'Cut me deep. But I won't bleed. You're gonna kick, kick, kick me when I'm down.' I groan as I roll over and see who is calling me. I look at the name and see it's Lyric.
"Yes?"
"Did I wake you?" He asks genuinely concerned.
"Yes, but it's fine." I sit up in my bed.
"You're sure?"
"Yes Lyric. I'm sure." It's been two weeks since the first opening. Lyric and I have gotten pretty close. I mean, we work pretty close to each other so I guess it was bound to happen. "So, what's up?"
"You said we were having lunch today? I wanted to check and see what time and place?"
"Umm... Meet me at the café down the street from the club in about two hours?"
"Okay. See you then."
"Alright." The line disconnects. I lay back on my bed and look at the time. It is eleven. I sigh and get out of bed to go take a shower. I grab an outfit and go to the bathroom just as Danny is getting out. "Did you leave any hot water?"
"Yes I did."
"Okay."
I quickly take a shower and get dressed in my dark red long sleeved shirt that says 'Love' on it. I have paired it with a black skirt and a pair of black ankle heeled boots. I walk out of the bathroom after getting dressed and walk into the kitchen to get a drink. I grab a water out of the fridge and walk back to my bedroom so I do my hair and makeup. I quickly run a brush through my hair and let it air dry. I apply a light layer of eye liner and mascara to my eyes and choose a light red color for my eye shadow. After I have put everything on I walk through the living room to leave. I see Danny is playing games on the Xbox.
"Where are you off to?" He asks, pausing his game.
"I'm going to meet Lyric for lunch."
"Oh." Danny seems to shut down every time Lyric's name is mentioned. I wonder why that is.
"I'll be home later, okay?"
"Alright. Be careful."
"I will." I grab my keys and make my way out of the apartment and to the café. When I get down the stairs from the apartment I see a man standing at the entrance of the club. He is looking in through the windows. The man has on a dress shirt and black slacks on. He has blonde hair and green eyes. He looks about six foot three. "Excuse me? Can I help you?"
"Uh... yeah." He watches me walk all the way down the stairs. "I'm looking for the owner of this club."
"He's upstairs." I say motioning towards the door. "Follow me." I start to walk back upstairs and open the door.
"Did you forget something Lavender?"
"No. Someone is here looking for you."
He turns the game off and motions for me to let him in. I turn back towards the man. "You can go in." I move aside for him to go inside. "I've gotta go Danny. I'll be back later."
He nods. "Okay. Thanks."
I start walking towards the café, wondering who that man was. I walk in the café and look around for a free seat. I don't see one but I see Lyric waving his hand. I walk towards him and he stands up and hugs me. "You're late."
"I know I am."
"What caused you to be late?"
"This guy wanted to see Danny so I had to take him upstairs."
He looks at me confused. "What guy?"
I shrug. "I don't know."
"Okay. What do you want? Get anything. I'm paying."
"I can pay my half Lyric."
"I know you can, but I want to pay for it."
I sigh. "I'm not gonna win this one, am I?"
He smiles. "You learn fast, but to answer your question, no. No you are not."
I smile and shake my head. "Fine. I'll let you pay this time."
"You'll let me pay?"
"Mhmm. I'll let you pay."
"And what would you do to stop me?"
I shrug. "I'd probably be forced to kidnap you and hide you in a place far away from here." I say with the most serious tone I've ever had. Lyric's face has no color to it. I smile and start laughing and he shakes his head. "You're kinda scary. You know that, right?"
I stop laughing. "So I've been told."
"How can you do that so well?"
"When you live on the street, you gotta be able to bluff yourself out of any situation... and I mean any situation. That's how I've gotten myself out of being killed a few times. I can be very intimidating when I want to be." I smile and a waitress walks up. "What can I get you guys?"
I look up. "I would like a cup of white tea with sugar, milk, and lemon in it and a blueberry muffin please."
"Okay. And you sir?" She says looking at Lyric.
"A cup of green tea with mint and sugar and a couple chocolate chip cookies please."
She nods. "I'll will have it back over here in a little bit."
"Thank you." We both say.
He looks at me. "I didn't take you for the tea type. You look more like a coffee kind of girl."
I scrunch up my nose and shake my head. "No. I can't stand the flavor of coffee."
"How did you get into it?"
"I was in this foster home when I was around thirteen and the woman that I lived with was from Manchester. She had tea every morning when she woke up. I asked her one morning if I could try some and fell in love so she just started making it for me."
"What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking?"
"She got deported two years later. I ended up back on the streets." I shrug. "I still send her letters though. She wants me to come visit her. I hope to one day, be able to."
He nods. "I'm sure you will. If you don't on your own, I vow to take you myself."
The waitress comes back with our food and drinks and I look at him shocked as he takes a bite from a cookie. "Seriously?" I ask him.
He nods. "Yeah. My biological mother lives in Manchester. I go back every six or seven months to visit her."
I sip my tea. "Why are you so nice to me? Hell, why are any of you so nice to me?"
He shrugs and tastes his tea. "You're a good person Lav. We like you. As much as all of us get into arguments and pick on each other, we are a weird little family."
"What did I do to deserve this? I'm not perfect like the rest of you" I mumble.
He puts his drink down and looks me straight in the eye. "None of us, in no way, is perfect Lavender."
"What do you mean?"
"This time five years ago Rose was a junkie. Three years ago, I was in juvie. Jason had severe PTSD four years ago. Sam used to fight for money in underground fight rings. Aaron was the definition of a rebel up until last year."
"What do you mean 'the definition of a rebel'?"
He smiles. "Did drugs, snuck out his and my adoptive parent's house nightly, sex with a new girl every night, constantly in fights with his mother and father, partied every night, almost died a couple of times, almost killed a couple of people due to fights he got in... So yeah, the definition of a rebel."
"What about Danny? He seems perfect."
He laughs. "Danny boy is way off from perfect."
"How so?"
"Want to know how I and he met?"
"Sure."
"He was my cell mate of sorts in juvie. He hates to talk about it."
"Why?"
"He...uh...stole a bunch of stuff, which is what got him into juvie."
"That's not so bad."
"It isn't, but he stole it from his father."
"No way."
He nods. "Yeah. His father wouldn't drop the charges. He wanted to teach him a lesson."
"Well, that is a pretty good way to teach your kid a lesson."
"Yeah."
I start to eat my muffin. "So why were you there?"
"I tried to kill a guy." He says still eating his cookie.
"What?"
He looks at me and I look at him. This goes on for a good ten seconds when he starts to laugh. "No, but seriously, I did kill this guy and almost killed another."
"And you're out?"
"Yeah. There was a new trial three years ago. They went over the evidence again and finally believed me when I told them it was self-defense."
"What happened? If you don't mind me asking?"
"Okay, so, I used to be this teen model."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Can you see that?"
"Yeah, I can."
"Anyways, my manager, Elliot wanted to meet me one night for a late night shoot supposedly. I walked into where the shoots always took place. I walked in and saw him and the photographer, Lee, there..." He looked down into his tea. "I was fifteen at the point. They tried to...uh...gang rape me..." I gasp. "They succeeded. Told me if I told anyone I would probably be killed or get called a slut. When I managed to get up, I beat Lee's head in with his own camera equipment. I just severely injured Elliot. He's serving three years in prison. He gets out next month."
"I'm sorry Lyric. I had no idea. That's just horrible."
He shrugs. "Basically, what I'm trying to get across to you is none of us are perfect like you think we are. We just move on from the things that messed up our lives and made them better. Just work on doing that and you will be set." He smiles.
I smile back and I suddenly realize, these people that I was intimidated by have as much as a screwed up life as I have. I realize that people are out there that have it worse than me. There are people out there that have been in Lyric's position. People that have been handed a life that they wish to die daily. Even the most perfect looking person could be falling apart inside when they get home at night. He motions for the check and pays for it.
"Come on. I want to show you something."
"What?"
He stands up and holds his hand out. "Just come on Lav. Trust me. You trust me, right?"
I nod and grab his hand. "Yeah..."
He pulls me up then pulls me out the door. We walk away from the club and he leads me to the richer side of town. "Okay, so you know how I told you I was a teen model?"
"Yeah."
He stops in the middle of the side walk and nods across the street at a billboard. I look at it. It is of a teenage boy who looks about fifteen with bright blue eyes and dark black hair sitting on an expensive looking chair. He is looking towards the camera or us with a smoldering look. It seems to be an advertisement for a modeling agency. "Is that you?"
He chuckles. "Yeah. They still use my picture for advertisements."
"Wow." I look at it again. "You were actually really good."
"Thanks. That was taken two days before everything went down." He shrugs. "The company still sends me money so I won't sue them for using my picture without my consent and for not doing a background check on their workers like they were supposed to do. I could own that company because of what went down, but I'm not that kind of person."
"I gathered that from the last two weeks."
He looks at his phone. "We need to get to the club. We have to be there in fifteen minutes."
I nod. "Okay."
We start to walk back to the club. A man crosses the street in front of us and he freezes. Lyric stops walking and he now has a frown and terrified look across his face.
I touch his arm. "What is it?"
"T-that's..."
I look at the man and see he has brown eyes and black, greasy hair. He gives an aura of creepiness off.
"Are you okay?"
"We need to get out of here." He grabs my arm and turns back around towards where we just came from. The man however, does see us. He starts running while dragging me behind him. We get to this house and he produces a key. His hands are shaking while he opens it. We walk in and he collapses against the door and slides down to the floor. He is shaking and tears are running down his face. I knee down in front of him. "Lyric? Are you okay?"
He shakes his head and his hair falls in front of his face. He puts his hands in front of his face. I grab his hands. "Lyric. Look at me." I say softly.
He looks at me and all I see is terror.
"Th-that...That..."
"What is it?"
"That...was...Elliot..." He says between sobs.
"Lyric..."
He leans into me and I hold him while he lets all of it out. "He...was...supposed...to...have...another...month..."
"Lyric, breathe. You're gonna hyperventilate."
He takes in a shaky and deep breath. "Call. Danny. Tell him we're gonna be late. Tell him. It's a code E."
"Are okay for me to get up?"
"Yes." He says quietly. "I'm going to walk to the living room." He gets up slowly. I take my cell phone out and dial Danny's number.
"Where are you guys?" He says answering the phone.
"We...uh...have a situation..."
"What do you mean?"
"We're either gonna be late, or not show up at all."
"Why?"
"Lyric told me to tell you it's a code E."
"Shit. Is he okay?"
I look towards the living room. "He's in the process of a panic attack."
"Did he tell you what happened?"
"Yeah. He told me."
"That bastard was supposed to have another month ahead of him."
"I know. He probably got out early on good behavior."
"Probably. Are you at his place?"
"Yes."
"Okay, you two stay there. We're gonna close for tonight."
"Danny, you don't have to do that."
"Yes I do. As much as Lyric gets on my nerves most days, he's family. We'll be there later, okay? Just go see if you can find him some calming tea and make him some and try to get him to breathe. The others and I will be there soon Lavender."
"Okay."
"Lock the door. I have a key, we will get in that way."
"Alright Danny."
"I gotta go so I can let the others know what's going on."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye. See you soon." He hangs up the phone and I lock the door.
I walk into the living room. "Where's the kitchen Lyric?"
He motions towards a door. I walk in and search through the cabinets and find some tea. I put it on the stove and let it boil. When it is done I put it in a mug and walk to him. "Lyric. Here." I hand him the cup.
He takes it slowly. "Thank you." He takes a sip of and is finally starting to calm down. I sit down beside him. He leans against me and I start to play with his hair. He finishes the tea and sets it on the floor in front of the couch. He eventually falls asleep on me. Someone walks in the door. I see it is Danny and everyone. Aaron walks in first. He looks really concerned. He knees down in front of Lyric and softly shakes him awake. "Lyr?"
Lyric slowly wakes up. "Aaron?"
"How are feeling?"
"Horrible..."
"Come on. Let's get you to your room, okay?"
Lyric nods and Aaron helps him stand up and leads him to a back room.
"How is he?" Rose asks.
"I got him to calm down not long after I got off the phone with Danny. He fell asleep a little after that."
She nods. "I hope he's alright."
Aaron walks back in the room. "He'll be okay. He just needs to sleep and doesn't need to be alone right now."
I nod. "That's good."
He looks at me. "Thanks for all of this. Not many people can handle something like this so easily."
I shake my head. "He would do the same for me."
Aaron smiles and makes his way to the kitchen. "Anyone hungry?"
There's an assortment of 'yeahs' and 'yeses' that fill the room. I walk into the kitchen and see Aaron making food for everyone. He looks at me. "Are you hungry Lavender?"
"No. I'm fine."
"You sure?" I nod. "He's going to be okay. Trust me. He has panic attacks every so often because of nightmares. You just have to help him through it."
"But this wasn't a nightmare. He actually saw him."
He looks down at the meat he is cooking. "Yeah. I know."
"I'm gonna go check on him."
"Okay. Try not to wake him up. He needs sleep."
"I won't."
I walk into the very last room and see Lyric laying in a bed, asleep while mumbling something. I sit on the bed and he looks up. "Hey." He says softly.
"Hey. How are you?"
"I'm good." I slide towards him and he lays his head on my lap. "I'm sorry you had to see all of that."
I touch his head and make him look at me. "None of that was your fault, okay? It was your body's reaction to something traumatic that happened to you when you were a kid."
He smiles slightly and starts to fall back asleep. "You're a good person Lav." He closes his eyes and falls asleep. I slide all the way onto the bed and before I know it I am asleep too.
A/N: Okay, so this chapter was kinda happy then sad. Do any of you know the name of the song and the artist that sings it at the beginning of the chapter? Comment the answer and I'll dedicate the next chapter to you. If multiple people get it right I'll dedicate the next few chapters to you until I finish with everyone. Let me know what you guys think!!
-JBG