But Daddy I Love Him

Lover, You Should've Come Over

"It's never over/ All my riches for her smiles/ When I've slept so soft against her/ It's never over/ All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter/ It's never over/ She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever"

Interviewer: Tell us about the night Ariel left

Warren Rojas: It was... awful.

Warren hurried to get his shoes on as soon as he stopped some of his bleeding and could move. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since Ariel was taken but he knew he didn't want to lose anymore. Limping towards his van, he ignored all physical pain and focused on trying to fix this.

He had always known he wasn't good enough for her. That her family wouldn't allow it. But he was selfish, he loved her, he was going to try.

He knew he looked in a rough state as he was banging on the door, it was only confirmed by the expression on Mrs. North's face. Shock and a touch of concern.

"Mrs. North, I know you don't know me, but my name is Warren Rojas and I'm in love with your daughter." He hoped to see pity or understanding but the woman's face had turned to stone. She had the door pulled tight to her so that he couldn't see into the home. "I don't have a lot to offer, right now, but I have loved Ariel since I was seven years old and I'll love her for the rest of my life. So, I am asking you, please, please, can I talk to you and your husband about this? I've proposed and she's accepted and we want to be together."

He might have kept going if she didn't cut him off.

"I'm sorry," she said it in a way that made it clear she was anything but. "You just missed everyone. Ariel is moving out of state, her father and brothers are escorting her, of course. I don't know what you said or did to have her convinced to throw away her life with you, but she's coming to her senses now."

"What?" It tumbled from Warren's mouth in disbelief. She can't be gone.

"Yes, all very tragic." Her voice was unaffected like she was telling him the weather. "Now, get off my doorstep and never come to my house again. My advice: Let. Her. Go."

And with that the door slammed shut in his face.

He got home in a daze. He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there. The only thing that disturbed his spiraling thoughts was his mother coming home.

She's gone.

...

Life was different for Warren after that. He had never gone so long without speaking to Ariel. He found himself waiting around for her. Every time the phone rang he hoped it was her, he rushed to meet the mailman waiting for the day he saw her hand writing on an envelope. When they played gigs he looked for her face in the crowd. Weeks blurred into months and all he did was hurt and hope.

His friends were concerned, he knew this. They wanted him to be his happy self, he just didn't know how to be yet. He tried, he really did, but how could he act like everything was fine while he was walking around with a hole in his heart.

But the world didn't stop when he thought it did, and as the band prepared to move to L.A the days got to be a little more manageable for him.

...

In L.A they were working hard and broke all the time. Some nights as Warren laid on his couch bed in a house where he lived with five other people he thought Ariel's family must have been right. He'd never be good enough for her. She would've thrown away her life with him. Still he couldn't let her go.

And then he saw her.
Not in person, but a photograph.

Warren Rojas: I was going to the corner market by the house for something or other. I can't even remember. And then there she was on a magazine at the check out counter. I almost couldn't believe it