116A/N: So, for any of you who are still with me, I'm sorry I didn't finish updating this story. I have no excuse. I just. . . sorta. . . forgot. That's it. I forgot I never finished updating this. This is the last chapter I have written, so I assume this is how I wanted it to end. Again, I forgot.
Hope you guys like it! =)
Michelle
"Where are we going again?" I asked. Jessica smirked at me.
"I told you, I'm not telling."
"Jessica Lorraine-"
"You finish that and I swear nothing good will come of it," she snapped.
She pulled into a vaguely familiar parking lot, and handed me a strip of black cloth. "Jess, what am I-"
"What do you think you're supposed to do with it?" She asked. "It's a blindfold. Put it on."
"Jess, look. If this is another one of your stupid 'let's cheer Michelle up' ideas, I'm going to throttle you."
"Nope. This is not an attempt to cheer you up, but you'll probably throttle me anyway. Come on." She led me across the pavement by the elbow. As we got closer to the building (or so I assumed) I started to hear music, which got louder and louder.
"You're taking me to a party, aren't you."
"Kind of. Come on." She took me inside and shut the door behind us. Then she took the blindfold off and pulled me through the crowd. We ended up in front of an empty stage and I glared at her.
"Jess!" I shouted over the music that was blasting through the speakers. "This is-"
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Raven's Party!" My stomach shriveled up and seemed to die inside my body. I turned to flee, but the press of screaming bodies shoved me against the stage. "Tonight, we feature your favorite local band; Understand the Silence!"
I wasn't going to throttle Jess. I was going to murder Jess.
Unable to get through the crowd of teenage girls, I turned back to the stage where the boys were filing on stage, waving. Lucas was the only one who didn't look enthusiastic, and Jason had a large gauze pad taped to his head.
"Well, tonight we're down a singer, so Lucas here-" the girls screamed, and I fought the urge to glare over my shoulder at them. Jason however, ignored them and kept going. "-is going to sing instead. We're going to kick it off with a new song we call," His eyes found me and the total lack of surprise in his expression told me that this was very well planned, "Protect."
He took a step away from the mic and strummed out a few chords on the guitar before looking back at Ben, who clapped his sticks together above his head and counted off.
Ian and Jason started in, the beats slow and melodic, almost like a ballad.
After a few measures, Lucas stepped up to the mic, his eyes closed. I shivered as he began to sing.
It's all I want to do.
Just protect her
I want to take away her pain
Wash it away with a gentle rain.
He licked his lips and stared at a point in the back of the club, stare almost vacant as Ian started in on a heavy bass line, deviating from Jason's light, sensitivemelody.
I don't know how,
I don't know why
I don't know where
And I don't know when
But I'm going to save her
It's all I want to do,
Just save her
I want to save her from the hurt
Want to save her from the pain
Want to take it all away
Let the rain wash it out
I don't know how,
I don't know why
I don't know where
And I don't know when
But I'm going to save her
Still playing, Jason walked over to Lucas and murmured something in his ear in the slow rest period between verses, his fingers still working on the neck of the guitar. Lucas's eyes widened and he looked over at Jason in shock before starting in on the chorus again, faltering slightly.
It's all I want to do
Save her,
Protect her, From those around
They don't even deserve
To stand on the same damn ground
He scanned the crowd almost frantically as he sang, obviously looking for someone. Girls started jumping and screaming, catching onto what was happening. Cries of 'Lucas! Over here!' Sprang up around me as the girls were jumping and screaming. I covered my ears and stayed still, closing my eyes and praying I didn't get trampled.
The music went on, but Lucas hadn't started to sing again. Jason started what would have seemed to anyone else to be a planned guitar solo, but I knew he was making it up as he went along. I opened my eyes to find a familiar pair of shoes in front of me on the stage. The girls around me were screaming even louder, reaching for Lucas, but he was ignoring them, staring at me.
He swallowed visibly and held out his hand. The other girls lunged at it, but he shook them off, grabbing the wrist I held up. I held on tight and let him lift me up on stage.
"I'm sorry!" He shouted. I smiled and flung my arms around his neck, hugging him as tightly as I could. His arm slid around my waist and I felt him pick mic back up from the stand as he spun me around so we were side by side. I spotted Jessica's face in the audience, and gave her as hard of a glare as I could muster. She just grinned and gave me a thumbs-up.
I don't know how,
I don't know why
I don't know where
And I don't know when
But I'm going to save you
And bring that life back to your eyes.
The song faded away and Jason stepped in front of us, holding out a mic to me, silent as ever.
"And now, joining us once again, is Michelle Cavanaugh, the lead singer of Understand the Silence!"
I grinned and raised the mic, letting the music wash over me as I joined in on the next song.
As soon as we got off the stage, Ian and Ben disappeared. Jason put a hand on my shoulder as Lucas put his guitar away. "Use protection," he whispered, and vanished before I could hit him.
"Idiot," I muttered darkly. Lucas turned and looked at me nervously.
"Who's an idiot?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"You are," I replied. His lip twitched.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "Look, I'm sorry I overreacted about Jason and you-"
"Overreacted?" I asked, stunned. He frowned, looking confused. "Are you kidding me? Personally, I think you under-reacted." I bit my lip, hesitating before going on. "But, I-"
"Shell, forget about it. It's not your fault."
"But Jason-" I started protesting. I didn't want to come between them; they'd been best friends since grade school.
He stepped toward me, and pressed a hand against my cheek, gray eyes searching mine. "I'm not mad at him. He's got a weird head, but he meant well. He just wanted to help you make up your mind." His eyes flickered down to his feet for a moment before rising to mine again."But yesterday scared the shit out of me, and scared some sense into me. You're both idiots, but you're my idiots." In the last half of the sentence his voice dropped and he stepped up closer so he was towering over me.
"Lucas-"
His hand curled around to the back of my neck and he again stepped closer. My heart was racing, my breathing shallow and unsteady as he leaned toward me. My eyes slid shut and I leaned up to meet him, my hands moving to grip his shoulders almost desperately. After a long moment he pulled away and lifted his head so his chin was resting on top of mine and wrapped his arms around me tightly.
"So I guess you figured out how you feel," he said after a long moment. I smiled.
"Yeah. I did," I replied into his chest. "I like you. A lot."
"I like you too," he replied. I grinned.
"It worked!" I suddenly found myself ripped out of Lucas's arms and was spun around by Jess. "Jason, it worked!"
"No duh," I looked over her shoulder to find him grinning at us, arms folded over his chest and leaning against the doorway.
"Jess?" I squirmed in her grip.
"Yeah?"
"I need to breathe..."