Beau and Arrows (A Beau Brooks/Janoskians Story)

Old Habits Die Hard

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took a lot longer to post this chapter up, it was Australia Day here so I was pretty busy, especially with work and everything as well :/ I really hope you guys like it now, the funeral chapters are all over, this is where all of the good stuff starts to begin ! Enjoy ! :D 

6 Months Later...

Her hands gripped to the still, cold ground, so tightly her knuckles were milky white. The room felt like it was going to tip, and she was going to fall down the slippery surface of her polished wooden floor. Her head spun round, and round, and round. She blamed the alcohol, no, she blamed her mother. She felt the gash in her arm, the red bruising surrounding it.

It wasn't the first time Angela had lashed out at someone, and it certainly wasn't the first time she had lashed out on Paige. But this time, when the fury had been over something important, Paige's father. She was sick of watching her mother come home night after night while her father was on business trips, with men she was interested in, and taking them up to her room. This was the first time Paige had spoken up, and a plate smashing into her arm had been the result. She remembered her mother's romantic interest of the night, his cunning smile as Angela hit her, over and over, Paige's frail body too terrified to defend itself, had lay motionless on the stone-cold floor for over an hour. Now she sat in her bedroom, lying on the floor, her mind soaked in vodka. She looked over at the bottle, half empty. She wasn't sure if it would kill her or not, but her tongue longed for more. Not because she was an alcoholic, by any means, but she wanted it to be over.

Her head nodded against her will, but her heart was racing. Deep inside, she was afraid to die. But her body couldn't help it. It couldn't take much more of this rejection, this hurt, this pain. She felt around in her bag, until her hands enclosed around a gold, glittering bag. It seemed to glow. She held her breath, her mother had left the house with the man a while ago but she still didn't want to scream in case somebody got worried. Then, as she gripped it tightly, it brought a flashback to mind. A memory, the last time the bag had been needed.

“You could be anything, why would you choose to be dead?” She remembered his flawless face, so bright and happy, and full of life.

“Call me, whenever you feel like doing this, ever again, alright? I'm here for you.” Her expression lightened up at the sound of his name. She had never been game enough to get away from her mother, no matter how much she despised her mother her father always made her stay around. But he wouldn't be back until Monday. And a weekend away never hurt anyone. Except of course, for Sam.

She picked up her phone, gazing over it once to make sure she was making the right choice before unlocking it. She pressed the phone to her ear desperately, at least half expecting he would be too busy, or wouldn't remember her. Either way, she wasn't expecting his startled voice to answer on the second ring.

“Paige, are you OK!?” He exclaimed straight away. He sounded tired, and despite the panic in his voice it was like he had just been woken up. Her heart raced, she could barely contemplate the events taking place, never mind have to composure to structure together a sentence.

“Can you pick me up?” She asked, longing for a reply before the sentence had even escaped from her lips.

“Pack a bag, I'll be over as soon as I can.” He replied, and with that she hung up the phone.

She gazed around the room, packing clothes, make up, shoes, anything she could think of. She was able to hastily pack her items into her oversized designer handbag in about 5 minutes. She stumbled downstairs, locked up the house and wrote a note to her mother telling her “Gone out, be home when Dad is.” And placed it to be found when her mum got away from her night out. She waited on the swinging porch chair out the front of her house, singing feel-good songs to make the time go by. The tone of her voice rolled off her tongue, soft like silk and somewhat soothing. But she never mentioned her true dream, she went off the stereotypical 'Victoria's Secret Model' or 'Trophy Wife' as her life ambitions to the public.

Beau parked up in front of her house, she was expecting him to beep for her to get in and then leave but he got out of the car and gave her a warm, gentle hug, before carrying her bag into the back whilst she got into the passenger seat. She hunched over and vomited all over the floor of her driveway, as the alcohol started to conflict with her stomach. Beau didn't say a word, he got into the driver's seat of the car and rubbed her gently on the back. He passed a bottle of water over to her, which she sipped nervously. They sat in silence for a while, Beau humming to the radio and tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the radio. Paige didn't want to make a fool of herself by slurring her words, so she remained silent and sipped on Mount Franklin until Beau pulled over at a service station about 10 minutes away.

“Sorry Paige, there's nothing open really at midnight, stay here.” He told her, running into the 7/11. He came out in a few minutes with a coffee each, to help Paige ground her brain and so he could stay awake for the rest of the car trip. They sat in the still car, sipping their coffees, staring into each other's eyes but not saying a word.

“Thank you, Beau. I'm forever in your debt.” She told him politely, the most genuinely she had ever said anything in her life.

“Don't even worry about it bro.” He said, so casually he didn't realise what he had just said. He cleared his throat. “I mean, Paige.” He corrected. She laughed, a lot more flirtatiously then she had expected it to come out.

“I mean it.” She told him, sipping her coffee. Her voice was still slurring, but reality was quickly grinding her back to the surface of the earth.

“Me too.” He told her. She smiled, looking down. The conversation was dry and short, but she had never felt so comfortable in a silence before.

“What happened tonight?” He asked her, entwining their fingers together and looking into her eyes. She felt as if she was going to melt. She trusted him, more then she had ever trusted anyone in her life, especially for the amount of time she had actually been in conversation with him. But she couldn't tell him the truth, he would never want to talk to her again. She was ashamed, it was one thing that he knew she was ashamed of herself but she was ashamed of her family. Plus, the whole event still made her shudder.

“Not tonight.” She told him, frowning slightly.

“That's OK, maybe one day.” He told her comfortingly. They waited for a few seconds in the lingering silence.

“Can you drop me off at the closest hotel?” Paige asked.

“No.” Beau said, a smile spreading across his face. “I have a better idea."