began to stop at a red light. The second the car fully stopped, my head fell onto the steering wheel. My headache was making it really hard to drive. And the person behind me that just honked made it worse. I pressed on the gas pedal and was soon pulling into Stephen's driveway

As soon as I opened my car door, Stephen was rushing out of his door and over to me. Pulling me into a bone crushing hug. "Jesus Christ Joel, you didn't answer your phone at all last night! You had me worried. What happened?" I sighed heavily. "you don't want to know" he dragged me inside and sat me down on his couch. "damn right I do!" I chuckled slightly at his concern for me "sorry mom I didn't know I had to tell you every move I make!" He laughed and sat next to me "sorry man, I'm just worried about you. So what happened?" I put my head in my hands and took a deep breath. "I was with another one last night after half a bottle of jack, 3 beers and 2 shots of the strongest alcohol they had in the bar." He looked at me sympathetically and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "man you've got to get over her. it's practically eating you from the inside out" I quickly got up, walking over to his kitchen "Stephen, I've told you before. I was and still am in love with her. I cant just get over her! She means the world and more to me. She's my everything and I don't even think you understand half of the love I have for her! No one can fix me! Not even the 15 girls I've slept with to get her off my mind! No one even fucking gets it!" I found myself yelling quite loudly at him.

Stephen slightly shrunk away at my tone. my features instantly softened, He's not one of the toughest guys I've met... "Jesus.. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to yell like that" he nodded "its okay I understand." I pulled him into a tight hug. we stayed like that for a moment before a sharp pain coursed through my head. "do you have any pain killers man?" I asked. Pulling away from the hug. He nodded and went to his bathroom, coming out with a bottle of Advil and handed it to me. I went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, downing three pills with the water.

"we should go start working on that song" Stephen sang, smiling widely at me. "alright, lets go!" I yelled "great! I've already written the lyrics, I'm pretty proud of them" he mused. We hurried to his studio room and sat down on the couch in there. "so where are these lyrics you supposedly wrote?" I joked. "Right here smart ass" he handed me a sheet of paper with lyrics written from top to bottom. "Wow, these are fucking awesome! Let's get this shit going!" Stephen smiled widely and grabbed his guitar, handing it to me.

We immediately began writing, leaving me to work on guitar, Bass and melodies while he did drums and editing.