Promises or Lies (Darren Espanto)

Chapter 4

Skylar J.

"Shut up!" I yelled into a pillow as I blindly searched for my phone by throwing my hand around the table, hoping that I would magically land on my phone.

I worked.

I picked up my phone and brought it so that it was eye level. At first, everything was blurry and hazy from my lack of sleep, but everything slowly started to clear up.

 There were a few texts from Darren, one from JK and a bunch of notifications from Instagram. Had the whole world gone insane?

I sighed and started from what I thought would be priorty. The text messages from Darren and JK. They were both links to a YouTube video.

My finger hovered above the link for a few seconds. I considered all the options in my head. To watch or not to watch, that was the ultimate question. It could be something bad, or something scary, or it could be something nice, and sweet and funny.

In the end, I decided to click it. It immediately brought me to the YouTube app.

As I waited for the video to load, I moved from the couch to one of the bar stools in the kitchen. I propped my elbows up on top of the counter and plugged my headphones into my phone.

The second the video started, I knew that it would be bad, but I continued watching.

"...Now, here she is, singing 'Me and My Broken Heart' by Rixton."

My heart sank as I watched a video of me singing in Darren's bedroom, strumming away on the guitar.

I immediately closed the video and left my phone on the table as I curled up under a blanket on the couch.

Why? Why did he do this to me? Why did he want to hurt me so badly? Why did he want to ruin my life? All these thoughts were circulating around in my brain, and none of the answers that I thought of were acceptable. None of them were nice and none of them were a good reason.

He hated me that much.

Soon, my vision was blurred and my cheeks were wet. I wiped my eyes on the side of the blanket and stayed curled up under the blanket before I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up with tear stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Everything around me was black, and I heard voices. This was definitely weird.

Suddenly, the whole world flashed to white, and I was blinded by the light coming in through the window. That was when I realized that I was under a blanket the whole time. 

My eyes adjusted to the light. The face that I saw before me was one that I wished I never had to see ever again.

It was the one and only, Darren Espanto.

"Get out!" I growled, or at least I meant to, but it came out a lot more broken than I imagined it.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked as he wrapped me up into a hug.

I flinched away from his touch.

"Why do you insist on make my life hell?"

"What do you mean?" he asked as he released me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Like you don't know."

He shook his head. "Care to explain?"

"That video- why?"

"'Cause you're good at singing, and everyone else thinks that too."

"They all hate me," I whispered as I buried my head into the blanket.

"Have you even read the comments?" he asked as he opened up my laptop and went onto YouTube.

I shook my head. "They're probably all bad anyways," I muttered.

He shoved the laptop in my face.

I closed my eyes and refused to look at the comments. They'd only make me feel worse.

"'Who is this girl? She's amazing!', 'Woah, she has the voice of an angel!', 'great job, Skylar and whoever filmed her, props to you!' Shall I continue?"

I lifted my head up and looked hopeful as I grabbed the laptop from him and scrolled through the comments.

He was right. Everyone was complimenting me and they love my voice. Every comment I read seemed to lift my spirits until I came across one particular comment:

"She sounds like a dying cow. Do they let anyone upload videos these days?"

I sighed and set the laptop down on the table, curling up into a ball in the corner of the couch. Of course they didn't like me, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

A few seconds later, I felt a finger under my head push my head up, and I looked into Darren's dark brown eyes.

"It's one mean comment out of thousands. There will always be haters, but you shouldn't let them drag you down. Remember the thousands of other people rooting for you, and keep you chin up, princess."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "You did not just called me princess."

He smirked. "Maybe I did and maybe I didn't, but is that really all you got out of my speech?"

I nodded. "Pretty much." I checked the time on my phone. "That's besides the point because you officially have a ten second head start starting now."

His eyes widened and he immediately bolted for the door.

"Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten!" I counted as quickly as possible before I bolted out the door after him.

"Nobody calls me princess!" I yelled as I tracked him down.

~~~

"Phew, that was quite the workout," I commented as I used the back of my arm to wipe the sweat off my forehead and I plopped down onto my bed.

"That was quite the beating," Darren said as he plopped down on my bean bag chair and pressed the ice pack to the side of his ribs.

I guilty stared at the ice pack sitting on top of his shirt.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I didn't think I'd actually punch you that hard."

"Well it's a little too late for sorry now, isn't it?"

~~~~~

I apologize for not knowing how to properly end a chapter and what is a fair amount of writing for a chapter. I just go with somewhere over 1000 words every chapter.

I was also wondering who you think should be cast as Skylar or should I just leave it to your imagination? Hmm.... Comment your opinions down below!

-Wishing Upon A Star

02/26/16 (Feb. 26, 2016) @ 9:47pm