"River wait for me. Please. Let me explain." I heard Willie running after me as I fled the performance hall. I weaved my way through the different hallways and rooms looking for the door that me and Covington had used the previous night.
As I finally made it there, a large hand grabbed my arm, stopping me from going any further. I spun around to see Willie out of breath with a glint of fear in his eyes. I shrugged my arm out of his grasp and went to push the door open when a new thought filled my head.
"Before I go I have one question." I said quietly, looking at the floor.
"Anything." He replied frantically. And for the first time since finding out about my friends, I made eye contact with him.
"Did you know who Alex was when you met him?" I heard Willie take in his breath, and the look on his face was all I needed to know. I swung the door open and disappeared into the dark street, ignoring Willies calls from behind.
--
For the first time in 25 years, I was outside and completely alone. But for the first time in 25 years, it was the last thing that I wanted. I had no where to go. I carried on wandering the streets of Hollywood until I found myself stood on the outskirts of a beach that I spent a large majority of my childhood on with my friends. Finally somewhere familiar. I saw a bench and sat down, attempting to calm my racing heart. I suddenly realised that I had tears pouring down my face as I felt the weight of Willies betrayal come crashing down on me. I expected this of Covington, but not the person that I considered to be my best friend.
That wasn't even the worst part of what I had discovered. How where they even here? Did that mean they died? Was Bobby also dead? These questions spun around my head, suffocating me, and I felt like I couldn't breath. I clutched my chest and gasped for breath when all of a sudden heard a soft voice from behind me.
"Um, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to make sure that you're okay." I turned around to see a girl about my age stood awkwardly behind the bench. "Now that I see you, I understand that that was an extremely silly question, of course you're not okay." Realisation suddenly hit me, effectively stopping all of my tears.
"Wait, you can see me?" I said, still slightly out of breath. The girl laughed, nervousness evident in her voice.
"Um, yeah of course I can." I stood up from the bench and slowly started walking backwards.
"I'm sorry, I need to go." And with that, I was running away again. Since I finally knew where I was, I started running towards a place where me and the boys would hang out. A small coffee bar, that was about a ten minute walk from the beach. When I finally got to the coffee bar, I heard loud music pouring from inside. I looked at a poster stuck in a window and realised that it was a open mic night, and walked inside. As I sat down at a table, in the back corner of the extremely crowded room, a young girl walked onto the stage and sat behind the keyboard.
"Hi, it's actually Julie and the Phantoms." The room carried on talking over her, "Okay." She chuckled nervously. It was clear however, that once she started singing, all of her fears melted away. She was extremely talented, though I was curious to know who her phantoms where as she was completely alone on the stage.
As she got the the pre-chorus I felt an energy change in the performance and all of a sudden there was a flash and three performers appeared onto the stage. My heart started racing as I realised it was Alex, Reggie and Luke. I felt excitement bursting from inside of me when I thought about how lucky I had to have been to randomly walking into a bar where they're performing. I started to think of all of the things that I could say to them after they had finished performing.
My heart started to race as I saw Luke for the first time in 25 years and it took all of my willpower to not jump onto the stage and throw myself into his arms. All of a sudden the tone of the song changed and the girl, Julie I'm assuming, and Luke started sharing a mic. They were gazing into each others eyes and I could feel my heart breaking. Memories of when Luke looked at me the way he was looking at Julie flashed through my head and I felt my stomach churn. Everyone around me was staring at the pair on stage, completely transfixed by the chemistry pouring out of them. All of a sudden I had an overwhelming urge to be back at the Hollywood Ghost Club, and before I had chance to realise what was happening, I was stood outside the main door of the club.
--
I walked into the performance hall and pushed my way through the lifers until I saw who I was looking for. I grabbed Willie by the arm, and before he had a chance to say anything, I pulled him into my bedroom.
We sat in silence for a few moments, neither of us really knew what to say. I looked up and saw Willie looking at the floor holding back tears, and I could feel some of my anger start to fade.
"I want to forgive you Willie. But I need to know everything that happened." His eyes lit up.
"I can do that. When I first met Alex, I didn't know who he was straight away. But when I got back to the club and started talking to you I remembered everything you had told me about your band and I didn't know what to do and I really don't want you to be mad at me bu-" I held my hand up to stop his rambling.
"Willie I'm not mad. You didn't mean to meet him. I'm just sad because you didn't tell me. Not that it matters anymore." I sighed and looked at my bed.
"What do you mean? Wait, where did you go just now?" And that's all it took for me to break down again. I told him about how Covington had taken me to see my mom who acted like I didn't exist, how the lifer at the beach saw me and everything that I had seen at the coffee bar with Luke and Julie. He didn't say anything through my entire speech, just sat next to me on the bed and hugged me. It was nice.
After I had said everything that I needed to get off my chest, he laid with my until I finally fell asleep after the extremely long day.
--
The next few days were a complete blur. I woke up, ate, got ready, performed, went back to sleep and repeated it over and over again. My days were identical to each other and I could feel myself running on auto-pilot. Willie tried to cheer me up but nothing he said could make things better for me. Most the days, he spent all his time with Alex in the real world, so I spent all of my time in my bedroom refusing to come out unless it was completely necessary for me too.
However, one day when I tried to leave my bedroom, there seemed to be some sort of energy that kept me from getting through the door. No matter how much I tried to push through, I couldn't get out of my room. All of a sudden I saw Willie and I started yelling.
"Willie, help I can't get out of my room" But he refused to make eye contact with me again.
"I'm sorry River." And with that he walked away.
--
Hey Guys!
This chapter took me such a long time for me to write, as I found it really difficult. Despite that, I really hope that you like it and bear with me while I write the next chapter :)
Until next time, icantenglish xxx
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Left Behind
FanfictionRiver Beckett finally had the life she always wanted. She was in a band with her closest friends and they were starting to create a following. However, all it took was one night to change everything for her. Luke Patterson x oc This book takes plac...
