someone saved my life tonight;
❛ LONG STORY SHORT ❜
❝ everything is just back to normal? ❞
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ELLIE: After Camila's mom got to the hospital, I went back to the band. I loved Camila and I cared about her so much but I needed to be with The Six. There were only a couple more official dates left before we were able to cut the tour short.
WARREN: She took Billy's place as the lead vocalist and we pushed through the last few performances. She saved us a lot of money.
ELLIE: Being the lead of a band was everything I ever wanted my entire life. At least back then. So, being in the middle of that stage with a microphone in my hand and all eyes on me felt incredible.
Sure, a part of me felt guilty that I was having the time of my life while my brother was in rehab and Cami was alone at home with a baby. Still...the second I tasted alcohol, I forgot about everybody else.
KAREN: I think that was when Teddy decided to have her record a couple of her own songs. She was a hell of a performer.
EDDIE: (Smiles proudly) Not a lot of people are that good on stage. Gabi was a bombshell, an IT girl of that time. And I'm not just saying that because she's Gabi, I'm saying that because it's a fact. You can ask everyone.
WARREN: Yeah, people loved Ellie Dunne. (Smirks)
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"Hey, world-famous rock star Billy Dunne." Graham grinned, his sunglasses falling down slightly on his nose. He pulled up in front of Billy's rehab center and Ellie was right next to him in the passenger seat.
Ellie let out a breathy chuckle and got out of the car to greet her older brother. She pulled him into a hug by wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Billy sighed and hugged her back. But it was not a sigh of annoyance. It was a sigh of relief.
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BILLY: I was glad that Ellie and Billy never looked at me differently. Not like [Camila] did.
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Graham laughed in excitement and pulled Billy into a hug the second that Ellie stepped away. She watched them with a fond smile on her face, trying to ignore the anxious feeling in her stomach.
A lot was going to change now that Billy was out of rehab. Everybody knew that.
"Eddie built his own bass, if you can believe it." Graham blurted out in the middle of the drive. "And we tried a new backing section on "Look Me in the Eye" that I think you're really gonna──"
Ellie could tell that he was just trying to ease the tension in the car. All three Dunne siblings were quiet during the first ten minutes of the drive and it was incredibly awkward.
"Graham, I just..." Billy cut him off, keeping his eyes on the window. He found it hard to even look at either of them. "I need to meet my daughter."
"Yeah. Right." Graham nodded sheepishly, his eyes flickering from the road and to Billy's face through the rear-view mirror every couple of seconds.
Ellie opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as she tried to find an appropriate thing to say. After a couple of moments that they spent in silence, she softly said, "She is beautiful, Billy."
"You're gonna love her, man." Graham added, immediately getting giddy at the mention of his niece. The other day we were hanging in the yard, and...and she just looks up at me with those big eyes, and out of nowhere she just, she just smiles, you know? Like...and not some smile like when she's got gas. You know, like a real, full human smile, man."
Ellie's eyes widened when she looked at Billy over her shoulder and saw that he was silently sobbing into the palm of his hand. He leaned against the window, covered his face with his hand, and let out a loud sob.
While Graham's smile fell and he nervously swallowed, Ellie kept her eyes on her "tough and proud" older brother who was breaking down in the back of the car.
"You got it together, Billy." She told him softly but firmly. "You're not dad. You got it together in time. Cami is still willing to take you back and you will be in your daughter's life."
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GRAHAM: We didn't really understand addiction back then. I mean, I thought he'd just dry out. Things would go back to the way they used to be.
ELLIE: As Camila's friend I couldn't, in good conscience, tell her to take Billy back. But as Billy's sister and Julia's aunt, I felt responsible for keeping that family together.
EDDIE: The label dropped us a week after the tour was canceled.
WARREN: They made us pay back our advance and everything.
GRAHAM: I kept us practicing as much as I could...and got a job at a body shop.
WARREN: Yeah, I was working down at Malibu Harbor cleaning boats, which I loved, and, uh, and doing a lot of mushrooms. Which I also loved.
EDDIE: Basically, we were back where we started. Worse, even.
J: Are you still upset about it?
EDDIE: (Raises eyebrows) Me? Nah. I mean, holding onto that shit will be the death of you. (Frowns) But he really fucked us over.
ELLIE: It was easy to blame everything on Billy. Especially after he told us that he was officially quitting the band.
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"Who the fuck do you think you are, man?" Eddie snapped at Billy, making Ellie's face fall into the palms of her hands.
"Look, everybody just calm down, okay?"
Eddie glared at Graham. "Oh, for fuck's sake I can't be the only one who's pissed here."
"I don't know what else you want me to say." Billy argued, his eyes pleading them to give him a break. "You have the songs, you got the fan base. I mean, I'm sure if you just..."
"Billy!" Eddie exclaimed, making him falter. "If you're going, go."
Billy nodded. Ellie could not tell if he looked defeated or relieved. "All right."
She cringed as she watched him walk out of the living room. Silence filled the room after the front door slammed shut and Ellie shared a look with Karen.
"So now what do we do?"
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KAREN: I mean, bands fall apart, you know. That's rock and roll. I just......thought this one was different.
ELLIE: I was going to have to step up. But I think that everyone was a little skeptical about it.
GRAHAM: Ellie taking the lead wasn't why we were skeptical. We just felt hesitant to go on without Billy. I mean, he was there from the beginning.
ELLIE: Billy started to take care of himself more, so I guess that leaving the band did him some good.
KAREN: Ellie was starting to pull away. She wasn't being a bitch and we never argued but she was emotionally slipping away from me. It took me a few months to notice that and the reason for that is probably the fact that we never had much of an emotional connection.
When I really started looking at how she was acting, I noticed how much she clung to Camila and Julia. And not in a way that a best friend does. She looked at Camila like she was the Sun and she was simply the Earth circling her.
ELLIE: Being anything other than straight back then was heavily frowned upon, obviously. Which was why I never came out to the public. I was not expecting my bandmates to see me differently but the same could not be said about the rest of the world. My sexuality could ruin my reputation and my career.
And, no, that is not the reason why I ended up settling down with a man and not with one of the two amazing women I was with. Things between me and Karen were always amazing and while I wouldn't refer to her as the love of my life, I can definitely say that she taught me some hard lessons. She is also the woman who made me finally let Camila go, even though she believed I was still in love with her when we broke things off.
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"Are you still gonna be called The Six?" The man next to them asked as a very high Ellie leaned her head on Eddie's shoulder. "I mean, there's five of you now."
"Yeah, man." Warren gave him a humorless look. "Makes it even funnier, doesn't it?"
"Look, if you don't get the joke, I can't help you, man." Eddie said, receiving a giggle from Ellie.
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GRAHAM: Karen was fuming and Ellie was completely oblivious.
ELLIE: All I'm going to say is that, by the end of the night, Karen Karen was walking home with a guy whose name she didn't remember the next day and I was throwing up in the bathtub at five in the morning.
WARREN: (Grimaces) It was a confusing time...for everyone.
ELLIE: Maybe our break-up was a good thing. Especially because I was supposed to take Billy's place as the lead singer.
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Things between Karen and Ellie were tense but the rest of them were starting to feel like a real family again. Billy got his shit together and their house felt peaceful again.
Ellie let out a soft giggle as Julia grinned up at her from the blanket between her and Eddie. Camila was making them lunch, Billy was working around the house, so the two of them were babysitting Julia.
"So, everything is just back to normal with them?" Eddie asked her. "I mean, just like that?"
"Camila has the ability to look past everybody else's mistakes and only focus on their good traits." Ellie started softly, her smiling falling a little. "She is the glue that keeps all of us together and Billy and Julia make her happy." She looked away from the baby to give Eddie a solemn look. "The least we can do to keep this family going is to keep Billy from fucking things up again."