Under My Skin (on hold)

Chapter 15- Crush

After Bethany left, Jeremiah couldn't help but think over what had been said. He sat in the chair next to the stranger and thought about what was going to happen between them.

He thought, maybe, his fiancé was right about how he didn't listen and consider her point of view when he wanted something. That stuck in his head the longest, mostly because he knew it would be the one thing to destroy them if he didn't change.

First, it was Benjamin. Somehow, she got through to him in a way that nobody could. He still hadn't dragged himself out of the grave he dug for himself, but he had a shovel, and that was his turning point.

If she can get through to Benjamin, I should be able to stop and consider her point of view, shouldn't I?

On the other side of the room, Logan and TJ were passed out cold. Ben was nowhere to be found, but finding little sleep; Jeremiah knew how Ben would take this. Ryan was out in the car, claiming it was more comfortable than a waiting room.

Everything was silent except for the steady beeping of the machines. Jeremiah was taking slow, deep breaths, also remembering the best memories he's had with the band, and Bethany. His mind flashed to the day they met. The band was playing The Atomic Bomb for the first time and Jeremiah couldn't gather a coherent thought.

Most of the way through the set, he saw her for the first time, making her way to the front of the crowd where she was enjoying herself with some friends. Jeremiah kept his eyes on her while partially focusing on the drums in front of him, but it became nearly impossible the more he watched her.

He didn't know what it was about her. She was the most beautiful girl in the crowd, yes, but she looked so put together while she was headbanging. He eventually stopped dead in his tracks until the whole band turned around and slapped him back into proper Sinus rhythm.

Trying to get his head back in the proper portion of the song, he was unbalanced and eventually fell off his drumstool. Bethany knew that he was looking at her and just smiled. It wasn't a smile making fun of him, but a genuine smile he instantly fell in love with.

After the show, the guys were asking him about what happened and he found it hard to explain what exactly he was feeling. Ben knew it was over a girl, as he felt the same exact way over Jessica when they first met.

Bethany came up to them soon after and the guys tried to give inconspicuous warnings to Jeremiah, who didn't get them in time to prepare what he was going to say to her. When she put a hand on his arm, he quickly turned around, let out a high-pitched yelp, and cleared his throat in attempt to look manly. She chuckled to herself, trying not to make it apparent that she was nervous herself.

She was wearing five inch high heels, a lace up velvet shoe with studs on the back, but she was still considerably shorter than he was. She had to look up at him when she talked, but they felt equal still.

Her cheeks were very flushed, but could attribute the rosiness to the heat of the club from all the people. It may have just been a habit he picked up from drumming, but his foot was bouncing up and down, showing his nervousness.

"Hi, I'm Bethany." She began, her voice just as perfect as he thought it would be.
"Your show was great, have you guys played here before?"

"No, we haven't, and thank you. We had a good crowd tonight, and I'm sure we'll be back here soon. I'm Jeremiah, by the way."

"Well I can make sure you'll be booked here again. You play drums, right? I kind of saw you stare at me for a while and then fall off your stool," she chuckled.

"Shit, you saw me stare at you?!" He panicked, taking his hands out of his pockets and running them through his hair, knowing this could be bad. Her response changed everything, and the rest is history.

"Don't worry. I was staring back."

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Jeremiah fell sound asleep in the chair, well aware that it was now almost sunrise. In a hospital, it's hard to tell time because everything is illuminated by bright lights and there aren't a lot of windows around. He was out cold, even though he had trouble sleeping with everything that happened earlier that evening.

With the combination of his concussion and the funny tasting tacos that he had for dinner and a snack after the show, he fell into a dream that he easily could have determined as real.

He woke up in a field of posies. His first thought was death, as the flowers were hung on people's doors during the Black Plague, signifying that someone had died. Posies aren't good in that sense, but he was just concerned about why he was laying in a field of them.

He sat up and saw red converse sneakers on his feet, and somehow knew exactly what was going on. He tapped the heels of the shoes together and said to himself three times

Please, tell me I'm not wearing a dress.
Please, tell me I'm not wearing a dress.
Please, TELL ME I AM NOT WEARING A DRESS!

When he looked down, he was pleased to find himself now in blue jeans, a grey tee shirt and a blue and white flannel shirt over it. He let out a sigh of relief and made his way carefully out of the posies.

Why posies? He thought to himself.
Isn't it supposed to be poppies?
Eh. Close enough.

He stood up and Butch, who was sitting next to him, perked up his ears. Jeremiah bent down and grabbed his leash and he wandered down the brick road he expected to be yellow, but was just regular bricks. That much was a disappointment.

As he walked down the road, he felt like someone was watching him. He kept looking over his shoulder until he saw Bethany keeping a slow pace behind him. He stopped walking so she could catch up to him and when she got close, she put a hand on his face and traced his features with her fingernails.

"I'm gonna get you, Jeremiah." She said to him compellingly. Suddenly, she yelled
"AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!"

Before he knew it she was gone, and was wondering why it was her. He kept walking, keeping a short leash on Butch. This wasn't like what he expected it to be, until he found Benjamin. Before Jeremiah could even say anything to him, Ben said without looking up

"Watch out."

"What?!" Jeremiah responded, confused.

"Duck."

Just then, he was hit in the back of the head with a relatively large flying squirrel, as a mob of them was following close behind. He waited until they passed over him to stand back up and when he looked up,
Ben was gone. He knew that he would be saying "I told you to duck," if he were there.

The more he thought about it, he thought that Ben looked a little silvery blue. It was hard to see under the shade of the trees that loomed overhead, but Jeremiah knew what he saw. Ben was supposed to be the tin man. Hollow, but on his quest for something more to fulfill him, a caring, kind heart.

Logan wasn't cowardly, but he had to be the lion just because of his messy, floppy blonde hair that never stood up in the same way twice. They walked along the brick road together until they reached the end of their journey, and logan snickered before Jeremiah woke up

"Nice dress, bro. It's really flattering your curves."

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