Chapter 21
Because it was a private concert, the setlist had been smaller.
My girls and I were standing on the grass again, mingling.
Well, with each other. Everyone was gushing about what had happened while Void went and cooled off for a moment.
Sydney was scrolling through her phone, looking at every picture, selfie, and video she’d taken while on the stage.
I, on the other hand, remained quiet. Watching for when they would return and desperately hoping to find a moment alone with Asher.
“That was amazing!” Sydney sang, spinning in a circle. She stopped, faced me, and narrowed her gaze. “Why don’t you seem happier? The Dark Banshee danced with you, and you seem mopey.”
I sucked in a deep breath of air, pausing to give me time to lie.
Except I didn’t have to as a voice I dreaded spoke behind me. “What in the world was that inappropriate display?” Danny snarled.
I rolled my eyes as Sydney groaned. “Can you not take a hint?” she shot back.
“A hint? Is that what that was? You hire some random band to try and tell me off?”
“They’re not a random band! They are the most famous and popular alt metal band right now!” She threw her hands on her hips, as frustrated with him as I was. If not more because he insulted her precious Void.
“Their music is nothing but crap with some coarse language and sexual stuff. The members are—”
“You better watch what you say next about them,” she hissed, and I slowly turned around.
Raising a brow, I crossed my arms in disgust.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Cosi, you’re not defending this band right now, too, are you?
” He gasped. I simply smirked. “No. I won’t take that.
Some dude with earrings and tattoos doesn’t get to grind up on you and touch you without consequences.
” His hand shot forward, and he wrapped his fingers around my arm.
“Let go,” I snapped, attempting to pull it out of his grip.
“No. You’re coming with me, and we are finding your parents before leaving this dumpster fire of a party.” He jerked me into his body.
I shoved my free hand against his chest. “Let me go!” I shouted. “And this dumpster fire party is my birthday, you jackass! One I’m actually enjoying!”
“Stop fighting,” he hissed, squeezing my wrist tighter and dragging me away.
“Stop!” I fought with all my might, even if it was useless against his size and strength. “Get your hands off of me.”
He suddenly whipped around, wrapping his other arm around my body and shoving me against him again. “I thought you liked it like this. Rough.”
I glared at him, squirming and fighting. I tried to knee him, but he simply stepped out of the way.
“Should I bite you too? Would that knock some sense into you? Whore,” he snarled. My eyes widened in shock.
“Wh-wh-what’d you just call me?” I gasped, freezing.
“You heard me. Now let’s go.” He dropped the arm from around my body, squeezed my wrist tighter, jerking me forward, and started walking away.
How was it possible that in this massive crowd of people, no one was helping? No one even seemed to notice what was going on as he dragged me behind him. A small sweat stain ran down the middle of his back, his shoulders set with anger. He’d never hurt me like this before.
Turning a corner, he squeezed so tightly, my fingers tingled.
“Ow. That hurts!” I cried out. “Danny, I said let go!”
“She said, ‘Let go,’” a voice snarled in front of Danny, and a fist slammed into his jaw.
Immediately, he dropped my wrist, and I clutched it, stepping sideways.
Asher stood face to face with Danny; though he wasn’t quite as big as my ex, he didn’t seem an ounce afraid.
There was a deathly rage in Asher’s eyes.
Danny snarled and lunged toward Asher, tackling him into a table. Gasps and screams rippled away from them as people finally noticed and a crowd gathered.
“Danny!” I shouted, racing forward to pull him off Asher. Danny cocked his fist, and his elbow rammed into my nose just before he threw his punch. Blood spurted from my nostrils as I staggered backward and Danny’s fist…
Missed.
He missed. Cupping my nose, I stared as Asher managed to block the punch and rammed his elbow into Danny’s face. An audible crunch sounded as his head jerked backward, and Asher scrambled out from under my ex.
Danny’s hand shot forward, but Asher simply raised his knee, smashing it into his face again and throwing Danny onto his back. He lay there, sprawled out and unmoving as blood poured from his nose, the same as mine.
Asher glared at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly, waiting for him to move. Danny merely groaned, his head flopping to the side as he blinked through two rapidly swelling eyes. My ex spat some blood from his mouth, wine red staining his teeth, and he chuckled.
“This ain’t over.” He hissed as several large security men rushed toward the writhing figure on the ground.
Asher smiled wickedly. “Take all the time you need, motherfucker. I’ll be waiting.
” Standing over him, Danny rolled sideways and slowly pushed himself off the ground.
He attempted to take a step toward Asher, but his security team blocked the way.
My ex’s eyes darted toward Asher as someone shoved a napkin toward me, helping me stop up the blood that was still dripping from my nose.
I watched Danny stumble backward and then through the crowd, disappearing into the darkness. Where were my parents? Had they seen what had just happened? What Danny had done?
“Let me see that, Princess,” Asher spoke quietly, suddenly standing directly in front of me. The bleeding was beginning to slow as I kept my head tipped backwards.
“It’s okay.” I forgot that there was still a crowd around us—though his security team blocked us from their view.
He chuckled, and a soft smile spread across his face, though his eyes were still pained.
“Asher,” I whispered, and he shivered.
“Let’s get that taken care of,” he said, keeping things above board.
“Oh my gosh, Cosi!” Sydney suddenly crashed against my side.
“Let’s have my dad take a look!” She grabbed my elbow and tugged.
Asher gave a subtle nod and shoved his hands in his pockets, telling me silently to go with her.
I didn’t want to, but I guess I really didn’t have much of a choice now, did I?
Taking a deep breath, I turned away and slowly followed my friend toward the house.
“There, the bleeding has stopped, and it isn’t broken,” Doctor Davenport said, and I smiled gratefully.
“Thank you.” I adjusted the ice pack on my nose.
“I can send in your parents, if you’d like? They’re worried about you,” he offered. I shook my head.
“I’d like to be alone for a bit, if that’s okay. I’m assuming the party is pretty much over after that little incident.” I leaned back against the couch in the beautiful drawing room.
He pushed himself up from his leather chair.
“You’d be quite mistaken, my dear. Sydney knows how to keep a party going, and with that band Void or whatever here, things are still cooking.
” Walking across the room, he paused at the doorway, his hand on the golden knob.
“Come join us when you’re ready. Things will be fine.
You’ll see.” He winked a wink that looked so much like Sydney and quietly left the room.
Tears filled my eyes as reality finally settled in.
There were hundreds of books behind me, all filled with happy endings, and here I was wishing beyond imagination that somehow there was one for me.
The stars sparkling through the three arched windows to my left felt too bright for the solemnity that was within my own heart.
Slowly, I pushed myself up from the leather couch and slid a free hand across the exquisite oak coffee table. Wandering softly across the plush, ornate rug below my feet, I drifted to those windows. Shrubbery bordered the bottom of the panes, which delicately rose to the moonlit sky above me.
The chaos was gone. All that was left in my soul was tired pain and confusion. My gaze drifted to the beautiful grand piano beside me, lit beneath silvery streaks that danced upon keys I hadn’t touched in years.
They beckoned to me, called to me. Reminding me that music can speak in a way that words could never describe. Feelings that needed to be released were waiting at those keys. Kicking my heels off to the side and dropping the ice pack beside them, I slid the bench back and sat gently down.
Staring at the ivory planks, my fingers trembled in my lap, hesitating.
Maybe something I knew would be a good place to start.
But as I settled my fingers against the first note for Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy, I couldn’t press the key.
My heart was screaming at me to do something else.
To play something that had not yet been created.
My foot rested upon the cold, metal pedal, and I closed my eyes.
One note was all that was needed to start this, and I let my hand go where it wanted.
(9) A second note and then a third played after, and then I was dancing across those keys.
Tears streamed down my face as every aching emotion crashed from me.
Anger, exhaustion, and agony mixed in with a tired and melodic sadness.
Overwhelming sadness directed at no one but myself.
My eyes were wide open, but I was not in this room.
Those keys played on their own as strings entered in, notes being pulled across by their ghostly bows.
(10) Wind instruments eventually joined, and the music settled into a beautiful stream flowing through the mountains.
Cascading down hills and then gently brushing past billowing leaves that dipped a little too closely to the surface of the water.
Everything was in perfect harmony despite the raging storm that was carrying on outside. Despite the anguish that was all-consuming, it continued forward, in its own beautiful tragedy.
I knew there was so much uncertainty awaiting me outside this room.
Sydney must have thousands of questions.
Asher had punched Danny, who was not likely to give up just from that.
Also, why had Asher still come to my birthday, and what had it all meant?
Then my parents. Oh, how confused they must feel, though growing up, I often wondered who was taking care of whom.
That burden had weighed so heavy for so long that for once, I wanted to be the child and only the child.
For once, I wanted nothing more than to simply be.
To sit in this music and let it pour from me.
To have nothing else going on but this. But then, without the rocks and hills that sat in the path of a river, it would never twist and turn, becoming its exquisite final self.
Reaching a destination far grander than could’ve been imagined.
It had been so long since music felt like this.
So long since I felt transported to a different realm, hearing notes that weren’t being played.
A full orchestra in my own head, sounding as clearly as if it were right there in front of me.
Filling the hollowness I’d once had. All around me, sharpening each note.
Building louder and louder, thicker, denser, more powerful before finally releasing into that satisfying ending once more.
I needed to write these notes down before they left my head.
Immediately, I stood from the piano and raced to Doctor Davenport’s desk.
In the bottom drawer, beneath all his doctor notes, I used to hide blank sheet music.
Smiling to myself, I found my old stash and pulled some out.
Grabbing a pencil from his desk, I raced back to the piano and began writing down everything I’d been hearing.
Layering each instrument and note where necessary. Lead smudged across the side of my hand, leaving a graying stain on the page, but it didn’t bother me. Not as I continued to plunk out notes and write them down.
Humming to myself, I tapped my foot, hearing the music as I went over the first portion of my composition.
“I wondered what it would look like to see you doing this,” a voice said, piercing through my world.
I shrieked and threw my pencil at the figure in the doorway.
Asher.