Rekindling the Flame

Rekindling the Flame (3)

Vic's point of view

I saw Rachel's face go pale, well more pale than it natural was and I gave her a questioning look, but she smiled and shrugged. "Sure, I'd love to meet them again" She said, but her voice was on the shaky side, that made me wonder on what was really going on. "Okay, they'll meet us at the park" I said and she nodded. For the rest of the walk, we walked silently and I kept glancing over at her and she was twirling her hair around her index finger and biting her bottom lip. I didn't say anything, I didn't want to make her mood more ruined than it already seemed. 

"We're here!" I yelled and Rachel just smiled, "Come on" I said, walking towards a picnic table and sitting on the edge of it, I watched Rachel sit on the opposite side and looked around, slightly. I sat there quietly, trying my hardest to figure out where I've seen her before but I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I looked and saw Tony and Jaime, but not Mike. "Why hello, are you little miss red riding hood?" Jaime smiled at Rachel, who just blushed and looked down. "That's funny" She said, quietly and Jaime just smiled more and looked at me. "Mike said he was spending the day with some girl named Amber" Jaime said, shrugging and I saw from the corner of my eye, Rachel's body stiffen and she got this look and I got even more confused. 

"Well, Rachel this is Jaime and Tony" I said, and they smiled and hugged Rachel, who laughed lightly and returned the hugs. "Nice to meet you guys again" She said, tugging at a piece of her hair. "So, how old are you?" Jaime asked, sitting next to her, and Tony sitting next to me. "Ha, twenty seven" She shrugged and looked at Jaime. "No way! me and Tony plus you are all the same age! Then, there's oldie" Jaime smirked at me and I rolled my eyes, smiling. "So, how is everyone?" I asked, breaking the silence and everyone shrugged. I looked at Tony and he shrugged and looked at Rachel, who was looking at Jaime. 

"I say we hang out all the time while we're on break from tour because I already sense that you're fun" Jaime said, drapping his arm around Rachel's shoulders and smiling. I looked at him, and the thought of him liking her came to me. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, for some odd reason. For the next hour, we all just sat there and talked about tour and work and what we loved, honestly it was fun. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out and saw that Tony had texted me, I looked at him and he was looking at the sky. I opened the text "Not to seem mean or anything, but doesn't she look too skinny? I mean I've seen staring at her collarbones for the past ten minutes"  I looked at Rachel and saw her collarbones. 

"If you go on her Twitter account and look at her photos, you can see that she has a eating disorder. I'm not sure if she's recovered or not.." I added her account name and pressed send. I watched Tony open the text and read it and nodded. "I should get going soon" Rachel said, pulling out her phone and checking the time, we all nodded, noticing that the sky was turning into a light pink color. "Hey, give me your numbers and we can chat or?" She said, laughing nervously and we all laughed, but one by one added our numbers and texted ourselves from her phone. 

"It was great meeting you again!" I said, as Jaime and Tony hugged her and I hugged her last, "Yeah, same. We'll have to do it again" She laughed and waved, we watched her walk about three feet away, I was about to turn around and start walking when I froze and saw Rachel lift her hair up, pulling it into a bun, I saw a feather tattoo on the side of the back of her, next to her ear. I recognized that design, then it all came back to me. "Oh my god, we have to go" I said, quickly and walked away."Wait up!" Tony yelled as he and Jaime jogged towards me. 

"I remember where I've seen Rachel" I stopped walking and looked at Jaime. "When me and Mike were in high school, there was this girl she was overweight, Mike made fun of her. He bullied her to the point where she had to leave school, that girl is Rachel. Mike is probably the reason why she has a eating disorder! He called her fat and pushed her around and said she would never be skinny!" I started freaking out and crying, I couldn't believe I didn't realize it before. "Calm down, are you sure?" Tony asked, grabbing me by the shoulders and looking at me, I could only nod.

 Flashbacks and memories of Rachel back in high school came flooding back to me, I felt sick and ashamed to be know I was related to someone who bullied another human to the point where they harmed themselves. "I have to go back to the hotel now" I said, grinding my teeth together as I walked away, I didn't care if Jaime or Tony followed me back or not, all I cared about was yelling at my brother. 

"MIKE!" I yelled, opening our shared hotel room, to my surprise that girl that was suppose to be with him wasn't there, "What?" Mike stumbled in and I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or if he was high. "I met a girl today, a fan. Turns out she went to our high school" I said, and Mike sat down on the coffee table, looking at me confused. "And?" He asked, "Redhead, feather tattoo on the back of her neck, near her ear. Her name's Rachel." I said, sternly and I saw his eyes go wide for a second. "So, you do remember?" I asked, staring at him and he shrugged. "I guess, I mean it was a long time ago" He shrugged again and pulled out his phone. 

I grabbed his phone and shouted "Mike! you bullied her to the point where she had hurt herself! You can tell she lost weight the wrong way! You did this!" I didn't know or what to say. I threw his phone back at him and walked out of the hotel room. I didn't know where to go, I leaned against a wall and sat on the floor. I pulled out my phone and decided to text Rachel. "I remembered where I saw you before, the feather tattoo." I pressed send and closed my eyes. 

Flashback to high school, Vic's point of view

"Ha, fatass got a tattoo! A feather is so lame, getting inked doesn't look good on ugly fat whores!" I stood there, watching my brother Mike bully some girl, I turned away when I saw him push her, "You should really try to lose some weight, I mean really!" Mike's laugh echoed down the hallway and I slowly looked at the girl, I wasn't sure what her name was, I think it started with an 'R', I looked at her, sitting on the ground where she was fell when she was pushed. 

She looked at me for a second before getting up and running off, I had to admit, she was chubby, but she didn't have a double chin or anything like Mike made it out to be. She wasn't obsese, but she wasn't skinny. I wanted to say something to her, but I knew Mike would make fun of me. I just watched as she ran, I did nothing but watch and feel sorrow for her. 

Present day, Vic's point of view

I opened my eyes again, and tears fell, I couldn't believe I had let myself do nothing. My phone buzzed and I opened the text, "I see, and I'm guessing you told your brother?"  I closed my eyes again, and replied "I freaked out on him, yes. I'm sorry for not doing anything. I should've done something to help" I sniffled and got up and stood there. Rachel didn't reply, I walked back in the room and saw Mike still sitting on the coffee table, his phone by his feet. I didn't say anything to him, I had nothing to say. 

"I don't know why I did it, I really don't" I stopped walking and looked at him. He kept his head down and he shrugged. "I mean, I guess I liked her in a way but her apprearence was something that I didn't like. Everyone else did it, so I joined in and my feelings for her disappeared..then I saw her at the meet and greet and I just thought for a split second I knew who she was, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to know why she looked the way she does now." Mike's quiet voice filled the air and I just looked at him. 

"Don't say this to me, say it to Rachel, she needs to hear it from you" I said, flatly and walked away. When I looked back, Mike was gone and I didn't know if Rachel did want to see Mike again. I pulled out my phone and dialed Rachel's number, "Hello Vic!" Her voice was cheerful and it made me smile, then I frowned. "Mike might try to talk to you! He remembers you, Rachel" I said, nervously and then the call ended, I looked at my phone and felt sick. I tried calling her again, but she wouldn't answer. 

I dialed Jaime and he answered on the third ring "Mike just called and asked for Rachel's number, I gave him her Twitter name. What's going on?" Jaime talked quickly and I started walking towards the enterance of the hotel. I explained to him what I said to Mike and what Mike told me and Jaime was quiet for a minute. "What are we going to do?" He asked and I just hung up when I saw Mike, "Mike!" I yelled and jogged over to him. "Where are you going?" I asked, standing in front of him and he just looked at me, opened his mouth then closed it. "I'm not sure. I need to say sorry, I don't know what to do Vic..." Mike said, his hands going to his eyes and I frowned. 

"I don't think she wants to speak to you" I said. "No, I don't" We both turned around to see Rachel, staring at us with Jaime behind her. 

*A/N: I know the boys would never be mean, but it's just apart of the story, I am NOT hating on them nor do I think they're mean. It's just for the story, you know?*