The Rock Rollercoaster

16. Home

"You nearly did." He said, facing me once more. "You know as well as I do that we were nearly as close as you and Freddie are, remember that night you had the nightmare, and I was there for you? But then I...helped you out with William and you shut me out."

I curled my lip. "All you seem to do lately is remind me of William."

"That's because it scared me!" He yelled, standing up. "It scared me to see how much power he  has over you, because I don't want anything to happen to you!"

I stood up too. "You're so overprotective! I don't need you looking out for me - I. Don't. Need. You!"

"Guys, I didn't bring you here for another fight. I don't care who William is, what he did or how close you are with David, Lyra." Elliot said. "Sit down, both of you."

We sat.

"Now, even if you aren't close there must be something tying you together." Elliot said.

"No, there isn't." Nate said, clenching his fists.

"Yes, there is." I contradicted. "Music," I told Elliot.

"Yes. Music. Now then, we're going to do a little exercise." He said, grinning like he enjoyed making us feel like two year olds. He passed us each a piece of paper.

"What  are we supposed to do?" I asked, taking the paper.

"Seeing as it's 'music' that you have in common, I want you to write a lyric on the paper." He explained condescendingly.

"What kind of lyric?" I asked, suspiciously.

"A lyric that explains how you feel about each other." Elliot said, smirking. "I want you to be totally honest. Don't worry, no one else will see it."

Rolling my eyes at such a tedious task, I bent over the slip of paper with my pen. What was I supposed to write? Thinking through the tens of thousands of lyrics that I knew, I didn't know which one would explain how I felt about Nate.

Finally, I stopped. I knew exactly what to put - but I didn't know if I should. I mean, what was the point in this anyway? I reminded myself that no one else would see it, and wrote down a lyric from Evanescence's My Immortal -  a song I liked, even though Evanescence was not one of my favourite's and I didn't really listen to anything else of theirs.

 Your voice – it chased away all the sanity in me.

Folding the paper in half, I saw that Nate had already scribbled his down and was watching me. He'd probably written something witty and sarcastic about how annoying I was.

Elliot smiled. "Brilliant! Now swap paper."

I gaped. "You said no one would see it except ourselves!"

"Did I?" Elliot said, idly. "I must have lied. Now, swap paper."

I kept a tight grip. I couldn't let Nate see what I had written, it would be embarrassing! Not right now, in the midst of a fight, at least. I couldn't. A quick glance told me that Nate wasn't so keen to part with his paper either.

In the end, Elliot snatched the slips from us and handed us the other paper. I glanced at it. If he'd been serious, this might be my chance to see what he felt about us. On the other hand - now he had the power to see my weakness for his voice.

I had just started to open the slip from Nate when Elliot said, "Don't open them now. I want you to only read them after a fight. When you're feeling nothing but hate and rage for each other, I want you to find those pieces of paper. Then you can read them."