You Took A Part Of Me (Cashby)

Chapter Fourteen

Class the next day was absolute hell. I was tired, for one, and there was an awful project added onto my normal hellish assignments. It was for my music history class, and I had to research one historical band or musician that had an impact on music today. It wasn't that I didn't find it interesting, I just had so much on my plate already and it was killing me.

Luckily, while I was walking towards the dorms to go rest a while, I spotted Nick coming my way. "Hey!" I yelled. Nick waved and we finally met in the middle.

"Dude, you weren't in the dorm this morning. Did you get some last night?" He asked jokingly.

I rolled my eyes. "If you mean got some arguments with Austin, then yes."

"Wait, you were with Austin?" He raised his eyebrows a little.

"Yeah," I sighed. "He left a long, apologetic letter on our door and even admitted to having sex with Oli. I figured I wanted to at least spend the night with him as an apology for running off, so I did. It didn't exactly go well."

"Aw, I'm sorry. Tell me everything later because I gotta go. Johnny wants to talk about what we're doing with the band. But first," he paused and reached in his string bag for something. "I finally got the camera installed in your hat. The black fedora you brought? I figured I'd just put the camera in it for your benefit. So just wear this around, and if Oli catches you, it'll record everything."

"Thanks so much, dude. You're the best," I said, putting the hat on and adjusting it on my head.

"No problem," he smiled, and walked off. I took a deep breath and almost hoped Oli wouldn't see me, but we really needed the video to get him locked up and away from me and Austin. I tried to be brave about it.

Just my luck, the British prick was coming straight towards me. His expression wasn't promising. "Come here," he ordered. I reluctantly followed him as he took me into the same thick woods. Oh god, I was going to die. I could feel it. I trembled a little as I stood across from him. He could be pretty intimidating, I'd give him that.

"Good afternoon, mate. How's my favorite redhead?" He asked mockingly.

"Oh, just get to the goddamn point," I said frustratedly.

"Okay, okay, impatient little scum. I just wanted to check up on our little agreement. You haven't been with Austin, have you?" He questioned almost challengingly. I gulped.

"Nope," I tried to respond as casually as possible, even crossing my arms and and shaking my head slightly. Hopefully it was a good enough lie. I had never been too awful at lying and I prayed it wouldn't fail me now.

"You better not have been, because I swear to god I will have no problem breaking that sorry neck of yours," he threatened. There it was. There was the proof. I mentally celebrated because I wasn't dead and I had the video.

"Well, I assure you that Austin and I have had no contact whatsoever." Lies.

"Glad to see things are working out," he hissed, looking at me with a less homicidal expression. "Carry on, Gingy."

He waved me off as he went his seperate way. I ran out of the woods, looking back at him once before sprinting back to the dorms to show Nick what had just happened.

-

When I got to our dorm, Nick and Johnny were sitting at the computer and browsing the internet for record labels. They wanted so desperately for the band to get bigger, and their dedication was awesome. I hoped to have a band like that one day.

"So, what happened?" Nick asked, turning in his chair excitedly to face me.

"Well, he threatened to break my neck," I said like it was no big deal. It was actually a very big deal, though, because I didn't want to live in fear of death every day.

"No way! Give me the hat, I gotta see this," he jumped up and grabbed the fedora from my head. My hat hair game was strong, I did notice that.

Nick did a some stuff that involved a microchip and an adaptor and some complicated technological things that I knew nothing about, and soon there was a window up on the computer screen.

"Here we go," Nick grinned, clicking on a folder in the window. But the grin faded when there was nothing to be seen. "The video should be right there," he said. Shaking his head, he redid the whole process of getting the camera connected to the computer. Nothing. My stomach twisted violently.

Now, both Johnny and Nick were trying absolutely everything to see what the problem was. Still, zero footage showed on the screen. I was beyond terrified that the plan didn't work. What if I had to go through the whole thing again? What if I didn't make it out alive next time? Just the thought made my entire being want to crumble.

Soon, Nick looked at me with a disappointed expression. "This can only mean one thing..."

"What's that?" I asked nervously.

"The camera wasn't recording."