Then, I pause, still not looking at Tyler.
“I made one of them swallow a bullet,” I state, unblinking. When Ty doesn’t reply, I flick my gaze back to him and find his hard eyes already on me. “For months, I wondered how it would feel to take one, or all of their lives from them. They took mine, they took Laney’s, it was only fucking fair.” I swallow the lump in my throat and exhale freely. “And you know what?”
He jerks his chin up at me, rolling his bottom lip behind his top teeth. “Tell me,” he replies, and I smile.
“It was better than I could have ever imagined.”
Tyler’s hand curls around my thigh when he drops his head between his shoulders and clears his throat before raising his eyes to mine. “What happened to you was fucked. What those men did to you and to Laney was vile and inhumane.”
I shiver at his words, and he sinks his fingers into my flesh a little deeper before finding my hand and wrapping his around mine in comfort,reassurance.
“I hope you know, B, how brave and how worthy you are of happiness, of peace. It’s time for you to thrive now. To reallyfucking live, with a full goddamn heart.” He clears his throat, and his eyes quickly glisten over. “I know life has been fucking cruel to you. It’s torn you apart when it shouldn’t have, taken pieces of you that should still be here today. But I know your mother and father would be up there watching you right now…” He tilts his head back and whispers when he faces me again, “And they would be so proud of you,their Cherry.”
I squeeze Tyler’s hand when tears stream down my face.
“I’m fucking proud of you, Blaine. You kept going even when you had no reason to.”
“But I did, Ty–” I’m cut off when I hear the light chuckle of Harlen’s laugh from behind us. Both Ty and I gaze over our shoulders, and when Harlen jerks his beautiful chin toward us, making his way over with Chase in tow, I return my eyes to Tyler and whisper, “Hewas my reason.”
One Month Later
Heartache - From Ashes To New
“Let’s fucking bleed!” Chase’s voice growls through the stadium, the emotion in each word rattling its way through his teeth.
I sit on the large black storage container at the side of the stage with Cameryn and Harmony as a shiver tears through me.
The goosebumps that erupt across my skin are fierce, gathering in clusters of emotional bouquets as I watch Harlen, Chase, Tyler, and Asher…well…bleed.
It’s evident that these boys, Chasing the Storm, do this shit to live, that they don’t give a fuck about the fame. They play together to quite simply breathe. The oxygen in their lungs is only filtered by the rhythm, the melody,the lyrics, the very fucking narrative.
Each of them are so brutally broken, and while Chase Keller told a story with his lyrics, Harlen Graves, Tyler Pierce, and Asher Hale told theirs with their instruments.
I latch my eyes onto Chase, curled around the shadows at the back of the stage, running both of his tattooed hands through hisdark long hair before reclining his head. He pushes his lips to the top of his hand and punches his closed fist into the smoke-filled air above him. I find myself shivering again when the crowd goes wild. I have noticed it’s something he does every show, and when my eyes flick to Harlen, I watch him watching Chase.
He knows what shaped him.
What happened to you, Chase?
Can you save yourself?
Or do you need saving?
I’ve never been one to say no to a line or two, but over the past month, spending most of my time with everyone, I’ve noticed that Chase hides himself behind the coke.
Until he sings,screams.
That’s when the coke only filters the rage.
On stage, among his lyrics, among his melody,among his storm.
Fire machines explode across the front edge of the stage in unison when Chase’s final scream echoes out into the darkness. The crowd is quiet when Ty falls silent on his drums, and the only sounds now ringing out among the shadows are Asher’s and Harlen’s guitars, though it slowly diminishes with each note, and when silence blankets the stage, the crowd erupts.
It’s wild.
Moving.
An out-of-body experience.
