A heart doomed by fate, p.2
A Heart Doomed by Fate, page 2
“Remember, rehearsal around seven.” Roan grins as we bump our fists and head for our bikes.
I throw my leg over my bike and fire it up. Rehearsal today is very important. We have to rehearse the set for Wednesday. Me and the band have a concert, but the only problem is...we need one more song to finish our new album. And we only have two days left to finish it.
I blink a few times and realize I’ve been staring at the girl sitting by the tree for minutes while I was stuck inside my head. Shit, what if she saw me watching her? Imagine how awkward it would be to explain my gawking. Worse, what if other people saw me looking at her? Oh, shit. I need to get out of here.
I quickly ride off and head in the direction of our studio. Maybe it’s better to arrive a bit early. At least it will give me some extra time to work on a new song. I am the lead singer, the songwriter, and play lead guitar. Roan plays drums, and does some background music together with Steve, who plays bass.
I arrive at the studio, still no idea what I could write a song about. I had two weeks to write one, and now I only have two days. I’m such an idiot for putting it off while I should have been working on one.
I park my bike and unlock the door to get inside of the building. Sitting on the couch with some water from the fridge I take out my phone and pull up the notes app.
“C’mon, Hudson, think,” I mutter to myself.
All my mind can think about is what happened at school with Artsy. How we bullied her, how she ran off, and how I saw her sitting by herself surrounded by flowers like she does every day. Shit never gets physical, not the way things escalated today. A few words here and there, teasing for fun. Harmless.
Everyday stuff, just like the way she heads for the field of flowers to sit by herself, ignoring everything and everyone around her. Maybe it’s her way to find some peace and quiet. Who knows? It might even be a girl thing, and I’ll never understand.
“Hey, man,” Roan quips as he and Steve enter the room with the loud noise of the front door slamming close behind them.
“Sup.” I stand and close the app that’s still lacking the words to throw a song together.
“And? Did you come up with something?” Steve asks before he so much as takes a seat.
“Nope. What about you guys? Any inspiration I can work with?” I ask, handing out bottles of water.
“Nah.” Roan shakes his head.
“We’ll come up with something. At least, you always do. And if you don’t? Then that’s fine too, right? It’ll just be one song less than the other albums. Whatever.” Steve shrugs and takes a sip from his water.
“What he said,” Roan agrees.
“I’ll think about it.” I sigh.
I’m the leader of this band, so I have the final say in what happens.
“Let’s just rehearse our setlist for now until someone comes up with a new idea,” I suggest, grabbing my guitar.
“Sure,” they agree in sync.
Roan slides behind the drums and Steve gets his hands on the other microphone while slinging the strap over his head and adjusting his bass guitar. Hours pass. We rehearse all the songs until night has fallen. But it’s worth it; we’re absolutely ready for our concert on Wednesday. Except, no one came up with a new idea for a song.
“Goodnight guys, see you tomorrow,” we say to each other, exchanging some fist bumps before we leave the building to head for our motorcycles.
I am the last one to leave and as I ride back home it’s raining hard and it takes me awhile to get back home.
“I’m home,” I yell after I’ve parked my motorcycle inside the garage and slip into the house.
Water is dripping down from my hair and clothes, leaving a puddle where I stand as I take off my jacket.
“How was school, honey?” my mom asks and hands me a towel as she strides into the kitchen.
“It was okay, nothing much happened,” I reply, taking the towel to dry off my dripping hair.
“Are you hungry?” she asks.
“Nah, thanks. I think I’m just going to crash.” I give her a soft smile and hand the towel back to her.
“Okay. Goodnight, baby.” She smiles and gives me a soft kiss on the crown of my head.
I jog up the stairs. I’m so tired from this day, rehearsal was tough. It always is a few days before a concert. We need to start planning instead of just winging it at the last second. It takes so much energy.
I take off my wet clothes, changing into a pair of sweatpants as I drop myself onto the bed. It doesn’t take much time before my eyes fall shut and my body drags me into a deep sleep.
The loud blaring of my alarm bounces off the wall in the early morning.
“Stop it,” I groan and groggily rollover in an effort to smack the damn alarm clock off the nightstand.
“Ugh,” I grumble as I miss and force myself to throw my legs off the mattress, smacking the alarm clock with my flat hand to turn it off.
Today is the final day to create a song to add to the album. The pressure and small timeframe is going to be hard. It’s a day filled with work and nothing else. First, though? School.
I dash to my closet and quickly snatch a clean school uniform to wear today. I throw a hoodie over it with a logo from my band on it. The alarm I set gave me maximum sleep time and only a small timeframe to get dressed, which now makes me late.
I scoop my bag with books off the ground and head down the stairs. I usually skip breakfast and just buy something at school, or at the store along the way if I have some spare time left. So, just like any other day, I get on my bike and leave the house without so much as a goodbye; my parents are used to it by now.
When I park my bike at school I find the entire schoolyard void of people. Not a single person is hanging around. What the heck is going on? Either I’m too late, too early, or something else is going on.
I swing my leg off my bike when someone runs in my direction. He grabs my arm and gives it a tiny pull to get my attention. I turn my head at the guy and groan, ready to snap at the idiot.
“You need to come inside,” the young guy yells.
He’s clutching his phone and the screen tells me he was taking a video of something.
“What’s going on?” I question and raise my eyebrow.
“Just look for yourself, follow me,” he rambles and gives my arm another tug to get me to move.
I rush after him and finally see where all the people are. The entire hallway is crowded by folks clutching their phone, not a single teacher in sight.
In the middle of the gathering are two people I instantly recognize. My pals, Roan and Steve. But there is someone else. It looks like a girl. She is sitting on the ground in her oversized hoodie over her school uniform. Her hands are covering her face while her legs are shaking underneath her body.
I reach for the person nearby to grab his arm and demand, “What is this?”
“It’s Roan and Steve,” he rattles with a huge smile waving his phone at me to show how eager he’s videoing and enjoying the show.
“Yeah, no shit. But what are they doing?” I snap.
Aggravated by the situation, I grab him by the collar which almost causes him to drop his phone.
“Okay, okay. Calm down, dude. The girl bumped into Roan and it made his phone fall from his hand. The screen is completely shattered. He got pissed and called Steve, and then this happened. I have no idea what they are going to do but it’s entertaining,” the guy eagerly explains, trying to get my hand off him so he can focus back on documenting the whole thing.
“What?” I snarl.
And this is why I can never leave these two idiots alone. They always cause trouble. I mean, I get Roan is angry, phones are expensive. But c’mon, bumping into someone? Nine out of ten times it’s an accident. I have no reason to believe she meant to break his phone.
I always had my eye on her, and she simply isn’t the kind of person to be vindictive. Hell, she avoids people at every turn.
Yeah, Roan and Steve are my friends. I’ve known them for years, we have a band together, and we spend most of our free time together. But I can’t let this happen. This girl looks terrified. I bet she can’t even show her face at school again after this incident. I can’t let them do this to her. If I thought yesterday went too far? This situation surely beats it.
So, I decide to follow my gut and step through the crowd to get to my two friends. They are laughing at her, throwing food in her face as they bark mean things to degrade her some more.
“Enough,” I growl, and push them aside to get them away from the girl.
I hear all the people gasp from my action. My heart races inside my chest as I try to think of the right way to contain the situation.
“What the hell, dude,” Roan bellows with a load of fire in his voice.
I bet they didn’t expect their best friend to stop them. I glance over to check on the girl. Her head tilts slightly back to see what’s going on around her until her puffy, red eyes meet mine. She looks completely destroyed. Cheeks wet from crying, her hair in a mess and sticking to her face, and her clothes are dirty.
I swallow hard at the lump in my throat. A turmoil of feelings hit me to see her this way and I’m not liking it at all. I feel bad for her. Before this moment I never thought about what it’s like to be in her shoes and endure the teasing and games we do whenever we run into her.
Sure, it never got physical until yesterday and today, but it’s hurting her either way. The damage is done, and I feel terrible for her.
I turn my head toward my friend who is puffing out his breaths to indicate how angry he still is.
“Just let her be. She’s not worth your time,” I tell him to avoid a head-on confrontation because that sure won’t solve anything.
“You’re right. I’m not wasting my breath on you one damn second longer,” he angrily spits at Artsy who is now crawled up against my locker.
Her head lifts up fully this time. She gives me one last look before she jumps to her feet and runs off, bumping into everyone who’s blocking her path. Shit.
“Artsy,” I yell after her as I watch her disappear into the crowd.
“I’ll be right back,” I grunt in the direction of Roan and Steve.
I jump into a run and follow into the direction I watched Artsy disappear in. I have to find her. I have no idea where she might have gone. I don’t even know her, let alone know where she might have disappeared to when something bad happened.
I come to a stop and suddenly realize I do know where she might be. Every day when I get on my bike I notice her sitting by the tree in the middle of a field filled with flowers. It would make sense to look for her there. I quickly rush to the place where I parked my bike earlier.
“Artsy?” I bellow and glance around.
Relief fills me when I spot her near the tree. I stalk toward her. She’s sitting in the high grass, not caring at all about the stains it will leave on her clothes. On the other hand, her hoodie is already stained from the food the guys threw at her.
Her head whips up when I’m close and it shows her pale face. Guilt hits me hard and causes shock waves to flow through my veins. I hate seeing her like this and my stomach knots at the reminder of what this girl has to endure. Not only what my friends did yesterday and today...but what I’ve done as well.
I never realized.
Never intended.
How the hell did it get so far as to hurt and break her like the emotionally shattered girl in front of me?
CHAPTER THREE
– ARTSY –
My vision is blurry due to my tears, but I catch a glimpse of Hudson’s blond hair and furiously blink and wipe my eyes when I mutter, “Hudson?”
My voice is hoarse from crying. What is he doing here? I thought for sure he was going to stay with his friends. I mean, it was kind enough for him to break up their torment so I was able to escape. Though, he has always been the one who also actively participated. Not the physical part, but verbally for sure.
“Artsy,” he says, completely out of breath as if he’s been running to catch up with me.
Remembering our last altercation after his buddy stepped on my fingers, I hiss, “You’re not going to say sorry, so what are you doing here?”
I don’t care if I hurt his feelings. At this point, I hate his friends and by default hate him as well. Maybe he didn’t do anything, but I heard his words loud and clear when he said I wasn’t worth talking to. I think those very words cut deep and hurt me more than his friends making fun of me in front of the whole school.
Ugh, who am I kidding? The stupid crush I have on him will forgive the idiot within seconds. It doesn’t matter what he does to me, my feelings for him won’t go away. Every time I hope his actions will cross a line that will make me hate him. I should. Maybe...maybe I do because it can’t go on like this.
“I’m, I’m sorry,” he stutters and lets himself drop to his knees onto the grass right beside me.
This is definitely new. I’ve never heard him say sorry before; not to me or to anyone else. I figure he considers it a sign of weakness, and Hudson isn’t weak. At least, that’s the impression he gives everyone around him.
My eyes widen as if my brain is still trying to catch up and I mutter, “What?” I blink at him and quickly add, “It wasn’t your fault.”
He keeps silent for a couple of breaths before he says, “But still. I feel guilty for how I treated you the past few months.”
His raspy voice mixed with his accent fills my ears. My stomach flips and I feel warmth spread inside my chest. Shit. Why does this guy get to me? He’s a bully, just like his shitty friends and yet here my heart goes with skipping a beat when he gives me a handful of sweet words that form an apology for the things he did.
I must be crazy, but I also can’t stop the small smile from sliding across my face when I softly tell him, “Thanks.”
Sadness hits me when I realize how pathetic this situation really is. How pathetic I am for feeling happy within this moment to have my crush close and talking to me. Just the two of us at my favorite spot here against the tree, surrounded by flowers. I really should hate him and yet I’m attracted to his warm eyes and gorgeous face.
“I have something for you,” he states and shoves his hand into his pocket to grab something.
My brow furrows and I wonder what he could possibly have for me. It can’t be something good, because what on earth could someone give the person they bully? Used to bully? Would he stop now? I snort at my mental ramblings before I start to wonder what Hudson could possibly give the ‘freak’ of the school.
He suddenly holds a golden card out for me to take. There’s a string attached to it so you can wear it around your neck. Strange. I wonder what it’s for and mostly, why he’s giving it to me.
“What is it?” I question, and tilt my head to the side as I study the card.
A smile appears across his face as he shoves the card in my hands.
“It’s a VIP card for my concert tomorrow.” His British accent has a thick undertone in his voice when he proudly informs me what the card is supposed to be used for.
“You have a band?” I gasp.
How did I miss that little fact? I thought I stalked him on social media enough to know everything about him. I guess not.
“Yeah, don’t you know?” There’s honest surprise in his voice and he gives a little shake with his head. “I don’t want to brag but, it’s pretty popular.”
Hudson smirks while I can feel my cheeks heat.
“Sorry.” I give him another tiny smile and try not to feel embarrassed or make this moment between us any more awkward than it already is.
I clear my throat and ask, “So what precisely does this card do?”
“If you show this card to the security guys at the concert, you can come in and stand first row. It’s really rare to have one of these. That’s why I’m giving one to you as a peace offering.” He shoots me a wink and I grip the card tighter to keep myself from swooning all over him.
The crush I have is overriding any rational thoughts. I should still be angry at him, at his friends, and shove the card back in his face.
Instead I place the card back into his hand while I get to my feet and tell him, “No way. I can’t accept this. It’s too expensive. Too special. You’d do best to give this to someone else.”
“No. I gave it to you. You’re keeping it,” Hudson snaps and gets to his feet as well.
He leans in and places his mouth right next to my ear. “I expect to see you tomorrow night. If I don’t see you in the crowd, then it would completely ruin my night.”
His voice is a mere whisper. Husky, and begging me in that British accent to follow his demand and show up to see him perform. His strong cologne wraps around me and enters my nose as he moves back to stare intently into my eyes. Damn, it’s hard to say no when he’s this close. Though, I have to stand up for myself. It’s not that easy to forgive months of bullying by him, and his pals.
“I’ll think about it.” I try to keep my voice plain and give him a tight nod.
A smirk slides across his face. He shakes his head as if he needs to clear it before he strolls toward his bike. He gives me one last look as he straddles his bike and fires it up. My belly flips and I take a strand of my hair to wrap it around my finger as I watch him leave.
I guess he’s skipping classes, just like I am because there’s no way I’m going back inside. My grandparents would be angry if they knew how many classes I’ve missed already.
My cheeks are still heated from blushing, all because of Hudson with his actions, his words, and mostly...the way he looks at me. I swear I can feel the butterflies flock around inside my stomach trying to break free. It seems that every time I try to dislike Hudson for the things he and his friends do, there’s always a moment where I fall right back into adoring him.
No matter how hard I try, my mind and body never allow me to hate him. And I should. I really should for my own sanity. A deep sigh rips from me and I dust off my clothes to get rid of the tiny specks of dirt from sitting on the grass. I wish I could brush away all my problems just as easy.
